Sonoma County administrator: Who's next?

<p>Sonoma County supervisors may not act until July in finding a successor to their top administrator, Bob Deis, who cleaned out his desk Wednesday afternoon after having abruptly resigning when faced with the prospect of an increasingly divided board.</p><p>Chairman Paul Kelley said the board likely will not be able to address the issue immediately because next Tuesday’s meeting is their last session until mid-July.</p><p>“The board has not made a decision about filling the position at this time,” Kelley said. “We will move forward with the staff of deputy administrators that we have on hand. We will have to have a discussion on whether we will find an interim administrator or go through a recruitment process.”</p><p>But already, the names of several contenders have surfaced as the county faces more state budgets cuts, labor negotiations involving several key unions and employees and retirees angry that changes to medical premiums are beginning to show up in their paychecks.</p><p>“In very short order, they’ll need someone who knows the county structure, is familiar with the budget and the financial relationship with state and federal government,” said former west county supervisor Eric Koenigshofer. “It will be a fairly small list of people that might fill those shoes.”</p><p>Names mentioned on Wednesday included: County Auditor-Controller Rod Dole; former assistant county administrator Jim Andersen; retired county administrator Mike Chrystal, and former county sheriff Mark Ihde.</p><p>“The modern way to do this is to launch a nationwide search, but this board may take the opportunity to do something different,” Koenigshofer said.</p><p>Supervisors and county department heads contacted Wednesday were reluctant to discuss Deis’ departure because terms of the separation agreement call for Deis and county officials to refrain from negative comments about the situation.</p><p>Dole said Wednesday he had not had discussions with supervisors about replacing Deis, and said the county counsel’s office has asked that all questions about Deis’ departure be referred to Kelley.</p><p>Dole was one of the architects of a Jan. 30, 2008 letter to the board that opposed medical premium shifts for retirees and employees advocated by Deis. He called for Deis to consider options proposed by employee groups.</p><p>Dole said Wednesday he stood by that three-page letter, which was also signed by Sheriff Bill Cogbill, District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua and County Clerk, Recorder and Assessor Janice Atkinson.</p><p>Other possible candidates include:</p><p>Andersen, who resigned last October after serving as Deis’ point man on controversial issues such as reduced employee and retiree health benefits, lease of the county’s landfill and long-range planning initiatives that forecast future service cuts. He was Deis’ assistant administrator for four years, a position from which all recent county administrators have moved into the top spot. Since Andersen’s departure, the post has gone unfilled. </p><p>Chrystal, 64, the county’s former administrator, who retired in 2004. He held the top job for four years and, prior to that, was the chief assistant under the late Tom Schopflin.</p><p>Ihde, 60, was sheriff from 1991 to 1997, first winning the job in an election that unseated an incumbent. He was credited with healing divisions in the county’s law enforcement ranks. Today, he is president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of the Redwood Empire.</p>