County ready to advertise clerk/treasurer job

By GUY BUSBY
Posted 5/30/19

ROBERTSDALE – Baldwin County commissioners plan to vote Tuesday to start looking for a person to fill the county’s top financial position.

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County ready to advertise clerk/treasurer job

Posted

ROBERTSDALE – Baldwin County commissioners plan to vote Tuesday to start looking for a person to fill the county’s top financial position.

The Baldwin County Commission agreed during a work session Tuesday to put the position of clerk-treasurer on the agenda for the June 4 meeting. The commission voted April 16 to end the contract of Clerk/Treasurer Kim Creech. Since then, Dollie Bryars has filled the job on a temporary basis.

Creech was hired as Fairhope city treasurer on May 10.

The new county position will not include responsibility for sales taxes. That will be moved to the budget director’s office.

At the Tuesday work session, commissioners discussed what salary to offer candidates and how much government experience would be needed by applicants seeking the position.

Commissioners agreed to start the salary range at $105,000 a year, the amount being paid to Bryars. The upper end would depend on negotiations and the experience of the accepted candidate, commissioners said.

Commission Chairman Charles “Skip” Gruber said the candidates should have at least two years of government experience.

We have to have somebody with governmental experience,” Gruber said. “This is the most important job that we have as far as taking care of our finances and that’s the part that I want to emphasize more than anything else. Pay we can work out, but the experience is the biggest thing they do. They have to deal with a lot of stuff and I’m not going to jeopardize our system by somebody coming in who knows nothing about how government works.”

Commissioner Joe Davis said he did not want to exclude applicants who might have extensive private experience, but not as much in government.

At no point are we suggesting that we get somebody with no government experience, but at the same time we don’t need to limit ourselves to only people who are internal to our organization,” Davis said. “Everybody who’s in the organization should have an opportunity, but we need to be bigger about it and look externally and see if there’s somebody out there who can make things even better. The key is teamwork and being a leader and being able to communicate.”

Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood said candidates with private industry experience could bring a new outlook to the position.

There is a bit of a difference, but It’s not that huge a jump I think a person who might have worked in industry or somewhere might be able to jump in quicker,” she said.