By K.D. Norris
Did you know that WKTV televises the Wyoming-Kentwood Chamber of Commerce’s monthly Government Matters meetings? Well we do, and if you had caught this month’s meeting you would know that Kent County is in the search process for a new county administrator.
“Our biggest news (at Kent County), probably in terms of administration and operation, is that our administrator, Daryl Delabbio, after being there 19 years, is retiring,” County Commissioner Harold Mast said at the June 12 meeting. “His last day of work, I think, will be the 27th or 28th of this month (June). Temporally, our interim administrator will be (assistant administrator) Wayman Britt. … but we are moving pretty methodically and carefully in terms of recruitment and selection of a successor to Daryl.”
Mast told the meeting attendees that the county hopes to have selected a recruitment firm by the end of this month and then that firm will be spend several months to find possible candidates.
“The objective is to have someone (new) onboard by the first quarter of next year,” Mast said.
The county will host a retirement ceremony for Delabbio on June 27 at the outer lobby of the DeVos Performance Hall. The event is open to the public and will run from 3-6 p.m., with remarks at 5 p.m.
The Chamber’s Government Matters meetings include representatives of the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming, Ken County, local Michigan House of Representatives, and, often, representatives of other State of Michigan and federal elected officials.
The meetings are on the second Monday of each month, starting at 8 a.m. WKTV Journal will produce a story each week soon after the meeting. But WKTV also offers replays of the Monday meetings on the following Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Cable Channel 25. Replays are also available online at WKTV’s government meetings on-demand page (wktv.viebit.com) and on the chamber’s Facebook page.
