NEWTON COUNTY –  At the Tuesday, March 18 Newton County Board of Commissioners meeting, the board officially voted to clarify the chain of command between the human resources director and the county manager.

The board unanimously passed a resolution that authorizes and directs the human resources director to report specifically on the employment, performance and discipline of the county manager, per the agenda item.

“What the resolution before you will do is allow the director of the human resources department who otherwise reports to the county manager to be able to report directly to this board for matters related to the county manager’s employment,” said Patrick Jaugstetter, county attorney.

The county manager is the human resource director’s immediate supervisor, and that is the chain of command to be followed when reporting on any disciplinary measures. It appears to have recently become apparent to the commissioners, however, that the human resources director may have struggled to circumvent their supervisor when the disciplinary measures needed to be directed at the county manager themself.

The board implied that the resolution was created as a result of current Human Resources Director Amanda Shoemaker having difficulty reporting issues regarding former County Manager Harold Cooper, as Cooper was her supervisor. Cooper recently parted ways with the county, with the board voting to “disengage” from him following his arrest for allegedly driving under the influence. 

Jaugstetter explained to the commissioners that the resolution would not change that the county manager reports directly to the board. Rather, it would allow the human resources director – who reports directly to the county manager – to also report to the board directly with any concerns regarding the county manager’s conduct.

“You can all understand the difficulty of any subordinate reporting directly to his or her boss and then reporting on the performance, conduct or discipline as to that person,” Jaugstetter said.

District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson weighed in on the matter. On numerous occasions, Henderson had been at odds with the former county manager. Since Cooper’s arrest and DUI charge, Henderson has alluded to an unconfirmed situation where he believes that Cooper opted not to take a mandatory random drug test, which would ordinarily be grounds for dismissal.

“One thing that I wanted to make sure when we came up with this policy is if a county manager was in the raffle of a drug test, that if he didn't take it, then I think that we as a board should know,” Henderson said. “And I think sometimes things like that just kind of get maybe pushed aside or say it didn't happen, but we need for someone to let the board of commissioners…because ultimately we are responsible, to the citizens of Newton County, our constituents, as for the actions of him or her.”

District 2 Commissioner Demond Mason also alluded to Cooper’s recently discontinued time with Newton County.

“We know why this has actually come to having to put this policy in place,” Mason said. “Now having this policy in place, it does allow information, it does allow disciplinary actions, it does allow now for those things to be provided to us, whereas in the past, historically, it was not.”

Mason also clarified that, in the past, this policy did not exist. That means that regardless of how anyone thinks previous cases should have been handled, without this policy in place, there was not a clear way for the human resources director to navigate past situations.

“I don't want this board to stay in the past, fester in the past, and try to make it seem as if certain things were done inaccurately, because this policy wasn’t in place,” Mason said. “Now that it’s in place, we can move forward and we can handle things appropriately because this policy is in place.”

Editor's Note: The print version of this story inaccurately states that the resolution will be implemented in the county's employee handbook. The News has not yet confirmed if the resolution will go into the handbook. We apologize for the misleading information.