LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Following a day of closed session interviews with several candidates, the Board of Supervisors on Monday voted to give the county administrative officer’s job to the woman who has filled the position on an interim basis since the end of April.
A statement from the County Administrative Office said board members came out of closed session at 3:35 p.m. to announce that they had given the job to Susan Parker, who for the past three years has been assistant county administrative officer.
The board had appointed Parker as interim county administrative officer on April 12.
She succeeds her former boss, Carol Huchingson, who made a sudden March 17 retirement announcement and departed just over a month later — unlike the months of notice given by her predecessors.
In a quote attributed to Board Chair EJ Crandell in the County Administrative Office’s statement on Parker’s hiring, Crandell said she had done a “truly outstanding job” in the nearly six weeks since she was appointed and that the board is “confident Susan will bring strong leadership for years to come.”
Crandell’s statement also said Parker “has 20 years of experience as a high level government executive and administrator, and she knows what needs to be done to continue to move Lake County forward.”
A request by Lake County News to know where the six candidates were from was not responded to by the Human Resources Division, part of the larger department Parker will now head, as of Monday night. The county did respond on Tuesday to say that, in fact, only five candidates had taken part and did not specify where they were from.
The county said Parker was hired as assistant county administrative officer three years ago “following a rigorous nationwide search,” adding, “Previous highly successful executive experiences in the states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado and North Carolina were a significant factor in that selection.”
The most recent of those “highly successful executive experiences” was in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, where Parker was town administrator from 2013 to 2018. In March 2018, the city council voted to terminate her.
Because in North Carolina reasons for firings even of public employees are kept private, more information on the causes of her termination were not made known publicly.
That October she filed a lawsuit against that city and one of the council members who had voted to fire her, claiming wrongful termination, defamation and emotional distress.
However, in February 2019, she dropped that lawsuit without prejudice, which gave her the option of refiling it. A month later, she came to work for Lake County.
Sources have told Lake County News that Parker was Huchingson’s hand-picked successor and that Parker herself had made that statement to numerous individuals and even groups.
Considering Huchingson’s control of the board, and her control of the Human Resources Department, it was believed to be a foregone conclusion that, despite the process the board agreed to in an effort to deal with “optics,” that Parker would nonetheless be appointed, and that’s what happened on Monday.
The county has a habit of hiring from within rather than going with qualified candidates from the outside, usually choosing longtime employees.
Just as Huchingson’s retirement was notable for its suddenness, Parker’s hiring is notable both for the short amount of time she’s been with the county as well as for its swiftness when compared to the two previous county administrative officer recruitments, which have taken up to a year to place a permanent candidate.
Kelly Cox, who served as county administrative officer for 32 years, announced his retirement in January 2012, to take place two months later. However, he agreed to remain in the job on an interim basis until his successor was hired.
He was followed by one of his own staff, Matt Perry, who took over as interim county administrative officer in June 2012 and was given the job on a permanent basis in December 2012.
In November 2015, Perry announced he planned to retire as of April 1, 2016. The process to recruit his successor began that same month and the board hired Huchingson, then the county’s longtime Social Services director, in February 2016, with her starting two months later.
Since Huchingson’s retirement announcement, it has taken only 67 days to fill her chair on a permanent basis with Parker.
Parker’s background in government
Parker pursued undergraduate studies in government and policy studies, graduating from Beloit College in 1994. She received a Master’s in Public Affairs and Public Administration from the Robert M. LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs, at the University of Wisconsin in 1997.
According to her resume, posted online, her job experience included two years as city administrator for Elroy, Wisconsin, with a population of 1,600 and a total budget of about $2.7 million.
She then moved to Reno, Nevada, where she worked as assistant to the city manager from 2000 to 2002. At that point the city had a population of more than 219,000 and a $264 million budget.
Parker remained with the city of Reno as animal control director from 2002 to 2003 and as emergency communication’s manager from 2003 to 2006.
In June 2006, she moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, then a city of 1,500 with a $10 million annual budget, to take the town manager job. She remained in that job for six and a half years.
Then, in September of 2012, the Crested Butte News reported that Parker and city staff delivered to the city council the “grim reality” for the 2013 budget. During that presentation, Parker told the council that the city was struggling to maintain the assets that they had.
Three months later, on Dec. 3, 2012, Parker resigned and didn’t attend that city’s council meeting later that day, when the resignation was accepted and an interim was appointed. No specific reason for her departure was given and the reporting indicated she left the city’s employment immediately.
She appeared the following year in Sunset Beach, a small North Carolina town with a population of about 3,500 and an annual budget of $6 million.
During her tenure there, she had to deal with recovery operations from 2016’s Hurricane Matthew.
She also was faulted by the local newspaper, the Brunswick Beacon, for a lack of transparency.
Case in point: In late 2016, the city’s interim police chief was the victim of a break-in during which two city-owned guns were stolen. A Feb. 3, 2017, opinion piece from the paper, criticized Parker for working to keep the matter under wraps.
“How can Sunset Beach citizens be expected to respect their government officials when those same officials not only try to hide town business from each other, but also from the people they are supposed to serve? They are to answer first to the people of Sunset Beach, who deserve better,” the paper said, going on to suggest that Parker and the town council “craft policies to remedy their continued lack of transparency.”
Parker’s departure from that city’s employ came 13 months later, after the council voted to terminate her.
After leaving Sunset Beach, Parker’s name began popping up in cities across the country as a finalist in city manager or administor’s searches taking place in 2018.
In May of that year, she was a finalist for town administrator of Manitou Springs, Colorado. Two months later, she was interviewing for the city manager’s job in Hood, River, Oregon. In November, she was being considered for the city manager's jobs in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and Helena, Montana.
She didn’t land any of those jobs. However, she was selected by the county of Lake and hired into the County Administrative Office as assistant county administrative officer on March 28, 2019.
Her tenure in Huchingson’s office crossed that of Pamela Nichols, who had been the county’s Human Resources director until the summer of 2019.
Nichols, who is Black, has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging wrongful termination, racial discrimination, infringement of her First Amendment rights to free speech and retaliation.
Huchingson fired Nichols on Aug. 30, 2019, in a meeting that court documents said Parker was part of, with Parker later being directed by Huchingson to supervise Nichols in packing her belongings.
When Nichols left to get more boxes, she returned to find Parker and county staff with 12 boxes of Nichols’ belongings stacked on the front steps of the county courthouse in Lakeport.
Nichols’ lawsuit, filed in July 2020, seeks unlimited damages.
Discovery in the case is due by July 1, with a motion hearing set for Sept. 23 in Oakland and a jury trial scheduled to begin on March 23, 2023, according to court documents.
Huchingson announced her resignation two days after a closed session update on the matter.
The case was discussed again in closed session on April 19 — 10 days before Huchingson’s departure — and is on Tuesday’s board agenda for another closed session discussion.
The recruitment process
Huchingson announced her resignation on March 17, effective April 29. On March 22, the Board of Supervisors discussed the process to hire the person who would replace her.
That process began with a five-day recruitment for internal candidates for the position on an interim basis which opened that day.
They also approved Human Resources Director Pam Samac’s proposal for an open recruitment that originally was to have begun on March 25 and continue until the job was filled, with a review of applicants after 15 to 20 days.
The board interviewed two candidates for the interim job on April 12 and appointed Parker as interim county administrative officer effective April 30.
Part of the recruitment plan that the board approved March 22 was potentially hiring a headhunting firm.
Using an outside company for the hiring also was discussed during the board’s April 26 meeting, as part of an item that Supervisor Bruno Sabatier had brought forward regarding control of the Human Resources Department.
The board’s discussion referenced concerns about a potential conflict for Parker to oversee Human Resources while it carried out the recruitment for the county administrative officer’s job, which by that point she already had publicly confirmed that she intended to pursue on a permanent basis.
The board majority, with input from Samac — another of Huchingson’s hires, succeeding the ousted Nichols — took no action to separate Human Resources from the County Administrative Office. However the concern about the “optics” of how the hiring process was taking place was discussed, and County Counsel Anita Grant suggested the board establish very clear rules for Samac to follow.
Samac came back on May 10 with a proposal that she would coordinate the recruitment and confer directly with Board Chair EJ Crandell and that it wouldn’t be discussed with Parker except to notify her if she was a qualified candidate.
At that time, Samac reported that the recruitment was opened on March 28 with an initial cutoff date of April 18. The county ultimately received 14 applications with six qualified candidates.
She said Crandell told her he wanted to interview all candidates rather than having them narrowed by a committee that she had suggested convening.
On May 10 Samac wanted to set dates for interviews so they didn’t lose six qualified candidates by waiting too long. She suggested interviewing each of the candidates for an hour.
Samac said her office had sent a request for qualifications to 10 executive search firms, which had an April 21 deadline to respond. She said the county intended to begin the selection process for the executive search firm — “if needed” — once the first round of recruitment is completed.
However, the recruitment didn’t end up involving a headhunting firm and quickly moved forward to interviews.
At the May 10 meeting, the board also dismissed a suggestion by Sabatier to have a panel of community leaders give input as part of the hiring process.
At that time, the board set a special meeting for interviews that was to have taken place on May 27.
However, on Wednesday, the county issued a special meeting notice moving that interview meeting up to Monday, during which the supervisors would convene at 9 a.m. and begin interviews of the five qualified candidates, which resulted in Parker’s hire six and a half hours later.
In the new position, after previously only handling budgets of as much as $10 million, she will head a county with an annual budget that this year has totaled more than $306 million.
Parker also will now be faced with addressing budget challenges such as dropping cannabis tax revenues — which Huchingson and her staff relied upon heavily to justify approving $21 million in raises during the pandemic which largely benefited department heads like Huchingson — and the Nichols lawsuit.
County statement on Parker’s hiring
The following is the written statement issued by the county of Lake to Lake County News and other media outlets at 5:16 p.m. Monday. It is published in its entirety and is not edited.
Board of Supervisors Appoints Susan Parker Permanent County Administrative Officer
Parker Previously Appointed Interim CAO Tuesday, April 12, 2022
LAKE COUNTY, CA (May 23, 2022) — At 3:35pm Monday, May 23, the Lake County Board of Supervisors emerged from Closed Session to announce Susan Parker had been appointed permanent County Administrative Officer (CAO).
“Susan has done a truly outstanding job as Interim CAO,” enthuses Eddie Crandell, Chair of the Lake County Board of Supervisors. “We are really excited she has agreed to take on the CAO role on a permanent basis, and confident Susan will bring strong leadership for years to come. She has 20 years of experience as a high level government executive and administrator, and she knows what needs to be done to continue to move Lake County forward.”
As previously reported, Parker was selected as Assistant CAO three years ago, following a rigorous nationwide search. Previous highly successful Executive experiences in the states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado and North Carolina were a significant factor in that selection.
A true leader who is not afraid to dig into complex topics, Parker has helmed many far-ranging efforts: transportation projects, including securing grant funding; housing projects, from concept through development; intensive emergency response, in the aftermath of 2016’s devastating Hurricane Matthew; Library expansions; and Tax Incentive programs.
Parker is an accomplished local government scholar and theorist, having earned a Master’s in Public Affairs and Public Administration from the Robert M. Lafollette Institute of Public Affairs, at the University of Wisconsin. Her undergraduate studies were likewise in Government and Policy Studies.
“During her time here, Susan has shown herself to be a highly effective collaborator,” affirms Crandell. “We look forward to more and more residents getting to know and work with Susan in this new capacity.”
“I am truly excited and honored to continue serving Lake County residents,” notes Parker. “Lake County is a very special place, and I am proud to call it home. It will be a privilege to partner with the Board to promote the well-being of every resident.”
Please join in congratulating Susan Parker on her permanent appointment!
This article has been updated to show that five not six candidates were interviewed, a fact the county revealed on Tuesday, after publication.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Board of Supervisors hires Parker as new county administrative officer
- Elizabeth Larson
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