Champaign County Board OKs “Exit Strategy” for Inman; Chairman Says Busey Likely to Stay

It's already official that Champaign County will switch from two county administrators to just one later this year, and that the next administrator will be a current county employee. But county officials have been reluctant to go on the record about who that current employee might be. County Board Chairman Pius Weibel says he doesn't know if they're even taking applications for the post. But following Thursday night's county board meeting, he did say it's "likely" that current Administrator for Finance and Human Resources Deb Busey would be hired as the county's sole administrator.

Weibel is on the team that will negotiate a contract with the next administrator, be it Deb Busey or someone else, which he says is one reason he's reluctant to give details. "We've actually just barely started," said Weibel about the negotiations. "The first thing was to get together a job description --- which we have --- and that could change, too."

The dual administrator system was to end November 30th. But County Administrator for Facilities and Procurement Denny Inman asked for and on Thursday night the county board approved contract modifications that allow him to leave September 30th. The amendments also allow him to do consulting work and actively seek a new position before he steps down. Inman calls the changes an "exit strategy" to help his search for a new position. He says he sought the changes "because I think not too many people make job moves in the middle of winter, and the best time to do it is while you still have a job."

Deb Busey and Denny Inman served 11 years together as dual administrators for Champaign County. They were deputy administrators before that, under their predecessor Jackie White.