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On hiring a DCD Director,
I attended the candidate open house held on October 13th to meet the five finalists being cogitated upon for the new DCD Director position. Jefferson County is in a very good position
if these are the applicants we are able to choose from and we would be well served with any of them. I have an opinion about one of them which I would like to share with you.
About ten years ago, I served on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC). During that time, I came to know Al Cairns as thoughtful, well-informed, thorough in his research, engaging,
approachable, and easy to collaborate with. He always showed up prepared for meetings, he repeatedly demonstrated a command of the information, and he was able to help the members understand
the material. I always looked forward to the SWAC meetings, in large part, because of Al and the way he conducted the meetings with a quick sense of humor and light-hearted demeanor.
A few years later, I again had the good fortune to find myself serving on a committee with Al. This time it was the Critical Areas Ordinance Review Task Force (CAO). The highlight of
participating on that committee was collaborating with Al to serve the county in our management and protections of critical areas into the future. He exercised an uncommonly reasonable
approach to his analysis of every paragraph in that voluminous document and brought to the committee for discussion a multitude of improvements which were based on science and evidence.
He successfully moved that committee to a more productive and synergistic work product that was more responsive to the needs of the residents of Jefferson County and more accountable
to our mutual desires to protect critical areas. His technique was to tirelessly research the subject matter, seek out additional concepts to explore, discover examples of other counties’
successes and failures, and adapt the lessons he learned to our needs. I found him to be judicious, considerate, expedient, sensible, and logical. It was an absolute pleasure to work
with him.
Jefferson County recently underwent the process of hiring a new County Administrator. At the time, I thought Josh Peters was not the best applicant. Josh’s continued demonstration of
his skills and depth of knowledge has shown me otherwise. The tremendous value to a department director’s position of an employee who is already up to speed and can hit the ground running
cannot be overstated. While we may have five qualified, competent, capable finalists for the DCD Directorship position, we have only one who requires no training wheels and is a perfect
match for the role as DCD Director in our complicated county. I believe we have found our unicorn.
Thank you for your consideration of my thoughts,
Jean Ball
360-301-4415