Henderson’s municipal government will be running without five department heads by the start of June after three fresh resignations go into effect.
The latest to resign is Finance Director Traig Neal, a four-year employee who’s leaving June 1. He is returning to the private sector with Oxford accounting firm Winston Williams & Creech. Neal made his announcement Wednesday.
That was two days after Planning Director Grace Smith submitted her resignation after a decade with the Henderson government. Her last official day is May 20. She’s going to work for the city of Durham as a planning supervisor.
Also entering her final days with the Henderson city government is Mary Cephas, the sole member of the Human Resources Department. Her resignation goes into effect May 18 so she can pursue a small-business opportunity, but Cephas said Friday that she might work a couple of days a week for the city until her job is filled.
Cephas, a five-year city employee, became a de facto department head about a year ago after her boss, Human Resources Director Hartwell Wright, resigned in April 2004 to take a job with the North Carolina League of Municipalities. City Manager Eric Williams chose not to replace Wright, and Cephas officially became the department head when she was promoted to human resources manager from secretary in August.
“All three folks are particularly good people,” Williams said in an interview Friday. “They’re very good at all they do.”
Wright’s resignation ended a period of stability at the top levels of the municipal government. He proved to be the first of six department heads to leave five of the dozen city departments in 13 months.
Public Utilities Director Bryce Mendenhall also resigned last year to take a job elsewhere, and Mike Hicks retired at the end of the year from his job as director of the Kerr Lake Regional Water Plant. The city has not filled either of those jobs. As he did with Cephas in Human Resources, Williams has given operational control of those departments to existing employees (Andy Perkinson for utilities, Joanie Medlin for the water plant) and shifted additional administrative duties to Assistant City Manager Mark Warren. Hicks also continues to help out at the water plant on a contract basis.
Williams does not plan to finesse the latest openings. The city already is advertising for applicants for Smith’s job, and Cephas was working on the ad for Neal’s job Friday. And there is no Human Resources Department until he replaces Cephas.
The city manager said the effect on the city organization of the latest losses is close to “devastation.”
“All of them are going to be tough to fill,” Williams said. “Any time you lose good people, it makes it difficult.”
Neal, Smith and Cephas all have taken on increasing responsibilities in the past year.
Neal and accounting supervisor Peggy McFarland became responsible for the annual city budget after budget analyst Sandra Wilkerson became Mayor Clem Seifert’s full-time assistant. They are in the process of crunching the numbers for the 2005-06 budget; Williams must present the City Council a proposal for a balanced budget by June 1, with adoption necessary by the end of the month.
Cephas took on the whole department last year, and lately she and council member Mike Rainey, who chairs the Human Resources Committee, have worked on a plan for an employee recognition program involving monthly or quarterly awards.
Smith’s department has drawn the most attention lately for the draft amortization ordinance to clear junkyards out of residential areas and clean them up elsewhere, but other initiatives include a new land-use plan, the push to bring a station on the planned high-speed rail line to Henderson, a major Community Development Block Grant program on David Street (still awaiting state approval), a move toward increased minimum-housing enforcement, and transportation planning through the new Regional Planning Organization.
None of the department heads was opposed to hard work or new initiatives, Williams said, and people leave for different reasons. But “there are some themes there” that connect the resignations. He did not elaborate.
Williams himself isn’t the problem, according to the outgoing department heads.
Smith praised the city manager as an excellent boss when she told the Planning Board about her resignation Monday, and Neal said in an interview Friday: “Mr. Williams is one of the best bosses I ever had.”
Neal added: “I think a lot of unfair hardship is put on Mr. Williams that he doesn’t really deserve because of all the good he’s done for the city.”
Still, Williams’ management will be sorely tested in the coming months as he juggles the hiring process and work on the annual budget.
Having so many major vacancies at once will complicate the hiring process, Williams said. When top-quality people apply for such senior positions, they’ll do their homework and likely be concerned about the recent turnover. All other things being equal, that instability could push top candidates to other jobs.
Williams said that individually, none of the departures is a surprise, but having them at once is an unexpected twist.
That twist could make a major reorganization of the city government possible, and Williams said he’ll consider organizational changes. He has no such plans in place, “but there’s always an opportunity.”
An applicant with the right experience and skills could entice Williams to shift responsibilities around.
On the other hand, Williams is holding off on a minor organizational shift he was planning: to move the responsibility for issuing privilege licenses from the Finance Department to the Planning and Community Development Department, which has a good grasp on new businesses in the city because they turn to the latter department for special-use permits and other zoning issues.