By Brian Wright | Casa Grande Dispatch
The one finalist with a history at Pinal County was the one left standing when the Board of Supervisors selected an interim county manager Monday afternoon.
Greg Stanley started with Pinal in 2004 as the county engineer and Stanley
was named to his most recent post, assistant county manager of development services, in February 2012.
After a scathing report of the Public Works Department was released earlier this month by a third-party investigator, County Manager Fritz Behring placed Stanley, Public Works Director A.J. Blaha and department Business Manager Tina Lawson on paid administrative leave.
Blaha tendered his retirement, and Lawson was terminated, but Stanley was reinstated. It was decided Stanley was unaware or not directly involved with
misconduct allegedly perpetrated by Lawson and others in the department.
At Monday’s special meeting in Florence, three finalists were interviewed in executive session. In addition to Stanley, the board interviewed former Mohave County Manager Ronnie Walker and former Coconino County Manager John Holmes.
After the meeting, board Chairman Steve Miller told the Casa Grande Dispatch he was not concerned about Stanley’s recent administrative leave. He said Stanley communicated with Behring and all the supervisors and explained some “shortcomings” with the investigation.
Miller said Behring and the other board members were convinced Stanley was not to blame for much of the behavior of Lawson and the department.
Included in Monday’s motion to approve Stanley as the interim county manager were two stipulations — he will receive the same salary as Behring, and he will be eligible to apply for the permanent position.
Stanley’s salary was approximately $150,000 as assistant county manager; he will be bumped to nearly $180,000 as the interim manager.
Miller said the one area where Stanley clearly stood out from Walker and Holmes was his knowledge of issues, contracts and litigation the county currently faces. He said it provided the board members with a “comfort level” in choosing Stanley.
Miller said the county has a “level of complexity with the issues we have to deal with in the near future.”
“To bring somebody in that might have to get up to speed — and we might need to make decisions a little quicker than that — certainly Greg would be on board a lot faster than somebody else,” he said.
Miller said his relationship with Stanley goes back many years to when Stanley worked for the city of Casa Grande and Miller was on the city council. He said he disclosed that information to the rest of the supervisors.
“I wanted everybody to know we’ve been good friends for many years,” he said.
However, Miller said he believes the permanent position should be filled by someone from outside Pinal County. He didn’t vote against Monday’s all-inclusive motion, which included language that Stanley would be eligible for the permanent position, because he said he knew there wasn’t enough support from the rest of the board to strike down that part of the motion.
“I do want to see us go and really search outside … the walls of Pinal County,” he said. “I think we should really make sure when we start vetting for the permanent position that we reach out and try to find the cream of the crop.”
The need to find an interim county manager arose when Behring was hired to be Scottsdale’s new city manager May 22. Behring’s last day with Pinal County is this Friday.
