Now I know staff will meet the challenge

Key Takeaways

By John Shafer, Umatilla County, Ore. commissioner, as told to Charlie Ban

Even though I was a long-term county employee and a mayor and I thought I was ready to be a commissioner, I wasn’t fully aware of the full range of what counties do until I took office. I knew we handled roads and sewage, but the first few weeks I was learning, it truly felt like trying to drink from a firehose. Managing records, marriage licenses, running elections… I just took all of that for granted and figured someone behind the scenes was making it happen.

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You get used to the county staff being able to keep things running, you feel like you have everything set to go for a few years. Then someone wants to retire, and my first thought was that it was almost paralyzing — how can we go on without this person? But the right people step up when they have the opportunity.

They’ve learned underneath the previous department head or they come in from another agency with their plans. Our assessor, who walked me through everything, retired. When I had first met with him to learn about what he did, I felt like I was getting a master’s level class on taxes. How would we ever replace this guy? He knows everything and we were lucky to have him. But his deputy took over and blossomed when she had the opportunity to lead the department herself. She had her own approach, and it matched the challenges and the moment. My mentor, George Murdoch, had told me to watch out for her, and I eventually saw the potential he saw.

You always have to plan for what comes next, because family changes could mean someone is moving away, or maybe someone is looking to try something different and this job was just the next in their professional development. So, you can feel confident and proud of your staff as they are organized, and also recognize that when they are challenged to change the way they work, or the people they work with, that they’re adaptable.