Five For One?

While it is unusual to rethink the need for positions once one is well into the recruiting process, the new director positions certainly warrant deeper study than apparently took place; Kudos to the commissioners for taking a second look. Most likely, when this all shakes out, one of two things will happen: either we will not add the directors or adding them will be greatly delayed.

Citizens adeserve more information about justifications for this major move, especially with the smaller-government-cut-expenses environment we live in.

Speaking of expenses, the monetary cost of the new director positions has been routinely misrepresented, in print at least, because only salaries are mentioned. Employee benefits, perks, office space, equipment and the inevitable support staff-executive assistants, clerks- makes $1,000,000 a more accurate guesstimate of the annual cost. In addition, there are also significant startup costs associated with recruiting and situating them.

Besides monetary costs, adding a layer of management results in a deterioration of communication from the bottom to the top. Information is filtered as it goes up the chain of command and often never reaches the top person. Generally, this means that the county manager will be less aware of negative information.

There seems to be some confusion about the county manager's role. CEOs such as county managers spend a significant portion of their time planning, which includes budgeting resources and "visualizing." The extent to which they are bogged down in minutia is a function of their managerial skills, including developing subordinates, and delegating authority. It is all too common to add people to offset the effects of bad management, an aspect of the Peter Principle. Since the county appears to be well-run and its manager is leaving, this has an it-will-take -five-people-to-replace Carl Cool feel to it. That might be premature.

Finally, should the commissioners decide to go ahead with this restructuring, one thing is very clear: the new country manager should have a say in selecting the new directors. Hiring for the new positions should be delayed until after his or her hiring. Actually, the new manager should be the one recommending management structure changes not the outgoing one.

John Dyce
Lorida