LIVE OAK, Fla. — The Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners will interview four candidates for the county’s economic development director position.

The board decided at its Nov. 20 meeting to interview Teresa Campo, Lacey Ekberg, Jimmy Norris and Mark Yarick.

The interviews will be conducted the week of Dec. 10-14, beginning at 9 a.m. The exact date was not set at the meeting.

Each of the five commissioners chose two candidates out of the seven applicants to advance to the interview portion of the process.

During the interviews next month, Chairman Ricky Gamble suggested that each commissioner come in with two questions for each candidate in order to keep the interviews from dragging on.

“If you need to follow up or go into deeper detail, that’s just to try and keep it concise and get through the process and not get bogged down all day long,” he said.

Gamble also suggested the board using a points scale similar to the system used in 2014 when Alvin Jackson was hired for the position. Jackson left the county at the end of September for a city manager position in Bunnell. He turned in his resignation Aug. 27.

Following each interview, the commissioners will grade the candidates on a point scale of 0-5 or 0-10 and those scores will then be turned into the clerk.

Following the interviews, the scores will be totaled to determine the top choice of the board.

Negotiations will then begin with the top candidate before moving down the list, if necessary.

Since Jackson’s departure, Norris has been serving as interim economic development director in addition to being the executive director of the Suwannee County Chamber of Commerce.

Yarick is a consultant at the University of North Florida’s Florida Small Business Development Center office in Suwannee County.

Campo has served as the Community Development Director for Monroe, N.C. She also has worked in community development in Wilmington, N.C.

Ekberg’s prior experience includes serving as executive directors of various Chambers of Commerces previously, most recently in DeLand. She currently is the executive director of the Switzerland County Tourism in Vevay, Ind.