The Cook County Board of Commissioners interviewed six semi-finalists for the county administrator position on Friday, September 13. Each candidate was interviewed for one hour, and after a discussion the county board selected two finalists: Mike Roth, Grand Marais city administrator, and Jay Kieft, executive director of human services for Wright County in Buffalo, Minnesota.
Roth has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Minnesota, Morris and a Master of Arts degree in public administration from Hamline University in St. Paul. He worked for the city of St. Louis Park from 1997 to 2001 before leaving there as the administrative supervisor of the city’s public works department to take a position as Grand Marais city clerk/treasurer. He was promoted to city administrator in 2005.
Kieft has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and sociology from Central University of Iowa in Pella, Iowa. He is completing a Master of Arts degree in public administration from Hamline this fall. He worked for the Peace Corps from 1981 to 1985 and then worked for several community and human service agencies and county departments in Iowa and Minnesota as a residential program director and case manager for emotionally and behaviorally disordered adolescents, executive director of a chemical dependency program, facilitator of community coalition development at an educational service cooperative, probation officer and executive director of a county community corrections and court services program, foundation program officer, and community action agency executive director. He was executive director of Kandiyohi County Family Services from 2007 to 2012 and has been the director of Wright County Human Services since 2012.
“We were pleased with our pool of applicants and we had six very qualified semi-finalists,” according to County Board Chair Janice Hall.
Thirty-nine applicants applied for the Cook County administrator position. The county is hosting an opportunity for the public to meet the two final applicants at a “Meet and Greet” at East Bay Suites Stone’s Throw Room on Wednesday, October 2 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
This will be the first county administrator in the history of Cook County.
Hall noted, “Final interviews are scheduled for October 2 and 3, with the details to be completed in the near future.”
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