Months after Franklin Co. lost its administrator, are they close to hiring another?
Five months after Franklin County Administrator Keith Johnson left for Oklahoma, a permanent replacement could be hired soon.
Johnson led the county for seven years, with choppy waters in the last two as new commissioners joined the board and made surprise attempts to try to oust him.
While things quieted down for Johnson after a while, his departure was one of many in a string of high-level resignations the county suffered, with many citing a toxic environment and bullying from elected officials.
At a February commission meeting, the current human resources director Sam Hughes told the board she was considering leaving if elected officials couldn’t take steps to “stop the exodus of personnel and the carnage” that disrupts the organization.
If she were to resign, Hughes would be the third HR director to leave citing toxicity in the past two years.
A new administrator would be stepping into a leadership role tasked with repairing much of the fallout the county has seen recently.
New administrator
Former Benton County and Washington state treasurer Duane Davidson has been serving as interim county administrator since October, until officials can find a permanent replacement.
While Hughes indicated that the atmosphere at the county still needs work, Commissioner Clint Didier praised Davidson for his efforts so far, saying that courthouse moral had improved greatly because of his leadership skills.
The board chose to forego hiring a search firm to find a new county administrator in the hopes of saving money.
The county began moving forward with candidates for the permanent role in February, most recently in a special closed-door executive session for interviews on Monday, Feb, 27, followed by a public meet and greet.
Despite some candidates participating in that session, the county has not released a list of candidates being considered for the position.
Because the position is a county employee and not an elected official, the applications aren’t subject to the same state disclosure rules.
Hughes told the Herald this week that a group of finalists had not been formally selected and that county leaders would be deciding the process for doing so in a special meeting on Friday, March 3.
She didn’t expect for finalists to be named at that meeting or a job offer to be made, but the agenda was updated on Wednesday to allow for possible action.
The special meeting is set for 9 a.m. Friday. While they will be behind closed doors for discussion of the process, any action taken will be done in public afterward.
