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November vote gives decision to citizens

By Lisa Scheller - | Jun 19, 2002

Leavenworth County voters in November will have a second chance to decide if the county needs to hire a full-time administrator.

In November 1998, Leavenworth County voters rejected, 7,519 to 6,068, a proposal to hire a county administrator, said Janet Klasinski, deputy county clerk.

Commissioner Don Navinsky said the county’s growth prompted the commissioners to put the question on the ballot again. “Leavenworth County has grown so much,” Navinsky said. “We’re at basically 70,000 population.”

In 1980, the county’s population was 54,809, and in 1990, it was 64,371. Census numbers project that by 2010, the population will have grown to 77,000.

Commissioners could decide, without voters’ approval, to hire a county administrator, Navinsky said.

“But if the people vote for it, that means it’s got more teeth in it than the county commission setting it up,” Navinsky said. “It takes a vote to put it in, it takes a vote to take it out that’s a stabilizing effect.”

Duties of a county administrator would be set by the county commissioners, Navinsky said.

“Those duties could change whenever a county commission changed,” he added.

It’s likely a county administrator would be responsible for personnel and departmental financing, Navinsky said.

“And non-elected department heads would probably answer to the county administrator,” he said.

A county administrator should have a degree in public administration, Navinsky said. And, he said, he thought a salary might start at about $60,000.

The election will be Nov. 5.