Allen County commissioners will have Kris Marple tell them what his management duties are as Wilson County coordinator.
Commissioner Gary McIntosh proposed two weeks ago that the county look into having an administrator oversee day-to-day management of the county. Marple is the only full-fledged county manager in southeast Kansas. He has held his position, in his home county, for 14 years.
Commissioner Dick Works was cool to the idea at the start and remains so.
“It might be a good idea if we didn’t already have good managers in all of our offices,” Works said. “If we (the commissioners) are willing to do our jobs, we don’t need a manager. And, Alan (Weber, county counselor) does some of what a manager would do” in the commissioners’ stead. “We don’t have time to do everything.”
“I assure you my thoughts about a manager weren’t an attack on any of our employees,” McIntosh said, but thinks looking into what having a manager might entail is incumbent for commissioners.
“We wouldn’t be doing our job if we don’t look at it,” agreed Commissioner Rob Francis.
Works added that a manager “couldn’t tell elected officials what to do” and he wondered if having one would have commissioners fall into a trap that sometimes snares school board members, when “they only know what the superintendent wants them to know.”
While he was willing to look, Francis said he thought commissioners should accept the responsibility to be involved in all that was necessary to move the county forward, “go to meetings and learn.” Besides, he said, “I look at Alan (Weber) as an administrator.”
Even so, Francis conceded that he was willing to listen: “Maybe we need a manager and maybe we don’t.”
The topic isn’t a new one for commissioners, Work concluded. “We have talked about it for years.”
Commissioners to hear from a county manager
