County commissioners on Tuesday plan to appoint Tom Kelley to the director role of the Department of Job & Family Services.
Kelley, who has worked for the county since 1993, will continue to serve as the assistant county administrator for human services.
Three other managers will take on new roles and responsibilities as the county develops and builds on best practices related to service delivery, county officials said.
“This is how we reshape how we harness our resources in that model and move forward,” Kelley said.
Bullard was hired by children services in 1983, and worked her way up to become the agency’s director. The agency eventually merged with the Department of Job & Family Services.
In 2010, the county commission appointed Bullard to be director of the department, replacing Christy Norvell, who retired.
Bullard said now is a good time to step down because the department is on the cusp of some major projects and state mandates, including an overhaul of the Job Center.
“If I didn’t leave now, I think it would be difficult to leave in the middle of that,” she said.
County officials said changes are coming to human and social services programs owing to shifting priorities at the local, state and federal levels. They described Bullard’s retirement as an opportunity to restructure the leadership framework to better align with
Kelley will oversee the county’s human services programs, which will benefit from better coordination and integration, said Commissioner Debbie Lieberman.
“There won’t be all of these silos,” she said. “As big as JFS is, there are just so many different missions and funding sources, and it will be great to have Tom over that.”
Later this year, Michael Colbert will become the assistant county administrator for development services.
His responsibilities will include managing workforce development and community and economic development, which today answer to separate administrators.
Linking the departments will make it easier to get workers and employers assistance they need, Lieberman said.
“We believe having those two together — marrying that — will help us so much with businesses,” she said.
Commissioners also expect to appoint Robert Gruhl, the deputy director of Job & Family Services, to be the deputy director of operations.
He will oversee the improvements to the Job Center and will help combine internal department operations, such as information technology, human resources and fiscal services.
“We’re pulling all of that stuff together to make that function efficiently and effectively and drive our ability to be responsive to people who need our services,” said county Adminstrator Joe Tuss.
Deb Downing, assistant director for Children Services, will be appointed the Job & Family Services’ deputy director of programs and services. She will be in charge of children services, child support enforcement and public assistance and income support services.
“Her main challenge will be to lead our efforts to implement comprehensive case management and service integration,” Tuss said.
Tuss said compensation levels for managers have not been determined. He said Gruhl, Downing and Colbert likely should start in their new roles by early August.
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