Richard Morrell is seeking to represent District No. 3 on the Linn County Board of Commissioners. He is one of two candidates on the Republican Aug. 6 primary ballot. His opponent has not submitted his response to our questions.
Why have you decided to run for office?
I became interested in the commissioner role after serving 6 years on the Linn County Planning & Zoning Commission. I did and do attend many of the County Commissioner meetings and see a lot of dysfunction. With my educational and vocational experience, I feel I could ‘right’ a lot of the ‘wrongs’ within the chambers of the commissioners.
What is your background and how has that prepared you to serve your constituents?
My first vocation shortly after high school was as a farmer with my mother and father. I was and am a proud fifth-generation farmer/landowner in Linn County. Our family’s original Linn County ‘home place’ was purchased in 1884. I later decided to get a college degree and work outside the farm.
I chose to work in higher education as an administrator. My career spanned 42 years. Upon retirement my wife (Kerry Barnes) and I moved back to Linn County. My work experience and educational pursuits focused on understanding the client (college students), fiscal stewardship and human resource management.
My 42-year run as a successful administrator was largely due to my concerted efforts to understand our client – the student. I will be just as diligent in understanding the wants, needs and desires of the people of Linn County.
I served in mid-to-large size universities, dealing with large number of clients - 30 thousand plus students at KU as University Registrar and at Central Missouri I was Vice President and managed a budget in excess of $50 million with over 200 employees under my direction.
Given my administrative experience and familiarity with Linn County issues, I don’t need a 4 year term in office to figure out what and how to do things right for Linn County. I will ‘hit the ground running’ on my first day of the job.
What steps should the county take on economic development issues?
I served on the Linn County Comprehensive Plan committee that developed, wrote and published the report on what our county needs to be doing in the next 20 years. That report was approved and accepted unanimously by the current county commissioners in August of 2022. It was signed by my opponent, County Commission Chair, Jim Johnson.
To date, I can see little of the report/plan being implemented! That report, which I helped craft emphasized diversifying our economy by promoting manufacturing, small business development, tourism and targeting external grant funding. Most often I observe unproductive infighting between certain commissioners and county employees and little attention in pursuing the future plan that was signed off by all 3 commissioners.
To drive that transformation we felt strongly that Linn County needed to hire a county administrator. My sincere conviction is that someone who has a advanced degree in Public Administration and has work experience in a setting not unlike Linn County could be the ‘game changer’ for the future of Linn County.
Are you in favor of expanding the current commission to five commissioners? Why or why not? Are you in favor of hiring a county administrator?
As I just stated, I am in favor of hiring a county administrator. My analogy is that we have a pretty good football team and no head coach (and not a lot of winning seasons)! Presently, a committee of 3 sits each Monday and tries to manage the affairs of the county in a meeting that averages about 3 hours long. Any student of management principles knows that a committee approach is one of the least successful ways to manage any organization. Hire an experienced leader who can work 40-60 hours per week to win for Linn County.
I think there may be some good reasons to move to a 5-commissioner arrangement. In my 1-on-1 visits with the current Miami County Administrator, he feels it has benefited the county. I think we ought to have a lot of discussion and dialogue before considering moving away from our present model.
What is your stance on landowner’s rights? This is currently an issue for solar farms, quarries, and feedlots.
As a farm landowner I support and will vigorously defend landowner’s rights to use their property as they see fit – within reason. As Chair of the Linn County P&Z Commission I championed regulations that struck a balance between the rights of Linn County landowners and other Linn County citizens.
If elected, what would you like to accomplish during your term in office?
My work will be to provide a positive and productive environment within the chambers of the County Commissioners, the County employees and County volunteers and advocates that is void of uninformed indecisiveness, intimidation, bullying, one-upmanship and pushing personal agendas.
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