Haywood County announces new manager
Assistant Gaston County Manager Bryant Morehead is Haywood’s new county manager. Donated photo
Cory Vaillancourt
After nearly a year without a permanent county manager, Haywood County commissioners voted unanimously Aug. 20 to extend an offer to Assistant Gaston County Manager Bryant E. Morehead.
“For all of us there was only one choice, and after the interviews, and the second interview continued to lead us that way, we knew we had somebody that’s really interested in Haywood County and wants to be here,” said Commissioner Mike Sorrells.
Morehead, 43, is expected to start Oct. 1 and earn $145,000 a year, about the same as former County Manager Ira Dove did when he resigned in October 2017.
Prior to his current role, Morehead has served almost exclusively within Gaston County, first as a budget analyst in 2003, then as assistant budget director from 2003 to 2006. He was named interim budget director in 2006 and then filled the permanent budget director role from 2007 to 2014, when he became the county’s director of financial services.
Originally from Bland County, Virginia, Morehead earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia, and expects to complete his master’s thesis in 2019 for Virginia Tech.
“We did follow up with all his references as well, and all the references came back exceptionally high. This guy was number one on paper before we even interviewed anybody,” said Commissioner Brandon Rogers, who told The Smoky Mountain News on Aug. 1 that it wasn’t just about paper, but also about chemistry.
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“After we talked to them as well, he still came up as the number one guy. I think he’ll be a great fit for the people here in Haywood County,” Rogers said just before the vote.
“I’ve interviewed a lot of people over the years with the school system, but I’ve never interviewed this number of quality candidates before,” said Commissioner Bill Upton. “We are in a win-win situation. People really do want to come to Haywood County to work, and our candidate comes from the big city and wants to be in our environment. That’s the kind of people we want.”
And Upton couldn’t be more right — Morehead will actually take a small pay cut to work for Haywood County, but as an avid fisherman, skeet shooter and chef, it’s probably a fair trade off.
The Smoky Mountain News caught up with Morehead the morning of Aug. 21 by phone to learn more about the man who says he’s driven to serve.
Smoky Mountain News: You were raised in Bland County, Virginia. That sounds like a lively place.
Bryant Morehead: It’s actually much smaller than Haywood County. Bland is about 6,500 people, give or take. We’re in the mountains. Our elevation isn’t as high as Haywood’s — not many are — but the Appalachian Trail runs through it, and we have Jefferson National Forest, so I grew up as a mountain guy.
When this position opened up and I was able to apply and get the job, it was like a dream come true because that’s a place that feels like home to me. I’m not a person to go to downtown Charlotte, go to fancy restaurants and things, I’m at heart a mountain guy, and that’s one of the reasons I applied for the job in Haywood.
SMN: What was your familiarity with Haywood County before all this?
BM: I knew where it was. I’d been to downtown Waynesville one or two times. I like to go out exploring. I did quite a bit of research after I applied for the job. Since the middle of May I’ve been up five or six times.
SMN: Commissioners told us that they did two rounds of interviews. Sounds like they did a little bit more than that.
BM: No, this was just on my own. I wanted to do my homework. Before I decided to make a move like this I wanted to do the due diligence and say, “Can this be home?” You can tell from my resume, I don’t want to move jobs. I want to go to a place, work hard and deliver services and I wanted to make sure that it was a good fit, but I only met with the board twice.
SMN: Commissioners talked a lot about chemistry before hiring you.
BM: I think we had some good conversations about their philosophies and I felt really good about it. When I got called back for the second interview, I felt a little more at ease and I think that I got to know them a little bit better. I think it was during that second interview the job felt even more right.
SMN: Tell me one question they asked you that you weren’t anticipating.
BM: They asked a question about ethical dilemmas, and how you handle those, if there was one you’d like to have back and handle differently. That question makes you really reflect back. I’ve always said, playing sports growing up, I was never a great athlete but I was coachable. It’s OK to mess up, but learn something new and don’t repeat it.
SMN: Gaston County has more than 210,000 people, and 15 incorporated municipalities. We have four, and like 60,000 people.
BM: Yeah, there’s a difference in numbers, but going back to how you build relationships and work with different stakeholders, it might be a good thing to work with just four. The more people at the table, it’s harder to get things accomplished. I think a smaller group of municipalities will be sort of refreshing to work with.
SMN: You’ve spent almost your entire professional career in Gaston County. What’s the most valuable thing you learned there?
BM: I think communicating and building good relationships where you have trust. I’ve been in the business of sharing bad news with people, coming from the budget world. Not very often do I say, “You’re getting everything you want.” Actually, I don’t know if I’ve ever said that. But the key is to tell the story and say, “Look, this is what we’re facing, but here’s what we’re able to do.”
The way we have it designed here, the budget office is really an arm of the management office. I got really good experience working with the politicians, the community and our department heads. I always referred to it as “moving the freight.” The departments are the ones doing the front line work. In budgeting, you see how you can be a resource to get them what they need to serve the public.
SMN: What’s your understanding of the major issues here?
BM: The housing market is really interesting and as someone that’s sort of going through that right now, affordable housing is something we talked about in the interview process and I’m seeing it firsthand.
SMN: Probably that and economic development are our two biggest focus areas right now.
BM: I think the partnership with Buncombe County is a creative approach. The board is showing they’re willing to look at different ways of approaching [economic development]. I think you’re to be commended for at least being willing to try — it shows that you’re willing to have whatever tools in the toolbox you need.
SMN: The county’s fund balance is healthy right now. Legislatively, there’s a floor, and a ceiling has been floated as well. What’s your fund balance management philosophy?
BM: I’ll put my finance officer hat on for a while and tell you our experience through the recession. Our fund balance was healthy back in 2007 and 2008. At the time of the recession, we just issued, I believe it was $60 million to build a new high school. The good thing was, during the recession we got some really rock-bottom prices because people were hungry for work, and it was because we had a healthy fund balance that we could issue debt and still weather the storm.
So much of what governments do is mandated, and that doesn’t go away during periods of recession. People don’t quit going to the jail. People don’t quit calling 911 for ambulances. You have to be able to provide those services because that’s an expectation. So a healthy fund balance is critical in my mind.
I don’t want to get too abstract here, but this is kind of Keynesian economics — you put back money so you can weather the next storm. I think Haywood’s to be commended that they built their fund balance back to a real healthy level that will help seize opportunities for economic development, or building schools. You have some flexibility to address those challenges.
SMN: When your time here is over, someone will write a news story about you. What do you want that story to say?
BM: I hope it will say he enjoyed his job, he had a good time but he served the public. He was a good servant. He put Haywood County first, and made it a better place — he left it in better shape than he found it.
