For county administrator one guessing game done, second just beginning …

Now you see him … Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

As previously reported, in the wake of the St. Patrick’s Day Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting this week, one guessing game IS over – that two-decade County Administrator Doug Stanley’s five-year contract will NOT be renewed.

However, what may have slipped through the cracks of that story is that a second, guessing game has now begun – how long will Stanley stay on in his county administrator’s position as a non-contract employee following the current contract’s end on June 30?

For as we reported Interim County Attorney Jason Ham telling the media prior to the March 17th meeting’s convening, “after the expiration of Stanley’s contract on June 30, he will remain an uncontracted County employee until he is either terminated by the board or he resigns.”

And THAT is the new guessing game – when might either of those eventualities occur?

Now you don’t …

For as Stanley said in his statement on his employment situation the day after the unanimous vote not to renew his contract, a vote that included two long-time incumbent supporters, “I hope that the Board recognizes my value to them and the community throughout this process and sees my abilities as County Administrator. I look forward to being part of the positive changes being implemented by the new Board.”

The “process” Stanley referenced was the recovery of allegedly misdirected EDA and County assets, as well as achieving legal accountability for those found to be at fault in the EDA financial scandal.

So, the still-county administrator does not sound as if he is distancing himself from the new three-member board majority that campaigned on change of “business as usual” platforms. Rather, Stanley’s comment may reflect someone still auditioning to prove to Supervisors Mabe, Cullers and Oates that if he was part of the collective failure of oversight of EDA operations, he can be a useful part of correcting processes that allowed that previous failure to happen, as the County and EDA move forward; likely with the EDA absorbed into the County’s departmental structure.

And a careful reading of Delores Oates motion, seconded by Cheryl Cullers, suggests too, that perhaps Stanley’s ultimate fate as county administrator has yet to be determined in the minds of his newer bosses.

In his job for two decades, nine months longer than the entire 21st century, the county administrator, far left, is navigating carefully towards the end of his current five-year contract under the watchful eye of a new county board majority.

“I move that the written Employment Agreement of June 30, 2015, between Warren County and Doug Stanley not be renewed and be allowed to expire on its own terms on June 30, 2020, and that upon such expiration Mr. Stanley continue to be employed at-will without a written contract as County Administrator at his current salary, and that for so long as Mr. Stanley continues to be employed, his deferred compensation shall continue at its current rate, that he be allowed to use his County vehicle, and that he be allowed to teach as he currently does.”

The assertion that as of the June 30th end of his contract, Stanley will “continue to be employed at-will without a written contract as County Administrator at his current salary, and that for so long as Mr. Stanley continues to be employed, his deferred compensation shall continue at its current rate,” including the use of his county vehicle might be interpreted to indicate that the county administrator’s “audition” before his newest bosses to keep his job could extend beyond the current Fiscal Year 2021 budget process, and into that fiscal year for an as-yet-to-be-determined amount of time.

And now you see him again – but for how long?

How long?

Remains to be seen.

Like we said at the outset, the new county administrator guessing game has just begun.

Following last Tuesday’s vote, Oates declined to comment on her motion or its implication on Stanley’s future. And all five supervisors declined to comment on Stanley’s future employment status when queried by email the following day.

Stanley will continue as County Administrator through end of fiscal year