County makes offer to Reynolds
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By MARK GUNDERMAN mark.gunderman@lee.net
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:43 AM CDT
A lawyer who was most recently the chief of staff and legal counsel for U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) will become Chippewa County’s first administrator, if the full county board approves.
The county’s Administrative Committee voted on Tuesday to offer the job to William Reynolds. County Board Chairman Jim Leschensky said this morning that Reynolds has indicated he will accept the position.
A resolution formally hiring Reynolds will be presented to the Chippewa County Board at its meeting Wednesday, June 20.
From 2005-06 Reynolds was chief of staff and communications director for Specter, serving for four years before that as the senator’s director of communications and legal counsel. Reynolds was also executive director of the National Defense Political Action Committee.
With the U.S. Marine Corps, Reynolds served as senior legal advisor, a deputy camp commander, and a prosecutor and investigations attorney.
A graduate of Greenville College in Illinois, Reynolds received his J.D. (law degree) from DePaul University and his Masters of Public Administration from Harvard.
“I am very pleased with him. The department heads were all supportive of him. He was the one they were looking to. The vote was decisive,” Leschensky said.
Leschensky said the search committee was impressed with Reynolds’ personal charisma and leadership qualities, as well as his legal background.
He was also a candidate who did his homework, Leschensky said. He was focused on asking about the county’s problems that the board wished an administrator to handle, and explored the county on his own.
“He kind of took it upon himself to show that level of interest, orienting himself to the county,” Leschensky said.
If the full board approves, Reynolds is expected to start work around mid-summer.
“This area has so much potential,” Reynolds said last week at a reception for the five finalists for the position. “If you look at it on a personal level, this is a great community and I would be proud to be a part of it.”
The administrator position has been controversial among board supervisors for a number of years. Last year, the board voted to create the position, but supporters lacked to the votes for a budget amendment to start the hiring process immediately. The position funding survived a challenge in the county’s 2007 budget.
That was the final hurdle, leading to the selection of five finalists.
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