Lake County plans to use an outside recruiting firm to find its next top administrator, not the county’s own personnel office, which reports to the administrator who is leaving.
The Board of Supervisors settled on that plan Tuesday, Nov. 10, after more than an hour of talk on the county’s meeting video. County Administrative Officer Susan Parker’s last day is Dec. 31, according to the memo Chair Brad Rasmussen and Supervisor Bruno Sabatier wrote for the agenda item.
The board took no vote. The item asked only for “direction to staff,” and supervisors gave it by agreement around the table. Staff will draft a request for proposals from search firms and bring it back to the full board. Supervisors will look for an interim administrator to run the office while the search goes on. They’ll consider a written employment contract for the next administrator. And they’ll ask the public what they want.
That last part started the same afternoon. The county posted a one-question survey: “What qualities do you want to see in a future County Administrative Officer?” It hasn’t said when the survey closes.
Why not the county’s own office
Supervisor Helen Owen spoke first. She said Human Resources typically runs searches like this one, but this one should go outside.
“I would like to see us hire a headhunter to fill this position,” she said. Human Resources sits under the administrator’s office, she said, so keeping the search there would “give them basically the opportunity to hire their boss.”
Sabatier agreed. “I think that there is a conflict, whether it’s real or perceived,” he said.
Human Resources staff told the board the department would only screen applicants against the job’s requirements. “HR would never be the person selecting this candidate. You guys would,” the staff member said.
The last time the county asked for proposals from recruiters, “seven out of 10 said thanks, but no thanks,” the staff member said. Firms charge “about 20 to 25% of the first year salary,” and the county pays “whether or not they place somebody.”
The job pays $217,320 to $264,144 a year, according to the county’s job description. At 20% to 25%, that works out to roughly $43,000 to $66,000.
A representative of Management Connections, a Lakeport staffing agency, told supervisors her firm does executive searches and would answer the county’s request. “I haven’t collected any heads lately,” she said.
Calls for Kelly Cox
For about 25 minutes, members of the public told the board how to run the search. Several named Kelly Cox. Cox was the county’s longtime administrative officer and announced his retirement in 2012, Lake County News reported at the time. Owen said she would like Cox on an advisory group to help screen applicants.
Human Resources staff said county rules limit who can sit on a hiring panel. Members need hiring experience. “It can’t just be John Doe off of the street,” the staff member said.
Elizabeth Larson, editor of Lake County News, said that four and a half years ago, the county ran “a five-day internal recruitment” and “a 21-day external recruitment.” “We were promised an HR firm would be brought in. We never saw a contract,” she said.
Parker was named interim administrator April 12, 2022, and the board made her permanent May 23 of that year, according to a county news release. This fall, the county added closed-door interviews for her replacement to the Nov. 3 agenda, then pulled them at the start of that meeting.
Daniel McIntyre, who told the board he is chief executive of North Coast Opportunities, asked it to let the next administrator lead. “Oversight is different from managing from the boardroom,” he said.
An interim first
Vice Chair Jessica Pyska said she’s concerned about the workload in the administrator’s office, whose staff are serving as interim directors of two other departments. “We’re going to be going right into mid-year budget and then preparing for next year’s budget,” she said.
“We know realistically, especially with the holidays, that we’re not going to find somebody by January 1st,” Sabatier said.
Supervisors agreed to ask two statewide groups, the California State Association of Counties and the Rural County Representatives of California, how other counties have found interim administrators. Supervisor E.J. Crandell, the board’s member on the rural counties group, took that one.
The board expects a plan for an interim Tuesday, Nov. 17. It also asked for ideas that day on where to find the money, which one supervisor put at “potentially $100,000.”
After that, the county’s meeting calendar shows two more regular meetings before Parker’s last day, both in December.
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