The Oglethorpe Echo
When county administrator Josh Hawkins headed to Athens for his new job as Athens-Clarke County’s capital projects administrator, three Oglethorpe County employees — county clerk Amy Forrester, code officer Jeff Sharp and EMS director Jason Lewis — stepped up to perform his duties in his absence.
As county administrator, Hawkins’ duties touched every department.
He acted as a liaison between the Board of Commissioners and county department heads, and also played a primary role in steering the county government’s priorities on issues related to finance, policy and planning.
“The amount of knowledge that Josh Hawkins contained in that brain of his was amazing,” Sharp said. “And I’m not sure one person should have to have that knowledge.”
Per Hawkins’ recommendation, Forrester, Sharp, and Lewis divided his responsibilities and added them to their existing workloads, a daunting task considering how extensive they were.
But five months in, the three say the decision has been a smashing success.
“It’s not often at 50 years old you get a new task of this size,” Lewis said. “It’s a lot of anxiety, I’m not going to lie, but this team, this has been probably the best thing that’s happened in my career in a long time,” Lewis said.
In line with their respective areas of expertise, Sharp took on administrative duties related to public works, code enforcement, land use permits, tax assessment and planning; Forrester took over the county budget, elected officials, courts and human resources; and Lewis took on public safety, which includes the Sheriff’s Office, volunteer fire, 911 and the jail.
Forrester, Sharp and Lewis all say the decision to split these responsibilities is not only the best thing for government continuity and taxpayers’ wallets, but that it has also helped foster more meaningful working relationships between themselves and across every county government office.
The transition has not been without its obstacles, though. The three already had full-time jobs before taking on their new responsibilities.
“The timing of Josh’s departure was a little challenging because it was when we were focused on getting the budget prepared, setting the mill rate,” she said. “It was important to us to keep that continuity for the chairman, for the five board members out there. We didn’t want them to panic when Josh turned in his notice.”
Commission Chair Jay Paul said: “They have done an incredible job all the way around,” “And the way they navigated the complexities of tax season, budgets and millage rates was extremely impressive. Josh Hawkins is one of the brightest people I have ever met and he left some huge shoes to fill, but that group did exactly that.”
The new approach, however, has created another layer of collaboration in county affairs, Lewis said, which he said is representative of what taxpayers want.
No one person has the ability to make unilateral decisions. The three say they consult each other daily and value consensus before moving forward on county matters.
“Personally, as a county resident, I like this form of the three of us,” Sharp said. “Should Jason be gone for a week or two, or somebody has some illness, nothing would change because the other two know as much as I do.”
And despite this decision adding considerable work to their workloads, Forrest, Lewis and Sharp said they feel confident in this new model.
“To be able to have a team like we got, it makes it to where I may have anxiety, but I am not afraid,” Lewis said.
Alex Perri is a master’s student in journalism at the University of Georgia. She previously worked at the Transylvania Times in Brevard, North Carolina.