Harrington brought back to familiar role

Calaveras Enterprise

Brent Harrington is no stranger to county government. He’s served in multiple roles throughout the years, and the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors has brought him back for more.

After former Planning Director Rebecca Willis announced her resignation in August and left her post in mid-September, county officials scrambled for a temporary replacement and Harrington proved to be the natural choice.

“I was approached by the county administrative officer (Lori Norton) and asked if I was interested,” Harrington said. “I was pretty reluctant, but I agreed to talk to the Board of Supervisors.”

He wanted to feel them out and see if the interim position would be a suitable fit for both sides.

“Unlike any other time I’ve worked here, or the other two times I filled in (as an interim replacement), I didn’t really know the majority of the (board) members seated,” he said.

He made a few things clear before he agreed to put his hat into the ring of potential candidates – he wanted at least four out of five supervisors to support his candidacy and he didn’t want to work past January. He received unanimous support from the board.

He also spelled out his approach to leadership.

“My style is to ask the questions that need to be asked and place reasonable demands on people needed to accomplish things and that’s what I hope to do here,” Harrington said. “I’m all for just saying the way it is. I think that’s important both to the people I work for and the public.”

When Harrington met with the supervisors, they brought one topic in particular to the forefront – the county’s new general plan, which has been about eight years in the making.

“So the goal is – and if it’s not No. 1, it’s close to it – is to do an overall assessment of the general plan and move it along as best as I can,” he said.

Harrington is well acquainted with the subject, since he was instrumental in the previous incarnation of the general plan that dates back to the mid-1980s, though an update was completed in 1996.

He moved to Calaveras County in 1977 and, two years later, he was named planning director, where he served for nearly a decade before transitioning to the position of county administrative officer, which he filled until 2001, when he left county government for a job in the private sector.

Since then, he’s been called back twice to fill in on an interim-basis for both positions. This time around will be his third.

“I know from experience from the last two times, about four months from each of those – I learned you can’t do everything,” Harrington said. “You have to pick a few things to get resolved.”

Beyond the general plan, another issue he’d like to help resolve is the perception from some that the department is at a standstill with project applications.

“This particular board (of supervisors) has expressed a strong desire to make sure that unreasonable impediments are not placed in the path of new projects being able to go ahead,” Harrington said. “(Planning will) look at how we do business and how we review projects. And if there are some things I can implement that enforce the rules appropriately but move projects along, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Willis’ recent departure from the planning director position was the sixth in seven years for Calaveras County. The position has been under intense scrutiny by government officials and developers for years, as they await a new general plan to outline the new guidelines for construction projects and land-use issues in the county.

“I counted 12 or 13 people over those 25 years (since he left the department) who have had some role in leading the Planning Department,” Harrington said. “That turnover’s not anything to be proud of, but it’s kind of reflecting that it’s a very difficult position. … You’re in the firing line and it’s very difficult.”

Harrington hopes to have the new general plan moving forward and “try to set the stage for that new person when they come in.”

He has meetings scheduled with the consultants working on the general plan. During those discussions, he’ll review their contracts, look at their deadlines and “hold their feet to the fire to meet those deadlines.”

“I have some sense there’s been, not by overt choice, but there’s been some reluctance to produce a document that’s out there for the public to see, because no matter what it says, there will be people who are happy and unhappy,” said Harrington, who experienced the difficulties a general plan can pose when he was the director. “That’s what happened 30 years ago and it’s no different today. That’s just the nature of the process.”

He knows the difficulties of the position and he knows he has a tough road over the next four months, but he hopes to find a happy medium throughout the planning process.

“It’s the nature of the planning that you tend to deal with people who aren’t happy,” Harrington said. “They’re unhappy about their own project or somebody’s turned in a project and there are people unhappy with it. If both sides of a project are mildly unhappy with it, but at the same level of unhappiness, then you’re probably doing a pretty good job.”

The general plan will help clarify some of the lingering questions for projects in the works, but, “I do kind of chuckle when people think it solves all the problems. Some people will still be told no.”

The bottom line for Harrington is to get the county a big step closer to getting the document finished.

“It won’t happen in the four months that I’m here, but it’s my goal to get as close to that as I can.”