Michael DiTerlizzi

Lee Weberman

Since his loss to environmental activist Patrick Hayes in August, Weberman has found himself without employment in the middle of maybe the worst economic slump since the 1930s.“I’m putting in applications for engineering jobs,” he said last week, acknowledging the surprise loss was painful. “I’m just like everybody else. I’m hitting all the Web sites.”

Weberman was one of a pair of two-term county commissioners who all of a sudden find themselves out of public office after eight years each on the dais. Former Commissioner Mike DiTerlizzi gave up his seat on the board to run for state House, but his bid was unsuccessful, too.

But DiTerlizzi, who lost his election just last month, said he’s enjoying putting his energy back into his business, Highway Tire and Auto, where he said sales have jumped since his return because he’s been busy marketing.

Just the other day, he found new customers out of the blue over breakfast when he sat down to eat with six guys.

“One guy said, ‘You know, I need tires,’ and his sale was about $800 or $900 just on his car alone,” he said. “And I had two sales just like that on the same day — and an oil change. And that was just at the breakfast table.”

Weberman, who was an engineer with Martin County government before he won elective office, decided against keeping a private job while a commissioner.

“If I would have taken a second engineering job during my eight years I’m sure there would have been claims that you’re working for developers,” he said. “In retrospect, now that I’m out of work, that might not have been a great decision.”

He said he explored the possibility of going back to work with the county but was told by administration that that wasn’t possible.

He worries his situation might dissuade all but the very wealthy from running for County Commission, which pays $56,900 a year — not what an engineer would make in the private sector.

He said he doubts he could ever run for public office again given how hard he took this loss.

DiTerlizzi, meanwhile, said he prepared himself for the possibility of losing.

“So the disappointment that I thought might have been there really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he said.

He says he’d weigh options for a future run at another public office, whether at the county or state level.

BY THOMAS R. COLLINS Correspondent

Tags: application, car, development, housing, sales, web

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 10:15 am and is filed under State, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.