Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat County is moving in a new direction, that was the main takeaway from yesterdays Klickitat County Commissions meeting.
Klickitat County Commissioners moved to create a new county administrator position, starting January 1 with Commissioner Lori Zoller making the motion:
“Mr. Chairman, I make a motion for approval of a interim administrator for the county through the year 2026/And I second/It has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say ‘aye’/Aye/Aye/Aye, motion passes.”
They also named Robb Van Cleave to fill the newly created position, but he made it clear the position was going to be a temporary one for him:
“If you wanted somebody to do this multiyear, I would not be that person. It wouldn’t be fair for me to look past the beginning of ’27.”
All this came out of the off-camera session of the commissioners last Thursday. There was also some discussion of combining that administrator position with the economic development department:
Commissioner Todd Andrews asked: “And when we discussed having a community development, or something like that. That’s where you have ‘To be detrmined?’ “
HR Director Robb Van Cleave responded: “Yeah, The general discussion at the workshop was to combine those functions of departments, To put then them all under the same umbrella.”
In making the move, Van Cleave suggested that the current HR manager, KC Sheridan, replace him as HR director, and that a new person be hired to replace her as HR Manager.
There are still a lot of questions to be answered. What’s going to be in the county administrator’s job description. How much will he be paid as administrator? It certainly represents a step up in responsibility, which usually means a raise. And by moving up to the HR Director position, Ms. Sheridan is no doubt eligible for a raise as well. And then there are the funds to pay the person taking her old job. All of those potentially mean budget increases at a time when other departments are short personnel, and revenue is declining.