The Bulloch County commissioners are poised to adopt a contract Tuesday, Dec. 3, for Assistant County Manager Cindy Steinmann to step into the role of interim county manager, since longtime County Manager Tom Couch’s resignation formally took effect Friday.

The commissioners’ regular, public meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the usual room at the North Main Annex.

Couch served in the appointed county manager role for 20 years through several previous, mostly gradual changes in the elected leadership. But the 2024 elections, especially the Republican primary, brought upheaval.

With a new Board of Commissioners chair and one district commissioner-elect who defeated incumbents set to take office at the beginning of 2025 and another already seated, Couch handed in his resignation in mid-October, timing it to take effect Nov. 29. He is now starting his new job as an assistant county manager for York County, South Carolina.

In late October when Couch’s resignation became public, Steinmann said she had not yet accepted the interim manager appointment but was seriously considering it. However, she added that she would not apply for the permanent role.

“I don’t have any intent of taking the role permanently,” Steinmann said then. “So, my intent is to keep the ship afloat until such time as the commissioners have recruited and hired a replacement county manager. … I’ll be a resource for commissioners and happy to assist in any recruitment.”

She has been a Bulloch County staff member for 10 years and assistant county manager for 3½ years.

Now the proposed “interim county manager employment agreement” that County Attorney Jeff Akins is slated to present to the commissioners refers to Steinmann by name and as “Manager.” One of the preamble clauses begins, “Whereas, Manager has agreed to accept employment as the Interim Bulloch County Manager. …”

Salary & terms

If a majority of commissioners approve this agreement, the county will pay Steinmann the equivalent of $175,000 per year, or $6,730.77 each two-week pay period. She explicitly is not eligible for overtime pay. Her reimbursements for travel, lodging, meals and cell phone expenses will be the same as for all county employees, the agreement states.

Under its terms, when a new permanent county manager is successfully recruited, Steinmann “shall resume duties” as assistant county manager “at a salary equal to the amount previously earned in that role.” That would also be the case if she were to resign as the manager or be terminated from the position by the county without cause.

If the commissioners were to terminate the agreement without cause before hiring a permanent manager and not retain Steinmann as assistant county manager, she would be entitled to three months severance pay at the manager’s salary, under the terms of the contract.

Steinmann joined the county staff as a management analyst in December 2014, then was promoted to special projects manager in 2018 and to assistant county manager in the spring of 2021.

A native of Dublin, Georgia, she came to Statesboro as a university student and became a “Double Eagle,” receiving both her Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Public Administration from Georgia Southern.

Before being hired by the county, she worked four years for Statesboro’s city government, where her final job was development project manager.

Couch, with 35 years experience with city and county governments, including 20 in the Bulloch County manager’s role, attained a final-year salary here of $202,456.

Other agenda items

A lineup of 12 zoning and development-related requests, some postponed from a month ago and most requiring hearings, will probably dominate Tuesday evening’s meeting in regard to time.

Following that, “new business” items include the resolution setting the terms for a six-year Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum for a March 18 special election, an amended economic development agreement with Revalyu (US) LLC, and discussion of a “notice of termination” for the county’s intergovernmental agreement for fire protection services with the city of Statesboro.

That last item does not mean that the county necessarily will terminate its agreement for fire service by the Statesboro Fire Department for unincorporated areas within five miles of the SFD stations. But the county does have that option, since the agreement will expire June 30, 2025, and either local government must notify the other six months in advance if it doesn’t want to renew, as Akins explains in a memo to commissioners.

“Termination would be appropriate if the County either wants to renegotiate aspects of the agreement or change the delivery of fire protection services in some way,” the memo states. But it adds that the city or county can terminate the agreement at any point by giving 12 months’ written notice, so they aren’t necessarily locked in for five years even if they let the contract renew.