By Barbara Augsdorfer, editor for the Effingham Herald

Effingham County is hiring for several new positions. All of the positions’ job descriptions were approved by the Board of Commissioners at their regular meeting Sept. 17.

Among the four new positions is a communications manager who, “manages the County's internal and external communications, media relations, social media, and crisis communication, ensuring consistent messaging and public information dissemination,” according to the description on the meeting agenda.

The new position would report to County Manager Tim Callanan and work in tandem with Mark Lastinger, the county public information officer, according to County Commissioner Roger Burdette.

“Mark’s great with copy and everything else. But we want to expand that to videos (and) get a huge campaign going. We’re still not getting enough information out of the public. We got to find ways to reach them, not just social media, but videos, YouTube,” Burdette explained.

Burdette said while the public information officer was a step in the right direction, he said, “We could do to have better and more communication with everybody. I’ve been pushing this for years.

“The worst thing is misinformation. There’s tons of misinformation out there, or people just don’t know what we’re doing,” Burdette said.

“(And) 99% of it just isn’t true, Burdette said. “We’ve got so much going on it’s unreal.”

The salary for communications manager position is listed at $70,000 per year. Burdette said the money is already in the county manager’s budget and a budget amendment is not necessary.

Burdette added that he would like the new communications manager to include video interviews of commissioners after meetings – covering such things as why they voted a certain way on an agenda item. But that some votes have legal ramifications.

“Because people just don’t know. Some of it, we’re legally bound in some cases, so we avoid lawsuits. That’s why we vote the way we vote,” Burdette said. “At times, people don’t realize that we just don’t want a million-dollar lawsuit, because they (the applicant) came in, they’ve done everything legally and properly, and we have no reason to deny it; and everybody’s mad about it. They don’t really understand the other side of the coin. Maybe some more of that narrative and the explanation might help.”

Burdette expressed hope the communication manager would make people aware of “how and why” the county has to do things and the balance the commissioners are trying to create.

“It’s one thing if a constituent says they don’t like one thing. It’s another if they have legitimate reasons why,” Burdette said. “A lot of people just don’t like the growth and I can understand that. I drive in it every morning.”

In addition to the communications manager the county is also looking for a human resources supervisor, HRIS (human resources information services) manager, and a fleet manager for county-owned vehicles. All positions are posted on the Effingham County website at www.effinghamcounty.org

http://www.effinghamcounty.org/