Those in the community interested in seeing who wants to be Humboldt County Administrator when Bill Deist retires had the opportunity to meet the six final applicants on Sunday night, Nov. 9. Commissioners set that date to correspond with their interviews of the applicants on Monday, Nov. 10. They will consider those interviews this week and discuss during a special meeting on Friday, and hope to announce a decision at the end of that meeting.
Commissioners had a quick meeting Monday morning beginning at 8 a.m. to cover only those items that needed to be handled before their next commission meeting. By 9:30 they were into their scheduled interviews with the six finalist county administrator applicants.
Those who took the opportunity Sunday night to meet the candidates were impressed at the quality of the people Humboldt County Commissioners have to choose from for their next county administrator.
Applicant Brenda Willey has been working for the county for the past 18 years as administrative assistant to Deist.
"I've lived in Winnemucca my whole life except when I left to go to UNR, said Willey, who received her masters of science degree from the state university. Of her work inside the administrator's office, Willey said, "I've learned a lot and have seen commissioners come and go." Willey would like to see Humboldt County get more into the forefront of legislative issues. "I'd like to see us leading other counties," she commented. She added that succession planning is something county departments and offices should be thinking about.
Dave Mendiola was also born in Winnemucca. His parents ran the kitchen at the Winnemucca Hotel years ago. He left his hometown after high school and has lived several places around the country. He worked for Kodak, and was involved in a consulting business. When he realized that in the Internet age, he could do consulting from anywhere, he chose to come back to Winnemucca. Since he did that 18 months ago, he has enjoyed being the radio voice of Lowry sports and serving on the planning commission. Mendiola has been attending most of the commission meetings for the past 14 months. He said he'd like to get county residents more involved with the commissioners and says probably the only way to bring that about would be for the county's administrator to get out into the community and talk to people. He said his management style is to get out of the way and expect people to do their jobs. He sees himself mainly as a resource and budget manager.
Kevin Kirkeby is a familiar face to many in city and county government, as he was U.S. Senator John Ensign's rural Nevada representative for the senator's terms in office. Kirkeby said the contacts he made all over rural Nevada as a rural representative would benefit him as Humboldt County Administrator. He went back to college at UNR and received his masters degree with an emphasis in finance. He is very interested in natural resources and renewable energy opportunities for Nevada. He believes that both Nevada, as a whole, and Humboldt County specifically, have huge potential for renewable energy development
William Kohbarger has lived in Pahrump for the past six years; he's been the town manager for five years. He was Carlin's city manager for eight years, from the time Bill Deist left that office to come work as Humboldt County Administrator. He was also previously village manager for a little town under 5,000 in population in Lincoln, about 12 miles northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio. He worked for North Las Vegas as the deputy director of human resources. Kohbarger said he's familiar with northern Nevada issues because city and county managers keep in close contact - he feels that would make him able to hit the ground running.
Brian Scroggins has lived in Las Vegas for the past 26 years. He went there right out of college. As a licensed contractor, he owned his own sign business. His service on Nevada's Employee Management Relations Board has brought him into contact with City Manager Steve West and County Administrator Bill Deist. In that job he worked with cities, counties, fire departments, sheriffs' offices, police departments, hospitals, special improvement districts, along with over 200 unions. Scroggins said he went to college with Mark Hutchison, Nevada's newly elected lieutenant governor and believes that contact would be valuable for Humboldt County. His masters degree is in emergency management. If Scroggins' name sounds familiar it may be because he ran for Secretary of State in 2006. He believes his familiarity with the Legislature would also benefit Humboldt County.
Eric Duthie is from Mesa, Ariz. and has worked in law enforcement for 25 years. He was also city manager in St. John's, Ariz., a community of 5,000 people. He was recruited to be city manager of Taylor, Ariz., and spent six years in that job. He has also worked for Southwest Risk Services, an Arizona insurance pool similar to Nevada Public Agency's POOL/PACT services. He was risk manager for that organization and succeeded in turning around a record of losses. He said he has "never been this far north," and was drawn to the job here by a friend who "just raves about Winnemucca."
Each of the six finalist applicants have been vetted by Nevada Public Agency Insurance POOL/PACT human resources, including full background checks, resume checks and reference checks.
From a field of around 25 applicants, POOL/PACT narrowed the field to eight finalists. One of those finalists then got a different job and withdrew and another decided the trip out west for interviews would be too costly. The commissioners approved a travel reimbursement of up to $450 per applicant.
Each applicant's interview was scheduled for about an hour and a quarter.[[In-content Ad]]
