County names Bolger acting assistant DCD director

Kitsap County is continuing a “try before you buy” personnel policy, temporarily filling a position from within and giving the candidate a chance to take the job for a test drive.

Jim Bolger has become the acting assistant director for the Department of Community Development, filling an position that has been open for more than a year.

The terms resemble the agreement the county made with Cris Gears, who took over as county administrator from Malcolm Fleming in March.

Gears was scheduled to evaluate the arrangement so far at an executive session Monday afternoon.

Cindy Baker, now director of DCD, was hired as assistant director in late 2003.

She ascended to the post of acting director in April 2004 and performed both jobs until she was named as permanent department head in January.

Bolger, manager of natural resources and head of community planning, will take the assistant director job for a period of four months.

During this time, Bolger and Baker will redefine the scope of the position and determine whether Bolger would be a good fit on a permanent basis. During this period, the application process for this job will be open.

“Jim is a good manager,” Baker said. “There are some places where he lacks experience but he is a quick study,

Baker said Bolger will help to run the administration of the department and provide a sounding board for employees to bring their ideas. “I am often very difficult to get a hold of,” Baker said. “Having Jim there will give people someone to bounce off of.”

“We’ll make decisions about administrative duties,” Bolger said. “We want to develop better management systems and recordkeeping. Over the past several months a lot of our people were doing multiple jobs. We want to better manage the workload.”

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