How would you like a job that requires 24/7, 365 days per year attention; reports to five elected bosses and 8,500 citizens; deals with a myriad of federal and state agencies; provides many disparate essential services to residents and visitors; coordinates responses to the pandemic; and does double duty as the finance director?
No wonder Becky Garland needs to scale back, after more than four years of administering this complex cauldron of demanding public service we call Graham County.
Becky brought a unique skill set as finance director to an organization that was in financial trouble. She is skilled in accounting and earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Western Carolina University.
She stopped the financial bleeding and finished recent fiscal years with a surplus. Becky was a natural to take on the added responsibilities of county manager. She steadied the ship and will leave the county manager job with Graham County a better place.
The best way to describe her decision to scale back can be found in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, “For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to plant and a time to pluck up.”
High-level public service jobs have great psychic rewards and greater emotional costs. The average tenure in these tough jobs is around four years. If you are a spiritual person, it is not possible to avoid questioning your decisions.
One thing about public service for sure is that no good deed goes unpunished. So, let us all thank Becky for her service and be thankful that her good work for Graham County will continue.
Now, the challenge is to find a worthy replacement. There is a job description that needs to be reviewed to make it relevant to current events. There is a need to find a professional who can balance the conservative leanings of the county commissioners with the need to make progress on many fronts. The salary level and benefits should be adequate to interest a number of candidates. The policy analysis credentials of the candidates should be razor-sharp, in order to provide the County Commissioners with solid fact-based advice. The job should be advertised with professional organizations and academic institutions.
A major criterion should be an unlimited sense of humor. This should not be the first public service job for the successful candidate.
That is a lot of “shoulds.” Replacing Becky with someone as qualified, dedicated and competent deserves a commitment by our leaders to an open and competency-based process.
The people of Graham County deserve no less.
Roger Carlton writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He is a council member for the Town of Lake Santeetlah.