The role of the Barton County administrator will be on the County Commission agenda when it next meets on Wednesday, Feb. 8. This announcement was made Wednesday morning after the commission emerged from an executive session.

Commissioners adjured into a 20-minute closed-door session to discuss matters pertaining to non-elected personnel and attorney-client privilege. Joining them were County Counselor Patrick Hoffman and Operations Director Matt Patzner.

Although no action was taken upon reconvening in open session, the commission did note the matter would be discussed next week.

Patzner was promoted to operations director in December 2021. He had been serving as the county’s human resources/finance director. 

The commission then opted to go with an operations director in lieu of a county administrator, even after hiring an outside consultant and holding job interviews. But, but commissioners noted at that time that this operations director post was a possible precursor to being the county administrator. 

Patzner took the post, replacing County Engineer Barry McManaman who was named interim county administrator in August 2021.

The appointment of McManaman was needed following Phil Hathcock’s stepping down as county administrator in August 2021. Hathcock took the job after the county operated for about two years without an administrator. 

Richard Boeckman resigned from the post in October 2016 and Hathcock was named operations director in May 2017 and promoted to administrator in April 2018.