Boone County Presiding Commissioner Dan Atwill and Auditor June Pitchford will not be seeking reelection this year — taking with them into retirement a combined 41 years of experience governing the county.
As they reflected on their tenures, each said they felt pride in their roles in the overall functions of local government.
Atwill said he never considers accomplishments to be his because there are so many people involved in each project.
One that he is particularly proud of is the Emergency Management 911 project.
Early in his tenure as county commissioner, the issue was raised that a new emergency management and 911 center should be created.
In collaboration with the city manager, a blue-ribbon committee completed a study that concluded new emergency management and 911 centers should be made to accommodate the growing population throughout the county.
At the time, only one person was in charge of both emergency management and 911 operations.
A tax was passed by voters to bring all existing staff under the umbrella of the emergency management and 911 center. Large-scale planning ensued for the new facility, and now there are staff for the emergency management sector and the 911 sector with a director of both.
“It was this really big and important deal. It was kind of the nerve center for the county,” Atwill said.
Pitchford’s work follows annual fiscal reports, and she said her improvements happen usually incrementally over time.
One large project that she is proud of during her work as Boone County auditor is the Enterprise Resource Planning Software Selection Project. Pitchford said the ERP project implements software that manages “day-to-day business activities such as budgeting, accounting, human resources, payroll and procurement.”
Pitchford said the project has been monumental and will launch early in the second quarter of 2022.
Boone County Collector Brian McCollum said it is not new for Boone County to lose longstanding officials. The last few election cycles have resulted in the loss of officials with decades of institutional knowledge, McCollum said.
After working for the county for more than 30 years, Pitchford said that she has been concerned with the turnover in elected officials in her time. Pitchford said that sometimes elected officials come into office with insufficient institutional knowledge while being expected to make big decisions.
These decisions could have unintended consequences that Pitchford can foresee due to her lengthy time working for the county.
Pitchford encourages a new auditor — or any newly elected official, for that matter — to take time to understand the system before making any big changes.
Pitchford ran for office for the first time in 1990 and has been elected uncontested for the past three decades.
Based on her career, she said she believes it is essential for the new auditor to be honest and competent. They should be committed to collaborative problem-solving and be open-minded.
She said she hopes that, over time, her legacy will be associated with being ethical and using best practices.
President of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Matt McCormick said Atwill will leave many legacies when he leaves office. Most of all, McCormick believes Atwill will be known for his fairness and love for Boone County.
Atwill was a practicing lawyer before he ran for county commissioner 10 years ago. District Two Commissioner Janet Thompson said, in part because of his law career, he brought incredible depth of knowledge to the commission.
Thompson said it will be interesting to get to know the new presiding commissioner’s specific skills and how they fit in the mix of the current staff’s skills.
Each of the retiring county officials has had to balance serving both the rural and urban populations in Boone County. Atwill said there are most likely fewer than 40,000 residents living outside Columbia city limits in Boone County, and among their main concerns are the roads.
“Boone County has about 800 miles of roads, and about 400 miles of that is either asphalt or concrete. We’ve got about 400 miles of gravel roads,” Atwill said.
He said it is difficult to pave those roads for a variety of reasons. Getting the funding is difficult, and the price is extremely high even just to rebuild a road before paving it. In order for roads to be paved, they also have to have proper drainage, which sometimes makes them wider. That takes more real estate, which becomes an issue with property owners, Atwill said.
Atwill was also concerned with repairs needed on the Rocheport bridge over Interstate 70. The repairs would back up traffic for long distances and could have damaging effects on the county economy, Atwill said.
The City of Columbia and the county each contributed $2 million, and that helped get federal funding to build a new bridge instead of repairing the old one.
Thompson said even if an official arrives in office with a lot of experience, there is still a learning curve.
McCollum said the successors of both Atwill and Pitchford have big shoes to fill. There will be a learning curve for the next presiding commissioner to maintain Atwill’s strong relationships with stakeholders across the state, McCollum said.
“It is always concerning when we lose institutional knowledge,” City Council member Andrea Waner said.
Waner said the council and other elected officials rely heavily on city and county staff to understand the inner workings of the government, and that is why it is important to retain good employees.
It is because of all the good employees that McCollum is not concerned about the loss of the two officials.
He said these employees are capable of getting any officials up to speed and are well equipped to keep government moving along.
“I don’t see anything slowing down,” McCollum said.
Thompson said whenever such prominent figures retire, she sees all their knowledge and their unique skillset walking out the door.
“Folks like that are always missed,” Thompson said.
