EDITORIAL: A Low-Risk, High-Yield Opportunity To Try Out County Manager

2-12-10

Here’s an idea that’s been circulating among folks in – and interested in – efficient Otsego County government.
How about the county Board of Representatives naming Terry Bliss, county director of planning, to what would be a newly created position of county administrator?
As a practical matter, Bliss, who has long tenure in various county positions, is already the default county manager to a degree.
When the county reps need something done, how often does the cry go up (not in so many words, perhaps, but nonetheless):  Let Terry do it!
Certainly, the staffing that’s being done locally on guiding the county past MOSA – the three-county solid-waste authority – is being done by Bliss and his able associates out at The Meadows.
That’s certainly appropriate, but such high-level interactions between independent government entities are usually something that a county manager would handle.

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Part of the resistance to naming a county manager has been uneasiness about whether whoever filled the job would be sensitive to the representatives’ wishes, and Bliss is certainly that.
He’s also had amicable interactions with other department heads over the years, so there would be few surprises there. 
And he’s a friendly face to county employees, evident in the annual Ground Hog Day barbecue he’s organized for a dozen years now.
Plus, he plans to retire in 2-3 years, so his role would clearly be interim, with the goal of working out the kinks necessary in any new position, and helping the county board identify his successor and affect a smooth transition.
Laura Childs, veteran clerk of the board, is retiring at the end of this year, so Bliss would have several months to benefit from the vast working knowledge of county government she has absorbed over the years.

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It’s been four years now since the county board contracted with David W. Brenner, the revered former board chair, to study how much administration Otsego County needs.
Brenner discovered professional management is the only way to go.  At the time, however, the board was riven with anger and distrust, the result of the Democrats unholy alliance with Republican Don Lindberg of Worcester to extract control from the majority Republicans.
Until tempers could be cooled and amity restored, it wouldn’t be fair to bring a newcomer into such a morass, Brenner concluded.
That’s changed.  Republicans have a clear majority.  The new chair, Sam Dubben, is an avowed peacemaker, even in the face of Democratic showmanship.  (Instead of making Dubben’s elevation unanimous, the handful of Democrats nominated county Rep. Richard Murphy of Oneonta, who had no chance of being selected, simply to rankle the majority.)
Naming Terry Bliss county manager would be a low-risk, high-yield step toward professional government.  The county board ought to take it.