The recruitment for two high-visibility Kitsap County positions continues, with two separate outside “headhunter” firms commissioned to screen replacements for Administrative Services Director Ben Holland and CenCom Director Ron McCaffee.

Both plan to retire in the next few months.

The selection of Holland’s replacement picked up steam with the narrowing of 22 formal applications to 14 preferred candidates. All of these will be interviewed beginning Monday by Waldron and Co., a Seattle recruitment firm.

All of the local interviews — including a couple of Kitsap candidates — will occur in Waldron’s office.

Some others will be conducted as video conferences.

After this step the top candidates will be narrowed down and invited in to meet with commissioners, department heads and other stakeholders.

County Administrator Nancy Buonanno Grennan said that it had not been decided if any of these later interview meetings would be open to the public or the press.

Waldron’s Executive Search Practice Leader Ed Rogan said he did not think that a replacement for Holland would be in place in time for his scheduled May 30 retirement, but that a candidate could be in place within a few weeks from that date.

Grennan said the preferred candidate would have some knowledge of local issues, that “it would be our ‘druthers to have someone who knows the community.”

She acknowledged that Holland would be hard to replace.

“We are looking for someone who shares our vision of being accessible about the budget,” she said. “We need someone who is committed to increasing public awareness about budget issues, and who is a good communicator.”

During the past several years Holland has participated in several public sessions about budgeting and property tax allocation.

McAffee’s replacement will not be selected by the commissioners, rather it will come from a vote by the 13-member CenCom board.

In this case, the search is being conducted by SCGI of Silverdale.

McAffee said that a dozen qualified applicants are now in play, and will be interviewed June 2 through 4.

A candidate could be selected at the June 11 board meeting, although McAffee characterizes the position as “open until filled.”

McAffee, 64, has worked as CenCom director for 18 years, and is currently the second longest serving emergency director in the state.

According to the recruitment brochure, the job will pay “from $84,000 to the low $100,000s.” 

As per the job description, the director will oversee all operations within

CenCom, leading the planning, organizing, and directing of countywide emergency communications within budgeted funds and available personnel.

The director will have responsibilities that include governing and operations board relationships, project management, collective bargaining, quality

assurance programs, high performance evaluation standards and a multi-million dollar countywide communications infrastructure.

“The director,” the brochure states, “will lead a cutting-edge agency in a state-of-the art facility serving 13 separate police and fire agencies as well as the 250,000 citizens of Kitsap County.”