“Administrator duties approved” |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2010 05:02 PM PST Leavenworth, Kan. — The Leavenworth County Commission has officially decided that it will hire another county administrator to assist in the day-to-day operations of the county. The decision comes after weeks of discussions on what the scope of the job, left open after the departure of former administrator Heather Morgan at the end of October, would be. On Thursday, the commission pieced together a single job description from elements of three separate proposals. The final draft kept intact many of the duties and responsibilities the administrator previously had. With some noteworthy exceptions — two of the more contentious items on the previous proposals were the administrator's duties with respect to budgeting and personnel matters. Previously, the administrator had the authority to hire and fire non-elected employees, up to and including department managers. The description as approved by the commission now stipulates that the administrator will need to bring forward recommendations for personnel decisions that the commission will have to approve. Commissioner Clyde Graeber said last week he wanted another duty included on the list with the aim of improving morale in the courthouse. "One of the things that I really tried to stress was I thought it was important to have a regular monthly meetings between the Board of County Commissioners, the elected officials and the appointed heads," he said. Though Commissioner J.C. Tellefson said he supported having those meetings, he did not think it was necessary to include in the job description in case scheduling or other conflicts cause those meetings to become less frequent. "That, to me, delegitimizes the job description," he said. The commission instead voted to establish a monthly meeting schedule, though that responsibility will not be solely the administrator's. Expectations for the administrator as it relates to preparation of the budget are also a little different in the final document. Graeber suggested in his draft proposal that the administrator draft annual budgets in coordination with the Leavenworth County clerk. On Monday, he suggested that again, though Commissioner John Flower and Tellefson said they disagreed with including that in the job description because the clerk's duties in relation to the budget are already laid out in state statutes. "The clerk certainly has responsibilities, we have responsibilities," Tellefson said. "For us to author a document though, that articulates what the clerk's responsibilities are, is not appropriate." Spelled out or not, County Clerk Janet Klasinski said the budgeting process will almost necessitate some communication between her office, the county's accountant and the administrator. Tellefson and Flower did eventually agree to adopt part of Graeber's wording — that the administrator will "work with the county clerk and outside auditors to generate county financial statements," omitting the requirements related to the budget. With that change, the commission approved the new job description for the county administrator and authorized the human resources department to advertise the position for 30 days beginning as soon as possible, also maintaining the salary range for the position from about $81,000 to $91,000. Tellefson, recognizing both that developing the job description had been a long process and that some voters feel they haven't been listened to as two previous ballot initiatives regarding the administrator's position had failed, said the commission had to recognize the value of that position. "The reality is, I don't think we could function at all without someone here every day," he said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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