_{Thumbnail photo: Brad Alcorn.}

Curry County Commissioner Brad Alcorn announced his resignation on Wednesday, telling his colleagues that he had “personal things” he needed to focus on requiring him to be gone for extended periods of time.

“I know that not being present here every day would certainly not be fair to the people of this county, but it also would not be fair to either of you,” he told commissioners Jay Trost and Patrick Hollinger at the end of the Board’s regular business meeting. “You guys show up every day. You work hard trying to solve this county’s problems, and you need someone, a third person, that’s going to be doing the same.”

Alcorn said his resignation will be effective May 1 and the Board’s April 15 meeting will be the last time he serves as its chair.

_{Thumbnail: Former Curry County Finance Director Keina Wolf (far left) tendered her resignation effective Monday |Screenshot}

Curry County commissioners appointed Treasurer Nick Vicino to provide financial oversight on an interim basis following the resignation of Keina Wolf effective Monday.

Vicino will receive a 25 percent salary increase for taking on extra duties, including the supervision of finance staff, said Commissioner Jay Trost who read out the order at an emergency meeting Friday.

Vicino’s other duties will include ensuring accounts payable and accounts receivable are entered into the county’s Casselle government software system and to ensure that the use of county accounts are in compliance with policies and government accounting standards. Vicino will also be required to prepare financial statements and documents for the county budget and authorize claims for payment.

_{Curry County Board of Commissioners Meeting from Dec. 19. Thumbnail: Keina Wolf, the county’s finance and human resources director, sits at the far left on the dais. | Screenshot}

(Update at 2:51 p.m. Dec. 30. Curry County commissioners delayed renewing an employment contract with Finance and Human Resources Director Keina Wolf at their Dec. 19 meeting.)

Curry County commissioners declined to renew delayed renewing an employment contract with their finance and human resources director, Kiena Wolf, at last week’s meeting. 

Wolf, who was in attendance at that meeting, found herself on the defensive against critics arguing that the county couldn’t afford the expense.

One critic, Michele Martin, a member of a Facebook group called Citizens For Curry Justice, criticized Wolf’s proposed salary of $130,000 per year and said the $15,000 professional development allowance it calls for is more than the training budget at the Curry County Sheriff’s Office.

Rod Palmquist, a representative for Teamsters Local 223, which represents sheriff’s office employees, repeated the statement regarding the training budget for Wolf’s department, comparing it with that of the sheriff’s office. He told commissioners that the proposed employment agreement prioritized bureaucracy “over the very safety of the community you were elected to serve.”

A third critic was County Assessor and Tax Collector Kylie Wagner, who said that Wolf, who does much of her work from her home in Lane County, “should be here in the trenches with the rest of us.”