November 4, 2009

County mulls new structure

By Sam Craig
The Chronicle

     Before the Wasco County Court switches to a county commission in January, a few changes need to be put in place as far as county organization goes.
     While nothing was set in stone at a meeting on Tuesday, the discussion revolved around the distribution of duties that previously fell on the shoulders of the county judge. There are plans in the works to possibly create a county administrator to assist in county business.
     The current system balances most of the weight of county business on Judge Dan Ericksen. In addition to the load shift to a county commission, the county administrator would spread responsibilities further.
     “Right now, you have all the departments, whether they’re appointed or they’re elected they’re primarily being managed by the county judge,” said County Commissioner Bill Lennox. “The idea is that the county judge would not be the sole manager for all the departments, that an administrator would take the position, primarily to handle in service appointed departments, not so much the elected departments. Doing so would take the relief off the county judge so that he’s not dealing with in-house types of issues every day.”
     With dozens of departments, boards and other tasks to tackle, the position of county judge came with a mountain of responsibility. With an administrator, the hope is to clear some space for the newly-formed county commission to breathe.
“The administrator would work as a coordinator to bring more efficiencies to more departments,” Lennox said. “For instance, if they noted that in finance they could use a part-time secretary, maybe they could borrow that person from the clerk’s office.”
     One of the most important roles of the possible new position is to keep track of what’s going on within county government offices. When a problem arises, the administrator would be the one to make adjustments to Wasco County’s inner workings.
     Working on several boards each, members of the county court often find themselves in and out of the courthouse several times a week. With someone taking care of business around the office, the court hopes, it should increase the effectiveness of county government.
     “What we’d really like is for this person to be here, attending to things here, rather than out and about,” Holliday said. “That would free up the county judge and the commissioners to go out and do their political work and all the boards that they set up.”
     To find someone to fill the position, the county court will be looking for a current county employee. Finding an in-house candidate for the job, however, means finding someone to take over their role. Though hiring a new employee may seem an expensive proposition, said County Commissioner Sherry Holliday, they won’t have to spend any extra to acquire a new worker.
     “I think it’s important to note that there’s money in the budget because there are some positions that we have left unfilled,” Holliday said, “so it’s not like we’re going to be spending extra money, it’s money that’s already been budgeted.”
     “We’re using exactly the funds that have been budgeted to make these changes,” Lennox added.
     The county is still in the beginning process of working out all the mechanics of the new position, and won’t have a concrete plan for a while. It’s important, they say, to make sure the position of administrator is exactly what they need to make life easier.
     “As with anything, it’s a work in progress, and we’re really trying to find the most efficient way,” Lennox said. “We don’t want to create positions that we find out later on we can’t afford or weren’t exactly what we needed.”