A Carroll commissioner-elect who criticized incumbents during his campaign for wasting taxpayers? dollars on personal assistants has selected his own.
“If I were king of Carroll County, I?d design a different system, but I am starting in the middle of a process, so it?s not something I can wave my magic wand and change,” Michael Zimmer said Thursday. “Elected officials are entitled to select and craft a system, and I am willing … to try it their way.”
Zimmer vowed in August at a Freedom Area Citizens? Council forum to eliminate some positions, such as public relations and specials assistants.”We need conversations, not layers of government,” he said.
Zimmer tapped Amanda Boyd Miller, an assistant to Joseph Getty, policy director for Gov. Robert Ehrlich, for a 40-hour position with a yearly salary of $43,306.
Zimmer had the option of selecting a special assistant who works 20, 30 or 40 hours a week, said Carole Hammen, county human resources director.
Commissioners Julia Gouge and Dean Minnich each have assistants who work 30 hours a week.
Tim Feeser, Gouge?s assistant, works an additional 10 hours a week on the county government?s cable television station and makes $46,156 a year, while Dave Humbert, Minnich?s assistant, is paid $35,646, according to the human resources department.
Assistants were added under the current board as a way to help commissioners with their increasingly time-consuming jobs, Feeser said.
This week, Chief of Staff Steven Powell appointed Cindy Parr, assistant to outgoing Commissioner Perry Jones Jr., to chief of administrative services, a new position. She will work on water resource management and environmental concerns in addition to retaining her cable television responsibilities.
She?ll make $53,000 a year, a salary made possible with the elimination of two other positions, said Vivian Laxton, county spokeswoman.
Ralph Green, general services director, will take on zoning administrator responsibilities, and Parr will serve as cable television manager, a position the county had been advertising, she said.
