Mathews County’s new interim county administrator, Sanford “Sandy” Wanner, has a long history of experience working in local government.
Appointed to serve Mathews while the company he contracts with, The Berkley Group, conducts a search for a new county administrator, Wanner said he expects to be in Mathews at least four months as the search progresses. He said that searches sometimes take longer.
A fact sheet he provided shows that he has served an average of six months in the seven interim positions he has held, including a 2015 posting in Gloucester.
A former U.S. Marine, Wanner worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant colonel, finishing out his military career working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He then took advantage of the GI Bill to earn a master’s degree in administration from George Washington University. He already held a degree in education from Trenton State Teachers College in his home state of New Jersey.
Wanner said his first job as a civilian was as finance director of Fredericksburg City Public Schools, after which he moved on to the same position in Williamsburg-James City County. The county then asked him to manage the James City Service Authority, and from there he was appointed assistant county administrator.
When the county administrator position in James City opened up in 1996, Wanner moved into that job and served until his retirement in 2010. The school system’s athletic stadium was named after him.
A stint in the private sector followed, as economic advisor for the Williamsburg Pottery. Then in 2015 Wanner was asked to take on the job of interim county administrator for Gloucester County when former County Administrator Brenda Garton resigned. He stayed on long enough to assist current County Administrator Brent Fedors with the transition, then moved on to be interim county administrator in Isle of Wight, and then King William.
In 2017, a scandal surrounding the misuse of state funds occurred at the Newport News-Williamsburg Regional Airport, and Wanner was appointed to serve as interim airport administrator during the investigation and subsequent hiring of a new administrator. He said he was asked what he knew about running an airport, and he responded that it was basically the same as a small town, with its own police force and fire department, a school, a trailer park, and a car rental business. “Everything a small government would have,” he said.
After that, Wanner served as interim county administrator for Surry County and interim town manager for the towns of Smithfield and Windsor.
Wanner said he ran into all kinds of challenges in his interim jobs, from county supervisors who thought it was their job to call the grounds administrator to tell him to cut the grass, to overseeing the search for new county administrators, to having to testify about the embezzlement of funds.
After serving the town of Windsor, Wanner had decided he was going to retire for good when Mathews County approached him about taking on one more interim position. He said he was already familiar with Mathews after doing a tour on a ship out of Norfolk during his time in the Marine Corps and after serving as interim county administrator for Gloucester, so he said yes.
Wanner said he is an extrovert who enjoys meeting new people and that he wanted to “get out and about” from the beginning. He stepped into his new position on Aug. 2, and that night he spoke at the public meeting Rep. Rob Witt-
man held on the U.S. Coast Guard’s plans to downgrade Milford Haven Station to seasonal status. He had done his homework and spoke of the fishermen, hunters, and watermen who rely on the station year-round.
“I believe in being physically out among people,” he said.
Wanner said he plans on meeting one-on-one with individual board members, assuring them that what they tell him is confidential.
“I’m here to help the board serve the citizens and to make sure the staff are doing their best to meet the needs of the citizens,” he said. “We’re all in this together, weaving the tapestry of Mathews County.”
Wanner is a Credentialed Manager and a member of a number of government management associations, and he teaches a summer Local Government Seminar at the College of William and Mary. He is a member of the board of the Virginia Peninsula United Way and is on the Williamsburg Advisory Board of Village Bank. In the past, he has been a member of Kiwanis, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters and has served as president of the 4-H camp at Jamestown, and Child Development Resources.
An Eagle Scout himself, Wanner is a former chair of the First Colony District of the Colonial Virginia Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
“I’ve tried to serve my community beyond my professional job,” he said. “I’ve had a pretty full life.”
Wanner and his wife Judith live in Croaker. They have a combined family of three daughters and a son, as well as six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.