Two deputies are better than none

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

After what the county is calling an extensive national search, two experienced county administrators were tapped to jointly serve as Deputy County Administrator to Tompkins County Administrator Jason Molino. Lisa Homes has served as the Director of the Tompkins County Office for the Aging since 2006 and will serve as the Deputy County Administrator of Operations and Administration. Amie Hendrix has served as the Director of Tompkins County Youth Services since 2010 and will serve as the Deputy County Administrator of Performance and Innovation. Originally, Molino was only looking to fill the existing deputy position, but during the search, Molino said he realized there was an opportunity for a second deputy to fill a specific role focusing on county performance.

“As we went through the interview process we saw some candidates really rise to the top of the pool and thought that there were some good candidates that could fit into what I envisioned as the use of the second deputy position,” Molino said. “It just so happened to be that we had two internal candidates and they both seemed to fit the roles that we were looking for.”
Around 45 qualified candidates applied for the position when it was posted back in March. From there, Molino said he and the team of department heads that reviewed the applications did around 12 phone interviews, whittling it down to around four in-person interviews. What put Hendrix and Holmes over the top, Molino said, is that they are both phenomenal leaders.
“They’ve done excellent work in the departments that they are leaders in,” he said. “Both have had some decent time here in the county, which I think is always an asset. It’s always beneficial if you can promote from within and provide opportunities.”

At the July 17 meeting of the county legislature, the legislature approved the appropriation of $154,119 from the contingent fund that had been put there in the 2018 budget for the position of a second deputy county administrator to cover salary, fringe benefits, and other necessary expenses.

While they are not the first female deputy administrators for Tompkins County, across the state the number of women in county administration is relatively low. According to data from the New York State Association of Counties, only 22.2 percent of county executives in New York are women, and only 12.9 percent of county administrators are women. Of the deputy county executive positions that NYSAC has listed in its records, only 21.9 percent are held by women. Here in Tompkins County, those numbers are far more progressive. Following last year’s election, the county legislature now has seven female representatives out of 14, one of whom, Martha Robertson, is chair of the legislature. Almost half (12 out of 28), of the county department’s are currently headed by women (including Holmes and Hendrix).

For both Holmes and Hendrix, the decision to apply for the job was in part motivated by the feeling that it was time for something new. Both have spent years in their roles as directors.
“It just seemed like a good time for me, leaving this office I think in a really good place and I’m looking forward to broadening my perspective on the county and its services and what we do,” Holmes said. “I feel like I have things to offer, having been with the organization for this long, and I really believe in the organization. I think that local governments in general, and Tompkins County government in specific tries , and does, a really good job to provide services to our citizens and to be responsive to public needs.”

 

“For me, it was a time for a new challenge,” said Hendrix. “Both for me personally and professionally, as well as for my current organization. So, working with Youth Services for almost eight years, it seemed time for both of us to have growth. So, the timing was right, however, what that growth was I wasn’t sure.”

Holmes said the position of Deputy County Administrator of Operations and Administration is a bit of uncharted territory. She expects that it will include attending a lot of county meetings to represent the administrator’s office and working with different departments to further the initiatives already in motion at the county level, like Raise the Age. For Hendrix, the focus will be Performance and Innovation, which she said means a mix of both an internal and external evaluation of the county as both a service provider and an employer and building the organization all around.

“I see that position as looking at ways to move the county forward,” Hendrix said. “So, what are we doing as an employer? How are we helping support our own employees, helping them with their own personal support and development? Helping different members of the organization but also the different departments? So, I think that is more of it, and then looking at outside resources and how are we connecting? Jason and I have already had conversations about how do we use leadership development? We have some of the world experts right here, how do we make those connections a little deeper?”

Both bring extensive experience in administration and the numerous tasks and talents that includes, as well as their strong local connections to the community and the different departments within the county. Both are excited to learn more about the county government from an inside perspective and to help move the county forward.

“I’ve seen it from this vantage point but I think having the different vantage point will be really interesting, and I look forward to being able to offer whatever I can bring to that,” Holmes said.
“For me, this new role is an opportunity for growth for the community as well,” Hendrix said. “I think that what we are working on is becoming a government that not only moves forward but one thing that I think that this government does fairly well is listens to the people and tries to shape a lot of our practices to support people, at every level. It’s not just one department that’s finding that support.”

 

For Holmes, there’s an opportunity with this position to bring a renewed energy and spirit to local government. Right now, she said, government itself can have a darker connotation, but “it’s really where the rubber meets the road, in terms of enacting policies and services to serve our citizens, and I just feel very positive about the role of local government, and the role of our local government.” She acknowledges that this perspective is idealistic, but she sees local government as a great way to serve the community.

Hendrix takes a very similar view of serving in local government but also understands that while local government and public service are noble and important, they can be slow and tedious too.

“Everything is changing but government seems to be the last to move, so I think that’s the really interesting piece,” Hendrix said. “I look at the fact that we just renamed our Human Resources Department as Human Resources in 2018. There’s not a lot of Human Resource Departments left because they’ve already moved on. So, what does that mean for us? It’s an exciting time to think about how are we taking the context of what’s happening in the world and then putting it into this organization to better serve everyone.”

Neither Holmes nor Hendrix ever anticipated becoming deputy county administrators, but their new leader feels confident that they are the right deputies for the job. Holmes is expected to start in just a few weeks, with Hendrix not far behind.