By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
After serving as the Ellis County administrator for more than three years and helping to guide the county through several major projects, Phillip Smith-Hanes has been named the Saline County administrator.
Smith-Hanes, who was hired in December 2015 and began working in Ellis County in March 2016, said Tuesday he is excited for the opportunity.
“It’s a larger community closer to where I grew up, but I’m sad to be leaving Ellis County,” said Smith-Hanes, who grew up in Marion County. “Ellis County’s been very good to me.
“I wasn’t out there looking for a new job,” he added. “This is just something that popped up that was kind of the right opportunity at the right time.”
Ellis County Commission Chairman Dean Haselhorst praised the work Smith-Hanes has done for Ellis County and said he wishes him well.
“He served Ellis County very well,” Haselhorst said. “Phil did us a great job on budget and saving us money and a lot of reorganizational stuff Phil took care of where it would be some more money-saving chances.”
During his time in Ellis County, Smith-Hanes helped oversee the purchase of the County Administrative Center, 718 Main, the purchase and renovation of the new county health department, 2507 Canterbury, and the renovation of the Cottonwood Extension District office, 601 Main.
“I’ve bought two buildings since I’ve been here,” said Smith-Hanes. “I’ve never had the opportunity to buy a building for a local government prior to coming here.
“We’ve made some changes to the physical plant of Ellis County and what we’re able to offer the taxpayers, but we’ve also make a lot of changes on policy side,” he said. “Getting the personnel policies updated, getting new policies for everything from safety to employee recognition.”
Smith-Hanes became only the second county administrator after Greg Sund stepped down in 2015. Haselhorst said Smith-Hanes helped turn around a difficult situation.
“He has great organization skills, and he really got us back to where we needed to be,” Haselhorst said.
Smith-Hanes was quick to credit to the employees of Ellis County.
“I’ve had great department heads to work with and certainly have enjoyed working with all the commissioners and it’s never one person, it’s always a team effort,” Smith-Hanes said. “I think I’ve helped to stabilize the environment a little bit, compared to where it was.”
He said is “a little sad” he won’t get to see what happens with the sales tax vote in the spring but will be helping to spearhead a number of projects in Saline County.
“They are working on a jail expansion project and they are looking at doing something with their Expo Center,” Smith-Hanes said. “Both of those things are neat opportunities and similar to stuff that I’ve dealt with here in Ellis County so hopefully I have a little bit to offer them and a lot to learn.”
Haselhorst said he doesn’t anticipate the commission hiring a new county administrator right away.
“We’re going to name an interim person in the future and we’ll just see going forward with the budget and different things what direction we truly do go,” Haselhorst said. “We’ll just see, going forward, what that position does look like.”
Smith-Hanes will continue working for Ellis County through the end of November before starting in Saline County Dec. 2.