Knox County Commission Accepts Administrator Resignation

[0:01] Commission Chair: Thank you, I will call this Thursday, October 1st, special meeting of the Knox County condition to order. We have 3 members of the commission here. We're all present and as always, we open it up to public comment. 1st thing. Would you like to address the commission? [0:23] Mary: Commission, this is Mary. So, we are about 13 weeks or so closure at the legislature. And between now, and then I'm going to be working on a number of. Topics, including the repeal of main selling the murder statute. The sponsorship for the enactment, the main Juneteenth civil rights act. [Speaker C (unidentified): Trying] to find a legislator to sponsor a manuals of professional conduct, or 1.6, 1, wrongful incarceration exception to the attorney client. Rule, which presently exists in Massachusetts, but not here as well as amending title 30 for a section 3032 to allow licensed main attorneys to represent state prisoners in prison. disciplinary proceedings and so all of that and more i am eager for appointment for a to participate in a knox county law library committee there's a lot of volunteer work to be done with that committee different policies to be proposed by the committee to be revised and so i just Once again, I'm happy to participate as soon as there is an appointment process and I'm happy to provide whatever volunteer capacity I can, because there's sort of layers to this. [2:02] Commission Chair: Well, I'm excited. Thank you just to address what you're saying about the law library and where we stand in addition to you. I have four other people who are interested. I think they're excellent candidates and I will send out an email to all of you and see if we can set up a scheduling meeting. We do need some information from what is soon to be a former county administrator about what she had in mind for a place to put it and then we have to sit down and have a beginning meeting. But I think the process is going to be a little longer Then worrying about when culture is this December for that. And it may not require any action of the legislation or anyhow. And maybe more of something that we just do in house and figure out how we're going to do it. But I have the list and I will send out an email to all of you with a little introduction to everybody. [3:03] Speaker C (unidentified): Thank you is there a reason that we would need the legislature to do it? There's a reason you wouldn't be going in and doing it ourselves. [3:12] Mary: Well, there could be potential funding. Yeah, that could be a funding bill. [3:17] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay, thank you. Thank you. [3:24] Commission Chair: Any other answers from Mr. Barry? [3:27] Speaker C (unidentified): No, that's all. Yeah. [3:30] Commission Chair: Do appreciate your industry. Thank you. And the number of things you're taking on. So, thank you, I will close the public comment period and the next thing we have is an action agenda. Which is, and this 1 is an act to formally accept the resignation of county administrator, Amber Christie, effective on October 30th, 2026. So I have a motion. Motion second, and then we push into the second discussion. [4:11] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes,. Obviously, it's something that is important to our administrator that she needs to. Take care of issues, but I will miss her tremendously. I think she's done an amazing job. that's worked incredibly hard for the Italian citizens and the people and for us. and i'm sad but understanding as well i [4:42] Speaker D (unidentified): had similar sentiments but it something you said mark just made me think of something else i think amber worked tirelessly for the county and she did achieve a lot in her two years as a county administrator and plus the time that she was here as the hr director but i think it speaks to how challenging these jobs can be and i think the public doesn't really understand how challenging these jobs are then they do ask a lot of a person and it does result in you know challenges to their life outside of this place and I'm not saying that 's necessarily true for Amber but I'm just saying that the working above and beyond seems like it's a necessity and I think not all jobs are like that and most jobs that are like that are much better compensated so I will just mention that as something for us to think about as we embark on this journey to hire a new county administrator and what it really takes to do this job and how well people are compensated for the labor they are actually doing versus what is in her contract and just leave it at that and many thanks to Amber. [6:23] Commission Chair: We've been very fortunate to have Amber for the short time we've had her and the number of things she has tackled while she's been here, and of course, we wish her well, wherever she goes, but she's not gone yet. And I'm hopeful that we will have an opportunity to say this face to face to her, how much we appreciated the work she put in. and the process of hiring a new administrator will start once we sit down and have an opportunity to discuss it. I think we have a meeting planned for next Thursday where we'll start the process of discussing it. We're going to try to keep it as open a process as we can. I don't think we need to have any executive sessions until we get to the point where we're really hiring, so I so we'll try to keep it open and give everybody an idea how we're doing it. In the meantime, we have a motion on the floor. Is there any further discussion? If not, I will call the vote. All those in favor, three in favor, none opposed. And the next thing is adjournment, unless anybody has any other business to bring before the commission today. So moved and then the Germans been moved. All those in favor. In favor and opposed. Thank you.