By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
NEWPORT — An attempt by Lincoln County commissioners to conduct their first evaluation of administrator Tim Johnson in 2½ years went awry Wednesday when Johnson didn’t show up to participate.
Johnson was hired as the county’s first administrator in April 2022 after the retirement of county counsel Wayne Belmont, who served for years as the defacto administrator and commissioners had direct oversight of departments.
But commissioners never required that Johnson and they agree on an employment contract that spelled out pay, evaluations and what might happen if he or the county wanted to part ways. Johnson has not been evaluated by commissioners since he was hired, an unusual situation in any municipal government.
The commission’s agenda released Friday, Dec. 6 listed an executive (closed) session on Wednesday to evaluate its chief executive officer. Johnson was out of the office earlier in the week and then left Wednesday before the scheduled 3 p.m. meeting.
After hearing a report on bus system improvements Wednesday, county counsel Kristin Yuille advised commissioners to not hold the executive session without Johnson. Other than agreeing to try to schedule the evaluation as soon as possible, commissioners agreed to adjourn.
The commission’s next meeting is Wednesday, Dec. 18.
When asked Thursday by YachatsNews about what might be next, Commissioner Claire Hall said the board needs to keep pressing for a face-to-face evaluation.
“It’s to the point where there needs to be some kind of resolution,” Hall said.
Commissioners Kaety Jacobson and Casey Miller declined comment. Johnson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Possible tension between some commissioners and Johnson was foreshadowed nearly two months ago by Miller at the end of a long and contentious meeting. At the end of the Sept. 18 meeting Miller, who is the commission chair, said that commissioners had only just finished their first evaluation of Johnson’s work, that both he and Johnson were confused about the process, and that Johnson may decide not to go through with the evaluation. Miller then offered to work with Johnson on “an exit strategy and succession plan for his remaining tenure in the coming months …”
The day after that meeting Miller was notified that he was the subject of a bullying and harassment complaint and asked by the county’s human resource director not to come into the office. Except for leading commission meetings, Miller has been working remotely since and the county hired an outside firm to investigate the complaint.
Johnson started with the county in April 2022 after a 10-month search, coming to Newport from Federal Way, Wash. where he had been its economic development officer since 2014. Prior to that he was an economic development official for the city of Sacramento, for a two-county California economic development district, and worked as an assistant city manager in San Diego.
There needs to be more access to alternative programs. I was told that the Mental Health Court diversion program is backed up, and so I could imagine that this Drug Diversion Program will go through the same problems.
It seems odd to me that the commissioners can’t evaluate an employee without them being there. Perhaps Tim Johnson’s absence is a sign that the County Administrator should not be retained. I saw many malfunctions with the commissioners in my nigh on 20 years of county employment. My supervisors always had the evaluation completed before we met. I suspect the commissioners, in their hands off treatment of this administrator, don’t really know what he has done in 2 1/2 years. The position was created to insulate the commissioners from the public and the management of the employees. I’ll ask the hard question; What are the Commissioners doing for us? Their budget appears to be $297,988 for their wages only, in FY 2025.
RIF
This is just one more example of why we need to reform the entire Lincoln County government. These people have no clue what they are doing.