Building, grounds director resigns
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on August 30, 2007 1:45 PM
With several capital projects in the works, Monday was probably not the best time for longtime Wayne County building and grounds director Brandt Brown to resign, but county Manager Lee Smith said he was confident that he and the rest of his staff will be able to pick up the slack.
Brown, who worked for the county's building and grounds department for 15 years and as director for 13, cited personal reasons for his resignation, which was effective immediately. The move, though, did not come as a surprise.
"He had discussed it with me. He had been talking about it," Smith said. "We're always sorry to see somebody go.
"He said that he appreciated the opportunity to work here."
Smith would not elaborate further, though, calling Brown's resignation a personnel matter.
But he did say that he expects the county's projects to continue to move along smoothly.
"There are things we're in the middle of, but you just get others involved," Smith said.
He also said that they're going to take some time before filling the position to evaluate the department as a whole.
"I'm leaving that position open right now. I'll be posting it, probably within the next month. But when a department head leaves, we take that opportunity to do an inventory of the department and see if things are running well," he explained. "Building and grounds was one of the departments we were looking at implementing performance standards in, next year, anyway -- see where we are and make sure things are running as efficiently as possible."
In the meantime, the department's day-to-day operations will be handled by maintenance supervisor Jim Beers, while housekeeping and contracts -- a separate job, but one Brown had been overseeing -- will be temporarily filled by Joanne Honn from the central services department. The county has begun advertising for the latter position.
Also in the interim, the county's projects will be headed up by Smith and various department heads.
Smith and animal control director Justin Scally will oversee the upcoming construction of the animal shelter. Smith and Sheriff Carey Winders will begin looking at the soon-to-be-completed jail study. Emergency management director Joe Gurley will be working on the renovation of the Jeffrey's Building on John Street. And finally, Smith will be working with officials from the county Health Department, Department of Social Services, Services on Aging and Eastpointe on a space study to determine what their needs are.