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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > June > 03 > Entry
24 more vying for Children Services post
With 24 new resumes in hand for a new director of Butler County Children Services, county leaders say they’re ready to make a selection.
This brings the grand total of applicants to 57, which county Administrator Tim Williams said will be narrowed down to maybe five finalists within a week. They will then be called in for interviews.
“There’s a number of them that can do the job, I just don’t know which one it will be yet,” said Commission President Donald Dixon. “I think it will move fairly quickly now. I’d say in three or four weeks we’ll have somebody selected.”
The second wave of applicants after commissioners extended the deadline last month includes Darlene Campbell, the agency’s current intake director.
In her cover letter, Campbell said she was reluctant to apply for the position because she was under the impression that Interim Director Jeff Centers was guaranteed the job. But she changed her mind when commissioners extended the deadline.
“Over my thirty-plus years working at this agency I have seen the good and the bad,” she wrote. “Given the history of this agency, I understand the importance of striking the right balance between positive change and stability.”
The second wave of applicants also included Michael Rench, deputy director of community services for the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; Sarah Hay, director of Butler County Help Me Grow; and James Leisring, principal of St. Aloysius Gonzaga School in Cincinnati.
Former agency director Michael Fox, who retired March 31, said Campbell, Centers and agency Ombudsman William Morrison, all of whom have applied, are all qualified for the job.
The important thing, he said, is that commissioners give clear guidance as to what they expect from the new director.
“The commissioners have never met and said these are the expectations we have, performance expectations, philosophical expectations, as to how it should be run,” he said.
And he said those expectations must include making the tracking of children, costs and other information a top priority, as it was during his 20 months leading the agency.
“It’s not self evident to most people in child protection, you have to argue with them to show them there’s a connection between information…and keeping children safe,’ he said.
The job carries a salary of up to $99,000 and the task of leading what has become the county’s most scrutinized public agency since the 2006 death of a child in foster care.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Children Services
Comments
By AD
June 4, 2009 3:42 PM | Link to this
I’m curious where to find the list of all the applicants’ names.
By jank
June 5, 2009 10:49 AM | Link to this
SO THESE CURRENT AND RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF CHILDREN SERVICES ARE THE QUALITY OF APPLICANTS THAT THE COMMISSIONERS WERE WAITING FOR??