WestChesterBuzz.com

Sheila McLaughlin reports

Charles Young, the former Hamilton deputy city manager, became Butler County’s new administrator on Thursday.

Without a hitch, and despite infighting over the appointment, commissioners unanimously gave Young the $125,000-a-year job.

Even Commissioner Chuck Furmon, who objected in Monday’s meeting against the way Young’s hiring occurred, voted in his favor.

“I’ve never been against him” Furmon said after Thursday’s meeting. “I didn’t approve of the way (Commissioners Don Dixon and Cindy Carpenter) did it. They had everything all laid out, the contract and everything and all this was done last Friday prior to the Monday meeting. I was not informed,” Furmon said after the meeting.

Young, 53, started the job immediately. According to his contract with commissioners, he has the job for two years but can be fired without cause because he serves at the whim of commissioners.

Besides his salary, the county will pay Young a $500-a-month car allowance but he has to provide his own car and insurance.

Young becomes Butler County’s fourth administrator since 2008, when former long-time administrator DerekConklin resigned amid a scandal involving a $209,000 early-retirement buyout deal for his county-employed wife.

Young was commissioner’s fourth choice for the hire in a process that took more than a year and involved a $23,000 contract with the search firm, Mercer Group.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Charles Young, Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon, Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young

Sheila McLaughlin reports

Picture three people who argue frequently.

One has been accused of screaming obscenities at workers. One accuses the others of hiding important meetings from him. The third solicits signed statements from staff to prove the other wrong in the press.

Now imagine they’re all your bosses.

These are Butler County’s elected commissioners, and it took them a year to find a county administrator, the fourth in four years at a time of significant budget challenges. The search was marked by months of infighting that revealed itself in public earlier this week.

The discord past and present led one job candidate to call Butler County “a political environment that’s anything but stable.” Even one commissioner agrees there are, as he put it, “elements of dysfunction.”

Accusations are still flying about disagreements that slowed down the hiring process even though Charles Young, a former deputy city manager in Hamilton, is expected to be appointed today as the commissioner’s fourth choice for the administrator’s job.

Three candidates who earlier received offers from among more than 29 applicants walked away for one reason or another.

One of them, Michael Hinnenkamp, who is the administrator in Springfield Township, said commissioners couldn’t offer him enough money.

He said he asked “north of $150,000” a year. County officials said it was more like $175,000 and a car. Hinnenkamp makes $135,000 annually in his current job. Young will be paid $125,000.

“It never made sense financially to … leave for the same (money) and have to drive up there and deal with a political environment that’s anything but stable,” Hinnenkamp said this week. “They’ve got some difficult challenges and personalities. It’s a long, long culture (of infighting) there.”

Commissioner Chuck Furmon refused to vote on Young’s job offer earlier this week. He said the number of qualified applicants fell short of what he expected.

“They’re going to be smart enough to do their research. There’s been elements of dysfunction and just nitpicking and what have you,” Furmon said. “I’m sure it’s in the back of their minds.” (more…)

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Charles Young, Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon, Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young

Sheila McLaughlin reports

A special meeting on Monday to approve an offer for a new county administrator erupted into a squabble and accusations that lame duck Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon was intentionally snubbed from an executive session when his colleagues changed the usual meeting place without telling him.

Chuck Furmon. Photo taken during the Republican primary race for Butler County commissioner by Joseph Fuqua II. Furmon lost the primary in March.

At the end of the day, however, Commissioners Don Dixon and Cindy Carpenter decided to offer the administrator’s job to former Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young.

They also clarified the county’s pay scales to accommodate a $125,000-a-year salary for Young. That figure was $44,000 more than what commissioners approved when a consultant put together a pay study and recommended wage scales last year.

“You know as well as I do everything is all precast. It’s a dog and pony show,” Furmon charged at his fellow commissioners, adding that resolutions involving Young’s hire were drawn up before the meeting and he wasn’t privy to them.

The meeting was marked by interruptions from Dixon and Carpenter to go to a vote on the salary as Furmon tried to express his opinion about the job offer to Young.

Twenty-nine people applied for the administrator’s position and two applicants received job offers but turned them down. The job has been vacant for just more than a year.

“For someone who didn’t attend all the meetings for the interviews in the past, I find it kind of ironic that you want to have a discussion,” Dixon chastised Furmon.

“I’ve attended 99 percent of those meetings,” Furmon fired back.

“I disagree,” said Carpenter.

Furmon’s final words: “The whole thing’s a joke.”

Furmon voted against going into executive session, but lost out. (more…)

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Charles Young, Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon, Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young

The Butler County commissioners, according to Cincinnati.com, named Robert “Mike” Campbell of West Chester Township, as the acting county administrator Thursday, June 2.

The report says that Campbell, who is the executive director of the Butler County Port Authority, will take over immediately as the county commissioners launch a national search to fill the job permanently.

Cincinnati.com reporter Sheila McLaughlin provides more in the article:

He’ll make $52 an hour, but the county will bill the port authority the same hourly wage for any time Campbell spends on port authority business. The hourly wage translates to an annual salary of about $109,000.

Campbell, 59, of West Chester Township, joins the county following the retirement of Bruce Jewett, who left the administrator’s job this week to become executive director of Butler County United Way.

Commissioners on Thursday also approved hiring the Mercer Group, an Atlanta-based management consulting firm, to conduct a search for a new county administrator.

Mercer Group will be paid up to $23,000 for the search, which is expected to take up to four months.

For more on the hire, visit Cincinnati.com’s story titled “Butler Co. gets acting administrator.”

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Mike Campbell, Butler County administrator Robert "Mike" Campbell, Butler County administrator Robert Campbell, Mike Campbell, Robert "Mike" Campbell, Robert Campbell, utler County Port Authority