The Gainesville and Alachua County Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization (MTPO) voted to hire Anoch Whitfield, a deputy director at the city of Ocoee, as its new executive director to guide the organization into its next phase.  

Gainesville Commissioner Bryan Eastman will negotiate the contract, although the MTPO already set a salary of $140,000 and other details. Whitfield will start in January. 

The MTPO decided to stand up its own staff to manage the MTPO, a required body of city and county commissioners used to coordinate transportation projects with the state and federal governments, after contracting with the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council for years to do the work.  

The MTPO had approved an executive director earlier this year, before the candidate declined the offer in the negotiations. He was the lone candidate out of 16 applicants, and this time around, two candidates made it to the interviews out of nine applications. 

The new executive director will hire a four-member staff and manage $2 million in direct funding for projects. The organization is also expanding from looking at just the Gainesville core to the entire county. 

The MTPO interviewed two candidates at its Tuesday meeting, Whitfield and Michael Pedron.  

Whitfield earned her master’s degree from Florida State University and started working with Jackson County and then the city of Tallahassee. She currently works in the city of Ocoee and was previously in Orange County, along with time in the planning consulting sector. 

Pedron attended UF for his undergraduate degree with a master’s degree from Pratt Institute. He was a coordinator for the Gainesville Community Bicycle Project before heading to New York, working for the city since 2014 in different transportation planning roles. 

The MTPO was split between the candidates.  

Mayor Harvey Ward and Adrian Hayes-Santos, a former Gainesville commissioner, both highlighted Pedron’s expertise in just transportation planning. His answers to questions always went back to transportation examples, Ward said.  

County Commissioner Ken Cornell and others stood behind Whitfield with her long planning career in Florida, contacts within the state and management experience.  

County Commissioner Anna Prizzia noted that while Whitfield didn’t specialize in only transportation, her wide experience would be needed to deal with zoning and planning issues. 

“I think we win with both, but I think we really, really win with Whitfield. And I would support hiring her,” Cornell said.  

Gainesville Commissioner James Ingle seconded the motion. But after a short amount of additional discussion, Hayes-Santos proposed a second motion to hire Pedron, seconded by Ward.  

Gainesville Commissioner Casey Willits said he saw pros for both, especially when looking at launching MTPO in the coming year versus outside-the-box thinking in the next five years. Prizzia also said she was wishy-washy on her vote for Anoch after hearing from county staff.  

But the substitute motion to hire Pedron failed 8-3. The next motion to hire Whitfield passed unanimously and included a provision to hire Pedron if negotiations failed.