Gaines appointed Grant County Administrator

EPHRATA — Grant County Central Services Director Tom Gaines has been appointed as interim Grant County Administrator. Grant County Commissioner Cindy Carter said it’s something commissioners have been thinking about for a while, and advertised for applications about two months ago.  

“(The county administrator) runs the day-to-day operation of the county,” Gaines said.  

The administrator will have regular meetings with county officials and act as liaison between county officials and the commissioners, he said. Carter said the administrator will do some of the things commissioners were doing, but that have become increasingly difficult. 

Carter used the example of emergency repairs. Because of the regulations governing commission meetings, commissioners couldn’t make a quick decision. 

“One commissioner can’t make a decision. It takes two of us, and that’s a quorum,” she said. 

The commission could call a special meeting, but those require advance notice, she said. In those circumstances, the commissioners decided to establish a new position. Gaines said Grant County is one of the places where the commissioners have other things to do.  

“The commissioners have jobs,” Gaines said. “They’re here two days a week, and to run the day-to-day operations of the county can be very difficult.” 

Previously, commissioners met regularly with individual department administrators, but Gaines will be taking over some of those jobs. 

“It could be the fire marshal, it could be facilities or technology, it could be (administrators) at Renew. I might be approving vacation or doing personnel reviews, helping them hire people,” he said, among other things.  

He will report back to the commissioners and work to put commission decisions into practice, he said. 

The position will be reviewed in January, Gaines said.