Commissioner Ben Kafferlin

A change in leadership is in the works for the county commissioners.

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said he would be nominating Tricia Durbin to chair the board at a meeting next month.

“You can expect to see the chairmanship rotate in July,” he said.

The move, which Kafferlin has previously said would occur, is hastened by his pending appointment as the executive director of the City of Corry’s Redevelopment Authority.

“Kafferlin Strategies is under contract with the Corry RDA,” Kafferlin said Monday. As partner, “I am contracted to head up the RDA. I have been named as the executive director.”

The agency made the announcement at its June 15 meeting.

Kafferlin started the company about 10 years ago.

“Though I let it largely lapse when I came into office, I’ve been starting to rebuild it over the last two years – as I said I was going to when I ran for reelection – which means I’ve been spending less time in the courthouse than I did in the last term,” he explained. ” I still have been working 35 hours/week, on average.”

“It’s been fun to see the business growing again,” he said. Those business efforts have “really increased” in the last few months, including securing a contract with the Corry Redevelopment Authority to “manage community and economic development projects for them.”

While that will come with the title, he stressed that he is “completing my current term in office.

“I will still be putting in the hours for Warren County, though in a more structured way than before,” he explained. “The hours are not going to change much. Now I intend to work two or three long days in Warren, and two in Corry. That, coupled with evening and weekend meetings and events should be pretty close to my current commitment to the county.”

He said that the county code “only requires attendance at (the) organizational meeting, oddly. My commitment during my last election was to ‘put in the hours necessary’ and I will stick to that commitment.”

When emergencies arise in the county, Kafferlin will be here, he said.

He doesn’t see any conflict of interest, speculating that “Corry and Warren Co. have so much in common, I think it’s a benefit to both, but should one arise, other staff can step in and make decisions for Corry and I’ll remain loyal to Warren Co. as long as I remain in office.”

Personally, the position is a good fit.

The company has numerous regional clients, but “a lot of our clients are not local,” Kafferlin said. “Being a 12-minute drive from my 9-month-old daughter was very appealing.”

The RDA also tends to offer more steady work than some clients, leading to some consistency in hours, he said.

Kafferlin spoke highly of the job he believes Durbin will do as the chair.

“The chair has some more executive authority or at least executive responsibility as the ‘CLEO’ – chief local elected official,” he said. “Commissioner Durbin has the vision and management ability to frankly do a better job than I, so I think it’s a positive change.

“She’s already starting to make positive changes.”

As for running for another term as commissioner, Kafferlin said, “I haven’t made any decisions on whether I plan to run for re-election or not.”