The Carter County Tomorrow board of directors agreed to hire an interim president to help lead the organization while the search continues to fill the position permanently.
The Transition Team, made of CCT Chairman Richard Tester and board members Dale Fair and Sam LaPorte, presented the request to hire an interim president to the board during its meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The Transition Team was put into place to find the next CCT president after Tom Anderson resigned from the position in April. The Transition Team is also acting as president of CCT while the position is vacant.
“There is an incredible amount of work that goes into this from day to day,” LaPorte said. “It is quite clear we need someone to help.”
Fair told the board it was a tough time to try to find a new president considering it was the end of the budget year and funding for CCT was still undetermined.
He said it was also a busy time on the economic development side since many deadlines for applications for different projects and programs were coming up quick.
The city of Elizabethton cut funding for economic development from $90,000 to $35,000.
The county’s contribution remained the same at $40,000 but CCT would be looking at a budget reduced by half.
“With funding in question, now is not a good time to hire a permanent president,” LaPorte said. “We need to wait for our funding to be settled and for the smoke to clear.”
This would not be the first time the county’s economic development was led by an interim position, Fair said. He pointed out it had happened twice before.
“We thought there might be someone out there who has the experience who might be interested in an interim position,” Fair said.
The interim job would be on a contract basis, with no benefits. The pay would be less than what would be offered the permanent president who is later selected.
“Serving as interim wouldn’t preclude someone from becoming the permanent president,” Fair said. “The interim may want to apply for the permanent job or they might just want to help us out. We don’t know if there is anyone out there interested but there might be someone.”
County Mayor Leon Humphrey cast the only vote against the interim director.
He questioned where the funding was going to come from to make up the difference since it had been reduced by half.
Fair explained the interim position would be paid less than the permanent president, and the salary for the permanent job would not be set until funding had been settled.
Tester said he hoped to have candidates for the interim job to present to the board next month.