Benton County judge makes changes

 Barry Moehring
Barry Moehring

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Judge Barry Moehring will take his time to fill positions and make structural changes in his new administration.

Moehring, who took office in January, has made some changes and others are pending. One of his first new hires was Robert McGowen, who was named emergency services administrator in January.

Emergency communications

Benton County’s Office of Emergency Communications answers 911 calls for all of Benton County except the cities of Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs. In 2017, the center received 37,533 911 calls; 193,206 administrative line incoming calls and 58,059 outgoing calls for a total call volume of 288,798.

Source: Staff report

McGowen replaces Marshal Watson, who was not retained by Moehring. Mike Dixon, director of the Office of Emergency Management, also was not retained. Michael DeRose, director of emergency communications, resigned. McGowen brought his plans for a new structure to the Personnel and Finance committees last week. The plan reduces the number of employees and changes work schedules.

"I knew coming into this job we had issues relating to morale and turnover," Moehring said of emergency services operations. "I also had some people talk to me about training in the office. When Robert came on board he was able to pick up on that pretty quickly."

McGowen worked for Benton County from 2010 to 2015, and was director of emergency management when he left to take a job as director of emergency services for Saline County.

McGowen's changes include going from eight-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts for the emergency communications dispatcher to mirror what is done in Saline County and other jurisdictions in Arkansas and other states.

The 12-hour shift schedule addresses a major complaint among staff, McGowen said. With three eight-hour shifts, some dispatchers had Tuesdays and Wednesdays as their "weekends" which disrupted family life for those employees, he said.

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"They got here, we got them trained and then they were stuck on second shift and never saw their families on weekends." McGowen said. "With the 12-hour shifts every dispatcher over a 14-day pay period will work seven days and be off seven days. They'll also have every other weekend off."

The shift change also will decrease the number of employees needed while improving coverage, McGowen said. The Benton County Sheriff's Office works 12-hour shifts and dispatchers will become more familiar with the deputies they work with and be better able to assist them, he said.

The number of dispatchers needed will go from 33 to 28, he said. No one will lose their job as the county had five positions vacant. The reorganization will provide dispatcher II positions with a $1 per hour raise to bring them more into line with other agencies. McGowen will reduce the top level management positions from three to one and cut the number of shift supervisor positions from six to four by reducing shifts and reassigning job duties.

Senior dispatchers will support shift supervisors and fill in as needed to cover vacations and other absences.

"This allows the most senior person to be an 'acting supervisor' and gives them a way to move forward," he said.

The emergency management reorganization is the only one of any significant size he has planned, Moehring said.

"This is a big change for CenCom and Emergency Management," he said. "We don't have anything like this planned for any of the other departments."

Moehring also has named a new Information Technology director. He retained James Turner after Turner served as interim director for the first two months of the year. Eddie Mahar was not retained in the job, and Moehring said Turner was his choice after he advertised for applications and considered a number of candidates.

"We had three finalists out of dozens of resumes from all over the world," Moehring said. "We spent time filtering and reviewing them and some of the other elected officials were involved. I wanted to get feedback from them since this position is so important to so many of the different offices. The IT director needed to be a consensus pick."

Turner's work as interim director and his experience and familiarity with the county gave him a clear advantage, Moehring said.

"To James' credit, since the transition he's done a terrific job. He basically had an eight-week job interview," Moehring said.

Sheriff Shawn Holloway supports Moehring's choice to promote Turner.

"I've known James since I came to the county," Holloway said. "I think he's an excellent choice."

Turner has worked for Benton County for the last 10 years. He started in the Collector's Office.

"I probably started in IT when I was 15 years old, writing software in my parents' house," Turner said. "It changes every day. It's challenging and exciting. That's why we all come to work every day."

Moehring has two major positions to fill. He has gone through applications and interviewed candidates for a county engineer, who also will oversee the Road Department. He has yet to make a formal job offer on that position.

Also unfilled is a position for a communication director, who Moehring envisions as someone who will make information on county government more available through social media and other methods of communication and work with other local governments, schools, civic groups and other entities to raise awareness of county government.

NW News on 03/12/2017

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