Search for county administrator narrowed to six
By JIM FAILE
DARLINGTON - Darlington County Council has narrowed its search for a county administrator down to six potential candidates, the chairman of council said.
Council members spent just over an hour in a closed executive session Monday reviewing resumes of applicants. The session was part of a special meeting.
Forty-three people applied for the position.
Council will take up the remaining applicants again when it holds its regular October meeting on Oct. 4, Chairman Billy Baldwin said after Monday’s session.
“We have tentatively scheduled an executive session after that meeting to consider these potential candidates,” Baldwin said.
“We may narrow it some more, or we may pick back up some that we’ve eliminated,” he said.
“We’re going to keep working it until we get it to a number that we’re comfortable with bringing in for interviews,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he is pleased with the search process so far and said he believes other council members are as well. “I’m very happy that we’ve had the cooperation that we have with the members of council,” he said.
“Some of the members were kind of leery of going through the process at first. This is the first time we’ve had a serious discussion to eliminate candidates. Everybody had equal say. I’m very pleased and satisfied with how quickly we got it down to this number.”
Baldwin declined to say whether any of the remaining potential candidates are current county employees.
“It’s a good mix as far as the areas they come from. And they’re all good quality people. I’m pleased that we were able to agree on them,” the chairman said.
Councilman Le Flowers said the six appear to be the most qualified for the position. “It’s a good qualified pool,” he said, adding that he was pleased that council was able to agree on the six.
“I’m very happy that council members did their homework and were able to get it to this point,” Flowers said.
Council had its first review of all 43 resumes on Sept. 16. Since then, members have been reviewing the resumes on their own with an eye toward narrowing the field.
Former County Administrator Phyllis Griffitts retired in June after nearly 12 years in the position.
Former Florence City Manager Tommy Edwards, who is also the former county administrator for Florence and Georgetown counties, is currently serving as interim county administrator until council fills the position.
In other business during Monday’s meeting, council unanimously approved a grant application through the North Eastern Strategic Alliance (NESA) for up to $20,250 to assist in the development of the county-owned industrial park located along Interstate 20 at Exit 137.
If the county gets the grant, the funding will help pay for the engineering of a road, water and sewer infrastructure for the park as well as entranceway development and signage.
The county has already received two grants from Pee Dee Electric Cooperative totaling $70,000, which is the match for the project.