You’ve read very few county news articles about Dave Tomek, Osceola’s Community Development Administrator.
In that role, he’d oversee vital departments like Building and Permitting, Code Enforcement, Community Resources, Customer Care, Development Review and Planning & Zoning.
After 14 years with the county, and many more prior to that in municipal planning and growth management, Tomek is retiring; his final work day is today, the last day of March.
At its last meeting on March 21, the Board of County Commissioners honored Tomek with a proclamation, making the day “Dave Tomek Day in Osceola County.”
The moment of gratitude from the county echoed what many who have worked with Tomek in all the various roles he filled — good luck finding a hat rack big enough for all those he wore metaphorically — noting his ability to solve any problem, help in any situation and mediate any dispute without changing his humble, level-headed nature.
“He functioned much like a Swiss Army knife,” said County Manager Don Fisher.
In 2007, Tomek, then head of community development in the city of Maitland, virtually followed Fisher, then a planning administrator coming from a similar role in Seminole County, here.
“Dave was one of the first people I reached out to,” Fisher said. “When it came to dealing with the public, he was one of the people in the industry I knew I trusted.”
Tomek has been a fixture at Commission meetings, quietly off to the side, but ready to come to the dais and provide background or explanation of most any issue with growth, planning, zoning or customer service.
“It never mattered what came up, it didn’t matter, Dave always stepped up to the plate, found solutions and amazed us,” Fisher said. “Whatever departments he led, he skillfully managed the budgets.
“He’s one of the few who’ve worked for us who saw it as more than a job. He’d go to weekend events to make sure they were going well, and made visits to off-site departments to make sure he was current on growth issues.
And when an employee had a personal need, he’d quietly offer his time — literally. When co-workers had health issues that required time off, Tomek donated his vacation time so they could address the issues.
“He’s just a problem solver, the ‘fix-it guy’ from the first day I met him,” said Assistance Community Development Administrator Kelly Haddock, who predates Tomek at the county, and had a cancer scare years ago. “He has a heart to serve. He’s really been the example of a leader, how he’s taken care of the county, the community and its citizens.”
She used the same words most people have to describe Tomek as he departs—humble and customer-friendly, which will be missed when the administration building opens Monday without him.
“He’s done his best to train us to do what we do in our commitment for the community,” Haddock said. “It’s going to be hard, and we’ll miss him tremendously, but we’ll try to take a piece of what he meant to everyone with us going forward.”
County Deputy Administrator Ken Brown said nobody knew the inner workings of so many county departments like Tomek.
“He was our troubleshooter. If you couldn’t find a solution, you’d take it to Dave and he’d jump right in,” Brown said. “He knew every department, so we’re losing a wealth of knowledge. Nobody else was able to get people to where they wanted within the administration like him.”
Susan Caswell, now the county’s Sustainability Director, came to Osceola’s Community Development department in 2014, and knew at the end of the first week she was in the right place, she said.
“He’d hold Friday staff meetings, which were employee appreciation events. He’d tell everyone about a success story, and have that person explain how they did it,” she said. “You could tell it was sincere. He’d visit those off-site departments and people were genuinely happy to see him, which was refreshing with all the things he was juggling.”
Tomek stayed on long enough to see improvements to the County Administration Building’s first floor, which house the permitting, code enforcement and other customer service needs, come to completion in order to better serve its clients and customers.
