Nick Lelack - The Role of a County Administrator

Nick Lelack was hired as Deschutes County Administrator in September 2021. Nick previously served as the Deschutes County Community Development Director. 

He also serves on the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission. He has masters degrees in Public Administration and Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Previously, Nick served as Deschutes County's Planning Director and the City of Redmond Community Development and Planning Director. He also has a variety of other experiences that spans the public, private and non-profit sectors. You can find out more about him at deschutes.org/administration.

Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
We are so fortunate to have such good relationships with our cities, our federal partners, our state partners, our nonprofit service partners that provide services in coordination and collaboration with us. We, I just can't say enough about it. It's it makes work really rewarding and more importantly, were much much more effective in addressing, meeting and providing public services to our community.

Narrator  0:24  
Welcome to cascade views a discussion with Central Oregon leaders. Your host is Michael SIPE, local business and community leader Best Selling Author of the Avada principle and candidate for Oregon State Representative for House District 53, which encompasses southern Redman sisters tremolo in northern bend. The purpose of these discussions is to share the views and insights of local leaders from a variety of community sectors on a range of timely and important regional and state issues. With that, now, here's your host Michael site.

Michael Sipe  0:59  
Thanks for joining us on cascade views. This is Michael SIPE, and I'm excited to welcome Nick lelaki to the show today. Nick was hired as Deschutes County Administrator in September 2021. They previously served as the Deschutes County Community Development director. He also serves on the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission. He has master's degrees in public administration and Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified planners. Previously, Nick served as Deschutes County's planning director and the city of Redmond community development and planning director. He also has a variety of other experiences that span the public, private and nonprofit sectors. You can find out more about him@deschutes.org backslash administration. Nick is joining us today to give us some insight into the shoots county government and to talk about the important role he plays as a county administrator. So it's my pleasure to welcome Nicola black to the show. Hi, Nick. Mike had been looking forward to this discussion for weeks now, as I'm sure everyone listening including me can use some education on how county government works. So let's start at a high level help us understand the relationship between Oregon State Government Deschutes County government and the government of the cities within Deschutes County.

Unknown Speaker  2:22  
Sounds great, Mike, I'm happy to do so. And you know, to begin with, or Deschutes County is the state's newest County. So we were incorporated in 26. Excuse me in 1916. We celebrated our centennial, our 100th birthday, gosh, just about six years ago now. So just to give you a snapshot of what Deschutes County looks like, it's 3055 square miles. We're just over 200,000 people. And then of course, in our Central Oregon region. We're by far the largest county in Central Oregon, as well as the entire 18 counties on the eastern side of the state. And we have four cities in our county, the cities of bend, Redmond, sisters and the pine. And then we also of course have a lot of unincorporated communities tremolo Terra Bong, Sun river Blackfeet ranch alfalfa and then we have a lot of destination resorts to throw pronghorn Eagle Crest and others. So

Michael Sipe  3:29  
what's the relationship between Oregon State Government and the county and then between the county and the city, as you talked about? How does that all go together? Well,

Unknown Speaker  3:41  
yeah, so so good question. So we're one of 36 counties in the state, we're officially a subdivision of the state. And so we provide a lot of services on behalf of the state, a lot of health services, district attorney services, building permitting services. And then we coordinate with the state on a whole range of services, of course, have a lot of road. A lot of road services, a lot of services across the county, or should I post them in this community justice, there's a whole lot of services we provide on behalf of the state and or in coordination with the state. And then with our four cities, we're really partners. So it depends on the type of service that we provide a lot of services directly within cities such as health services, taxation, assessment services, septic system services, but then there are a lot of other services that the cities provide directly that are apart from us. They'll have bend and Redmond for example, will have their own police departments. They have their own land use planning jurisdiction. Depending on the city, some have their own fire departments, some have their own fire districts, so cities have local control. within their jurisdictions, and generally, then the county has jurisdiction, depending on the on the services outside of our for incorporated cities. So it really it really kind of it really depends on the service that's providing that we're providing. I will say one of the great things, and we can touch on this a bit later, is that we really have outstanding relationships, both with the state as well as our cities. And I'm not sure all local governments can say that, across the state, we're very, very fortunate.

Michael Sipe  5:31  
Sure, well, it sounds to me, like based on what you said, it sounds to me like the county isn't like this totally anonymous, or autonomous, not anonymous, a totally autonomous kind of entity. But it sounds like there really is a synergy between the county government and the state government. And then of course, synergistic relations with the cities, but but in between the county in the state. Sounds like the county doesn't have like free rein to sort of do whatever it wants. Am I reading that? Right?

Unknown Speaker  6:00  
Reading that exactly right. Some areas, we do provide direct services, and many other areas to cities provide direct services. And the key is that we coordinate and we partner on as many services as we possibly can. And I should just mentioned, as you know, I think, almost 78% of Deschutes County is also under in federal ownership. So we also have really strong partnerships with the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management BLM. So we have really strong partnerships with our federal partners as well.

Michael Sipe  6:31  
Great point. Give us a little perspective on the on the size of county operations. You alluded to it a little bit, what's the budget and how many people are employed by the county?

Unknown Speaker  6:42  
Good question. So our budget this year we just had, our Board of County Commissioners adopted our budget committee's recommendation. Our budget committee is comprised of three county commissioners and three citizens. So they just adopted that budget last month, it's $408 million. That reflects our actual spending for the fiscal year 23. The year ahead, we employ just over 1100 employees. So we're one of the larger employers in the county. And then we'll talk in a few minutes about the departments and we also have 20 different departments. And then we have locations. Our primary campus is in downtown Ben, but we have a health services campus. On the east side of bend, we have law enforcement, sheriff's office and health services in southern Deschutes County and some services we offer in Redmond as well as a new North County Campus coming online in 2023. In Redmond

Michael Sipe  7:41  
county operations, I think really are much more extensive than people understand. And you've gotten about 19 or 20 or so different county departments that all those 1100 people are actively engaged in. And to give us I mean, you don't need to give details on 20 of them. But give us some of the high points of the different departments.

Unknown Speaker  8:02  
Yeah, so they are and we have our departments range in size and scope and scale. So I'll just get Yeah, I will just give you a snapshot. So some general government services that that people may or may not know that counties provide Taxation and Finance, we have audit services. Of course, human resources services, one of the biggest areas of services we provide is public safety and community justice. So in that, in that category, we'll have of course, our two chutes County Sheriff's Office, our 911 services that people are in trouble, they see trouble they call 911. Our district attorney's office, our justice, court, Community Justice, which is parole and probation and juvenile. So that's a whole category of services, their land use and transportation, our development permitting and our roads, our other departments we have and then of course, one that some people may or may not know that we provide a solid waste a big service we provide in Deschutes County and big project on the horizon is finding a new landfill a new solid waste facility in the future. So a wide range of services, natural resources I didn't mention, and then our departments, oh, I forgot to mention health services, which is both health services and veterans. We have a very small staff of veterans, one of our smallest departments, just about five people or so that provides services to over 15,000 veterans in our county. And then also in that same that same I guess bucket of services is our health services department where they have almost 400 employees for full time equivalents. So our departments range in size significantly across the county.

Michael Sipe  9:46  
Wow, that's super interesting. And the diverse scope of activities is really pretty incredible. Help me understand how this works with the county commissioners. So what's their role in County Guide? Government what kind of latitude do they have in relation to the state? And what kind of authority do they have in regard to the cities and the unincorporated areas?

Unknown Speaker  10:08  
Yeah, good question. So we have three elected county commissioners. They serve four year terms. They are at large. And this is a bit different. Some counties, they have districts, some counties, they have more county commissioners, but we have three, they serve four year terms that are all at large. And they do they are the policymaking body of Deschutes. county government. They are the entity that adopts the county budget. And it's important because it's when we think about the county budget, I was just mentioning the $408 million budget that we have. But they also serve as the governing body. In addition to the general government services, they also serve as the governing body for Deschutes County, the 911 service district, the Black Butte ranch service district, the extension for each county service district, the sun River Service District, so they were a number of different hats across the county. They also are involved in just a host of regional and community efforts. Our commissioners serve on a lot of boards and commissions across the county from economic development for Central Oregon to the Deschutes Historical Society. Each Commissioner serves on on a number of different boards and commissions, the Deschutes County Fair Association, the hospital facility Authority Board, so it's interesting our commissioners they serve in the legislative capacity. So they make policy, they adopt the budget, which is an incredibly important role. And then they're involved in so many different aspects of our county through their boards and commissions. So they their full time elected positions. And I can tell you, they work far more than a full time job. kind of far more than an eight to five job. They're working evenings and weekends. And they're really, really busy in all aspects of county government.

Michael Sipe  12:04  
I know that's true. One of the things I wanted to get a little clarity on, though, is in in regard to their position relative to the state, and also relative to the cities. What What kind of latitude do they have in terms of a policy and authority?

Unknown Speaker  12:23  
Yeah, good question. So it really depends on the service we're providing. So let's let's think about one that really matters in our county, which is growth and development, just as one example. So the state provides really the framework for how cities and counties grow in Oregon. But there's a lot of local discretion and a lot of local control and how that happens. So our Board of Commissioners within the framework of the state's planning program, they can be more restrictive, they can decide how do we want to grow in various areas, not not free rein, mind you. But But so that's one area where they have a relationship with a state other areas, they don't like building services, they are required to adopt and implement the state's building code. There are other areas so for example, the Oregon Department of Transportation, if they're proposing a major highway project, in Deschutes. County, they must first seek approval from our Deschutes County Board of Commissioners. So that will need to be included, for example, in our state transportation in our excuse me in our county transportation system plan. So that's an area where the state will actually need to, to receive local authority. And, and our Board of Commissioners have a lot of discretion and authority there.

Michael Sipe  13:44  
Wow, this is a really interesting relationship. I suspect we could probably spend a few hours trying to unpack all of that, but I think I've got a pretty good idea of how things are organized. So give us some insights into your specific position. And, you know, maybe what's, what's it like to be a County Administrator? What's what's a day in your life look like?

Unknown Speaker  14:04  
Yeah, that's a great question. So. So the Board of Commissioners they hire to people, they hire myself to implement their their priorities, their goals and their policies. And I'm also there and the county's budget officer, so I'm responsible for creating the county's budget. Of course, I do that and primarily coordinate all of that with our finance department, our chief financial officer. So they hire they hire me and they hire our county attorney or county council. I them and responsible for hiring 1314 of our department heads, which I do in collaboration and coordination with the Board of Commissioners. And so we mentioned 20 departments. So what about the other six? Well, it's important to recognize that in addition to our three elected Board of Commissioners, there are six other elected department heads. So who are they that is going to be our Deschutes County Sheriff? Our disk Attorney, our justice of the peace, our county clerk, our county treasurer and our county appraiser. So we have elected officials there. So I coordinate with all of the other electeds. I don't have operational authority over their over their departments, we have human resources, policies and technology and budget and things of that nature, but not operational. influence over those departments were so bad I do over the other 1314 and I. So my goal in my charge is to implement the Board of County Commissioners, goals and priorities across the county, he makes sure that we're in compliance with state, federal, whatever other regulations that that that we may be subject to. So a day in the life, it's hard to say A Day in the Life because every every every day is different, truly. So let me just kind of put in perspective usually on a Sunday, I'm preparing for the week ahead, because we have Board of County Commission meetings that can last either half to nearly full days. I usually begin each morning by by reading a number of local news. I mean, certainly the bulletin, Katie vz, Central Oregon daily, is there anything else that's been posted that I need to be aware of going into my day, I'm often meeting with multiple departments throughout the day on key issues priority. So I may start a day like I just this morning with our property manager talking about a full portfolio of county properties, what the board's priorities are for those properties, what we're thinking about those, how we're going to allocate those from there, I could go into and I just I'm just giving you a snapshot of today, our chief financial officer interviews, some days, I can be worse than visiting with our road department director to understand the key transportation issues and and what is it that I need to know and our commissioners need to know so that we can we can coordinate decision making there. So a day is can can really fluctuate based on which department I'm meeting with? Are we conducting interviews for one of our department heads or their partnership meetings. So for example, we're going to finish our interview here shortly. And after I finished our interview, I'll go to the Central Oregon visitors Association Cova, a board meeting. Really critical partner for us. So and then some evenings, I'll then have a joint meeting with our Board of County Commissioners and a city council coordinate with all four of our cities on the city council meetings, joint meetings, so that we're coordinated with our partners. So every day is different. And then seasons are different, sometimes during budget season where we're spending just a significant amount of time working with departments on our budget proposals. And then during the legislative session, we can be working with our lobbyists, our commissioners and our community on key issues that we're going to address in the legislature or issues we need to respond to that are pending before a committee or something of that nature, and the legislature. So no two days are the same. It's always exciting, always dynamic. And it's just genuinely really, really rewarding as well.

Michael Sipe  18:07  
What an interesting and enormous job. Before I met you, I had literally no idea about the scope and magnitude of what you did. And I bet most of our listeners don't either. So this is really, this is a massive, massive job. Thank you. From that position. Now you've got a pretty unique view of Deschutes. County overall. So my personal opinion is that our county functions remarkably well. But talk to us just about a couple of the things that you see they're working especially well, you know, as you just kind of look across the county as a whole.

Unknown Speaker  18:44  
Yeah, number one, and we've touched on this just a bit our partnerships, coordination and collaboration with our so many of our partner organizations, we are so fortunate to have such good relationships with our cities, our federal partners, our state partners, our nonprofit service partners that provide services in coordination and collaboration with us. We, I just can't say enough about it. It's it makes work really rewarding. And more importantly, we're much much more effective in addressing meeting and providing public services to our community. So that's one area that I think we're very successful in. And we put a lot of effort into that. Another one that I think our listeners all will appreciate is we are in really strong financial shape. We are what part of our mission is to provide high quality services in a cost effective manner. And I think we really do a terrific job with that. And hence we're in a really strong financial position as a county, something we don't ever take for granted. We are mindful of that every single day with every dollar or every penny for that matter that that we collect that we're very splendid, very, very wisely. And probably the third not probably for sure I'm sure the 13/3 key element is we just have a really strong team, we have really talented and dedicated staff across the county. And I just can't say enough about them from the people we've just hired over the last few days to our multi decade employees. We just have a really, really great team, people that want to be here, really enjoy their work. And I just I see it every day and hear about it every day, they just go the extra mile to provide that public service to our employees. So very, very fortunate to have a great team to work with every day.

Michael Sipe  20:35  
Yeah, all my interactions with the county bear witness to what you just said, I. And that has certainly been my experience. That said, though, every county has got some challenges, right? No place is totally perfect. What are two or three of the big challenges that you see for Deschutes? County? In the months and years ahead?

Unknown Speaker  20:54  
Yeah, thank you. Gosh, you know, what one of those is retaining, recruiting and retaining our strong team. It's, it's, it's such a highly competitive environment, you know, we're more isolated than, for example, communities in the Willamette Valley. So it takes a lot to get to get people here and to keep people here, as competitive, competitive as it is. And with housing, housing prices as they are they just keep increasing, increasing and increasing. And just one of our chief financial officer interviews this morning, the person was saying, Gosh, do I have to live in Deschutes? County for the position? Because it's it's really expensive? And the response because it's also an elected treasurer is yes. And so will we get it? It's, it is tough. So certainly, retaining and attracting employees is an increasing challenge. You know, and that's just all just a number two housing costs. And just homelessness, that's we're doing every I think our county is really forward thinking as, as our cities, all four of our cities, very forward thinking of what we're doing to address our housing crisis. And to address homelessness across our region, I'll say a third one, it's hard to just say third, without seeing a fourth, but you know, wildfires, longer, hotter, drier summers. And then at the same time, we have drought conditions, we have people with Wells going dry, and real impacts. So those are some challenges. And I'll just say the fourth one is just growth. It's just it's a challenge. I think we're handling it. Well, it's our county as an organization is growing to meet our growing communities needs demands, issues. And then, you know, gosh, everybody cares, a great deal about what happens, whether it's in our cities, or in the rural county with growth and development, and you know, just it's trying to balance all of those factors quality of life with continuing to provide housing to meet our residents needs. So sorry, I think I hit four issues beyond just the two or three of our challenges there.

Michael Sipe  22:50  
No, that's, that's great. And certainly I acknowledge all of those and, and even the wildfire thing with 70 plus percent of, of our county actually in federal hands, that complicates things a whole lot. So I'm going to ask you a question, which is an enormous question. And we don't have time, we got to wrap this up soon. But I'm just asking you to speak as a as a county administrator, not the overall policy maker, but just as the guy who with your team has to actually do the work on this stuff. What are a couple ideas that you might have on how the county can address some of those challenges that you noted a couple of couple of good ideas that you've seen recently?

Unknown Speaker  23:29  
Yeah, you know, I mean, we're our county has really been at the forefront of promoting, advocating and for and now implementing, well, we're implementing in terms of developing codes to allow rural accessory dwelling units rural adu. So this is going to be a small unit on a rural property that's already got a house on it, where they can house a different, you know, another family or individual to help meet our housing needs. at the county level, we are we are one county of eight to be a pilot project to create a coordinated response office for homelessness. So we got a million dollars to the state. So that's going to we're just going to have interviews on that in the in the weeks ahead. And so we hope that office is going to help us address the homelessness issue. And I'll just touch on the wildfire issue is that we're at the forefront, not just in the state but nationally on what we're doing to protect our community from the wildfire hazard. And we have a great county forester, a great partners, and we generate a ton of money into our county to create defensible space and to have the best emergency management team led by Nathan Garibay. And in the sheriff's office to address that. So we're continuing we, you know, these these challenges are at the forefront of our minds all the time and we're always looking creatively to to address them.

Michael Sipe  24:46  
I know you are. And I witnessed it all the time. And so I'm grateful for it as we begin to wrap this up. You given us a lot of great insights. But what's something I didn't ask that people might really benefit from knowing about their county government.

Unknown Speaker  25:03  
Probably a couple of things. One is, and I mentioned our team, and I just hope everybody's interaction with anybody with the county is is just an outstanding one. And I believe it is. And I think, you know, a lot of people just don't understand maybe the ways in which our county government touches people's lives. You know, if somebody has yard debris, they need to take it to the, to the, to the solid waste facility. Well, that's something that the county operates, somebody calls 911. Well, that is a county operation. Somebody has an issue with a rural road, they call our the caller road department. So, you know, I think they're really a veteran needs services, and they contact our Veterans Services Office. So, you know, I think the key is, you know, we were there when you need us, and emergency search and rescue, whatever the case may be, a lot of people don't have a real understanding the depth or breadth of what counties do, and, and that's fine. But, and they don't need to, they just need to know that when they when they call one of these departments or one of these services or service districts, it's likely going to be somebody involved with the county that's going to be there to help out. Help out when you need us.

Michael Sipe  26:11  
So here's my last question. And it's kind of what you had to say there as a segue into that if people did want to know more, like if if, if people really wanted to learn how the county function, or maybe they wanted to figure out how they could volunteer or get involved in a committee or just just be more aware of how the COUNTIF function, I think you've got something that you operate called County College. Is that right? And, and can you just tell us just a little bit about them?

Unknown Speaker  26:38  
Yeah, you bet. So it's available online County College to chutes.org/county. College, we offer this 10 week program every year, I think our fall 2022 classes full. So we may be accepting applications for 2023 now, but it's a 10 week program three hours a night, and you get to interact, interact with departments across the county, you get a behind the scenes look, you get tours, see the dispatch floor for 911. And road department, often they'll let you get up on one of those big machines that they have out their vehicles, which is a great time, you get to see a lot of the inner workings of the county, meet a lot of different staff. So I just I can't encourage that enough. It's a great way to get to know us and, and learn more about how your government serving you.

Michael Sipe  27:26  
I think that's a terrific program. Make It's been great having you on the show. I'm so grateful for the work that you do to serve our community, the more that I get to know you and learn about how much you actually do, the more impressed I am at the magnitude of the job and the magnitude of the county services and how important they are. I think my main takeaway from our talk today, though, is just about the synergy. And the partnerships that are in place between all the different entities and agencies that are involved in, in making Deschutes County great, you've got the federal agencies in the state and the county and cities. And there's a whole bunch of players in this. And it's really affirming to hear about the partnerships and the great relationships that you've established. And I think that really is a big credit to the county commissioners and to you to be able to hold all that together. And so super grateful for that. Thank you very much for your time, and thanks for your message today.

Unknown Speaker  28:27  
Well, thanks, Mike. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate the work that you're doing. And I just encourage people to get involved every opportunity that they can with with the shoes County. We welcome engagement we welcome your comments feedback because we're here to serve you. Thank you very much.

Michael Sipe  28:45  
You bet. My guest for this show has been Nick lelaki, the Deschutes County Administrator. You can find out more about the county and more about Nick and his team@deschutes.org backslash administration. Thanks for tuning in.

Narrator  29:00  
Thanks for listening to cascade views with Michael SIPE. To find out more about Mike the upcoming election the key issues he's focused on in his campaign to represent Central Oregon and Salem as a state representative. Visit www dot a voice for Central oregon.com that's www dot voice for Central oregon.com You can get your own copy of Michael sites best selling book the Avada principle@amazon.com. And finally, please vote in the upcoming election. Your Voice Matters