Dubois County Commissioners vote 2-1 to create new county administrator position

Dubois County Commissioners voted 2 to 1 to create a county administrator position at Monday’s meeting. The issue will now go before the Dubois County Council to fund the position.

Commissioner Chad Blessinger, who led the push for the position, argued the county lacked the capacity to handle a growing list of administrative needs, from ordinance compliance and land use planning to grant opportunities and community concerns.

“I don’t think we’re meeting our full responsibility and not performing at our highest level without an assistant of some sort,” Blessinger said, noting later in the meeting that he didn’t look at the position as one that would replace the work and responsibilities of the commissioners. “It’s an aid to them. It’s an aid to the county government, and as a whole, I think it’s good for the county.”

Commissioner Nick Hostetter raised concerns throughout the discussion about how the role would be implemented and whether it could lead to an unelected official accumulating too much influence.

“If they were not strong enough to push back on the administrator, we could get an administrator in here that essentially ran the county,” he said.

Blessinger pushed back, saying that would be an issue with the county’s executive leadership.

Blessinger also pointed out that counties both larger and smaller than Dubois — including Morgan, Wayne, Montgomery, Wabash, and Dearborn — already used county administrators, citing a study the county conducted around the same time last year.

The pay for the position has not been formally determined, but Blessinger suggested it would be set at a level similar to the county human resources position, structured as a full-time, 40-hour-per-week role working at the pleasure of the commissioners.

Blessinger outlined a range of responsibilities that currently fell through the cracks, including planning and running a land use committee, spearheading future zoning work, coordinating with third parties on reviews of solar and battery storage standards, handling records requests, and overseeing ordinance compliance.

He pointed to a recent example where a water main break on a county road prompted a concerned resident to call in, and he was able to resolve the situation by contacting the on-site highway manager. But he warned that not every situation would be so straightforward.

“What if it was a situation where we need somebody out there immediately? It’d be pretty hard for us to get out of our full-time work to drop what we’re doing and get active,” he said.

Blessinger also raised the issue of missed training and grant opportunities, noting that just over the weekend he received notices about a multi-year opioid settlement training session, a full-day training on utility-scale renewable energy systems, and $4 million in arts and culture grants awarded by Uplands that the county did not receive.

“Sometimes we’re missing opportunities because we don’t have the capacity to go to all of these things and to then have staff that will do it,” he said.

Hostetter floated an alternative during the discussion — making one or all three commissioners full-time rather than hiring an administrator. He said they could either split the money for the position between the three commissioners for full-time or use it to help fund a single commissioner acting in that role. This would keep accountability with elected officials and give the public a direct say every four years, he explained.

“The public still has the right to vote who’s doing the day to day running of the county,” Hostetter said.

Blessinger responded that making commissioners full-time raised continuity concerns, particularly when a commissioner lost an election or chose not to run again. “Whoever has all that knowledge and institutional knowledge and all of that experience just goes out the door too,” he said.

He also said that at roughly $30,000 per year, commissioner pay was not structured for full-time work, and that dividing an administrator’s salary three ways would not realistically make the role attractive enough to draw full-time commitment.

Members of the public also weighed in during the meeting. Resident Zach Heim said he preferred the full-time commissioner model and raised concerns about accountability for an appointed position.

“You guys get to pick another one of your buddies to put up there, and then we can’t do anything about it,” Heim said.

He asked if they could put this question before the public on a ballot.

Blessinger responded later in the meeting that Indiana has strict guidelines regarding ballot initiatives. “The state doesn’t allow things like this to be put on the ballot,” he said.

Resident Jacey Lamb questioned whether a single administrator could realistically handle the breadth of responsibilities being described, suggesting that multiple specialized staff members might be more effective.

“Putting that all on one person is impossible for that one person and then everything’s going to become bottlenecked,” Lamb said.

Blessinger responded that the county was unlikely to fund multiple new positions if it was struggling to approve even one, and that many of the specific tasks — such as ordinance compliance — would not constitute a full-time job on their own.

County Councilman Doug Uebelhor, who is currently running for election to Stenftenagel’s position on the commission, also voiced opposition, arguing that existing department heads and regional bodies such as Region 15 already cover many of the responsibilities being cited, and that the county should ensure current employees are fully utilized before adding new positions.

“It seems like everything you’ve listed as something that needs to be done somewhere in the county, Region 15 or some department head already covers those responsibilities,” Uebelhor said.

Blessinger disputed this characterization, saying the county’s reliance on consultants over the past decade had not produced reliable results and that the volume of community concerns and administrative tasks had grown beyond what current staff can absorb.

He stated that as an executive board they could decide to pursue a certain project for the betterment of the county but then would have to have someone execute the project. “Now, some part-time person or somebody from an office gets to add five hours of work a week to do that,” Blessinger said. “To me, that doesn’t seem reasonable.”

The final decision passed with Blessinger and Commissioner Serice Stenftenagel in support and Hostetter against. The last time the issue was addressed, the vote to create the position was split with Blessinger abstaining because he stated he may apply for the position if it is created.

Now that the position has been formally created, the county council had to decide whether to fund it. Blessinger noted the process involved additional steps before the role could be filled, and that the board intended to open the position for applications rather than making a direct appointment.