SUBJECT
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Confirm appointment of Mr. Benjamin Dunn to serve as the Director of the Polk County Office of Planning & Development.
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DESCRIPTION
The Polk County Charter specifies the county manager's appointment of executive service employees is subject to confirmation by the Board of County Commissioners.
The County Manager has appointed Benjamin Dunn to the position of Office of Planning & Development (OPD) Director, effective September 30, 2024.
Ben has 24 years of local government and agency experience in building permit and inspection administration, economic development, land use planning, transportation planning, zoning, development review, code enforcement, housing and tourism. Nearly 18 of his 24 years of experience are with the Polk County Board of County Commissioners, he started as an entry-level planner and advanced to Building Division Director.
For the past four years, Ben has served as the Polk County Building Division Director where he managed a $14 plus million-dollar budget and the daily operations of the Building Division that consists of customer service, building inspections, permitting and plans review. He has advanced additional innovative technology efforts to serve our customers, by implementing auto assignment of inspections, scheduling of inspections via text message, customer inspection tracker tool, and Develop Polk (Open Counter), a technology tool that our citizens, developers, and new businesses can use to identify time frames and costs associated with conducting business in Polk County.
Prior to his return to the Polk County BoCC, Ben served as the Development Services Department Director at Highlands County BoCC, where he oversaw seven divisions, consisting of Building, Code Enforcement, Economic Development, Housing, Planning, Tourism, and Zoning.
Ben earned a Bachelor degree from Florida State University and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduate degree from Troy University. He is a Certified Public Manager an...
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