James Joerke
On Tuesday, September 22, Cook County commissioners voted to hire James Joerke as the new county administrator.
Joerke will fill the position vacated by the resignation of Jeff Cadwell last October. Cadwell left Cook County to accept a similar position as county administrator for Mahnomen County.
Joerke’s start date is between October 12 and October 19.
IT Director Rena Rogers has filled in very admirably as interim county commissioner during the yearlong gap.
Commissioners interviewed four candidates from a pool of 34 before making their selection.
James worked in local government in the Kansas City region for over 20 years. He was an air quality planner and program manager at the Mid-America Regional Council, the council of governments and metropolitan planning organization for the Kansas City region, for over ten years before taking a position with Johnson County, Kansas. There he served as the county’s first sustainability program director for several years before being promoted to deputy director of health and environment. More recently, he was associate executive director and managed energy and water efficiency programs at “Bridging The Gap”, an environmental non-profit in Kansas City, Missouri.
James and his wife, Allegra, have been married for 22 years. They have a daughter, Sylvia, who is 20. In his free time, James loves to spend time with his family and travel, read, garden and play piano and guitar, albeit badly. He loves the outdoors and is a longtime angler. A native of Michigan who spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Russian Far East, James is looking forward to experiencing his first winter on the North Shore.
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