Blaine County wants to improve the efficiency of its own government and has formed a citizens committee to explore how that can be achieved.
Composed of current and former city and county officials, local business owners, ranchers, an attorney and an executive coaching consultant, the 10-member committee met for the first time Tuesday to listen to a panel of experienced county government officials from around the West.
Dale Ewersen and Larry Schoen, Blaine County Commission candidates in District 1, which represents the south county, also attended the meeting. Ewersen is running as a Republican, Schoen as a Democrat.
The committee's primary purpose is to determine whether the county should change its management structure to a county manager form of government and whether the County Commission should expand from three to five commissioners. The committee is also being asked to determine whether both of those issues should be presented to voters—the county can not adopt a manager system without voter approval—in the November 2006 election.
The county's self-examination of its governmental structure began in January when Stan McNutt, who has over 30 years of experience in city and county management, was hired to assess the county's management needs.
McNutt released a report April 6 called the Blaine County Governance Coordination Plan, which concluded that the county does need an administrator but that more time may be needed for the county commissioners and staff to become more familiar with the process.
"As background, I want you to know that the current Board of Commissioners supports the idea of centralizing county administration under a county administrator/manager," Commissioner Sarah Michael wrote in a letter to the committee members.
The panel that met Tuesday included Dan Chadwick, executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties; Robert Hadfield, a management consultant and former county manager who served as the executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties for 19 years; and Jim Rumpeltes, current city manager of Surprise, Ariz., and the former administrator of Clallum County in Washington.
All three spoke about the challenges of transitioning into a county administrator/manager system, and that support among current commissioners should be unanimous before proceeding.
Hadfield said it's obvious that the commissioners' workload is overbearing and they need assistance, but that hiring a county manager without careful consideration will create more problems than it will solve.
"It's all about trust and the county manager or administrator getting along with the commissioners," he said. "You need to look at it from the bottom up."
Michael said she wants the committee to finalize its recommendations by Aug. 31.
Although county manager/administrator systems are common in other Western states, the position has yet to be adopted by any counties in Idaho.
