SNOW HILL – The Worcester County Commissioners are expected to move forward with key staff evaluations following a request by one member of the board.
At the end of Tuesday’s regular meeting, Commissioner Joe Mitrecic told his peers he’d like to implement annual evaluations for Chief Administrative Officer Harold Higgins and Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Shannahan.
“When I first came here one of the things I brought up was to have staff evaluations…,” Mitrecic said. “We’ve done nothing with that and I’d like that to be brought back forward. We cannot expect them to do what we want them to do unless they know what it is we want them to do. I think through the evaluation program it will allow them to see what they’re very good at and what they’re deficient at and be able to move forward and better serve the county and us as commissioners.”
Though there was no discussion following the request, Commissioner Diana Purnell, president of the board, confirmed Wednesday that evaluations had been discussed previously and would be moving forward.
“As at any job, they’ll be done,” she said.
Commissioner Chip Bertino said he was in support of Mitrecic’s proposal. He said it was brought up several years ago but that it had been overtaken by other events on the commissioners’ busy agendas.
“I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “It’s good management.”
When asked why he brought the topic of evaluations up this week, Mitrecic said a combination of things had prompted him to speak on Tuesday. He said he’d suggested evaluations when he’d first been elected four years ago but that they had never been implemented.
“It obviously wasn’t county policy before now,” he said. “I want to make it a county policy.”
In addition, he said there’d been some concerns regarding staff.
“There have been some issues with whether or not staff is doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” he said. “I want to make sure staff know what we expect. Unless we tell them they don’t know … I think we need to have clear and concise expectations.”
