Covington County appoints county staff member as public information officer; approves short part-time transition for outgoing communications employee

The Covington County Commission on July 14 approved appointing a county staff member to serve as the county's public information officer and authorized a part-time temporary position so the outgoing communications employee can help with transition and training.

County staff explained the need after Kyle Adams accepted a position with a local school system and will leave at the end of the month. "We are required to have a public information officer to handle the requests...for records," the staff member told the commission and said her office could handle incoming requests. The transcript first identifies the staff member as "Carrie" and later as "Karen"; the commission described her as willing to take on the public-information duties through her department.

Commissioners discussed whether the outgoing employee should continue part time and for how long; one commissioner recommended limiting the arrangement to three months to allow time to hire and train a permanent replacement. The commission approved the motion to appoint the county staff member to the public information role and to create a part-time temporary clerk position for a limited transition period. The motion was made, seconded and approved in open session.

What this covers: the appointee will handle records requests, website updates and social-media pages previously managed by the communications position; county staff said the temporary arrangement would allow training of a new hire and continuity of public communications while the personnel change is finalized.

Next steps: the county will post or internally fill the permanent communications role; the approved temporary position will allow the outgoing employee to assist during the transition period.