ERIE — The topic of hiring a county administrator or a county chief financial officer came up at the Neosho County Commission meeting on Oct. 8.
Commissioners took no action on the matter but are going to continue exploring it.
Commissioner Gail Klaassen said she thought a CFO might be a good fit for the county and that other counties have hired CFOs to help with the financial end of county government.
Neosho County had an administrator before and that didn’t work out well, commissioners said. Klaassen thought the CFO would be a better fit.
“I think a lot of times that’s where we get in trouble,” she said.
She named other counties that hired CFOs or even administrators, including Montgomery County. She said it would be important to get the right person who would work with elected and non-elected officials. In the past, the commission talked about using the money given to the county from the Neosho Ridge Wind operation. Finding that kind of money in the budget would be difficult, she said.
County Treasurer Sydney Ball asked if commissioners had concerns about the county finances.
Klaassen said budgeting would be important. She added that there is not a problem now but the county could always do better. She said she may not have chosen the correct word to address the issue.
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Commissioner Nicholas Galemore said the previous administrator met resistance and there was a constant battle.
Klaassen said there would have to be employee buy-in.
Ball said she hoped this person would be a team player and that this person could be good at working with the budget year-round and relay information to the auditor. She said county departments don’t need to be micromanaged.
Department heads attending the meeting asked about what this person would be paid and noted that employee pay in Neosho County is lower than in other counties. If this person made more money than department heads doing similar workloads that could cause friction. Commissioners didn’t have an answer without doing more digging.
Klaassen said Wilson County recently hired someone in the community to perform similar duties.
“Finding that right person, I think, would be very difficult,” Klaassen said.
Klaassen was going to conduct more research into the issue.
In other matters, commissioners: — Approved the clean-up of two radio towers at a cost of $9,685.20.
— Met in closed session several times. After one session, commissioners agreed to hire an employee for the Road and Bridge Department but did not name the hire.
— Heard that fall tree cleanup would be this week.
