good morning everyone this is our day to meet with um candidates for administrative position and I welcome all of you that would be viewing us with video and I welcome all of you that are here uh there'll be people coming and going department heads will be popping
in and out here and there so just be aware a little bit of a movement back here and so for um the beginning of our um meeting here um i''d like to welcome you Beth thank thank you for your patience you your mic is on thank you
for your patience um it's been kind of a long time since we were able to um get this put together so appreciate your uh your patience and all this um so we're going to begin um for the uh public to
know um all the Commissioners here so um I will start I'm commissioner um Jenny storle and I represent the West End of Cook County um luten tofy Sher and part of uh Pike
Lake uh good morning I'm Dave Mills uh commissioner for district three and that's the west side of gr marray over to uh Cascade River I'm commissioner Deb White your neighbor living in hoveland District One commissioner Gary Gamble and I'm
District Two which is the east side of Gary good morning and Sullivan commissioner for District 4 which is primarily devil track Lake area and Gunflint Trail so we do have um some prepared questions so for my fellow Commissioners
I will start the first one and I will end the last one only because if you notice on the last one there's some time Factor there so that's why um we'll end with that one so um if there's nothing else that people would like to comment
on I will start with um with our first question so please tell us what interests you about Cook County and the administrator position and what highlight uh qualifications would make
you uh believe you're the best person for this job okay thank you for that Madam chair um well I heard about the the tragic um loss for for the the prior
administrators um in his family and that that's when I I first started thinking about it like is he going to is he going to stay is he going to go um I'm a former resident of Cook County actually gr Portage I'm a tribal member in gr Portage as well um I have had in the
last five plus years increasing responsibilities having to do with admin administration of governments and nonprofits tribal governments and administration um my career has been um
mostly in um federal civil service for the National Park Service I started as a GS4 park ranger as a seasonal guide um and was quickly promoted to a permanent position within the Park Service um for
a 579 position and so I worked at that position um reaching the level 9 after 3 years um which is really fast in the National Park Service for a permanent position um as a gs9 I was in charge of
the historical site at Grand Portage and the interpreters and the volunteer program um and so I started my management career there where I was um managing the entire site all of the programs and
getting the Rangers to move around I managed the seasonal training um which is a two week seasonal training where we took them all around and um taught them a lot of things um and so that was some of my first management and I really
liked it I really enjoy developing new leaders um it makes my heart so warm to to come into a room and to to know people um who want to lead because it is a hard job um and um
I I really enjoy it um so getting back to the actual question I apologize um what made me want to apply for the administrator job is I believe that it's the place that I can really do a a lot
of difference I cook county is my home I've been here a long time um came back move back in 2006 and work for the Park Service um gosh the first question I'm a little nervous I
apologize but I I will I'll shed that and it's no problem um in 2019 I ran as for for an elected leader position in gr Portage and my
tribe trusted me to run the Sovereign Nation I um did that diligently during the covid-19 pandemic we were trusted to run our government through
one of the hardest times with the loss of our longtime 27y year leader I stepped into this leader leadership position and we hit the ground running and then we closed all of our Enterprises and businesses
immediately um I assigned the Council to take a 25% cut in our pay so that we would keep on going and be able to run our government and so I know what it is like to live through hard financial
situations and to make those hard cuts that you don't want to make um after um after my term was done at gr Portage I returned to the National Park Service they asked me to come back
back to train their Ranger team um and so I did that um knowing full well that I was going to be applying for other jobs in the county and that's when I was the Eda D um hired as the Eda director um which was a job that was here in
Grand maray and and we did a lot of our business here in this room um I really enjoyed that work and being at the Helm of the Eda was a really interesting and a really great learning experience um what it lacked was a team because you're the only person and so I
was seeking places where I could be part of a team I was um then I set my sits on the Minnesota chipa tribe the executive director there 40,000 band members and we had programs
and businesses and different um um administrative duties that we did at the tribe and so that was the position that really really prep prepared me for something like this our Tri our quarterly meetings were five different
meetings with subcommittees and the regular board and I ran those I was in charge of all of our staff in being in charge of leaders is what that job was and the leaders who were
doing the work were in human services were in banking um and then in enrollment and administration and so I brought that team together and we started to address some of the issues some of the issues that we were facing
um and so that kind of brings me to here and thinking this is a natural step for me as I've been leading in increasing responsibility for the last 10 15 years um so that that brings me here okay
great thank you we'll move on down the line here thank you Beth um please describe your management style and how that facilitates teamwork among the board and staff and partner organizations my leadership style is to
bring people together to mash up whatever we're working on and to throw it around and to hopefully come out with the best solution this kind of leadership style I've learned takes time time and it
takes positive positivity um because when you bring people together and you ask them what is your point of view what is your point of view they're not going to be the same and so what we have to do is come
together on on that and we have to make the decisions along the way and so my leadership style brings people together and it gets people working as a team towards one common goal and I know that we have common goals here with the the
comprehensive plans that we have in place in in Cook County um and so I have realized in the last bunch of years that this style is is more difficult to come
to um some kind of a consensus but I think that with hard work and with communication bringing a team together towards that goal um takes talking to each other and takes
the hard conversations and then when you come out of it you know that you did the work and you made the right decision thank you commissioner white please descri
oops uh what experience do you have working with Union employees and collective bargaining agreements I don't have experience working with with Union employees or collective bargaining um I don't have that
experience I do have experience in following laws and deciphering laws and state laws and I believe that that would that would help me to be able to come through this hi Beth I guess I'm next up here
the question is describe how you believe the relationship between the County Administrator and the chair and the board members should function well I all all boards are different and all charges are different um for this role um the Commissioners
are are are running the show um we we as in the staff of the county present to you our best ideas for what our business should be going forward you need to have thought out
ideas that come to you in a timely manner um and you need to be able to make decisions and sometimes that means that we got to go back and do more work when we when we get your charges and so
the administrator is the goet between the employees and the board um and hopefully that relationship between the chair and the administrator is pretty close there should be no surprises there should be no surprises
at a meeting um everything should be thought out ahead of times I know that's just that's the best case scenario um but I believe that the chair and the administrator would have a a a pretty close business relationship um working with that and the the Commissioners need
to be up toate on on everything that's going on they cannot be surprised by the business that's going on um in these walls here in the county and with our employees Beth as a followup um when you say that the U the role of the
administrator and working with the chair and communication um that go between staff and and Commissioners uh what is your position or opinion on uh the communications between Commissioners and
staff and department head as far as Commissioners being informed on on issues so when when your response is that uh you see the administrator role as a go between between staff and
Commissioners um just wanted to know how you flesh that out a bit relative to communication between Commissioners and and department heads and staff is that question well
um if we would want to be able to follow all open meeting laws that we had we wouldn't want to get anybody in any situation that would get them in trouble if say you wanted to go talk to staff members um I believe that the public has
a right to talk to public staff um and being a commissioner that puts you in a in a a decision-making um kind of leadership role with the staff we would want to make sure that nobody felt like they were being um come down on by we
don't want anybody afraid of you guys we want them to be able to be open with you um and so if there was a decision I think that I should be involved or a department head should be involved a
commissioner probably shouldn't tell a staff member what to do like who's doing their job just to get the full story um but you may want to talk to someone and I that if that's legal you you should be
able to do that does that flush out yeah okay yeah there I mean there's a lot of nuance to it which is understood but when you're talking about building a team and a cohesive unit and collaborating communication and being informed and
making informed decisions then that collaboration is is important but understanding roles relative to um what what responsibilities are and and all working towards the same thing it's important that we understand our place
but it's also important that that collaborative effort is is informed through relationship so absolutely some of the the best teams that I've built have done the some done some groundwork that includes you know what's your
communication style what way do you learn multiplicity of of learning um what what makes you comfortable at work what makes you uncomfortable at work so we have to know that about our teams and um if somebody's going to just shut down
um we want to uplift them and we want to empower them in their positions and we don't want them to to think that they're going to be in trouble or anything like that understood thank you Beth please describe your involvement in the budgeting and financial process of your
organizations previously as well as your experience with longrange financial planning um I have experience in budgeting and long range financial planning um in gr Portage um I created our first budgeting process um as a
tribal chair there we did not have a process before that um while I was there we did um in budgeting um I've got the most experience with this in the Minnesota chipa tribe where we were we were faced
with um cuts um and where we were faced with um having to make our budgets make sense and so the hardest part about budgeting is is when you have have less money than the the next year than you did the previous
year um and so I have experience with that um I in the past have let um the the administrators um create their kind of their dream
budget what they want and then we work as a team to figure it out um what's going to work um as for financial planning um with Minnesota chip CH I was involved in in a lot of financial
planning um we we did not have a CFO or a financial person that was expected to be in my office and um we actually went through through um processes of hiring
Auditors and um an RFP for forensic auditing um so I have a lot of experience in audits um and and completing those um and then the the financial planning we did a strategic plan which was a
three-year strategic plan um through through a firm and that included um Financial projections and and um what we wanted to see in that time period thank you one of the areas that we um are
always concerned about is organizational awareness and so I'm kind of wondering about tell us about your organizational awareness and how it's benefited a prior employee in making a change or
improvements sure um one of the one of great training we did a lot of trainings in the National Park Service it was it was um mandated but one of the greatest trainings I was it involved in was organizational leadership and organizational leadership
the way that we learned it was each person is in charge of their own job and that is what they do is they are they become masters of what they are supposed to do and um if you know that your employees are doing exactly what they're
supposed to do or if their charges to do what they're supposed to do then you can help them along the way um and so if everybody Masters their own position I believe that you can Empower them to take to take that position and move with
it um as an organization that means that you have to trust people a little bit more you have to empower them by giving them training and retraining and training and training again um coming together as a team in a
circle is the one of the biggest ways I like to to um to do that so that we're all looking at each other kind of like we're doing today um and um just reiterating what our mission is
and our charge and that we are servants here and we are we are doing the good for the people thank you thanks thank you Beth um what does leadership mean to you and what is the most what is most important to you in leading an
organization oh leadership leadership is kind of an is an idea um it it is an idea that you you you want to move somewhere and you want to go somewhere and um you need
somebody you need people that want to move with you and sometimes the people don't don't really necessarily see the straight line and so so they need a leader to do that um I've been in leadership positions um nearly my entire life I was a president of my cchs class
for three years um and then I I moved into Political Science and Business Administration in college um and I've always been I was a captain of of all of my high school or of my volleyball team and um I've I've gone through leadership
positions and and sometimes you you have a team that that you really click with and sometimes you got to work on your team but they have to be they are the ones who look to you for the decision- making and for that and and you have to
be steadfast and you have to you have to be chill as I as you might think um as a leader um never losing your head or um being too emotional describe a time when you made a mistake
at work how did you deal with the situation and what was the outcome well you know we all make mistakes um and I when you when you ask the question a certain situation comes to
mind where it was an HR situation and I sat two people down who were it was a it was an administrator and an employee and they were having an issue and somehow my mistake I feel is I lost I lost control of the room and they
both ended up they both ended up stomping out um um but I think that my mistake was that I didn't learn enough about the situation before I sat people down and
started asking questions of them because they instantly got defensive and I I felt so terrible when they both rushed out because we didn't get to the meat of the issue um because I asked the
question and got the emotion answer that that came out and um it it was a turning point for the division and eventually that employee ended up leaving um and um that was probably the best best scenario
that could have happened but I think when you say mistake that popped into my head because I wasn't prepared before the meeting to ask the the right questions to not get that emotional response and to get the actual meat of the question in um um and so what I
would do what I have done in the past to correct that is to sit people down one on-one and and ask them you know what what's the issue here what's the real issue sit down and try to get to it Beyond you know I don't like her he doesn't like me and um get to the real
meat of the meat of the issue and um try not to make those mistakes with with with the emotional questions thanks thanks Beth you touched on this uh previously in one of your responses
pertaining to uh strategic planning uh what your experience creating and impl implementing a strategic plan but probably um more importantly maybe to this question is what makes a strategic plan
successful what makes a strategic plan successful um I have I have lots of experience in in doing strategic plans um I think that most successful plan that I've done so far is a three-year
plan one that's like this is what we're moving towards this is what we do when we get to here and the plan has to be able to move along with you because you're you're you're you're planning a course that you haven't done yet and if
if your plan gets to a point where it has where it stops then stakeholder Buy in is is is done you can't you can't move through and so what I would say with um what I did with strategic planning at
the Minnesota chipa tribe is we did two sets of planning we did the staff Strate planning of what they thought that they needed to do if with the charges that they had and we also did the board strategic planning and what was really interesting from that is that they were
different that they were different the the charges of the employees have to line up with the charges of the Commissioners what they want to see done or else you're never your plan isn't going to work um because you're working towards different goals um that was one big thing I
learned through that process um and implementing the plan was one of the hardest part it was um we we wrote a a new Personnel manual or an employee handbook um and we had a
firm that helped us with that um so all of the staff gave Buy in into that what they wanted to see as their rules right and then the not the Commissioners they're the tribal executive committee over over at MCT um they had their rules
and our Constitution and our laws to follow um and so the implementation of the plan is training and retraining and then training again like I said thank you Beth describe your current Professional Network or the steps you'd
take to develop a network of local government professionals that you can share ideas with and get advice oh the leag is it the league of Minnesota counties I believe I've been all over their website I think the state
of Minnesota has some great resources for new administrators um and so I would reach out to some some administrators who who' been in the position for a while um our population is 5600 there's about six
other counties who have roughly about the same kind of area and kind of population that we do here so I'd reach out to them first um and then my my network um
includes um um oh I I don't know I I've worked with a state government for for the last 5 years I have contacts um in
the in in a lot of the different agencies at the state um I am a personal friend of Peggy Flanigan at the at the lieutenant governor stage right now um and that has helped in the past um with
my work in the tribes um the tribes work closely with the state as um tribal citizens are also State citizens we share that and um the work of
um this um I I come in contact with a lot of the leaders of state agencies like the RB and the DNR in the past and the
um clim the pollution control agency um and also their tribal liazon I I have contacts at at state agencies um that that have just kind of grown um and then locally you know i' I'd like to talk to
past leaders and um people along the way um citizens of course all right thank you so along the way now we have uh heard from you with experience and working with uh other units of
government but how do you develop a service partnership with them service partnership um well developing Partnerships and developing friendships are kind of kind of um go hand in hand I
think um having um both informal and formal meeting times is really good um there was a joint Powers group here at the county that was really I think was one of the coolest things um when I was
a tribal chair is we would meet and it was the heads it was leaders within the county and we would throw things around and this was during covid so we met we met quite a bit um and just having those
meetings but also running into somebody in the community and just saying hey you do that one thing and having an informal conversation where you can where you can really get to the meat of of what the citizens want is really important um building Partnerships it just takes it
takes time and it it takes deliberate actions um it takes communication um it takes trust in building trust and um moving through all of those steps in a relationship
um writing letters is a way to build Partnerships um and and having meetings um I I believe in kind of a more organic way of building Partnerships where you you come along the way as people and then the business kind of comes along
after that thank you thanks thank you Beth um describe how you would become involved in the Cook County community and build trust with residents and local business owners well I I I I'd like to say that I
am a member of the community already um I miss I miss home a lot I live in bigi currently um but through this position I've thought about this and it it's a it would be really it would be a
lot you know I've lived in ski towns so I know I I've lived in in Wyoming and in and in Colorado and ski towns and I feel like I kind of have a kindred spirit out in luten um I've lived on the res you know my mom lives here in Grand morray
and um my my grandparents my mom's parents lived in were business owners here in Grand marray um I think that I have a lot in common with a lot of people in Cook County and can put myself in their shoes um and so I believe that
I am already a trusted citizen here in Grand Portage through my leadership in Grand marray and Cook County and Luen and all in between um because of the work that I've done in the past and I'd hope to build on that by meeting some of the new people around and also
developing more of um you know myself as a leader um through as many trainings that that that will allow me to the time to to do um if if needed um and so I think just being in the community and
going to events and creating opportunities for for public discourse and public engagement um would be a great part of this position that I would really look forward to is I don't want to say it but I love Town how meetings
um that bring people together and get people talking um in in larger spaces and in small okay Cook County wishes to to improve
relationship with with tribal Nations how will you demonstrate that you value these relationships and what will you do to show a meaningful commitment to working together well I happen to know the chair in gr Portage personally and I've worked
with him on many occasions um and anyone who comes into that position after I would work with um tribal Nations share um they are Minnesota citizens as well and so we have to work hand in hand with
the tri the leaders of the tribal Nations um what would I do I I would offer just offer to be there for them say we're here if you need this this or this we don't need to insert ourselves
in the business of the tribes because they have their own business that they have to take care of but our roads go through the reservations you know our polling places you know we you they're elected by you and so they need to know what you're
doing um as Commissioners and as a County government just as much as you would like to know a little bit about what they're doing as well and so I understand that trust relationship that the federal government shares with tribes but I also know that you got to
work with each other on a day-to-day basis and um that tribal I I know tribal government uh Beth can you describe a situation that you feel demonstrates your integrity and ethical
standards um yes I thank you and I will it's sort of heavy question but uh very you know important it really is um you know when you come into an organization you don't know what they do on a daily daily basis they
don't you don't know their day-to-day um but you do know that they have a set of rules and they have usually a pamphlet or a binder um I have for the administrator here you would have the laws that the administrator um
was created under um coming into an organization that doesn't follow its own rules would be one of the hardest things that I've done and instituting a change where you start to follow those rules can be really hard
and you get backlash from employees because possibly they're just doing their job they're trying to get the the work done but it says in the manual that you're not supposed to do this why are
we doing it um and then you get in the room because they don't know why they're doing it they're just doing their job and so as an ethical leader and a leader with Integrity I say well we're not we're not doing this anymore because you guys were
breaking this rule um and without you know throwing anybody under the bus or anything like that just knowing that your organization has rules and you got to follow them and if you're not following them you got to say we're not following the rules right
now but we're going to start um and I've and I've worked in organizations where the the rules or were the rules in the federal government in the National Park Service we follow the rules to the tea everything um but
as you get into organizations that that um are left without leadership for periods of time or who are left to fend for themselves they they'll make it up and the employees and the staff who are there they'll make it up and they'll they'll do the job that that they're pay
paid to do um but the administrator is there to make sure that they're doing it in the way that they're supposed to do it which follows the rules um if you don't like the rules we can change the rules we make make a change to the law we go to the Commissioners
and we go we go as far as we need to but until then we follow the rules and um I think that that's something I really stand by and it's hard when you work with people
who don't like to follow the rules um but that's the way I like to live my life yeah um what I would say you know based upon the conversation that that we've had Beth is that in this area of of how
do you actually bring substance to those words integrity and um so when you find yourself in a leadership role and you want to build in integrity and processes by following the rules uh with your previous comments
about how you work collaboratively and you build a team when you get resistance like that that's where who you are as a person and building Integrity in that process is a very delicate difficult balance to try to how do I contribute to
my value of building a team and how do I maintain the Integrity that I believe we need to hold to in our process so it for a leader that that is something that is very difficult balancing those those two sides of the
equation but how it plays out is that that your integrity will work and you invest emotionally in that process to try to obtain those two values so I appreciate your response thank you thank
you Beth you've alluded to um a similar situation but describe a past experience you've had correcting an employee performance problem how would you approach correcting an employee performance
issue well we Val I I value anyone who wants to spend their their time working and being in a place um again we have to find out what what's going on why why is that employee on the
naughty list or why are they they not doing what they're supposed to be doing I'm trying to think in my mind of of times when when this has happened and um you know some it happens there there are
people who aren't happy in their jobs and so they they perform poorly there are people who are not doing what they thought they would be doing so they perform poorly um and so it's about setting expectations and following through with those expect with what you
expect and if someone isn't doing it you have to go directly to that person and say you're not doing exactly what I told you to do why well okay well what you have to do is this how can we get you to move towards
this and so whether it's um um working with the person to help them realize that they're in a position that they don't want that they you know they're not happy here maybe it's time that they they thought about that right
because some people just are in positions where they don't want to be in give them the out but the people that you want and the people that you want to develop there there are so many options there are just there's people have asked me can I move
my supervisor can we can we move over here I'm like that's your supervisor that's the person who's in charge of you no you can't do that you guys have to work it out um in HR there's so many different reasons and that for people to not be doing good and what you have to
do is find out why that one person isn't doing good and try to make it better um for them and for the organization thank you so Beth um could you describe um some priorities that that you see here
in Cook County well I know I know that we've got some projects that are on the line I know that there's a capital Improvement program that Rowan's been loving I'm sure um and I know that
um I I think the number one issue that we'll probably be facing in the next five years is budget cuts um hearing what we're hearing from the from the federal level on down to the state um we have to do the same as
we're doing today with less every single day um and so as as a charge for the county um making the most out of our dollar showing the people the value of
the work that we do um um and keeping keeping a a a good relationship from one end of the county to the other we're so spread out that you know even just to have a meeting to come together
is like a full day thing um because you got people you guys know that um and so creating ways to stay on the same page even though we're far away and we have completely different different lives um and so different ends of the county have
different different needs and then we all have the same needs and making sure that everybody is aware that there are different needs and there are same needs um so I think the administrator is kind of a helps to to get the word out to that as well um and to to kind of move
in that direction so to answer your your questions the top three things would be budgeting um and doing more with less um and communicating end to end to
county of the county thank you thank you Beth why should the Cook County Board select you as our next County Administrator I think you should select me Beth dust as the next County Administrator because I can move into this position
and I can start on day one with what you want me to do and what I what I what I should be doing um with managing the county I have worked in increasingly hard and increasingly more
PE with increasingly more populations of citizens and my leadership to this point has has grown in in every position that I've been in um I have moved up um because I have put in the time and
I have the basic have the basics down um I think you should not only hire me for this role because you want to but because um because I care about the people and I
care about the land of Cook County and I care about this place place a lot and I've worked in leadership positions um that have brought me to this place um
and and I will I'll work hard for you um you've read my resume you've seen my qu my you've seen my questionnaire you've read my personal
statements you've seen my all of the tests that you've put in you you you guys have really done the work here to to make sure that you have the top applicants pop to the top um and I'm here because of
that thank you would you believe we're at our last question I'm watching the clock you could relax have a drink I'm going to ask you do you you have any questions for us yes I do um
I I I I'd like to ask you know what are the top three charges that the the board is seeing for the administrator what what would you like to see hit the ground running um in in the as the first
couple of things that you want to see okay that's one question start Dave oh sure um I I think I think you're aware uh of of them pretty well but the capital Improvement plan I think is extremely important that's been long and
coming and um um and takes a lot of time and effort and resources to to complete and many different steps of that um and and uh we need to be nimble and adapt as markets change or our community needs
change or um budgets change um and um as well as our strategic plan and um you know keeping keeping on track with that that was developed with both um County staff as well as Commissioners together
um and and it's really put us on a on a good path for getting um uh the staff we need uh supporting the staff we have and and working towards our Capital needs um and then um also I think you know
looking to the Future and trying to anticipate the the demographic changes um and just the Ripple effects of of some of these changes because uh it feels like there's never been more changes and it's it's really hard to predict the future but we can look to
the past to see what outcomes we could expect from some of the changes that are happening so that's just my that's just two cents um okay well I've got two cents I want Communications from our administrator I want honesty and I want
transparency I want and that goes not just from um to board people but but that the entire staff of the of our employees feel valued and listened to
but but understand that the importance that they are to the organization uh does not give them uh the opportunity to do anything they want they they are they do have they need to
answer to the public and um this is a team effort so that's what I want that's what I want this new administrator to do having been part of this process
previously uh we as as a board had identified what it is that we had hoped you spoke about expectations and I think in any job that you step into uh understanding the expectation of the organization what your role is what your
responsibilities are um and um setting that that direction is is important having structures so that you know the context in which you operate in your role and responsibility having said that I I think the biggest challenge and and
what I would like to see is um uh understanding the values of who we are correctly identifying who we are as a community and the diversity that exists and in identifying who we are establishing values related to who we
are and then aligning our governance with those values so that we reflect in our decision making and our policing and in our budgeting that we are aware of the people that we serve and how we
connect and align what we say with what we do in our governance thank you and Beth as I think about a new administrator coming to Cook County My Hope Is that we have someone that will
listen to the diverse community that we have here that that individual will reflect on what they hear from the community and that they're very honest
and effective with their communication with both staff and community and thinking of Staff one of the things I think that is so important and you've touched on it this morning is that we need to support our staff and give them opportunities
for professional growth we have some tremendous leaders that we're building here in Cook County and we want them to stay and so providing those opportunities and the support and the guidance through leadership is going to be very critical for the next person
coming into this position I hear you um I had other questions too we just they say You're supposed to write them down and do it we're we're at the end here and we have a whole list now of
the top three that you said and we have eight or nine so quite AIT it um thank you yes no I I I think that the the charge will be varied and um very important no matter
what it is and um I'm ready to go thanks so much thanks thank you Commissioners thanks for all your time I know that you've spent a lot of time on this appr it
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e good morning Pat welcome thank you
commissioner for the uh drive that you had I assume wasn't too bad this morning it was just fine thanks for asking so you will notice in the back there's some coming and going and we've invited the public if they'd like to view um also the department heads and um
we also have invited folks if they wanted to watch it on YouTube too so um there's a few eyes out here uh looking at our backs um I'm going to begin with uh introductions and um so you know kind of
uh the spread of our County I'm commissioner Jenny storle and I represent the West End so you came through tofy luten and Schroeder and then I do a part of uh Pike Lake good morning Pat thanks for being here um Dave Mills Cook County
Commissioner for district three and that's the west side of gram Ray over to Cascade River I'm commissioner Deb White on district one the East End of the county starting um out on 61 and including the Sovereign
Nation of Rand Portage uh commissioner Gary gamble District 2 which claim to fame as world's best donuts and uh so I'm on the East end of Grand Murray and good morning Pat and Sullivan
Cook County Commissioner for District 4 which is primarily the devil track Lake area and the Gunflint Trail all the way up to the Canadian border well thank you I'm Patman applicant for the County Administrator position and uh thank you County Board
and thank you management team and other public officials for being a part of it it's nice to see you a good response I know it's a very important decision for the County Board and and so I'm very happy to see it it's uh it's done in such a public way so I think that's appreciated by
everyone we have a series of questions and I'll start off and we'll all take a turn with uh some questions that have been prepared so um please tell us about the interest um that uh you would have with the co County Administrator
position and the Highlight uh the key qualifications that make you the best qualified person well okay thank you for the opportunity and I'm assuming everyone could hear me well as I speak thank you I appreciate the opportunity to review my qualifications I think my
interest uh in the position for me is I've been in government service for approximately 23 years mostly for Rural County government units and city government units and so what attracted me about this position uh is it's part of the northeastern area of Minnesota
certainly way on the extreme of the Northeast but certainly in the area that I grew up in was born and raised in and and you know as I look at my continued career path I want to stay in that type of government management setting in that rural setting uh and in particularly in
the geographic area that I enjoy living and so when the position became available I was very much U um interested in reviewing my qualifications um and I'll touch a little bit on those qualifications since that's part of the part of the question
uh predominantly uh my my government Administration service has been at the county level uh I spent eight years as a department head for Carlton County uh as the economic development director I actually started that department uh they had no Economic Development Department
when they hired me and we established an economic development uh Department that created quite a bit of wealth uh for the county and for the region uh I also uh created an ex uh a County Economic Development Authority housing Redevelopment Authority is as part of my
8-year uh position there and what what what pleased me about doing and accomplishing those things it was my home county it was the county I was born and raised and to be able to accomplish those things and create jobs and tax revenue meant quite a bit to me and really my whole career has been about
wealth creation uh but but moving on from that I've I've held a number of positions as a county executive director both as a executive director of housing Redevelopment authorities and County edas and hras uh I've had two separate positions
as a County Administrator uh 5 years at malax County uh being their chief administrative officer of the County uh managing all departments uh typically what you would see in in a County Administrator position but uh doing quite a bit of
Union negotiations labor negotiations Human Resources management uh collaborating with the management team to create uh new policies and and uh and to develop uh uh new ways of uh improving uh the bottom for for that
government unit spent three uh approximately three years as the County Administrator for Detroit Lakes U excuse me for Becker County which is the county seat as Detroit Lakes uh really enjoyed that position uh provide a lot of wealth um I think the one thing that really
excited me about that position is uh the challenges um that I encountered when when coming into that government unit and I may touch on that depending on the questions that you have moving moving on and then I've had uh I've been a city administrator as well at the city of Moose Lake so most of my positions all
of my positions have been in the rural County government unit setting they've been chief administrative officers or Executives uh within either an economic development department or or as an administrator um but I think the one other thing that I think distinguishes me uh from from other candidates that
might be interest in this position is I also have a quite a bit of private sector uh chief administrative officer experience as well I started my career as a product development engineer for Honeywell and uh the interesting thing um I see a lot of everyone's got a cell
phone now I'd be surprised if no one doesn't but a lot of the processes a lot of the materials that go into your cell phones were things that I developed as an engineer and I was patented for them and so I really enjoyed the private sector and of course when you do good things with the private sector they
elevate you and I became a corporate manager as well and really the only reason I left the private sector when I started my career was uh I had been tasked with moving jobs overseas and that was something that certainly improved shareholder value and stock
value but it wasn't something I wanted to participate in I was interested in getting into a role of keeping jobs local or growing jobs within my community and so I left the private sector and then had a number of stints in Economic Development as I mentioned
and eventually into both County and City Administration uh my educational background uh I have graduate Level Training as an economic development Finance professional uh as a uh public relations manager and crisis from uh
Homeland Security and then I have two graduate degrees one as a master of Business Administration and then a masters of Manufacturing Systems uh both paid for by the by the great company of Honeywell so that was one great thing I got out of Honeywell was a free education but I'm a big
believer um when I'm in a position is is to learn and to grow in my position and as I indicated I I made the move into the public sector really just because um my thinking was is I want to grow wealth through my community I don't
want to have wealth leave my community and so I made that decision and I've been in the public sector ever since thank you thank you Pat uh please describe your management style and how that facilitates teamwork among the board and staff and partner organizations well
when management styles is a results oriented management style and it and it and it uh um depends on you know or it's focused on it the primary reason for my management sty is to evaluate um who are the experts within each department and
each unit that can give me the guidance through management team meetings through one-on-one meetings uh to develop great policies and strategies that we can bring to the County Board uh not going to be an expert on everything as I indicated my background is in Economic
Development and so I have to depend and and acknowledge the fact that the people in this room uh the department heads and the supervisors and the manager team are really the administrators of their particular area and they have a lot to offer to providing Solutions uh and
providing input on policy and ordinances uh as we vet those items and bring them to the County Board uh so my management style really is about uh working directly with those employees and I do that a number of ways
um I'm I'm a big believer at one-on-one meetings with each department head I think it's important to understand and appreciate uh having that monthly meeting um I require that they schedule that meeting and the reason I set that up that way is I don't want them to
schedule a meeting with me if they have nothing to say um I I want it to be beneficial to them but also beneficial to me and as part of that meeting I I like to review their budget I like to discuss the issues that are occurring within their
Department um Innovations and ideas that they are thinking about with their team and having a a discussion about any compliance issues as it relates to again the the work that's happening in their Department it's also important for me to
really appreciate and understand that we're exploiting the expertise of those departments heads and those supervisors um as they delve into their experience if I find that they have a lot more to offer to the government unit I'd like to try to find a way to make
that happen and part of the discussion I like to have in those one-onone meetings is what is your career path what do you want to be within the County government unit where do you feel that you're not being recognized or or where there may be a growth opportunity and I think by
doing that uh results in uh for me a lot of job satisfaction from the employee also um it does help with retention because they're showing that they've been Val they're being valued I have an environment where my employees can be
constructively critical um if I have a department ad that says to me Pat my expertise and telling me you're going down the wrong path here I take that very seriously and they have the ability to ask tough questions and ask me to defend what I'm
doing uh that's not only that's not only appreciated but it's really required from my standpoint and so being a good leader and and having that type of management style in my experience being an administrator for 20 years has shown there's been a lot of job satisfaction
and employee satisfaction um I think the other thing though is important is the deciders are the board you are the ones that we eventually have to bring something to but I think you will appreciate as well that we are vetting things through one-on-one meetings through management
team meetings on a monthly basis uh that's the second thing I I really require is is sitting down and having a management team review doing peer reviews doing round Robins of what each department is doing so the other departments understand um what their
peers are doing and and really hoping that as part of that process um we can provide some peer review and some analysis and and some guidance you know from different perspectives and I think finally um as part of a leader and part
of my man management styles when we do identify an issue or a problem is we establish a continuous Improvement team that's really a subset of the management team to try to solve it and at the end of the day when we bring something to you uh an idea or a policy or a
recommendation you can trust that it's not only been vetted by me from a compliance standpoint but it's been vetted by the management team and those individual department heads that it's going to affect Pat what experience do you have working
with Union employees and collective bargaining agreements well I'll just I'll go uh from my most recent position at Becker County um I I uh negotiated with nine different bargaining units for two
contracts so the two I hope I'm not confusing you when I say that so nine different bargaining units but then two contracts during my time uh at maax County um I negotiated eight different bargaining units three different times so so three contracts
for each of the eight uh bargaining units and then at the city of mus Lake we had we had just a smaller number of bargaining units I negotiated two uh bargaining contracts um I've been involved in all facets of uh the negotiation process for
bargaining contracts I've been involved in all facets of mediation and arbitration I have never lost an arbitration and that's not a testament necessarily to me it's a testament to the foundation work we have in putting together solid contracts and having a solid Personnel
policy and having positive and strong relationships good relationships pos positive relationships with our bargaining units I think the one thing that I've taken very much as a as uh you know doing something very right as a
manager is when I was LAX County um I think I indicated we had we had eight bargaining units there well by the time I left it turned into six bargaining units um by Statute and by by pelra law
we can't ask a unions to form or not form we can't give guidance one way or another uh there are consequences to that but those two bargaining units and there were fairly large bargaining units stood up and said we're being traded fairly by management we have Sol
Personnel policies um we want it to span now again we can't provide any guidance to that we just say well you need to contact Bureau of mediation services and follow whatever steps you want to follow but I appreciated that they were willing to go on notice that
they trusted management they trusted the department heads they trusted Administration and so I took that very much that we were we were on the right track and that and when we talked about continuous Improvement teams you know those filter down to the bargaining units as well when we set those teams up
and and so at Max County we were we were making sure that even the decision- making role bargaining units even had a say outside of the traditional bargaining negotiation contracts so so quite a bit of experience doing those negotiations but when Things fall short
um mediation and arbitration um we've been very successful and on on winning on behalf of management uh but I'm a big believer in when I negotiate with the bargaining units is show me your data do the benchmarking because we're doing
benchmarking as well many things are about wages and you know it's not a surprise a bargain unit will come in and say Well we'd like to get the wages henip in counties getting well hanip and county is its own country they have a much larger budget and that isn't fair
or appropriate but give me comparables that I can bring to the board show me in your benchmarking that we're missing something on a we standpoint or a benefit standpoint show us we're falling short based on comparables and then it's an easy negotiation as far as I'm
concern so I do like to do a lot of work ahead of time and and in working with department heads working with Management on developing a strategy but that strategy is about mutual respect with parking units working with them and I I
want to achieve the same positive outcome for them that they do if they deserve higher wages based on the data and the bunch marking that's what I'm going to propose to the board and that's what we need to make happen because what will happen if we don't do that is we will lose in
mediation we will lose in arbitration so it's very important to have very direct conversations and I've had that and I've been very successful at it thank you Pat describe how you believe the relationship between the County Administrator and the chair and
the board members should function well this is a County Administrator form of government I serve at the pleasure of the board uh in my mind uh each of you are no less or more important than the other you all have
equal individual say and it's very important for me uh just like I meet with my management team one-on-one is to meet with each of you one-on-one because you're representing a particular area you all describe kind of your geographical area that you represent and
it's just different you're going to have different indiv ual and different needs and so you have different expectations of me as an administrator so I I think the uh the important is to acknowledge that you all have the ability to speak
at a board meeting and I'm a big believer and when you've got ideas whether they conflict and I've watched some real great meetings that you've had where you've had some very direct conversations with each other but you've done it publicly and I think that's the way to do it and my relationship to you
is to make sure you are in compliance with State Statute that we are in compliance with our County policy and our conduct u rules uh at the board meeting and to provide you a recommendation when asked and to vet uh ideas and projects through the
management team and give you a recommendation on where we're at and if there's conflict give you some guidance there's nothing wrong with us taking a break and commissioner Mills and storle can go out in the room and talk no open meeting law violation they can have discussion and come back but the real
goal here is is to is to get all the information before you in a public manner so you can make an informed decision uh that's in the interest of the county and that's why it needs to be vetted through our individual department heads it needs to be reviewed with the
management team I need to review the compliance but I like the idea of meeting with you oneone and appreciating understanding what your goals are and it does help me to perhaps develop a cohesive strategy I could bring back to you uh that maybe you can buy into and
and uh agree to but the thing is is when I watch some of your meetings and I and I see you disagreeing with each other that's democracy it's exactly how it should be um I had one um County Board um I won't name them um but they were so
happy because they always agreed with everything and I said well that's not good you know there's got to be some disagreement there's got to be some conflict because you are representing different interests in your own uh what you think is best for the the district that you represent so I think by doing
all those things is important but again I serve had the pleasure of the board and my goal is to implement as you direct um but if an individual commissioner comes to me and says Pat I really want you to do this I'll take it under advisement but I've also told Commissioners I don't think that's in
the interest of the department or the county by following through on that direction but if it's important you let's bring it to the board and if the and if there's a quorum and the majority direct me to implement that I will do that to the best of my ability but it
does give me the opportunity to discuss potential consequences and risks by implementing a certain area so I'm if you talk to any of my former Commissioners they will tell you that I can be very strong in that regard and I'm also very uh it's also very
important that my management team my department ads know I have their back and so a lot of times it's it's entirely appropriate for a commissioner to visit a department head and I and say something like well I heard something in the community that said there's an issue and this is related to your department that's great you're the eyes and ears
and you should do that um but I always caution Commissioners is don't evaluate you know individual department heads you know allow me to do that or bring that to me but certainly you can evaluate me any time that you like um either at a board meeting publicly or if we go into
close session so I think that's the relationship that's worked for me uh but it really it it really I will end with the deciders are you as a board and the goal is to get you the information you need to make an informed decision as a
followup you mentioned that uh if you talk to former Commissioners that they would say that you are are strong in in holding your your position and um uh as as you will and as we all know that can
be good or that can be bad and and the good is if you are strong based upon holding to principle or rule of law or policy that you are the caretaker of that and and so if if that is the role that defines strong that can be healthy
if it's strong because of own Wess or self-serving it's unhealthy so right and and and thank you for the distinction because you're absolutely right on that and and I will expand on that what I meant is uh strong to the County's policies its principles State Statute uh
the goal for me is to make sure that um the county whether it's an individual commissioner or as a County Board we don't step into something that we regret and there's a consequence for us and uh and and there have been many examples in my career where I've had to hold to that
pathway where I've been directed you know by a board to do something that is is not uh it's in violation of our policy and statute and I have to politely and respectfully refuse uh but the good news is uh it continues the
conversation and it allows us to get to the get to um a solution that the board can approve and I can Implement so yes it's always about policy and being being uh um um compliant to those policies uh
but I appreciate you bringing that up yeah thanks Pat um could you please describe your involvement in the budgeting and financial process of your previous organizations as well as your experience
with long range financial planning sure well and in all my government Administration positions as a County department head as a County Administrator for du different positions as a city administrator being the chief administrative officer in those
positions also is the budget and Financial lead um certainly at the county level sometimes we have appointed Auditors I believe yours is still elected here at the county but at Max County and Becker County um well Becker
County was still elected but Max County was appointed they are the financial person of record um but the budget development responsibility at least in the positions I've had um that I'm describing were uh the County Administrator and the city administrator were responsible for developing the
budget and that starts with with um um providing a um current budget to the department heads usually in June or July um provide the last two or three years of budget and actual of the previous
years so they can conduct Trend analysis that's what's communicated to them do a trend analysis for each line item identify areas that you need to grow with resources other areas that uh need to reduce I'm a big believer in making
sure that we are very efficient with our budgets and we give the budgets to the department heads that they need but they have to justify it they have to prove it they have to document that this is why we need these funds and um I'm I'm I'm very Savvy at and and I used to be a
department it as well is putting a little bit of fluff into your budget and saying well I might need this in the future I I need a documented I need a documented for each line item um but taking them through that whole process um but it really starts before I begin that process it starts with the board is
I always like to talk with the board before I introduce that information to the department EDS and and let you know what's happening at the federal government level that could affect us either positively or negatively with our budgets what's happening at the state capital I think you know very much at the state capital in the last bium there
was a $16 billion Surplus we are now at a$7 billion deficit it's a heck of a swing in two years how does that affect us here you know at the county government level and and also get direction from you individually and as a group on items that you would like for
us to focus on either to grow in to provide resources for or maybe to reduce costs in but then after getting that we got have our marching orders and and then I introduce those budgets to to my department heads and we go through that process up through and include the truth
and Taxation hearing where we publicly review the preliminary budget and eventually have the County Board in this case U approve the budget so I've done all facets of that work manage that um in concert with um with our auditor if
there is an auditor uh at the county level and have been very successful at it um I think in every situation um and every government unit I've served I have reduced the budget but improved the producy of
services I have improved the credit rating for all three government units where I've been in administr to a to a higher credit rating than it was previously I've exceeded the fund balance requirements of uh the county auditor requirements or in the city's
case or financial auditor review um but it isn't easy and it's very much a team approach and department heads are are it's a very important role that they play in that process as I've indicated before they're the administrators of the department they
know what they need uh to manage their department and be successful at it um so I spent a number of years doing that and taking the lead on that um again in the truth and Taxation hearing preparing those presentations answering the questions of of the citizenry uh and
then taking getting feedback throughout that process from the board and continuing to uh you know massage and improve the budget and meeting the County board or the governing body's expectations um as far as long range planning um from an administrator
standpoint I've used uh a number of outside firms like the magic fund at the county level uh We've partnered with them but we've also done our own internal financial planning um through investments in CDs uh and other
short-term Investments um so it's really my expertise from a county standpoint is partnering with magic but also doing short-term financial investments and planning as well uh the capital Improvement plan is also a component of of uh an annual um budget review and um
both as a county and City administrator I've developed those five-year Capital Improvement plans again this Minnesota State Statute does it require um you have a CIP it recommends and most counties
do um doesn't require public hearing but I always initiate a public hearing independent of the truth and Taxation hearing so again um doing asset review with with Department heads incorporating that into a 5-year plan assigning costs
and where we're going to place equipment uh most ordinances um have 5,000 as the as the uh minimum uh Capital Improvement plan line item everything else is usually in the operating budget and so uh been very successful of putting those
together as well and uh um I think the budgetary process though is very much a team approach and where I think it can get um really difficult especially in these times is we just don't know what's going to happen at the state level right now and so we have to sort of cut a plan
for that we don't know if there will be a bonding Bill they're planning for a bonding bill but we don't know if there will be and so we just don't know what we might be getting out of the state or the federal government but um I try to do my best to Benchmark and and talk to our legislators to see might be coming down that path and upda your County
Board on that as well thank you Pat we're we're on uh question number six we've got a total of 18 and we're over halfway through so appreciate your thoroughness but maybe just a little uh quicker got it so we can get be efficient all right yeah I'll get there
we all get there yes thank you so the importance of organizational awareness so tell us how your organizational awareness has benefited a prior employer in making a change or
Improvement well thank you for the question um you know I think that one of the things that um that I'm particularly proud of is um this was when I was a department head at Carlton County back in 2010 major flood in this up in this region might have
reached up here as well all four Weds flooded at the same time cities were not figuratively but literally underwater my hometown the city of barnab you saw was rooftops and so the county was tasked with setting up the regional FEMA application so I was approached by the
Emergency Management director to take the lead on that and so I reorganized the county department from I'm sorry the County government unit from a county coordinator form of government to a County Administrator form of government and add myself with County board's
permission to take on that role as administrator through the flood mitigation process uh we wrote the regional FEMA Grant application for All Counties we did damage assessment across the whole region and documented that work and we
testified at the state to get funds for uh local business uh that were being damaged um but FEA um once we submitted that FEMA application they they considered that a best practice FEMA application it was awarded it was
recognized by at that time the president of the United States as uh uh to be awarded and the funds flowed to the county into the regional development but we had to reorganize the whole County to do that and also re reorganize our relationship ship with the other County governments to facilitate that
information gathering thank you thank you Pat Uh what does leadership mean to you and what is most important to you in leading an organization well leadership means certainly I I you're managing people
you're setting a standard of leadership that that that filters to the management and to their individual employees you create an as part of being a leader and I mentioned it earlier you create an environment where people can be constructively critical they can ask
tough questions of me as the administrator they can ask me to defend what I'm doing um constructively but they can do that and that's an environment I would want uh because it helps me Be an Effective leader um I
think being accountable and having those one-on-one meetings but setting performance measures uh for individual employees uh no one likes after a one-year relationship to find out they're they're not doing well on their performance review without being
communicated they're not doing well and so those monthly meetings are about letting my employees know where they're doing a good job and where they need to improve and giving them the environment to provide feedback why they're in that current situation it's very much a team
approach in that regard I tell my employees you're going to see me coming a mile away and after a year of monthly meetings you should be able to write your review you know what's going to be in your review because we've had monthly meetings and we've been discussing your performance for that long so being part
of a leader is not to surprise your employees setting a standard and when they fall short giving them the opportunity to succeed and giving them the tools to do that describe a time when you made a mistake at work how did you deal with this
situation and what was the outcome was at the city of Moose Lake it was my first city administrator position and I talked earlier about this major flood well part of my job as I moved from a County Economic Development executive to the city was to manage the flood within
that city um they had hired a a flood manager um not because they were really an expert but they had strong relationships with the governing body and that person wasn't doing a very good job and I did my best to Mentor that individual try to write the ship uh
improve performance uh but it wasn't it it wasn't improving um the error that I made was not coming to the decision a lot earlier to create a succession plan and remove that person from flood mitiga
ation and the reason I I held back was it was my first administrator position I was on probation this individual had very strong relationships with the elected board and I felt well this is going to be a career move for me you know if I do this right or wrong but I
ended up doing it right I ended up discharging that individual putting together a succession plan and I was very pleased that the governing body supported it uh even with those relationships so what that taught me was you know when as an administrator you
make a tough decision you just have to accept the consequences but you have to go where your experience and your training tell you to go and what the law says and you just need to follow through and there can be consequences to that but you know you can move on to the next position and you can learn from
it the county has a three-year strategic plan what is your experience creating and implementing a strategic plan and what makes a strategic plan successful guess the last part of that I think is more important it's been about 20 years doing uh comprehensive Economic
Development strategies community-based uh planning um and as an administrator and also as an economic development executive I think the big parts of that plan is to make sure that there's public input both internal and external stakeholders that the public is involved
in all parts of the process that management is involved in those processes that strategic objectives are identified inv vetted and that there are performance measures built in to show that we're being
successful um a plan can't just be the success of putting a plan together and then putting it on a shelf a plan is made to be implemented and so that's where the performance measures come in and I think the other important part of the plan to answer your question is you
know things are going to not go correctly and we knew to identify as stakeholders what are the potential risks and what we're implementing identifying those risks the probability of the risks are going to occur and the mitigation strategy of what we're going to do when they occur to to lower the
cost or the consequence of that risk happening so that's the final thing having a risk mitigation strategy is also very helpful thank you Pat if you could describe your current Professional Network or the
steps you'd take to develop a network of local government professionals that you can share ideas with and get advice from right well it's always nice to uh with all the counties that border you and of course on North you don't border anyone but uh but uh east west and south you
know reaching out to the regional County coordinators and administrators that are out there doing a monthly or quarterly meeting with them and we can discuss as peers what's happening in all our areas it helps me to Benchmark what they're doing to see if it's something that
could be applicable to to our County um if there are things that we're doing better you know we're always happy to help and and be able to provide some guidance to them uh being a part of the associated Minnesota counties uh and their County Administrator group that's all the state administrators and
coordinators are helpful um being involved with the other Executives at the government level whether it's the city of administrator at Grand marray School District superintendents uh to be able to talk about levies and budgets and what's happening in their area I
also like to do that on a quarterly basis and I always like to have members of the governing body participate in that as well so I think doing all those things has given me a an appreciation of kind of where we're at compared to others and also where we're going and and uh and collecting a lot of good
information that I could bring back to the board uh as an update standpoint thank you would you describe your experience in working with other units of government to develop a service partnership well one of the things that
I'm very proud of is at maax County um and if you look on a map laps county is probably the thinnest County that the state of Minnesota has but one of the big issues we had post covid was um a lot of a lot of schools um students uh
um working from home but we did not have a a very good Broadband Network it wasn't there just wasn't equality opportunities for students and so we partnered with the school districts and with the city government units and we pulled uh covid dollars and we
created um a series of towers that ran up the spine of maax County that served and provided and exceeded the governor's requirements for Broadband so it allowed students to work from home and have access to the internet uh it provided an
alternative for Citizens you know to also draw on the internet and it only worked because the Topography of molas County was such where it allowed us to create those Towers but we to we put together a partnership uh put together a project plan on that we did a lot of surveys to the community and what your
price points are what your take rates are what you can afford to pay for for internet and we developed that strategy and implemented those towers and and it's and it's been working wonderfully thank you thank you Pat describe how you would
become involved in the Cook County community and build trust with residents and local business owners I think it's important to um when invited but I certainly will reach out to uh sit down with all the the social groups whether a rotary or Kanas the chamber
organizations be able to present myself to them um give them an update on my background and my skills certainly work with their executive directors or people within those organizations uh and having reg meetings and and appreciating and understanding
uh what is happening in the community what people are saying in the community but really introducing myself through presentations and usually get invited to those when you get hired and you're new because you're someone new to the community and that's always very valuable uh uh certainly reaching out to
the other government units being able to present myself introduce myself to the city councils the townships uh the school districts to their boards when appropriate and again just introduce myself and and discuss uh what we're working on as a county and and
maintaining that relationship through those Executives as I mentioned before those superintendent and those other administrators over time Cook County wishes to improve its relationship with tribal Nations how will
you can't read now how will you demonstrate that you value these relationships and what will you do to show a meaningful commitment to working together well uh it's a great question I know that's going to be very important for this position I will tell you in
many positions I've had very pro strong positive relationships with the Minnesota chipa tribes Carlton County as an economic development person I actually attended the Fondulac band meetings they invited me to those meetings and because we really had a trusting relationship in maax County you
know there were some issues especially with law enforcement but we also were able to collaborate with the ma man of jibway on broadband issues and finding common ground that we could work together and then finally um at Becker County um with the Leech Lake um band uh
we worked uh very closely on cannabis sales and uh feed lots and things like that so engaging the tribal government unit having regular uh meetings with them um and with their tribal government unit but in particular with their staff
and their department heads putting together some core topics that we can agree on and when there are things we don't agree on engage you know the government unit the tribal government unit on why we have issues and have honest conversations about that um I'm
very experienced in in here at tribal Authority and and what that means uh and and so I'm very excited and that was one of the reasons I was attracted to this position is because you do have a a tribal government unit and you know you know the they are County Citizens no
different than our citizens here and and so it's very important to engage the government unit but also don't ignore where we disagree I mean we just have to have honest conversations about things we could agree on and move forward with but but also where we can mitigate the
issues that we have thank you uh describe a situation that you feel demonstrates your integrity and ethical standards is it an easy one for you yeah no no I I tell you it's uh you know it's not easy being an administrator and uh and I
think the one thing that I I was most proud of when I came on at Becker County is you know I normally had a department of five people there and I was the only one there because everyone everyone had left and about 25% of the working
population at the beer County government was leaving every year so there was obviously an issue uh and uh what I found is I delved into it is uh we were not um valuing the employees uh to the level as other County government units
were we were doing performance reviews we hadn't done performance reviews in 40 years 40 years we hadn't done performance reviews uh hadn't updated job descriptions for four decades hadn't done exit interviews to understand why people are leaving had did not had not done orientation training and so you
know I documented these issues and brought it to the board and of course the board wasn't happy to hear all the negative stuff but I said you know you know the recidivism rate you know for people leaving is significant we need to bring that down and here's how we're going to do it we're going to write all these
issues that we have and and start doing performance reviews and all the things that I've listed so we set up continuous Improvement teams and we we got all that work done within a few months and what I was excited is is um at the time I left cuz we were continuing to measure people
leaving um we had had reduced uh that amount of of people leaving to like 3% so people appreciated that they were being valued there were structure um they were being respected and they were contributing to that structure and they weren't looking for
other work they were staying right where they were um but it was it was a tough discussion to have with the board because a lot of them felt that it was their fault and what I explained to them is it's not your fault you are the deciders the fault lies with the administrator
the HR Director we have failed to get this work done for you we've identified it now we're going to get it done with your blessing and they said go for it and uh and we did get it complete thank you Pat if you could describe a past experience correcting an employee
performance problem and how you would approach correcting an employee performance issue well I think one of the examples that stick out that sticks out in my career is you know we've we've had um
and I again I'm not going to because we're talking about Personnel issues but we had I had one employee at maax County that was having some real trouble um it was a very important position that interacted with a lot of departments but was having a lot of trouble um getting
the work done showing up on time um respecting you know the the responsibilities of others um and you know you since it was one of my direct reports it's important to have that meeting with them oneon-one let
them know I'm seeing a problem but also getting their perspective and this answers the other part of your question getting their perspective of what do they see the same problem and what do they see from their standpoint and the good news is they they owned much of it
uh and and I'm a big believer in redeeming yourself I've I've fallen short many times in my life having the opportunity to redeem yourself and I want that for my employees I want every opportunity for them to write the ship and do better and so we did put together
a performance Improvement plan which is not a negative that's just a plan that we agreed to and they agreed to on what's expected of them moving forward now if they don't Implement that pip there could be consequences but it does let them know how they're being measured and what's expected of them and I was
very happy that they responded in a positive way uh but I will tell you the you know if you were to ever ask me the worst thing that I wish i' never had to do and that's to terminate somebody because I I own that I feel I've fallen short if I have to let someone go even
though they may be responsible for all their behavior did I miss something is there something I could have done to to write that chip and bring them back and again you're dealing with someone's U income you're dealing with someone's family so when if they earn the right to be terminated they should be terminated
but at the same time I'm I'm a big believer in trying to find a way to to bring them back and to make them successful and to use the skills they have to to improve their behavior and and move forward thank you so Pat please describe uh some
priorities that you would see for Cook County well for me coming on board um my initial priority would be to appreciate and understand and meet with each individual department head those one-on-one meetings that I spoke of and really understand the issues that are
going on within their Department to meet with each of you individually to understand your perspective for your district and what you expect of this position as I've indicated just like I want my direct reports know how they're being measured I want to know how I'm being measured uh and I want to make
sure that I'm following through on the deliverables that you as a board want me to do so putting together a I think a a document that just says Pat these are these are the things that we would like you to do but but I also would based on the meetings I'm having with my
department I may have some additional items to add to that as far as out what's out in the community I think in the big issue for me is and I mentioned this before is we're kind of in some strange times with Federal funding you know being affected uh through a number of executive orders that could affect
certain County departments here like human services uh we have we have a a state budget deficit that's significant that could affect um again the the revenues that we receive here and potential Bond funding opportunities so I think one of the big priorities is to appreciate your existing budget and the
new budget that we're going to be proposing and and how we're going to develop that and roll that out and I probably would like to start it a little earlier just with what I'm seeing at the at the federal and state level but I'm born and raised Economic Development that's where I got my stripes and I'm a
big believer in creating wealth and understanding how we can create new funding mechanisms outside of a traditional Levy how we can help the business Community how we can be vibrant strong I know tourism is a biggish a big core of of this community
and and I would work very closely with our Economic Development uh teams both at the regional and County and local level to U be a part of wealth creation for the area thank you thank you Pat why should the Cook
County Board select you as our next County Administrator well I think again I know that you're interviewing another candidate I think what I bring to the table is I'm I'm not from here I'm from the region um but I bring a different perspective a different objectivity a
different set of eyes like I said I will learn and I will absorb and be a part of this culture that uh of of in your County government unit I have a strong skill set with working with a number of tribal government units uh I have a strong skill set both in
manufacturing and and private sector work but also um quite a bit of years of experience in county and City Administration and I would urge you to look at that resume and look at those achievements those are things that we achieved as a County government and I
don't call them my achievements we achieved as a group of department heads and as a County Board and I do see challenges here at Cook County but they're the same challenges I'm seeing in every government unit and I'm attracted to the challenges probably like a moth that's attracted to a flame
I I really enjoy and and to be a part of something to improve something to make something better and I think you have a solid team of managers I think you have you as Commissioners are objective and you're opinionated but you speak your
mind and I like that as a as a County Board and uh so it's a County Board that I can work with and I would really enjoy reporting to and being a part of and but I I do think uh that skill set in Economic Development and proven success
of both County and City Administration and the fact that I've been doing that both in the private sector and public sector uh and again those successes as an administrator I think make me the a worthy candidate for consideration would you believe we're
almost to the end I can't believe it I don't P look at as watch the but I have one more question oh excellent do you have any questions for oh those are good ones yeah we yeah and I and I usually just have one question um that I always like to ask and and maybe each of you
could just give me your input if if you're comfortable doing that is like I said you're all from a different District you all have your own expectations and goals and objectives I guess I would just like to know your number one priority each of you as a commissioner what you would like to see
this administrator coming in accomplish or focus on or research or Benchmark what what is that one thing that sticks in your mind that you're you would like the administrator if we were to have our one-on-one meeting um what you would what You' want me to to focus
on well I'm hearing the word communication from your experience so communication continuing communication would be um something that um I think is important for um for all entities
whether we're working um in one end of the county or the other thank you commissioner thank you Pat that's a good question and um you know my answer is probably not fair but I'd say the Strategic plan because um that incorporates many different issues
including uh organizational development and staff development and our Capital Improvement plan and um the list goes on so I think uh that's my that's my cheap answer it's hard to say in one word it's Communications but it's because we need
to have trust built among every person that lives in this community and particularly with our uh community members on the U in Grand Portage to improve the working
relationships but Communications is honest Communications so thank you commissioner so uh this is fellow opical and um what I would say is that um what I would
represent that I think is the whole of the county making that assumption is that as an administrator you you facilitate a process that creates healthy structure based upon known best practices as opposed to
strictures and and understanding that leads to all of the things that enable L to be able to achieve you know what it is we set out to do to hold to our uh values and bring Integrity To those
values so that people see substance to what we do so again I see an administrator as a facilitator of a process to create structure healthy structure as opposed to strictures and to understand the best
practices that enable us to be able to do that thank you chrisher P one of the things that I think is really important um coming in is to listen we have a very diverse
County not only ter in terms of our population but in terms of just the needs of different areas of the county and so taking into account all of those needs as you begin to evaluate and make decisions um and recommendations to this
board and then um in concert with something that commissioner Mills mentioned he related um needs related to our strategic plan and part of it is making sure that we provide support and growth opportunities for the great
people that we have working for the county and I think professional growth um is really important so that we can retain the good employees that we have well thank you for that um I I I I I really appreciate that that was a very
diverse set of answers because um I'm sort of sensing that in in many of the meetings where you guys have talked about it at the governing body meetings and I certainly share the idea and the concept of best practices and um
planning uh at at the at the county level and but having individuals participate in that planning process both internal and external stakeholders so so I'm very excited about what I'm hearing from you so I I really want to thank you for those answers yeah thank
you very much this concludes our time together did I did I make the cut there Pat right very good well thank you all appreciate your time