(0:00) Stephen Allen in studio this morning, Lincoln County Chief of Staff. Speaking of petitions, (0:06) we did see a petition that’s beginning to start circulating regarding the number of commissioners (0:12) in Lincoln County and some wanting to go from three to five. Walk us through this process and (0:16) how it works.

Yes, the GOP has come out and they are required to get 1,100 signatures of valid (0:22) signatures of valid voters within the county. Then once they get that, they submit that to the clerk (0:29) and then the clerk and assessor has 60 days to validate all of those signatures that they’re (0:34) correct and valid voters. Then at that point, that would go on the ballot.

They’re going to (0:40) be a little hard pressed as well because they have to get it to the clerk by July 15th. Again, (0:44) meet the same criteria in order to get it on the ballot. There’s going to be two parts to this.

(0:50) If they get it that far to the ballot, you’re going to be asked the first question, do you want (0:55) five commissioners? We’re asking people, educate yourself. The commission, the employees of Lincoln (1:02) County absolutely have no position on this. This is strictly the constituent’s choice and we respect (1:08) what the constituents want.

That’s who we work for. Whatever they choose to do, the key element (1:14) is educate yourself what you’re asking for. If you’re wanting to go from three commissioners to (1:18) five, just understand that’s growth of government.

That’s going to be added expenditure. Then when (1:24) the second part to the question is, do you want to do them in districts? The cautionary tale to (1:30) that as you look at that is if I’m a voter in a district, right now I have a voice in three (1:36) commissioner seats. I get a vote for three.

If I go to a district, I’m going to get to vote for one. (1:42) How do you feel about that is what people have to ask themselves. The other side to that is, (1:48) this came up last night up in the Thane visit, is that in 2028 is when this would take place.

(1:55) You would vote for additional commissioners if it passes. That second part on the districts (2:00) would then at that same time be drawn out. It’s based on three criteria by statute.

(2:05) One is population, one is economics, and the third part is topography. We have three different (2:12) economic zones when we talk about Lower Valley, Upper Valley, and South Lincoln. (2:17) The population is spread out across those boundaries.

The commissioner is going to (2:21) have a tough time to figure out where those boundaries go if the constituents want to go (2:25) to districts. One of the questions that’s been brought up is, does it have to be (2:30) all five within a district or can you have any at-large seats in this situation? (2:36) We understood it to mean all districts, so it would all five be districts. Right now, (2:42) all three are at-large, but the way it’s presented in this petition, (2:47) we understand it to be five specific districts.

(2:49) Gotcha, gotcha. And so you can go to five commissioners and have the district part (2:56) voted down though, correct? It could remain all at-large. (3:00) You’re absolutely right.

At that time, all five would then be at-large. (3:03) Gotcha, gotcha. Chief of Staff Stephen Allen in studio this morning on the Weekday Wakeup.

Along (3:08) with this, Stephen, kind of what your role has people have discussed, okay, well, what does (3:13) that mean for the chief of staff position and if we go to five commissioners and everything like (3:18) that? So let’s talk about your role specifically and what the chief of staff does and what your (3:23) relationship is with commissioners when it comes to responsibilities. (3:26) Absolutely. My role in Lincoln County is to serve the constituents and at the courtesy of (3:33) the commission.

The commission has established an organizational chart where I basically (3:39) administrate the nine departments that are not under the elected officials. (3:44) I look at Lincoln County like a wonderful sports car, right? If you look at South Lincoln County, (3:50) it is our engine, right? That industry drives and brings a lot of value to the county that we all (3:54) share. Then you look at the lower valley, you know, Alpine and Star Valley Ranch and Thane is (4:00) the beautiful body lines of the sport car and that nice pinstripe.

And then you got the upper (4:05) valley in Afton and they’re this, that warm feeling you get with that leather interior and that (4:11) burl wood. And we all together make that car. And then my role is to keep the wheels on the car, (4:17) right? And keeping it going forward by bringing us together as one Lincoln County, keeping people (4:23) informed and communicated with.

Now, with that, we would also, I would add that you have four (4:33) major cities, all four major cities now have administrators. And from those four, there’s (4:38) about $21 million in revenue that they kind of manage with about 7,600 folks. When we look at (4:46) the offices of the mayors and councils, they’re all part-time positions in Lincoln County.

(4:52) The commissioners, there’s only four part-time positions when you elect the county officials, (4:59) right? One is a coroner and none of us want to be CNM, right? The other three are the commissioners. (5:04) They are part-time positions. And I will tell you that with three commissioners, you already (5:09) have them going to at least 136 meetings a year as a part-time person.

So there has to be some (5:17) continuity in communication and keeping up on what’s being presented to them. Otherwise, (5:22) it gets to be overwhelming quite quickly. Now, if the four key cities can see the need for an (5:28) administrator, then shouldn’t the commission look at also needing an administrator? And if the new (5:34) commission comes in and says, we want to restructure, they have that full authority to (5:38) do that.

And again, I serve at the will of the commission and the constituents. So this is (5:46) not a lifetime thing. I’m glad to serve Lincoln County as long as they’ll have me and I’ll keep (5:52) doing the hard work.

As we talked earlier, my role is to look two and three years down the road and (5:57) have shelf-ready projects. So when the commissions are able due to budget to implement changes, (6:04) like we’re doing the district court, that is a full cash project. It is being done under budget (6:10) and on time.

And it is my leadership team that’s driven that train and making sure that everybody (6:16) who needs to be communicated with, we’re keeping the circuit court open and the jail open while (6:20) we’re getting this done with the minimum impact because we’re being that active on those kinds (6:25) of projects. A couple of follow-up questions to that. When the Lincoln County GOP brought forth (6:30) this petition to go to five commissioners, they did not shy away from the fact that they felt like (6:35) if it went to five, that the commissioners could then distribute those responsibilities (6:43) between the five and not need the chief of staff position.

And that’s what they say it was going (6:47) to be a net savings for the county is what they call it. Because even though you’re paying two (6:51) more commissioners, you don’t have the chief of staff salary. Maybe what’s your response (6:54) to that notion and if it does end up going to the five? You know, that’ll be their choice.

(7:03) We’ll offer them an organizational chart that we think will be effective going forward and they’ll (7:09) have every opportunity to decide to change and amend that as they see fit. And if that includes (7:13) this position, great. But in the end, somebody’s got to do the job.

And I think the GOP is absolutely (7:18) right about that, right? Who does the job? And if you think five part timers are going to be (7:24) effective to do the job, and it’s really not the money because the minute we put two commissioners (7:30) on, that’s going to be $300,000 to the bottom line of government, period. And I guarantee you, (7:36) they’re not paying me that kind of money. And in fact, two of the administrators in the county (7:41) make more money than I do.

So, you know, I handle a $26 million budget and some of that spread up (7:48) with the other elected officials. But then there’s 21,000 constituents we answer to as well. So (7:55) it’s a little bit larger.

The real concept to this was to not only do be an administrator of (8:03) the nine departments and bring down the efficiencies and so on. And we talked earlier, (8:08) we brought in $34 million in industrial siting. The commissioners don’t have time to attend those (8:13) meetings are usually within 30 days, you got to show up and it’s really hard pressed on time (8:19) for people to leave their private jobs to do that.

But on the other side, some of the efficiencies we (8:25) brought in, we’ve saved $4.5 million in the last three years in health insurance alone, because of (8:30) what I did the first six months I was here. So if we want to talk about value, right, because that (8:35) comes into play, it’s not just about time or budget, but does the job pay for itself? And (8:41) I’ve always taken pride in that. I think if you’re going to be a part of government, and obviously, (8:46) government service industry, so you don’t have any control of your revenues, you can’t run it (8:52) all like a business, but you can be efficient, right? And so as long as I feel like I’m paying (8:57) for myself, then we’re giving value back to the constituents from the budgetary side.

(9:03) Lincoln County has been in the search for a planner for for quite a while. And there’s been (9:08) there’s been a planner here that’s come and then gone and a planner that’s come and gone. (9:12) What does that process look like in relation to what your position is? And and I mean, what’s (9:19) the difference between having a chief of staff and having a county planner? (9:23) Oh, it’s completely night and day.

Now, if you’ll remember, when I first came on the first two years, (9:28) before we got Mr. Kowalski as our planning director, I was filling in. And that’s part (9:35) of being the administrator of these departments, right? If if we’re waiting to hire somebody, (9:39) somebody’s got to fill in the role. And so that gives me a chance to, you know, step in, (9:43) help out, keep the wheels on the car, as we said, moving forward.

Mr. Kowalski has come a long way. (9:50) He didn’t have a lot of planning experience when he came on. So the first year we really get let (9:54) him get his sea legs.

The last six months we’ve really trained him up on and now he’s going out (9:59) and talking to the communities. He’s holding realtor meetings and making sure they’re (10:03) communicated with. He’s holding meetings with developers.

He’s holding meetings with cities (10:08) for planning. And we’re getting a lot more role out of him. And if you add those meetings on what (10:15) he’s doing to the meetings that I’m required to do, which is the federal and state agencies, (10:20) there’s no way you can do both, right? So something’s got to give somewhere.

My role in (10:26) NEPA alone, when you talk about the Forest Service, right now we’re talking forest revision, (10:31) wild and scenic, that report was due yesterday. We’re talking about timber sales. We’re talking (10:35) about multiple use.

We’re talking about trails, right? Now we’re doing great tap up here. We did (10:42) the master transportation plan. We’re now doing the upper valley tap to start doing trails.

(10:48) And now we’re going to start the lower valley trails process as well. So we’re going to have (10:52) trails really well mapped out. And on top of that, we’ve added a grant called the SS4A, (10:58) which will look at the trails on the other side so we can match them up together and really look (11:04) about how we keep multiple use in our forest.

And that’s the fight we’re taking on, right? So (11:09) when all the meetings are in Jackson and Pinedale, who’s going to take off the job and go do that? (11:15) And planning and zoning, Ken Kuloski is doing some of those plans himself. He’s got to do that (11:23) day to day as well as the meetings and so on when he handles the planning and zoning commission and (11:28) so on. So totally two different jobs, but I have to be ready to step in if, and I got to know what (11:34) he’s doing so I can help him out if that’s a course we have to take.