AACFAMILY & FRIENDS
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About NACo – The Voice of America’s Counties National Association of Counties (NACo) is the only national organization that represents county governments in the U.S. NACo provides essential services to the nation’s 3,068 coun- ties. NACo advances issues with a unified voice before the federal government, improves the public’s understanding of county government, assists counties in finding and sharing inno- vative solutions through education and research and provides value-added services to save counties and taxpayers money.
www.naco.org
CLI comes at just right time for Arkansas county assessor By Charlie Ban For Kasey Summerville, the County Leadership Institute was a
dream, but that’s all it seemed to be. Tough it caught her interest when she got the email advertis-
ing the three and a half day intensive program in Washington, D.C., the cost just seemed too high for Clark County, Ark., the 20,000-person community where Summerville serves as assessor. So she applied for Next Generation NACo’s first-ever fellow-
ship to pay costs of the program, but didn’t expect to get it, so her reaction was unbridled when she got the good news. “I was jumping up and down,” she said about getting the
news. “I was excited because I had this opportunity I otherwise wouldn’t have had.”
As a member of the NACo’s Finance and Pension Steering Committee, she has attended several conferences, but all primar- ily in service to the organization or her county directly. Now, she had a chance to focus on her skills as a leader to do her job better. And she got that. “It was like dying and being reborn,” she said. “It changed my
life. What we did in those three-and-a-half days was more than anything I was expecting, but I came out of it a new leader.” She hasn’t made it nearly 14 years without strong leadership. While working in the Clerk of Courts’ office, she saw the assessor’s office and had plans for it. She wanted to take its operations into the 21st century, and even waiting another two years after an unsuccess- ful campaign for the position, didn’t dampen her enthusiasm. “Te office was still doing most things by hand,” she said. “I wanted to digitize everything, get all of our records online so people could access them whenever they wanted.” Tough it has been a long process, she’s two years from finish- ing the job, which she sees as getting her part of the county gov- ernment to an ideal point. And that means more than just saving money on postage because they can email assessments. “It will be complete transparency,” she said. “Not only will you be able to see your own records, you’ll be able to see any property in the county, so you can see we treat everyone fairly and equita- bly. Tat transparency is important to me as a leader.” But those goals and that process were in place long before Coun- ty Leadership Institute met in June. How did it change her? “I called my staff in when I got back and said, ‘You may see me handle some things different based on the training I’ve gone through,’” she said. “I didn’t want them to be alarmed, or ask if something was wrong, but I just felt like everything I did was go-
COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2016
ing to be a little dif- ferent after that.” First off, she al- most immediately addressed a per- sonnel issue that had been festering for a while. “We need to have courageous conver- sations,” she said. “We took a look at our weaknesses as leaders and I knew mine was procrasti- nation, especially if I had to deal with an uncomfortable situation. I am also too nice, when I need to be more professional.”
Clark County Assessor Kasey Summer- ville received NACo’s first-ever fellowship to pay costs for her to attend County Leadership Institute in June in Washinton, D.C.
Te attendees, 22 in all, did role playing exercises to work on dealing with those tendencies, and for Summerville, it worked. “I needed CLI at that very moment,” she said. “It was at just the right time. I’ve always had a pretty stable staff, but we lost two of our five, and we were going through a little transition. Tis was the best time to take a step back and look at what I’m doing as a leader.” It felt like every second, though, she was running forward.
From the webinar to prepare for CLI, to the homework assign- ments before and overnight during her stay in D.C., it felt like there wasn’t a second wasted. “My husband wanted to come along, but I told him this wasn’t going to be that kind of trip,” she said. “He was going to have to be doing sightseeing on his own.” For Summerville, the overall CLI theme of “seeing from balco-
ny” was as prescient as the approach suggests. Too often, she said, leaders can get too bogged down to remember the big picture, look at all perspectives and angles before they make their final
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