County coordinator position on life support but still alive

News analysis

Like a body left for dead in the morgue but that suddenly gulps for breath, Oneida County chairman Scott Holewinski’s proposal for a county coordinator to oversee day-to-day county operations hopped off of the administration committee’s cold slab last week and will live to see at least one more meeting.

That will likely be its last gasp, though a compromise creation of a part-time liaison position to carry out some of the coordinator’s duties, offered by Holewinski as a Plan B, could survive.

Holewinski had intended the committee meeting last week to be a funeral of sorts for his ideal solution, a full-time coordinator — “I know when I’m beat,” he intoned at one point — but the more the committee talked, the more the notion slowly resurrected.

Not that the proposal is likely to survive, by any means. Holewinski sparred throughout the meeting with administration committee chairman Billy Fried, who favors a tweaked version of the current model and is opposed to a full-time coordinator. Right now, the county coordinator — required by statute — is a de facto in-name-only position attached to the human resources director, Lisa Charbarneau.

Fried’s idea is to stick with the staff and the shared position, though actually empowering the coordinator to perform duties that a county coordinator would do. 

At the last two meetings, that idea seemed be the majority point of view, though at the last meeting Holewinski was vocal that he didn’t think it was sufficient. Still, sensing defeat, he entered last week’s meeting with a plan he thought was the best he could get — the same coordinator structure but with a part-time liaison to perform some of the coordinator’s functions.

As the meeting progressed, Fried’s idea seemed to be more and more viewed as a half-measure destined to accomplish little, while Holewinski’s idea for a full-blown coordinator — either part-time or full-time — at least had a pulse.

“I said I was beat,” Holewinski said near the meeting’s end. “You guys had determined we weren’t going to spend the money and that’s why I came up with my [liaison] plan, but after listening to people, I think people on this committee now are more looking into the future. Maybe we do need something like a county coordinator or something like that.”

Or maybe not. The meeting concluded with the idea that Holewinski and Charbarneau will work on a job description for the coordinator position for another meeting later in March, and will work toward recommending one of three options to the county board: A full-time county coordinator; a hybrid model, staying with the same structure but with, as Fried called it, a complimentary piece, such as a part-time liaison or coordinator; and a full-time administrator, which by all accounts is not likely.

At the meeting’s end, Fried said he thought the committee was leaning toward the second of those options.

“That’s kind of what I heard today — don’t just put words into our current system and say this is an improvement,” he said. “Let’s give a little assistance and accountability to some specific duties for a very small amount of money.”

No hidden agendas

A the meeting’s outset, Fried said a plan to tweak the current model, which was partly presented at the previous meeting and had been put together by Fried, Charbarneau, and supervisor Ted Cushing, was fashioned simply out of what was perceived to be the committee’s thinking.

“I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page because I’m not trying to drive any agenda forward and just want to make sure we’re efficient, and certainly I’m open to criticism and changes,” Fried said. “Lisa and I were to compile some of the information from [a consultant’s analysis known as SWOT] and the job responsibility duties that were distributed when [the previous county coordinator] left and implement that into our model to give it some strength as opposed to just going, ‘Hey, we’re going to keep doing it the same way we are.’”

So, Fried said, the trio drafted how the model could be strengthened, mirroring some points from the SWOT analysis. In no way was the draft driven by his or Cushing’s or Charbarneau’s wishes or to push an agenda forward, Fried said.

“So nothing’s been finalized or a final recommendation has not been made yet, but I believe our priority seems to be going down a path of staying with the current model, revising it and adding some duties, with no change in staff and no change in dollars, with an evaluation or review time of six to 12 months to be determined,” he said.

That said, Fried said the county board chairman is a lot more in tune with efficiencies or other things that could be improved so that the county board chairman or supervisors aren’t accused of micromanaging. 

“I think a lot of us have talked in the past, there seems to be a lot of situations where staff is actually looking to us to make a decision and sometimes we’re a little uncomfortable giving that direction,” he said. “But it’s important to note that Scott being county board chairman is exposed to a lot more than us, so I do really cherish his opinions and his ideas, and I think vetting those through this committee before going to the county board will be very important.”

At that point, Holewinski outlined his plan for a part-time liaison position, which he proposed would cost about $15,000, explaining that, after the last meeting, he realized that his desire to see a standalone position wasn’t going to fly. 

“So I came up with creating a county board liaison position with qualifications and a job description to address mostly the SWOT report,” he said. “The county board has no jurisdiction over elected positions — the clerk, treasurer, sheriff, clerk of courts, register of deeds. We need to separate things assigned to these positions that are not part of their job and the statutes, so we keep them separate. [This plan] would also address the tasks from the SWOT report by creating this position.”

Holewinski said his liaison proposal didn’t address his vision of the duties of a full-time administrative coordinator because that just wasn’t the direction that he thought the committee was headed.

Under the SWOT analysis, Holewinski said, a full-time coordinator would primarily serve as a liaison between the county board and the county departments, someone with a strong leadership background who could efficiently manage 20-plus departments.

“The liaison position couldn’t do all that but, especially with the county’s creation of a new executive committee, could perform some of the most important tasks,” he said.

In sum, as Fried characterized Holewinski’s plan, the county would continue with the same model but add a support position.

So close, and yet so far away

Holewinski said bluntly he didn’t think Fried’s idea of just strengthening the current model with the same staff would work.

“I guess I could add that Lisa [Charbarneau, the current coordinator] is a 30-year-plus employee at this point and by trying to put things more onto her I think isn’t going to work,” he said. “She’s been working a 40-hour week for how many years and now we have to decide where to put all these extra little things onto it. I’m more looking toward somebody who’s going to put all the budgets together, bring them to the finance committee, work with the finance department, evaluations, things like that that a coordinator would do for us.”

Supervisor Robb Jensen said he didn’t think Holewinski’s liaison proposal would move the needle much more than Fried’s idea.

“Somebody asked me when this started a number of months ago where we would end up,” Jensen said. “I predicted this. There is really no change.”

Nobody would be in charge — still, Jensen said, citing the example of evaluations, now performed in committee. 

“You need to have somebody in charge of those evaluations who is dealing with that person on a daily basis, and that’s not a committee of jurisdiction,” he said. “…  The other thing is, whoever this person is, you have to empower them in some way.”

When staff does stray from the process and policy, for example, in purchasing something without going through proper channels, Jensen said, there are likely no consequences, or very few.

“We as members of committees of jurisdiction are very uncomfortable taking that administrative and evaluation role,” he said. “If you have somebody in power that oversees the department heads and now that happens, that individual is dealing with that person who didn’t follow the policy. We don’t have that. We’re all forgiving.”

Jensen also said the proposal lacked any change in power over the county budget.

“Your committees of jurisdiction develop the budget and what do you hear when you want to make something happen in one of the committees?” he asked. “I said [to one department head], ‘Okay, you’re going to get $14,000 more a year for this. What are we going to cut?’ The department head’s answer was, ‘That’s not my problem. That’s your problem.’”

How many times have supervisors been able to effectively cut things at the county board floor when it comes to the budget? Jensen asked: “It doesn’t happen.”

“So it is a matter of, do you want to change it or not?” he said. “To me you’re really not changing much.”

Committees of jurisdiction have a real hard time saying no, Jensen said.

“But when you empower someone else to do that, your committee of jurisdiction is not making that decision anymore,” he said. 

All in all, right now the county is functioning decently, Jensen said.

“But I have a feeling the day’s going to come [that] we’ve got to make significant cuts and that’s the real hard thing about how you do that,” he said. “Do you want your committees and your board to make the cuts or do you want the department heads and that level bringing the suggested cuts to us. We don’t have that now and maybe you can do that with a new person.”

One small step for supervisors

Fried said he still thought taking a smaller step was the way to go.

“I believe we said when we started down this road that we didn’t want to take that big a leap,” he said of hiring a full-time coordinator. “Why? Not just cost but we didn’t want to disrupt what we’re doing because, as you said, ‘Hey, things are actually not too bad here.’ But there’s certainly efficiencies and things we could improve on.”

So the thinking was not to take the big leap but start with a small step, Fried said.

“That’s why we came with, ‘Hey, let’s go with the current model and incorporate some of the things that have been identified,’” he said. “You [Jensen] used the word ‘empower.’ When I asked Lisa [Charbarneau] the first day she sat down here and I said, ‘Why do you think your position has not been as successful as maybe it could be?’ And tell me if I’m quoting you wrong, but she said ‘power’ or ‘empowerment’ or ‘authority.’”

And that’s one of the things we’re trying to do by strengthening the current model, Fried said, and then evaluating the change six months or a year down the road.

“That was going to be a baby step,” he said. “Give the people who we have right now the chance, even though you could say, ‘Oh hey, they’ve been here and they haven’t done this or that.’ Well now we’re empowering them.”

The day of a full-time coordinator will likely come, Fried said.

“I don’t think anyone disagrees with your comments where maybe the county should be someday out in the future, but we thought it would be a smoother transition of going in this direction,” he said. 

Supervisor Steven Schreier said he could support Holewinski’s liaison proposal.

“I feel more comfortable having it be more definitive,” Schreier said. “I’d want to see what that looks like. What are we talking about so that I have a very definitive specific job description? What does it look like also for this newly created liaison, so I know specifically what it is that we’re asking that position to do, what their responsibilities are.”

Schreier said the timeline was not unachievable, and the point was to give the county board chairperson and other supervisors the tools they need to do their jobs. But Schreier also said that maybe the step Holewinski was proposing wasn’t going far enough.

“At the same time there’s a part of me that’s almost like, are we doing a half-measure knowing that probably where we’re headed is a coordinator position, and why don’t we just do that rather than create what looks like a half-measure now to get something in place, and then have to deal with it all over again in six to 12 months because we’re not particularly happy with what it is we’re creating now,” he said. “That’s my only concern.”

Schreier said he would need to see Holewinski’s proposal in front of him and then it might be fine, but he said he didn’t want to have an immediate vote.

“I wouldn’t want to go up or down today on any of these prospects not knowing now what it is that at least you feel that you think you need as the chair and I want to put emphasis on that,” he said.

Holewinski wondered if everybody was just wasting their time.

“We’re going to create a position, waste our time, and maybe we should just pursue, whether it’s a part-time county coordinator or full time, I know it can’t be accomplished before elections, but to me we didn’t accomplish what was intended — to get somebody to oversee all the departments and bring it to us, a liaison between the departments and the county board,” he said.

A lengthy discussion ensued — among other things about taking a proposal to the county board before the spring election (that will not happen, they agreed), and whether any recommended option should come out of the newly created executive committee that will operate after the spring election.

More back-and-forth ensued between Fried and Holewinski, too.

“If I look back and there’s 72 counties, and there’s over 60 of them that have an executive or an administrative coordinator, I don’t know if I have to do an evaluation to see what direction we should be going in,” Holewinski said. “… Basically you need either an administrator or administrative coordinator to run the counties properly. And I certainly can see that, but it’s like we don’t want to give up our power. We want to keep everything in our pocket, but whether we come up with a part-time county coordinator or a full-time county coordinator, you have to decide how you want the county to run.”

Fried continued to worry that a coordinator was too big a leap.

“I still want to be on the path of maintaining the kind of the structure we have but adding a complimentary piece like [the liaison],” he said. “I’m open to that but with more duties or tasks assigned to it. If you want to relabel it, county coordinator, whatever, but I’m not taking a leap to an $80,000-with-the-benefits position. If we can do something as a first step, I’m certainly interested in that.”

The committee will reconvene in late March to ponder the fast-changing alternatives, with a county coordinator position at least back on life support.

While a limited liaison position seems more likely in the works, the fluid give-and-take makes a prognosis unclear for any of the proposals. There could be any number of bodies on the slab before it’s all over.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.