ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702030020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
While Montgomery County school officials this week hired a search firm to help find a new superintendent, the county Board of Supervisors is going it alone in its search for a new top administrator.
The Board of Supervisors spent four nights this week behind closed doors interviewing seven candidates to replace longtime County Administrator Betty Thomas, who is retiring at the end of March. One more interview is scheduled for Monday. About 90 people applied.
Though no list of first-round candidates has been released, the interviewees included Jeff Lunsford, Montgomery County's assistant county administrator; County Finance Director Carol Edmonds; and a former manager of a small eastern Virginia city.
Joe Gorman, board chairman, said the supervisors have not established a profile of a successful candidate and have not discussed whether promoting from within or bringing in a fresh face would be best. That will likely come later, when second interviews are conducted with finalists.
"What we've got to do is listen to these people. We learned a lot from these people [about] strengths and weaknesses of our system," Gorman said. "Everybody brings something different to the table."
The county administrator is the key appointed leader of Montgomery's government and answers directly to the Board of Supervisors.
The two internal candidates are both top deputies to Thomas, who has been county administrator since 1981.
Lunsford, 42, was Montgomery County's finance director for nine years before becoming assistant county administrator in September 1994. He was born in Abingdon and grew up in the Richmond area. He earned an undergraduate degree from Bridgewater College and a master's of public administration from the University of Kentucky.
Before coming to Christiansburg, Lunsford worked for the state Department of Taxation in Richmond and for the Henrico County budget office.
Edmonds, 41, is a Christiansburg native who became the county's finance director in late 1994. Before that, she worked for 11 years on state budgeting in Richmond. She earlier worked for the state Department of Information Technology.
Edmonds graduated from Christiansburg High School, Radford University and Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned a master's of public administration.
Robert M. Murphy, former Poquoson city manager, is also part of the first-round interview pool. Murphy resigned last spring after 121/2 years as that city's top administrator rather than wait to be fired by new members of the City Council who were taking office July 1, the Newport News Daily Press reported last year.
Meanwhile, the Montgomery County School Board has kicked off a national search to replace Superintendent Herman Bartlett, whose contract expires in June. Tuesday, the School Board selected Sockwell and Associates, a North Carolina firm, to head the search.
The firm, interviewed by the full School Board via conference call last week, said that board could define how involved it wanted to get in the narrowing of candidates. Some board members who served during previous searches have said they didn't have enough control over the final applicants sent to them by a different consultant.
The headhunting firm estimated a national search would cost up to $30,000, depending on travel costs to bring in candidates.
In recent months, Montgomery County has faced turnover in several top administrative posts. Aside from a new county administrator and new school superintendent, it is searching for a new economic development director to replace Don Moore, who has resigned his position to go to work in the private sector. County Attorney Martin McMahon came on board in September from Chesapeake to replace Roy Thorpe, who left to become city attorney for Falls Church.
Staff writer Lisa Applegate contributed to this report.
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