Holmes set to retire as county administrator, Akumfi to assume role at start of new year

Tompkins County will say goodbye to a longtime, loyal county employee at the end of 2024 and welcome a new leader to the Department of County Administration.

County Administrator Lisa Holmes, who is originally from the Glen Falls/Queensbury area, is retiring at the end of the year after being employed with the county for 26 years.

Korsah Akumfi, current Schoharie County administrator, will come on board to fill the role.

“I have been fortunate to grow my career within the same organization,” Holmes said. “I don’t know how often that happens anymore; I have been fortunate to continue to learn and grow, first as a planner, then director for the Office for the Aging, then moving on to work in county administration.”

Holmes’ first jobs right out of college were in human services and public service, specifically in the areas of homelessness, housing and HIV/AIDS.

“I’ve always been drawn to wanting to work for the public and for the betterment of others, and for the community,” Holmes said. “It’s something that has always interested me and that I felt called to do.”

After earning a master’s degree in public administration from Cornell University, Holmes started her career working for Tompkins County as a staff member at the Office for the Aging.

Over time, she was promoted to department head for the Office of the Aging, and she became deputy county administrator in 2018. She took on the additional role of interim head of the Department of Human Resources right before COVID-19 hit in 2020.

Working in county administration and human resources during the pandemic was interesting, to say the least, Holmes said. There was a lot to account for, including early retirement incentives, furloughs, introducing the concept of remote work, and rolling out benefit packages.

“And then, of course, there were all of the policies around masking and social distancing,” Holmes said. “We were all just trying to do the best we could and communicate with our employees and the community through [Tompkins County] Public Health.”

Holmes did not expect to be the county’s human resources commissioner for a year and a half, but the pandemic ended up elongating her time in that role. When the county hired current HR Commissioner Ruby Pulliam, Holmes was able to resume her role as deputy administrator only for a brief stint before the administrator at the time, Jason Molino, took another position in Livingston County, so she accepted the role as interim administrator in 2021 and permanently took over the position in 2022.

“I think that I am glad to have been able to lend stability to the organization during COVID,” Holmes said.

There was a lot to do at the time when she first became county administrator. “We were just transitioning back to ‘new normal’ and had a lot of rebuilding to do during that time,” Holmes said. “There were a lot of people in the organization—departmental leaders—who retired, so there was kind of a period of non-stop searches and hiring and rebuilding a leadership team here in county administration. So I’m really proud of the departmental leaders that we now do have.”

Holmes is also proud that the county has recently adopted its first strategic operations plan, which establishes and affirms the mission and values of Tompkins County.

She said that, as the county administrator has the dual role of chief budget operator, she is also proud to say that the county currently has very strong budgeting software in place. As the budget operator, the administrator oversees a $250 million budget as well as a large capital project budget. “And I’m glad to have that [budgeting] structure in place for ongoing stability and success,” Holmes said.

Future challenges facing Tompkins County include the area’s homelessness issue, including the construction of a new emergency shelter. “That’s ongoing work that needs a lot of attention and is something for the new county administrator to be briefed on and brought up to speed quickly on and involved in,” Holmes said.

“It’s a multifaceted issue that involves supply of housing and supply of permanent supportive housing, addressing the issue on those levels, and ensuring that individuals have the supports that are needed,” Holmes added. “There are also some pretty defined things that the county needs to do in the near future around constructing a shelter due to the fact that St. John’s, our current provider, has a 26-bed facility, and the size of it does not meet the current needs.”

Constructing this new facility is just one of the many aspects of the issue. “It’s certainly not the solution to the issue but one of the many components that the county needs to address,” Holmes said.

The construction of the Tompkins County Center of Government is also a long-term project of note, Holmes said. “And even further out on the horizon,” she added, “is the new public safety building.”

“There are challenges on the horizon and lots of work ahead, but the building blocks are in place with a really good foundation for a new person to come into,” Holmes said.

That is where new administrator Akumfi comes in. As he is finishing the year at his current position in Schoharie County, his official start date in Tompkins County will be Jan. 6, 2025.

His background in budget development and the time he has spent as the administrator in a New York State county were key to the legislature’s decision to hire him for the job, said Tompkins County Legislature Chair Dan Klein. “Korsah comes to Tompkins County with recent experience in local government in New York,” Klein said. “Tompkins County is excited to have his experience at Schoharie and his background in customer service and financial management.”

Though Holmes was not part of the search team or the hiring process that chose Akumfi, she said she is looking forward to working with him.

“I’m willing to stay on through January to help with the transition, so it will be a good experience—a good time for me to familiarize him with county systems and processes and help whenever I can with introductions to department heads and community partners,” Holmes said.  “He will have a great team here to work with to carry it on forward.”

Akumfi said that Schoharie County is considerably different from Tompkins. Though Tompkins County has some rural areas similar to Schoharie, Schoharie is more rural and more conservative, Akumfi said, adding that the county also has some major differences from its nearest metropolitan area.

“We’re close to Albany, but we’re completely different from Albany in terms of the culture, politics and social issues,” Akumfi said. 

Another major difference between Schoharie County and Tompkins County, Akumfi said, is that Schoharie has a board of supervisors composed of the elected supervisors from each of the county’s 16 towns, in contrast to Tompkins County’s legislature. 

Originally from Ghana, Akumfi moved to London, England when he was 17. His first experience in local government came when he returned to Ghana in 2016 to do a project on local government administration.

“That really highlighted for me the need for professionalism in managing local services,” he said. “I had a better appreciation of the role of local government in transforming and managing policies and also changing lives.”

While visiting friends in the Binghamton area, Akumfi decided to enroll at Binghamton University after meeting a professor who was from Ghana. Akumfi earned a Master of Public Administration degree with an emphasis on economic development, local government management, and public policy and finance.

Akumfi has served since 2021 as Schoharie County administrator, a position that was created in 2015 with only one predecessor.

He said that for years he has viewed Tompkins County as a positive example. “I look up to the county,” he said. “The efficiency and effectiveness of it, some of the programs they have been able to build over time.” Collaboration is key, Akumfi said.

“I believe that having a multitude of people and ideas helps in being able to fashion good policies and programs,” he said. “Being able to look at things from different perspectives is something that is wonderful to have, so I believe that is one of the key things that made me feel that this is a really great opportunity for me. And also, the stability of the government structure itself.”

Akumfi appreciates that the Tompkins County Administrator role has been in place since the 1970s.

“It’s pretty stable,” he said of the government structure, “and being part of that system gives you the opportunity to really get policy developed within the framework of the legislature.”

He added that he enjoyed meeting the county’s staff members, department heads and legislators during the interview process.

“There are places where people just serve because they feel entitled to it. But [in Tompkins County] we are looking at an environment where people are serving because they feel obliged. They feel that they want to give back to the community,” he said, “and that excites me.”