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The Southampton County Board of Supervisors selected the executive search firm it wants to work with as it begins the process of finding the next county administrator.

“They’re going to hire a firm called Developmental Associates LLC,” current County Administrator Michael W. Johnson said Monday evening, Nov. 29.

Johnson will retire from his position June 30, 2022, after 26 1/2 years as administrator. He shared this decision with the board in a closed session Sept. 28 and made it public Oct. 7 in a short meeting during which he briefed the board on the process and timeline for recruiting the next county administrator.

He said Nov. 29 that the recruitment process he laid out and that the board agreed to is on schedule.

“The actual recruitment will start after the first of the year, so over the course of December and the first part of January, they’ll be working on the position profile and those kinds of things, and then the actual announcement of the position and the recruitment will start very early next year,” he said.

Just prior to announcing its decision Nov. 29, the board convened and interviewed the two firms that it had narrowed the search down to at its Nov. 23 meeting.

In a written report to the board found in the Nov. 23 board meeting packet, Johnson stated that he had followed the board’s direction from the Oct. 7 continued session and issued a request for proposals from executive search services Oct. 25.

“In response, we received a total of five proposals prior to the deadline of Nov. 16,” he stated. “Our adopted timeline established Monday, Nov. 29, for interviews of the top-ranked firms, after which the board will select the offeror which it believes has submitted the most meritorious proposal.”