John McCarthy announces retirement, advocates for separate zoning official
John McCarthy had words and advice for the Board of Supervisors in announcing his July retirement from a post he has held since 1986 as county and zoning administrator. As he stepped back from the board table and addressed the supervisors from the audience at Monday’s meeting,
he told how the two-position job “has worn me down” over the years.
McCarthy — who makes about $160,000 a year — will no longer manage the county and zoning administration. Rappahannock County is the only one in the state in which the same person does both jobs. And as it currently sits, though no action has been taken, deputy county administrator Debbie Keyser will assume the role of county administrator and a second position for zoning administrator may be created and filled by appointment. By design, the salaries for the two positions will not cost the county more than McCarthy and Keyser’s combined salaries.
“I’m out. I mean I’m retiring in a few months,” said McCarthy. “If you indeed agree to staff an additional position, Debbie presumably will make that hire and that’ll be what she and you have to live with, much like any other staffing decision is made. I agree that zoning is important. It’s probably the most important thing that is dealt with on a daily basis in county government. I have dealt with it for 30 years. I have predecessors, one of whom [David Konick] at least is present, who dealt with it in years before me — and it’s the predominate effect of the look of the landscape. But to say that I’ve controlled it considerably overdoes the case. Obviously YOU control it; you vote to approve or disapprove. And you’ve certainly ignored my recommendations in times passed, and agreed with me on other occasions.
“The notion of a second position is not new to you, despite how it may appear new to some members of the public. The notion of bringing a deputy county administrator on board and partially funding it with funds that we currently heretofore had spent on tourism, was there, that was 30-some-thousand dollars that we were going to contribute toward the deputy county administrator salary, and that person is going to take over the responsibility for supporting tourism, which of course Debbie has indeed done.
“So there’s always been the discussion of having a second person. The notion was never fleshed out as far as exactly what the responsibilities of that person would be. You have two problems when you have someone in the position of county administrator. Or at least two problems, there may be many more as I have demonstrated over the years. One problem you will always have is, who takes over if that person retires? Or leaves and takes a job somewhere else? Succession matters. That you can manage by having a number two, who’s constantly being put in the position of exposure to what’s going on with what number one deals with, and then that person can step in to the number one job when the number one goes.
“You also have the “hit by a bus” problem: The number one can just disappear, without any planning or preparation for succession of my position. I think you need to have a number two. Zoning is a logical set of responsibilities to put on that person. I think things have changed pretty dramatically over the last 30 years. I’m the first to admit that I have been missing a few things over the last couple of years. I’ve gotten by largely through age and guile, and the long-standing condition of just sounding like I knew what the Hell I was talking about even if I had not necessarily done so. That’s a pretty important skill for this position. And it’s not a skill that is acquired by a mandate of heaven, you have to earn it, you have to accrue it over time.
“I think that my vanity is certainly appeased by whatever I’ve done about myself, and I feel about myself. I don’t need the ratification of it by somebody else deciding that they need to have two people to replace me. I think YOU need two people to replace the job that you have put on me over the years. It’s worn me down. It will wear down whoever you put in the number one spot. I’m willing to help out during the transitional period, on a consulting basis, to backstop electronically or telephonically, and I’m sure we’ll talk about that. But I’m not going to be there forever; nobody should be doing that on a part-time basis, because it simply is too complicated to be contained by picking it up and putting it down every few hours.
“I feel you need two people for this position, if not now, then after I’ve transitioned completely out and I’m not supporting even electronically from a distance anymore. Certainly at some future point. It does need to be discussed in the public. I wasn’t asking for a decision today. I don’t have a person I want you to hire. I will have nothing to do with whoever you hire. But you need two people, for succession, to solve the “hit by a bus” problem, and because zoning is important.
“You did fund this position partly with other sources of money, but that’s all going to go away just having one person there. The discussion about there being two people has been ongoing. Saying zoning administrator and county administrator IS new, but that’s just logic. I think you’ll see in the fullness of time it’s going to be logical to you. I’m not asking for your decision today, I’m asking you to engage seriously in what is an ongoing problem. Thank you.”
John McCarthy: “I don’t need the ratification of it by somebody else deciding that they need to have two people to
replace me. I think YOU need two people to replace the job that you have put on me over the years. It’s worn me down. It will wear down whoever you put in the
number one spot.”
Peter Luke: “And I think, as John says,
the job has worn him down, and I can
understand why. We don’t need to go down that path again. Treat your employees appropriately. Give them a reasonable amount of work. Don’t put them in a harness and ride them until they
drop.”