A 2015 department head evaluation process discussion, scheduled for Thursday’s Riley County Commission meeting, turned into a debate after Commission Chair, Ron Wells and Commissioner, Robert Boyd shared differing opinions.
Human Resource Manager, Cindy Volanti presented on the topic. She mentioned the board had approved last year to hold the department head evaluations three times every year. This was approved as a trial at that time and Volanti returned to the commission to ask if they would like to continue with this process.
Wells commented he did not feel it had any positive, nor negative, impact on the county. He mentioned he spoke with a previous county commissioner, who also felt there was no need for the increased number of evaluations. “We’re eating up some of their [department heads]time and right now, I’d rather they spend their time helping us on this budget”.
Boyd said he disagreed with Wells’s opinion. “I think it’s part of leadership to review with staff that you supervise. You do it on a reoccurring basis. I don’t find the April, August, and December schedule to be too much”. Boyd mentioned he believes the process allows them to be more efficient, by speaking to department heads more frequently so they can be on top of things that are going on within their departments.
Wells argued the current evaluation schedule was “micro-managing” the department heads and that it should return to just an annual process. “You know I’m not a micro-manager Ron. You’re just being lazy not wanting to be involved”, Boyd stated.
Besides arguing over the efficiency of the evaluation process, Wells mentioned if a problem occurred within a department-that specific department head could still be brought in on a case-by-case basis if necessary. Boyd quickly asked, “You think I don’t know that Ron?”
A compromise was suggested by Commissioner, Ben Wilson. He asked Wells and Boyd if they’d be comfortable with a semi-annual evaluation schedule.
Ultimately this suggestion was approved on a unanimous vote. The first evaluation will be held sometime in July. The last evaluation will take place at the end of the year, sometime in mid-December.
