Task force recommends restoring post

YATES COUNTY--The Legislative task force assigned to address the vacant county administrator position has recommended Yates retain the position, with the potential for additional responsibilities. Legislator Doug Paddock gave a presentation to the legislative government operations committee Monday, March 7, highlighting the research of the task force. The recommendation included possible additional roles for the administrator, including planning, purchasing director and risk manager responsibilities.
Paddock identified the key job the task force highlighted, which included coordinating and supervising department heads and conducting regular meetings with them. The county administrator also would recommend and suggest modifications to policies, implement policies of the governing body, manage large projects and participate in union contract negotiations. The job responsibilities that were not desired by the task force included being the auditor, clerk of the governing body, the information technology (IT) director or preparer of the tax rolls.
Paddock said the task force contemplated several alternatives to a full-time replacement for the county administrator, including:
• Splitting duties among department heads.
• Splitting duties among legislative and committee chairs.
• Splitting duties among legislative and committee chairs with a chief of staff.
• Hiring a part-time replacement.
• Hiring a county administrator and planner combination.
• Hiring a county administrator and risk manager combination.
• Hiring a county administrator and purchasing director combination.
Paddock also highlighted the pros and cons of each alternative. He noted a full-time replacement was likely the most costly option, but would allow the county to function without any inconsistency in policy application, increased workload for legislators or department heads, limited availability or the lack of a qualified candidate pool.
Paddock noted it was not a unanimous vote to go with the full-time recommendation to the committee. Legislator Mark Morris said he felt they could have chosen one of the lower cost options, as Yates is a small county. He said those who did not have an administrator did not seem to want one.
Paddock said the task force contemplated several options when looking at how to address the vacancy, presenting the findings of surveys and interviews of counties without and with county administrators. He said there were 50 counties in the state with a Chief Operating Officer (COO), with only seven counties without one. Paddock noted while those counties who did not have a county administrator did not appear to want one, he said those who had an administrator did not seem to want to go without one.
The legislature decided it would need to come up with a job announcement and a job description in order to move forward with seeking candidates for the position. However, there was some debate about what the job description should include. Legislator Dan Banach said it would be better to keep the job description loose with the additional responsibilities in order to avoid limiting the candidate pool. Legislator Edward Bronson disagreed, noting they need to address the county needs and should see where they want the county to be in three to five years.
"If we don't know what we want, we could get anything," Bronson said.
Legislative Chairman Tim Dennis emphasized the need to keep moving forward on this issue. The legislature scheduled further discussion on the matter at the end of their regular legislative session Monday, March 14 at 1 p.m. He said then, hopefully the legislature will be able to decide on how to proceed and possibly vote on a resolution to put together a job description.