As promised, some discussion (a beginning, at least) of projects and
directions that will be on the Board's agenda this year.
Certainly, the highest-profile issue on the agenda is the move toward
professional management of County services. As I think I've noted
before, Otsego County is the largest county in NY that does not have
a County Manager or Executive (to be fair, Columbia County doesn't
either, and it's almost exactly the same size). Over the years, more
and more has been expected of counties by the state and federal
bureaucracies, and nothing of note has been taken off of our plate.
While it might have been possible for fourteen laymen to run Otsego
County twenty years ago, it is less and less so as time goes on, and
there is no evidence that this will change.
Professional management can take on any one of a number of formats.
County Managers or Adminstrators are hired by the Board, usually for
a specified term, and it is the Board that offers the opportunity for
another term, or not. A County Executive is elected for a certain
term in a county-wide election, and the voters determine whether
another term is appropriate. Both forms of management have advocates
in the County. I will dip into politics for just a moment to say
that the leaders of the political party which represents the majority
of voters supports, unsurprisingly, the County Executive model. I
support the County Manager model, because I do want the Board to have
clear oversight of the employee who will have day-to-day executive
authority over all the workings of the County. And also because I am
a member of the minority party.
Having a professional manager/executive/administrator at the top of
the organizational chart will bring efficiency, an appropriate level
of uniformity of function, and heightened transparency and
communication to our very diverse set of functions and services.
Simply said, it's crazy for a $110 million organization not to have a
CEO.
Second on the list of 2018 goals, at least for me, will be a salary
scale for Management and Confidential (M&C) employees, which
pretty much means all non-union County employees. These are the
department heads, and upper management and supervisors, for the most
part, as well as a variety of professionals (Social Service
attorneys, for instance). We finally got a raise for them in 2018 –
the second in ten years – but it's for one year, and there is still
no comprehensive, perpetual salary scale for determining reasonable
increases for this important part of our County. We have serious
problems with retention and promotion (promotion from a union
position to an M&C position often does not include a meaningful
wage hike) because of this.
I'll chair the committee (Performance Review and Goal Setting) that
will address a salary study and scale, with the goal of having it in
place by the time the 2019 budget is approved in December. This is
an important goal for anyone who puts value on the quality of work
done by County departments, rather than valuing the minimum output
for the lowest cost.
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