County Judge meets with department heads

Published 12:19 pm Thursday, May 24, 2018

By Larry Holt

The Orange Leader

Newly elected Orange County Judge Dean Crooks held an all-inclusive department-head staff meeting attended by approximately forty staff members and elected officials on Thursday.

Crooks held the combined meeting to be efficient with time and expense, introduce himself more fully to county personnel at one time to hear where Crooks is “coming from,” and to gather input from attendees regarding the pro’s and con’s working for the county.

Prior to the meeting Crooks expressed his hope and desire that attendees will open up and speak freely.

Questions to be discussed include among other things: “What are the good points working at the county? What are the bad points? What are your recommendations? What are your long-term goals?”

During opening remarks Crooks said everyone is free to speak their mind.

“I want this to be an open and honest, transparent meeting between all of us,” Crooks said to a packed courtroom. “If I don’t know what’s wrong I can’t fix it.”

Before opening up group discussion, Crooks closed his opening remarks by saying, “If you have a problem, bring a solution.   As far as I am concerned the only four letter word that really offends me is the word ‘can’t’. I would like to keep all meetings peaceful but in the end I don’t get offended real easy except ‘can’t’. That one sort-of torques me up. So, we can keep those rules in place I think we’ll be ok.”