Summit County’s Personnel Director, Brian Bellamy, has retired, after 25 years at the Coalville Courthouse, experience with two different forms of county government, and a Covid pandemic.
Bellamy reviewed it all for his final KPCW interview.
Brian Bellamy moved from the private sector in October of 1995 and came to work as the county’s HR director. He said he enjoyed helping to build a community and always heeded John Kennedy’s advice to “ask what you can do for your country.”
He said he has always commuted to work from outside the county, but has always thought of Summit as his home.
During his tenure, the county grew from roughly a population of 23,000 to 44,000. The form of government, consisting of a three-member Commission for many decades, changed to a five-member Council and County Manager in 2008.
Asked to compare the two, Bellamy said the Commission combined the executive and legislative function.
“And so they were in the Courthouse a lot more, or worked with the employees a lot more. So that also got some problems where they would try to direct—I remember we had one snafu with one of the County Commisisoners that caused real problems. And he didn’t bother to get enough votes to make a change in some things, and we had to put things back. So we had that problem. But with a new Council, you do have the professional managers, now Tom Fisher. And you get five people representing the community from different viewpoints. To me, the more viewpoints you have, the better you can get things going for the community.”
He said he has not seen any serious downsides to the Council-Manager form.
“Gosh, I can say it now, I think things go a little bit longer cause they were having three people needing to speak, you have five that need to speak. To me, it’s a very effective form of government. One downside is that Council does not know the day to day. But they don’t really need to know the day to day because they’re the legislative branch.”
Bellamy has occasionally been asked to put on another hat. When the Council was first elected, he served as an interim County Manager for a little over a year, until Bob Jasper was hired for that spot.
He even became the county’s head dogcatcher for a while, when Animal Control was moved out of the Sheriff’s Department and under Jasper’s office.
“And Bob asked me to go in there. We had a few hiccups in there with some employees, and things were just not running as smoothly as they could’ve done. And so Bob asked me to go in there and work in Animal Control, which was great, because we were able to get them a renovated shelter, which can keep more animals, so that we could also move to keep all healthy adoptable animals and help rescue them.”
He said in general, the county staff has been paid fairly and has received great benefits.
“Like most people, they always want more money. But you’ve got limited dollars. And we cannot sell more widgets. And we don’t always like raising taxes. And so we have to live within the means of the revenues which we can collect. A year-and-a-half ago, the county passed a parental-leave policy, so that both parents could take times off at the birth or adoption of a child. The county was one of the first to put into place protections for LGBTQ employees.”
While some might think that’s the result of a County Council made up entirely of Democrats, Bellamy noted that then-Council Member David Ure, a Republican, also supported LBGTQ benefits.
He said the county staff jumped into the fray during 2020. Cost of Living increases were given in January of last year, but scheduled Merit increases had to be suspended starting in April.
Looking back, Bellamy said he loved working in HR.
“I’m a lucky boy. I’ve shared with people that I never wanted to be a peace officer or a fire-fighter. I always wanted to be the person who gave other people jobs.”
Outgoing Summit County Personnel Director Brian Bellamy. He’s looking forward to devoting more time to gardening, and would love to have a part-time job in a bookstore.
