The county's ongoing effort to enhance its own management has come full circle.
On Tuesday the Blaine County Commission formally hired Stan McNutt to serve as the county's interim administrator for a four-month period beginning in January. McNutt was previously hired by Blaine County in January 2006 to examine the county's management needs. That duty ended in the spring.
McNutt, who has more than 30 years of experience in city and county management, will be responsible for helping the county prepare for, and eventually hire, a permanent county administrator.
The county contracted Prothman, a Seattle firm that helps local governments in the Pacific Northwest find employees, to assist in the hiring of McNutt and search for a full time county administrator, who will be responsible for assisting the county commission on a day-to-day basis.
McNutt will be paid $73 an hour for his services and receive $800 a month as a housing stipend. The county has budgeted $100,000 for the current fiscal year to pay for an interim and full time administrator. Blaine County Commissioner Tom Bowman said it's possible the county will need to come up with an additional $20,000 in the budget to cover the expenses of both positions.
The commission has been juggling several different options to enhance its own management and public relations for the past 11 months. At times, the process was bogged down in a complex web of legal and governmental concerns.
Essentially, there were two options being considered: hiring a county administrator or manager, and expanding the county commission from its current format of three members to five.
McNutt released a report in April called the Blaine County Governance Coordination Plan, which concluded that the county does need an administrator but that the county staff needs more time to become familiar with such a position.
On Tuesday, Bowman said McNutt reached his conclusion because it seemed like the county's department heads were "ambivalent" about the notion of hiring a full time county administrator.
The notion of hiring a county manager, which would require the approval of county voters—an administrator position doesn't carry as much authority and can be mandated by the commissioners—was abandoned for several reasons.
First, like McNutt, Bowman and Commissioner Dennis Wright said it would be premature to ask voters to approve a county manager without first seeing how a county administrator works out. Second, expanding the commission from three members to five would also require voter approval, and Idaho Code only allows voters to go to the polls to change the way government is run every four years and only one change can be considered at a time.
"The problem I have with putting either on the ballot right now is, if either prevails, we cannot ask another question for four years," Bowman said in August. "If we are successful in getting five commissioners, we will not be able to have a county manager for another four years."
