FORSYTH COUNTY: County managers replaced frequently in past 5 years

Forsyth County is without a permanent county manager for the fourth time in five years.

County Manager Rhonda Poston-O’Connor’s tenure ended abruptly Thursday night after a 3-2 majority of the Forsyth County Commission voted to fire her, effective immediately.

Poston-O’Connor didn’t finish the meeting. Instead she walked to the rear of the commission’s large meeting room to vigorous applause from a few supporters.

She was three weeks from marking her one-year anniversary in the job that paid her $130,000 a year and is likely, according to the county attorney, to net her another $150,000, per the terms of her county contract.

Deputy County Manager Doug Derrer, who has been with the county since February, will serve as interim county manager, said county spokeswoman Jodi Gardner.

“At this time, Personnel Services has not received a directive from the Board of Commissioners as to the method by which the vacancy is to be filled,” she said.

County Commissioner Linda Ledbetter said Friday she hopes the board will ask Derrer, a former administrator from neighboring Hall County, to take the job permanently.

“Doug’s as qualified as anybody who will take it,” Ledbetter said.

Keeping a county manager hasn’t been easy in the fast-growing county that, until two years ago, rarely gave a county commissioner a second term.

Before Poston-O’Connor, there was a fairly rapid succession of county managers, or county administrators as they were called in the past.

Poston-O’Connor stepped in as interim replacement to Jeff Quesenberry, who did double duty as county manager and interim chief financial officer from April 2005 to April 2006.

Before Quesenberry, David Armstrong was county manager.

He lasted less than six months, from November 2004 to March 2005.

Armstrong replaced Stevie Mills, who resigned in May 2004 after a decade as county administrator.

Poston-O’Connor worked at a local landfill company before joining the government as assistant county manager in October 2005.

She moved up to interim county manager in April 2006 and didn’t initially apply for the job.

But after at least two finalists from outside decided not to take the job, the commission approved her appointment as permanent county manager on a 3-2 vote last September.

In her tenure with the county, Poston-O’Connor was reprimanded twice —- once as county manager for refusing to add an item to the commission’s agenda at two members’ request, as commission rules permit.

The majority said there were other problems, too —- notably her failure to keep abreast of the county’s finances, including a budget that depends on $5 million from reserves, or savings.

Chairman Charles Laughinghouse and Jim Harrell, who voted for her appointment, remained supporters to the end, commending her Thursday night for “her hard work under difficult circumstances.”

“Here we go again … ” Harrell said before the vote. “The board of commissioners will yet again fire another county manager and all that that implies.”

As pressure increased recently, Poston-O’Connor avoided responding to her critics on the commission, saying she was privileged to have had the job and to work with so many talented people.

County Commissioner Dave Richard said the county’s financial problems are no small matter.

Revenues could be short nearly $14 million, with less fees and taxes coming in and a budget that counted on $5 million from reserves, or savings, he said.

“So when you consider the two reprimands in less than a year, the budget issues that weren’t disclosed to commissioners, the hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting contracts to prop up skills and talent she didn’t have, hearing Charlie Laughinghouse say she did an admirable job rings kind of hollow, doesn’t it?” Richard said.

Poston-O’Connor’s contract says she’ll receive a one-year severance, in a lump sum or monthly installments.

Also, it requires the county to pay 75 percent of the COBRA health insurance premiums for her and any dependents for six months.