Shakeup in county administration proposed
Deputy Planning Director Taryn Logan may be upgraded to Planning Director. Photo by Roger Bianchini. Copyright 2008 by Warren County Report.
Stanley would give up dual role as county administrator/planning director
By Roger Bianchini
Warren County Report
A proposed change in the county administrative office has been in the works for some time according to several of the primary players involved.
The pending Warren County 2009 Fiscal Year Budget requests that Deputy Planning Director Taryn Logan be upgraded to Planning Director, a two grade step up with a commensurate pay increase of $4,377 to $51,236. The promotion would take effect July 1 at the start of the new fiscal year if approved by the Warren County Board of Supervisors.
Doug Stanley has been serving the dual role of county administrator and planning director since April of 2000. Stanley notes with a laugh that both his 1996 promotion from zoning administrator to planning director and assumption of the county administrator’s role in 2000 came on April’s Fool Day. He declined to speculate on any deeper meaning to the dates of those promotions.
More seriously, Stanley says the board of supervisors allowed him to continue serving in the dual role of planning director and county administrator at his request in 2000. However, he notes the plan has always been to eventually train a replacement to take over most of the day-to-day duties of the planning department.
In a written justification of the move to finally achieve that plan, Stanley wrote, “Taryn, acting as Deputy Director, continues to take on more day-to-day planning issues and gradually has taken over most of the planning proposals presented to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. She also has capably handled supervision of the Well and Septic Appeals Board.”
The promotion of a relatively young deputy – Logan is 29 – may raise questions with some about experience. However, Stanley was 27 when he took over as planning department head and just 31 when he became county administrator. Still a relatively young whippersnapper at 38, Stanley believes Logan is ready for the expanded role.
“If you’ll notice, over the last three or four years at the planning commission level, more and more of the applications have been taken over by Taryn and some she had been doing have been taken over by Matt [Wendling]. So, there’s been a gradual transition for them to take on a lot more of the workload. And it’s gotten to the point today that I deal with very few of the walk-in customers of the planning department. And Taryn, I think professionally, is ready to assume the daily oversight of the department.”
Apparently Logan’s co-workers on the planning department staff agree.
“Doug announced the plan to have the board promote Taryn to planning director at the staff meeting on Monday and we were all delighted. We couldn’t be happier, for us and for her – we all applauded her,” Planning Commission Administrative Assistant Linda Neighbors said Feb. 1.
Logan is grateful for the support of those she works with and credits the entire county planning department for its professionalism.
“I work with great people who all do a great job. I’ve learned a lot working with Doug over the past six years as he’s given me more responsibilities. I’m excited about the opportunity and I am grateful that Doug has the confidence in me to ask the board to make me planning director,” Logan says. “And there are a lot of exciting things happening right now in Warren County and I’m just fortunate to be a part of it. Over the past year we’ve been meeting every other month with the town planning staff, county zoning and building inspections departments and I think there is better communications between all the departments. I’m looking forward to continue working together and anyway we can improve the system, simplify the process for the public we’ll try to accomplish.”
“From my perspective it’s the right thing to do,” former two-term board chairman Richard Traczyk said of the proposed administrative shakeup. “It gives the staff a little more balance. Doug will still oversee planning operations but the change will enable Doug to focus on County Administration and leave the day-to-day planning to Taryn.
Traczyk said in recent years the board has agreed Stanley should groom a planning director replacement.
“Taryn Logan was that person and she has continued her training over the past years and is in fact currently handling 80 percent of the planning issues on a daily basis. Doug now feels she has progressed to the point where she can take over the position with the approval of the Board for the next budget period. Thus, Doug has followed the direction from past boards over the years.”
Doug Stanley has been serving the dual role of county administrator and planning director since April of 2000. Stanley notes with a laugh that both his 1996 promotion from zoning administrator to planning director and assumption of the county administrator’s role in 2000 came on April’s Fool Day. He declined to speculate on any deeper meaning to the dates of those promotions.
More seriously, Stanley says the board of supervisors allowed him to continue serving in the dual role of planning director and county administrator at his request in 2000. However, he notes the plan has always been to eventually train a replacement to take over most of the day-to-day duties of the planning department.
In a written justification of the move to finally achieve that plan, Stanley wrote, “Taryn, acting as Deputy Director, continues to take on more day-to-day planning issues and gradually has taken over most of the planning proposals presented to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. She also has capably handled supervision of the Well and Septic Appeals Board.”
The promotion of a relatively young deputy – Logan is 29 – may raise questions with some about experience. However, Stanley was 27 when he took over as planning department head and just 31 when he became county administrator. Still a relatively young whippersnapper at 38, Stanley believes Logan is ready for the expanded role.
“If you’ll notice, over the last three or four years at the planning commission level, more and more of the applications have been taken over by Taryn and some she had been doing have been taken over by Matt [Wendling]. So, there’s been a gradual transition for them to take on a lot more of the workload. And it’s gotten to the point today that I deal with very few of the walk-in customers of the planning department. And Taryn, I think professionally, is ready to assume the daily oversight of the department.”
Apparently Logan’s co-workers on the planning department staff agree.
“Doug announced the plan to have the board promote Taryn to planning director at the staff meeting on Monday and we were all delighted. We couldn’t be happier, for us and for her – we all applauded her,” Planning Commission Administrative Assistant Linda Neighbors said Feb. 1.
Logan is grateful for the support of those she works with and credits the entire county planning department for its professionalism.
“I work with great people who all do a great job. I’ve learned a lot working with Doug over the past six years as he’s given me more responsibilities. I’m excited about the opportunity and I am grateful that Doug has the confidence in me to ask the board to make me planning director,” Logan says. “And there are a lot of exciting things happening right now in Warren County and I’m just fortunate to be a part of it. Over the past year we’ve been meeting every other month with the town planning staff, county zoning and building inspections departments and I think there is better communications between all the departments. I’m looking forward to continue working together and anyway we can improve the system, simplify the process for the public we’ll try to accomplish.”
“From my perspective it’s the right thing to do,” former two-term board chairman Richard Traczyk said of the proposed administrative shakeup. “It gives the staff a little more balance. Doug will still oversee planning operations but the change will enable Doug to focus on County Administration and leave the day-to-day planning to Taryn.
Traczyk said in recent years the board has agreed Stanley should groom a planning director replacement.
“Taryn Logan was that person and she has continued her training over the past years and is in fact currently handling 80 percent of the planning issues on a daily basis. Doug now feels she has progressed to the point where she can take over the position with the approval of the Board for the next budget period. Thus, Doug has followed the direction from past boards over the years.”