Life on the Board - VI - County Manager

Let's talk about a County Manager.

I've hesitated writing about the top issue we're moving on at the moment because it's such a long, drawn-out, complex, controversial issue.

And then I thought again, and decided, “No it's not. It's pretty simple.”

Let's start with this: What $115M/yr corporation that you know of is functioning without some sort of unitary executive leadership? In business, they're called CEOs. In Counties, they're called Managers, or Administrators, or Executives.

The arguments for some sort of executive county governance are many. First, as above, they always do it in business, because you need a central authority for communications, planning, decision-making, etc. Second, what might be called the County's “executive functioning” is currently being done by fourteen part-time laymen who serve two-year terms. What could possibly go wrong? Third, believe it or not, up until two years ago, when we instituted Department Head meetings, there did not exist – I'll repeat: did not exist – any formal structure for Departments to communicate with each other. Fourth, a central executive will be able to reduce redundancy in County functioning and purchasing. Fifth, a central executive will be able to take on the roles of Budget Office (now residing in the Treasurer's office), purchasing liaison, fleet manager, etc. And take on a large part of the Department Head evaluation role. And approve smaller expenditures and transfers, and authorize the filling of vacant funded positions, execute contracts, and negotiate with the unions. And so on and so on.

Currently, Committees spend an enormous amount of their time doing a lot of this stuff that the executive could take care of. That would free up time for the Committees to... oh, I don't know... maybe do some planning... policy... and so forth: the stuff we are elected to do and have, for the most part, not done in the past.

A note on terminology: I have been using the word “executive” with a lower-case 'e', meaning “central management.” One thing Otsego County won't have is a County Executive, with an upper-case 'E'. That decision has been made. A County Executive is someone who is elected in a county-wide election, serves at the pleasure of the voters, and has a authority, to a great extent, independent of the Board. County Executives are, generally (but not entirely) found in larger counties in NYS.

(Fun fact:  Otsego County is tied with Columbia County as the largest County in NYS without any kind of central adminstrator.)

County Managers and County Administrators are employees of the County who are hired by the Board and serve at the pleasure of the Board. There's not a lot of important difference between a CM and CA. What level of authority the CM or CA has throughout the various departments, and what their functions would be, is determined by the Board when we establish the job description.

The County Manager issue has been handled in the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee (IGA), and Chair Meg Kennedy (who's been doing a really good job in this area) has held a second IGA meeting each month to discuss county governance. I go to as many of these second IGA meetings as I can, and have strongly encouraged all Board members to participate as well. The next “second meeting” is on Tuesday, August 27, in the Committee Room on the second floor of the Count Office Building. It's a public meeting.

I was being a little offhand when I said this wasn't really a complex issue. But the bones of it are pretty straightforward. If I can master the technology, I'll put a “starting point” draft County Manager job description in the next post. Please let me know what further directions you'd like to take this particular conversation.