Administrator set to resign

County Administrator Mark Neary will be leaving his position at the end of May, he told Mason County Commissioners at Monday’s briefing.

Commissioners will offer an interim administrator position to current Mason County Undersheriff Travis Adams.

“He’s already managing 105 people. He already knows all the players,” Commissioner Randy Neatherlin said.

Neatherlin said initially he was opposed to an administrator position.

“We got blessed,” he said, referring to Neary.

“Our money is in a lot better position right now than it would have been if he hadn’t been at the helm,” Neatherlin said.

Commissioner Pat Tarzwell recommended commissioners “move forward as fast as possible” in appointing Adams to the interim administrator position.

Commissioners said they would talk to Sheriff Ryan Spurling to see how soon Adams could start working.

Commissioner Sharon Trask asked Neary how much time he needed to brief Adams on the position.

“It would be nice to sit down with him and talk about the structure,” Neary said.

Neary said the position was created in county code, so commissioners can appoint a replacement right away.

“If you’re going to put Travis in as an interim then you might want to define what that time period looks like so it’s very clear with the sheriff’s office as to what does that timeline look like and are you going to go through a process to ultimately fill the position permanently,” Neary said.

Neatherlin agreed with the interim appointment, but said he’d like to also discuss having a director or manager, instead of an administrator.

Trask disagreed.

“Having somebody sitting in as the administrator is critical. The way that Mark manages the three of us … it’s not just the three of us that he is communicating with, it’s every department, every director,” Trask said.

Tarzwell suggested they discuss the type of position at a later meeting, but move forward now with Adams, and Neatherlin and Trask agreed.

Commissioners will need to negotiate and execute an employment agreement, they said.