Highlights from the October 13th Program

John Nilon, CAO for Kern County shared insights of his 32 years with the county. Dubbed the Farewell Tour… or “My Kern County”. John shared his memories with us in what was a surprisingly inspirational presentation.

 

Positions held with the county include:

1. ETR Executive Director
2. Child Support Director
3. Public Health Director
4. CAO
5. Interim CEO Kern Medical Director.

Lessons learned along the way

• Create an excellent workforce (Hire hard, manage easy)
• Learn from the excellence of others
• Give without expectation
• Remember who the boss is
• Measure performance (If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it)
• Take responsibility for our actions (A slogan of the Blue Angels is “Fess it and fix it”)
• Trust but verify

AND finally, one of my favorites- “The opportunity of a lifetime occurs only during the lifetime of the opportunity”.

 

Some observations along the way

Why does Government struggle?

1. Diffused leadership
2. No single voice in Kern County
3. Sensitivity to the media

 

What can make it better?

1. Greater public participation. John expanded on that, encouragiing members to participate in the public forum, so that not just the extremists' and alarmists' voices are heard.

 

John then introduced assistant CAO Nancy Lawson to share the state of Kern County economics in a brief presentation entitled Kern County Strategic Initiatives.

 

Most embarrassing moment during his duty

When he was elected for the ETR directorship, he was caught rearranging the office by the former Executive Director… before he had vacated the office.

Good News and announcements

Kevin McCarthy helped get funding to start clinical trials for Valley Fever at KMC.

 

Rotary International asked all members to contribute $26.50 as a fundraising effort to celebrate their 100 year anniversary. President Dave authorized Rotary Bakersfield to cover the donation for each of our members. It turned out to be the largest donation from one club- $4300.

 

Visitors & Guests

Patty Poire Daniel Morgan and Bharath Raghukul guests of Jeffrey Gutierrez 

Zoot Velasco guest of Steve Sanders

Stilian Kirov guest of Bryan Burrow