By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Frank Attkisson can add a title he hasn’t already held in his diverse political career: Osceola County Commission chairman.

Attkisson, currently at the midpoint of his first term on the county board after eight years (2000-08) in Tallahassee as a state legislator and four years (1996-2000), was voted in by a 3-2 margin Monday prior to the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.

Outgoing Chairman John Quiñones and Commissioner Fred Hawkins voted in favor of Attkisson. Commissioner Brandon Arrington supported Commissioner Mike Harford for the chair position.

Attkisson, 56, is just the second person in Osceola County, after Ken Smith, to have held the offices of Mayor of Kissimmee and County Commission Chairman. He and Quiñones will up for re-election in 2014.

“I am honored and privileged,” he said. “To do this properly you must make sure the minority is heard, and that the majority must ponder that voice.”

Attkisson noted that chairing a county board has its differences from sitting on the various committees he worked with in Tallahassee as part of the Legislature.

“There you are working on an agenda, here it’s a collaboration. It’s a different approach, so I’m the one on the learning curve here,” he said. “It will be my job to maintain the institution’s historical integrity and ensure that the integrity of the county commission is upheld.

“There will be a lot of big things going on in the county over the next year, and I’m excited to be sitting on top of the elephant as all that happens. I just hope I can continue the fine job of my two predecessors (Quiñones and Arrington)”

Hawkins, with the support of Attkisson and Quiñones, was named the vice chair. Hawkins served as chairman during the 2010 administrative year, but has never been the vice chair.

“It’s an honor and privilege to serve the county in a leadership capacity again,” he said.

During the regular portion of Monday’s meeting, the newly-configured board filled the seven seats on the West 192 Development Authority, and three of the eventual nine seats that will make up the Greater Osceola Partnership for Economic Prosperity (GOPEP) board.

The county commission directly appointed four members to the West 192 board: Arabian Nights owner and operator Mark Miller, Celebration attorney Mel Pearlman, Sevilla Inn owner and operator Peggy Choudhry and fellow Kissimmee hotelier Jo Quittschreiber.

The commission also confirmed three other appointments by other boards: Dianna Chane from the Osceola Resort Area Council, Phillip Trover from the Tourist Development Council and Domingo Sanchez from the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Hawkins, who was named Nov. 21 as the county commission’s representative to GOPEP, which will focus the county’s economic development efforts under one umbrella organization, named the three board members the county will appoint to its board: Tupperware Vice President of Global Social Responsibility Yolanda Londono, ChampionsGate Senior Vice President Marc Reicher, and Walt Disney World Director of Government Relations Jacob DiPietre.

Also on Monday, Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Shelley Maccini in her agency’s report to the board noted that it will be changing its name. Paperwork has been filed at the corporate level to become Experience Kissimmee, a moniker she said would help identify more with the next generation of travelers, as “Generation X” transforms into “Generation Y”.

“The ‘CVB’ term doesn’t correspond well with what we do now,” she said. “The new name also helps us tap into new social media streams.”