A divided Monroe County Commission on Tuesday, Aug. 2 abruptly halted a search for a new county administrator and instead named county clerk Anita Cauthen to the position.
As part of the 3-2 vote, commissioners also approved to advertise for a Public Works director/road superintendent while naming Junior Watts the interim road superintendent. Commissioners also gave Watts a $1,200 monthly supplement during the time he serves as interim road superintendent.
The vote came after a contentious 35-minute discussion that heavily divided the five-person commission.
District 4 commissioner Jarod Lovett, who campaigned on the platform of adding a full-time county manager with hiring and firing responsibilities, initially motioned to re-advertise for a county manager and get new applicants since the applications previously submitted by candidates in 2015 are now about a year old.
District 2 commissioner Jim Ham then suggested instead making Cauthen, who has served as the county clerk for nearly a decade, the county administrator until the end of the year. Cauthen has long handled administrator responsibilities and was even once previously appointed as administrator by former chairman James Vaughn.
Ham said, “If she (Cauthen) can’t do the job, then the first of the year we move off and do something different and go to a manager. By December, you’ll know pretty much if she can or can’t do the job without interference. Then advertise like Jarod wants to do tonight.”
Lovett responded that the county already allocated funds in its 2016 budget for a county manager. He said that money should at least be used for a full-time public works director, who is also over the road department, if a county manager isn’t hired. Lovett said previous road superintendents Sid Banks and Cliff Howard already acted as de facto public works directors because they assisted within the water and solid waste departments.
Lovett said, “We need somebody who is more fundamentally sound, somebody that’s gonna help with budgets and advertise that position for what it is, not a road superintendent and then once I’ve got you in the door, I’m gonna add on solid waste, I’m gonna add on water.”
Ham said the road superintendent only deals with water and solid waste when there is a major problem. He said that’s not part of the road superintendent’s day-to-day responsibilities.
District 3 commissioner John Ambrose then said he agreed with Ham. Ambrose said with new commission chairman Greg Tapley taking office in January, it makes sense to have someone with Cauthen’s experience in charge.
“She’s got a wealth of knowledge on some of the stuff of what the county does,” Ambrose said. “I’d say go ahead and give her the chance until the end of the year to see what happens.”
Commission chairman Mike Bilderback then said he took issue with giving Cauthen any more responsibility because the county audit made public last month revealed shortcomings in the county office.
“We’ve got the same old problems year after year after year,” Bilderback said. “It’s not getting solved, and six months isn’t going to change anything. There’s nothing magical about December 31 other than I’ll be gone and that’s magic to some people. But listen, it’s just been the same old thing over and over and over. You saw the findings were the exact same ones that hadn’t been solved last time. If you recycle the same folks, you’re going to get the same thing.”
Bilderback then told Lovett he supported bringing in an experienced county manager as Lovett initially proposed.
“We need new talent,” Bilderback said. “I can’t believe that we’re wavering on this after we’ve been through this a year-and-a-half. And I know it takes a lot oomph to do this because we’re going to take power away from somebody and give it to somebody else. I understand that. But by gosh, y’all have seen what’s gone on in the last year-and-a-half here. You’ve got to know it’s been poor performance every time we talk about something.”
Bilderback then again brought up the audit and commented: “I started to ask (auditor) Miller Edwards, if this is a clean audit, what does a dirty one look like?”
District 1 commissioner Larry Evans then said all of the negative audit findings could be easily resolved.
Bilderback responded, “But it’s not being solved by the current leadership. . . Oh yeah, we’ve got the solutions. We just don’t ever do it.”
Despite Bilderback’s complaints, Lovett then motioned to name Cauthen acting county manager by county ordinance until Jan. 1, 2017 and resume the search for a public works director. When Bilderback again objected, Lovett told Bilderback he would have supported hiring a new county manager, but he doesn’t have support from the other commissioners.
“Mike, I’ve taken this in steps right here. I’m trying to be political about this,” Lovett said. “We can try to do whatever we want, but it’s easy to count that we don’t have the votes. If I wanted to name you king right now, I couldn’t do it because I don’t have the votes.”
Bilderback shot back angrily at Lovett: “You can save the sarcasm. I don’t need that.”
Lovett answered, “You’ve given it to me already. I’m trying to move this forward and be political and get to where I think we need to be as a county. I’m going to tell you, if we had a county manager and a public works director, I don’t think that would be bad either.”
Ham then motioned instead to make Cauthen county administrator until December 31 with the option to install her as county manager at the start of January 2017 if commissioners are satisfied with her performance. Ham also added in his motion to advertise for a public works director while naming Watts the interim road superintendent.
After several more minutes of discussion, commissioners finally approved Ham’s motion by a 3-2 vote with Bilderback and Lovett opposed. Lovett opposed the motion because he wanted Cauthen to be county manager instead of administrator, and Bilderback was clearly dismayed by the result of the vote.
As the vote was taken, Bilderback said to incoming chairman Greg Tapley, who was in attendance: “You’ll find out Mr. Tapley that there’s things you just won’t see coming.”
