Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Warren County Commissioner Ben Kafferlin has become the first commissioner from Warren County to complete the County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania’s Center for Excellence in County Leadership.

Warren County Commissioner Ben Kafferlin has become the first commissioner to complete a statewide leadership program.

The program is put on by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania’s Center for Excellence in County Leadership.

“CEL training focuses on fostering individual growth through interactive and high level classroom training aimed at improving participants’ communication, management and leadership skills,” according to a CCAP release.

“CEL includes intense classes in styles of leadership, managerial versatility, interpersonal dynamics, crisis communication, media management, daily communication problem solving, decision making, and other areas.”

So how will completing the program actually impact county government through the rest of his term?

“The trainings ranged from personal development of high-level communications skills, including dry-run scenarios, to tangible recommendations on specific equipment to use for digital media communications,” Kafferlin said. “One area for improvement we discovered in both the 2019 tornado and COVID-19 response is the lack of a pre-built communications forms and multimedia equipment to get messages out.

“A primary outcome of the CEL training that the public will see will come in shoring up public communications training and equipment at the Department of Public Safety.”

During Monday’s work session, Kafferlin also proposed summer reading for county leadership coming out of the program that would aim at enhancing performance conversations and closing out projects.