Champaign County Board Prepares for Single County Administrator

When Champaign County government switches to a single-county-administrator system later this year, the county will hire from within.

The Champaign County Board approved a resolution Thursday night that says the position will be filled by hiring another county employee. But Chairman Pius Weibel would not say who that might be, following a closed-door meeting on the issue.

The county board appointed Weibel and former County Board Chairman Steve Moser to negotiate a contract for the single county Administrator position.

Weibel says they'll have a lot to do before a new administrator is hired. That includes putting together a job description, setting salary limits, and deciding what duties performed by the current two administrators should be moved over to another county position.

Deb Busey and Denny Inman have managed Champaign County government as a team for the past decade. Busey manages Finance and Human Resources while Inman is in charge of Facilities and Procurement. But the county board has decided that system will end in December, when a single administrator will take over. Backers of the change have argued that many of the duties assigned to Inman no longer require a separate manager, because the county is no longer involved in major construction projects like the nursing home and courthouse addition.