Finalists interviewed for Flathead County administrator job

Four finalists for the position of Flathead County administrator fielded questions about their experience and leadership styles from the county commissioners on Tuesday.

Daniel Sabolsky, Pat Oman, Elishia Hayes and Pete Melnick were identified as top candidates in a nationwide search to replace County Administrator Mike Pence, who is scheduled to retire on May 31 after 16 years on the job. The county received dozens of applications for the job with help from a California-based recruiting firm.

The administrator is the county's chief executive, responsible for overseeing a budget of nearly $100 million and serving as a liaison between the commissioners and various departments led by elected and appointed officials. The new administrator's salary will be negotiable up to $128,000.

Pence led each of the finalists on a tour of the county's facilities and introduced them to department leaders Monday before they sat down for 30-minute interviews in a public meeting with the commissioners Tuesday afternoon.

Commissioner Randy Brodehl led the questioning of the candidates, asking about their leadership styles, their biggest successes and failures, and their thoughts on fiscal responsibility and the role of government. Brodehl and the other two commissioners, Pam Holmquist and Brad Abell, are Republicans and made clear they would not tolerate ballooning budgets or administrative bloat.

"We're a close-knit community. We're also a very independent community," Holmquist said. "And I will hear constantly, 'No new taxes' and 'Just leave me alone.' And I believe in a small government."

"We have to manage government without creating new government," Brodehl added. "And we're committed to that. I'm committed to that."

At the same time, the commissioners agreed the county's rapid population growth will be among the biggest challenges facing the next administrator.

"We run a pretty lean government, and when you have that many people come in, you're going to have to have to up your services," Holmquist said. "And so that's going to be something we're going to have to work hard on, to provide the services we need to provide to the community."

SABOLSKY WAS the first in the hot seat. He holds a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's in public administration from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

He began his career in 1998 as executive director of an economic development agency in Erie County, Ohio, before taking on similar roles with the cities of Sandusky and Lorain. He also worked as vice president of a local government consulting firm in Ohio, starting full time in 2009. He also taught as an adjunct instructor at Bowling Green State before relocating to Montana in January 2016 to start his current job as the town manager of West Yellowstone.

"Over the years I've developed a knack to find creative solutions to governmental issues that were typically, we said, 'Well, this can't be done' or 'Well, this would be difficult to accomplish,' " Sabolsky said. "I am able to sit down, break down those issues and work closely with my staff to develop solutions to those."

One of the main challenges facing a county administrator in Montana, Sabolsky said, is figuring out how to retain talented workers and department heads when affordable housing is in short supply.

"It's a job that I think involves a lot of consensus-building, a lot of communication, a lot of open discussion," he said. "And those things are necessary to continue the path that the county is going on."

Sabolsky said he's directly managed more than 40 employees and an operating budget of about $17 million, a smaller operation than Flathead County.

"But I always say to people, whether you have a $100 bicycle or you have a $5,000 bicycle, you still ride it the same way," he said.

OMAN HOLDS bachelor's degrees in biology and history from the University of Minnesota and master's degrees in manufacturing systems and business administration from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

He started his career in the private sector in 1995 as a facility manager and product development engineer for Honeywell before leaving in 2002 to hold a range of local government and economic development positions in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He most recently spent five years as the administrator of Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, before resigning on Jan. 31.

"I've spent 20 years in government administration at the regional, city and county level," Oman said, adding he oversaw about 300 employees and an operating budget of nearly $60 million in Mille Lacs County.

Oman told the Flathead County commissioners he had studied the area.

"I've done my research on the position before I applied for it," he said. "I see a very constructive board, and I see very seasoned managers and department heads. But I also see challenges."

Chief among those challenges, Oman said, is that the vast majority of Flathead County is federal land — Glacier National Park and Flathead National Forest — that can't be developed to meet the demand for housing.

"The question is, in that 7% of land we can develop, how can we develop it strategically?" he said. "Can we do it in a way that the public will support and the county board will support, and will generate wealth for the county?"

HAYES HOLDS a bachelor's degree in business administration from Humboldt State University in California and told the commissioners she started her career in the private sector, selling insurance door to door.

After six years as an account manager with a company that services mortgage loans, she went to work for Humboldt County, California, in 2011. She started as a revenue recovery officer, responsible for collecting court fines, and climbed the ranks to become the assistant county administrative officer, a second-in-command position she's held since April 2020. She also serves as treasurer of a nonprofit that supports cancer patients.

"I serve essentially as the county's chief financial officer," she said. "So I do all of the management of the entire county's budget, from the budget prep work, to provide all of our departments with the tools they need to develop their budgets."

Hayes said Humboldt County has a similar number of residents as Flathead County but provides more services and operates on a much larger $465 million budget.

"My organization is more based on a socialist mentality," she said. "It is heavy in services for the community. And with that comes mandates that come down from the state, and state and federal dollars, which make up about half of our budget. Our Department of Health and Human Services alone is more than half of our overall county budget. So I recognize that we operate very, very differently."

However, Hayes said she could easily adapt her government experience to serve Flathead County.

"My value system, I think, aligns a lot more with your value system," she told the commissioners, "which is part of why I'm exploring a relocation from California."

MELNICK HOLDS a bachelor's degree in government from the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, a master's in liberal arts from Spring Hill College in Alabama and a master's in business administration from George Mason University in Virginia.

He's served in the Coast Guard since 2007, holding positions in finance, public works, operations, communications and human resources. He also piloted helicopters and recently has served as an adviser to the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to his resume.

Melnick told the commissioners his reasons for leaving the Coast Guard and seeking the Flathead County job are both professional and personal.

"My wife and I have been married for 25 years. We have six kids together. We have moved all over this country. We want to find a home," Melnick said.

In his human resources position, Melnick said about 10 people reported directly to him, and he oversaw a $26 million annual operating budget as well as a payroll account totaling roughly $5 billion a year.

"I was selected for that position because I'm very good with working with people, particularly people with different personalities," he said. "And they really wanted to put someone in that position that would be able to have new ideas, but also respect the processes and the policies and the experience of those that reported to me."

Melnick told the commissioners he has no concerns about jumping into a local government job.

"I don't think I will have any trouble transitioning to an administrator role, a leadership position," he said. "I've been leading people behind the scenes more or less my entire professional career."

In an email Wednesday, Commissioner Brodehl said the commissioners hadn't yet determined when they would formally select someone for the job.

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4434 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com