The Patrick County Board of Supervisors approved a draft evaluation form to use when evaluating the county administrator in a 4-1 vote during its July 28 work session.
Blue Ridge District Supervisor Steve Marshall cast the lone dissenting vote.
“I originally asked for and agreed to formulate an evaluation protocol for the county administrator back in January as part of developing an overall policy and procedure in our county government,” he said. “I did not agree to the evaluation as a contextual means of termination of any employee, so I vote no.”
After the meeting, Vice Chairman Andrew Overby, of the Dan River District, said the intent was to create a document the board could use both now and in the future.
“We really didn’t have anything up to this point. I can’t really comment on what the evaluation criteria and everything has been, I just know that they’ve apparently never had a form or anything to actually conduct an evaluation,” Overby said.
Chairman Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, said the board was working to draft an evaluation process to ensure fairness for employees, residents, and others involved.
While current administrator Beth Simms would be the first employee evaluated using the form, Wood said the board hopes to expand its use.
“We have to start somewhere. There’s no current evaluation that I know of,” he said. “We’re trying to make it a little more like a business, more like the school system, where evaluations are done regularly using a formatted method.”
Simms has not yet been evaluated. She was hired for the post in September 2023 and officially started work on October 12.
During a retreat held in March, the board discussed the roles and responsibilities of the county administrator.
The draft proposal is currently under review by the county attorney to ensure legal compliance. Wood said he hopes it will be implemented within a month.
The proposed form uses a ranking system, where both the board and the employee self-evaluate on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest.
Overby said the draft spans several pages and includes multiple evaluation factors.
Simms “is going to do her own self-evaluation that she will present to us. From that point, we will all complete our individual evaluations based on what we know and the information that she provides,” he said.
He added that all board members were given the opportunity to help craft the form.
“Everybody should be happy with it. Everybody had an opportunity to provide their input, so to me, there’s really no reason for anybody to be dissatisfied with the form itself,” Overby said.
During the work session, the board reviewed the form item by item, making additions and deletions.
“We can work on what we expect out of our employees,” Wood said.
He expressed satisfaction with the result.
“It has input from our county lawyer and all of the board members. These are things that should have been done years ago that just weren’t,” he said.
Both Wood and Overby said a blank version of the form will likely be made public after it is finalized.
“Personally, I don’t think that would be a problem. Of course, any specific details concerning the evaluation would not be made public,” Overby said.
