Cook County board holds special meeting to address administrator vacancy

With Cook County administrator Jeff Cadwell’s last day on the job Monday, October 14, Cook County commissioners held a special meeting on Thursday, October 10, to discuss the vacancy.

Cadwell left to take the newly created administrator position for Mahnomen County. Before coming to Cook County, Jeff was the Mahnomen city administrator.

Commissioners met with department heads and other county staff to discuss the direction the county wants to go in its management.

“We received input from department heads (both verbal and written) regarding the administrative form of government,” said commissioner David Mills.

Should the county stay with a county administrator? Move to a county manager? Go back to the way it was run before the county decided upon using an administrative form of government?

Mills made a motion, seconded by Heidi Doo-Kirk, to hire DDA consultants to help commissioners navigate the process of evaluating the County’s needs and decide which form of government could work best for us at this time. However, the three other commissioners were not yet ready to decide which consultant to hire. Commissioner Bobby Deschampe wanted to hear more from absent department heads, and commissioner Miron Bursheim wanted references from the consultants, and commissioner Ginny Storlie was not yet ready for a decision.

With that, commissioners decided to name an interim county administrator and by 3-2 vote the board appointed Rena Rogers as interim county administrator.

Rogers, who is the management information (IT) director, had agreed earlier to accept the position if it was offered to her.

Commissioners Ginny Storlie, David Mills, and Myron Bursheim voted for the appointment with commissioners Bobby Deschampe and Heidi Doo-Kirk voting no. Both Deschampe and Doo-Kirk said they have no problem with Rogers taking on the new task. But Deschampe wanted to hear from all of the department heads first before making any decision, and Doo-Kirk wanted more information before agreeing to the change.

Rogers began the interim county administrator position on October 15.