Updated: Kim Bogart, Chris Nocco Have Applied to be Pasco Sheriff

Kim Bogart, a former contender for the job of Pasco Sheriff, said Thursday afternoon that he had added his name to the pool of applicants seeking to be the county's next top cop. His announcement came the same day Maj. Chris Nocco, a recently promoted member of White's command staff, announced that he had applied for the job.

Pasco County Sheriff Bob White announced March 16 that he is retiring from his job, Bogart, who said he has also filed to run for the job in the general election, and Nocco are competing against two other candidates who want to win Gov. Rick Scott's appointment and finish out White's third term.

“The biggest thing is the opportunity,” Nocco said to press at the Sheriff's Office after he spent part of the morning at Leadership Pasco's youth leadership program.

"There was a kid at youth leadership today, and I apologize because I’m probably going to misquote him, but he said ‘Opportunity doesn’t miss people. People miss opportunity.' And I think for us in the Sheriff’s Office, it’s not about Chris Nocco. It's about the Pasco Sheriff's Office. It’s about us having the opportunity to excel from where we are to be a world-class law enforcement agency and to grow and be a shining star for the people of Pasco.”

Bogart, who gave an interview over the phone Thursday afternoon, said he had sent off his application for the interim Sheriff's job to the governor's office and expected it to reach there Friday. He said he also filed his paperwork with the Pasco County Supervisor of Elections' Office Thursday and that it should be online Friday.

Bogart lost to White in the 2008 general election by only 4,002 votes. Bogart worked for the Pasco Sheriff’s Office for 16 years, ascending to the ranks of captain and major. He is the executive director of the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission and has also done consulting for law enforcement and corrections agencies to prepare them for accreditation.

Neither Nocco nor Bogart wanted to go into detail about the changes they wanted to bring to the agency at this early date. 

However, Nocco said some of the biggest issues facing Pasco are the illegal prescription pill "epidemic" in Pasco, ensuring safety in schools and economic development.  

Among issues of importance to Bogart are the agency's budget and relationship with the county commission. White recently battled county commissioners over $4 million more in the budget than commissioners were at first willing to add. He wanted the extra money so he could hire more deputies and cover escalating insurance and pension costs. White appealed the budget with the governor, but he and the county reached a settlement right before a hearing in Tallahassee.

"I don't believe he needed as much as he was asking, and I think there are other strategies to get what he was asking for," Bogart said.  "And if I didn't think I could do it better, I wouldn't be running."    

Nocco started at the Sheriff’s Office in March 2009, leaving a job as chief of staff at the Florida Highway Patrol headquarters in Tallahassee to become captain of administration in Pasco. When White recently, Nocco was placed in charge of the new Joint Operations Bureau, which oversees the Criminal Investigations Division and the Agency Support Division. 

Nocco decided to apply for the job after speaking to his wife, Bridget, members of White's command staff and others. He said he completed his application on Tuesday night, with FedEx picking it up the next day. Gov. Scott's Office of Open Government said the state had received two applications as of early in the morning on March 24, and Nocco's was not one of them. However, the office had not finished looking over the morning mail.

Whoever is appointed to succeed White will serve until voters elect a new sheriff in the 2012 general election. Other candidates who have applied for White's job or have expressed interest in applying for interim sheriff are:

• Maj. Brian Head, Pasco's detention bureau commander, who has served in the position since 2001, filled out his application two days after White announced his resignation
• Roger Fortney, a retired Pasco deputy who has served under three sheriffs
• Mike “XX” Foxx,   has filed to run in the general election and said March 22 that he is in the process of completing the application for the appointment. He has 33 years experience as a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy.

Article updated at 7:20 p.m.