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06/28/2005: "If BOCC Hires County Manager, End Of Freeholder Concept?"

At a recent BOCC meeting the Commissioners discussed holding a work session on hiring a County Manager. At the meeting it became apparent that the BOCC had already entered into a contact with Richard Foote, a local San Juan Island resident, to explore the pros and cons of hiring a County Manager. This has come as a bit of a surprise to some members of the Freeholders, who are working on including that very position as one of the main reasons for the public to -hopefully- vote in a new form of government, the center piece of which will be a County Manager position.

Miller has recognized that there appears to be support for a County Manager form of government, but seems to be committed to the current board make-up of three Commissioners, each of which receives a full-time salary. Some members of the Freeholders have expressed concern that if the BOCC were to hire a manger, it may remove much of the motivation for voters to approve the charter the Freeholders expect to have on the ballot fort the next election.

The upcoming work session will allow a discussion by the BOCC, and some invited members of government, to review the Foote report, and to enter into a dialog that may include some input from one or more of the counties that currently have a County Manager program. Miller expressed a concern that such input may not be very helpful, in that "each one of those counties is vastly different than ours", Commissoner Lichter stated that he is" very much in favor of a full open and frank discussion in open session with our (department) managers" about the County Manager concept.

The idea of the work session is to determine if there is sufficient reason to allow the BOCC (or at least two of them) to vote for a County Manage; and if so, to what extent a manager would assume some of the roles of the current BOCC. The cost of the new position is one of the concerns expressed by the members of the Board. Miller said it is not -as the Board of Freeholders are projecting that it must be in their draft Charter proposal- going to be revenue neutral.