Katherine Hubbard, Chief Administrative Officer for Lexington County

MidlandsBiz:
What general interest and business books would you recommend? 

Katherine Hubbard:
I loved reading Good to Great by Jim Collins on a lot of different levels – one of the Good to Great companies, Nucor Steel,  is located right here in Lexington County. 

Collins talks about the importance of getting the right people on the bus.  In order to accomplish this, managers need to place a great deal of emphasis on the interview process.  I would rather find the right fit than to settle for the best that an application pool has to offer.

The best book that I have come across in this regard is 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire.  It’s a must read for managers who need to improve their questioning techniques during interviews and more importantly it gives great suggestions on how to interpret an applicant’s answers to critical interview questions.

For fun, I also recommend reading It Ain’t All About the Cookin’ by Paula Deen who is a Southern chef from Savannah.  She is old-school, cooks with real butter, and is such a colorful personality that it’s hard not to fall in love with her.  I found it intriguing that someone who is as vivacious and colorful as she is could have overcome such adversity in her life.  She proves that no matter how bad your life becomes, you can influence your own destiny.  

MidlandsBiz:
Are you an elected official?  What is your role within this structure?

Katherine Hubbard:
No.  I’m appointed by Lexington County Council as their Chief Administrative Officer.

MidlandsBiz:
Do you sit on County Council?

Katherine Hubbard:
No, I do not, so I don’t have a vote on Council.  We have over 1,300 employees in the county.  Council hires two of those positions: the County Administrator and the Clerk to Council who is the chief administrative support.

MidlandsBiz:
What are some exciting projects that you are working on in Lexington County?

Katherine Hubbard:
For the first time in its history, Lexington County Council has entered directly into the land development business by investing in the Saxe Gotha Industrial Park.  Lexington County purchased about 500 acres of land at the intersection of Interstate 77 and 26 that at one point was considered for the new farmer’s market.  We are currently in the process of putting in the infrastructure to prepare the land for sale.  The Park is just a short drive down the road from where the new SCANA building will be located and we’re excited about its potential. 

MidlandsBiz:
How was it paid for?

Katherine Hubbard:
Lexington County issued a general obligation bond and the intent is to repay the bond through the sale of the property. 

The great thing is that Lexington School District 2 agreed to share in the increased tax revenue; normally, it’s only the school district where the park is located that sees any increase in revenues from an industrial park.  The level of leadership that was shown by School District 2 in agreeing to share revenues will allow County Council to locate future industrial parks where the land is best suited for commercial development and to spread the increase in revenue across all of the school districts.  

MidlandsBiz:
What is your leadership style?

Katherine Hubbard:
I recognize the importance of cultivating strong, professional relationships with Council, with my peers, with other municipalities, and with my counterpart in Richland County, Milton Pope.  I can’t do everything that Council wants to do by myself.

Leaders need to set the tone for the entire organization; I stress to my managers the importance of remaining calm and confident.   If employees see their leader nervous or upset about something, they will start to emulate those same feelings.

My leadership style, if I am doing my job right, is to avoid finger-pointing.  If I have not provided the resources and communicated the vision clearly, then I need to equally share in the blame for failure within the organization. 

A leader of an organization has to be skilled at identifying talented, highly skilled individuals who are professionally ready to assume the responsibilities of the job.  They need to clearly establish what the finish line will be for the particular product or service.  Then, they need to step aside and let the employees do their job.

MidlandsBiz:
What is the vision for Lexington County?  What is the mission?

Katherine Hubbard:
Council has established a vision of planned growth for our community with abundant opportunities for all in a quality environment. My role is to help Council make that legacy happen. 

I was also with Council when they developed their mission statement: to provide quality services to our citizens at a reasonable cost.  Each word in that statement was placed there deliberately. 

MidlandsBiz:
What are some of the issues that you are tasked with solving?

Katherine Hubbard:
Council wants us to be more efficient.

As an example, Council has resurrected a committee approach to help solve the problem of jail overcrowding.  In just the past year, we have been able to reduce the inmate population from just over 1,000 to recently 763 a day.  Every inmate that we house overnight costs the county $55.  When you work the math, this reduction represents a cost savings of over $4M annually.  When you compare that with our overall operating budget of $94 M annually, it’s a pretty significant savings, and $4M can be used by the sheriff to increase patrols or to work on drug eradication.

Council has challenged us to reduce the percentage of landfill that is being used for yard debris so that the close-out costs can be delayed as long as possible. 

They have also challenged us to look for an alternative to hot asphalt paving of our roads.  Currently it costs about $800,000 a mile to pave a dirt road.  We are looking into solutions such as soil cement and reclaimed asphalt for our less traveled areas – solutions that would cost closer to $250,000 a mile.

In 20 years of involvement with local governments, the only time I have seen success is when the governing body focuses 100% on addressing a clearly defined problem.  Whether you call it a problem, a challenge, an initiative, or as we call it here, an objective – you need to hold people accountable to those objectives.

MidlandsBiz:
You were born in Washington, DC and went to college there.  How did you get to Lexington, SC?

Katherine Hubbard:
When I graduated from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I wanted to become a planner and builder of these idyllic, urban communities that we learned about in college. 

But…for my first job, I ended up being the project manager charged with installing an emergency telephone 911 system in Darlington County.  In order to implement a 911 system, however, you need house numbers and street names and Darlington County was still using a rural route system for their mail delivery system. 

We set about to give street name
s and addresses to about 20,000 households.  To get some ideas for possible names, we went out and talked directly with the citizens about local history, famous families, and landmarks. It ended up being a fascinating way to learn about the history of Darlington County and to get to know the wonderful people who lived there. 

I was too young to know how difficult that job was going to be and too stubborn not to see it through to its completion, but it was a good project for me to work on as I started my career in public service. I learned about the challenges of leading a large group of diverse people, often with competing needs, to achieve a final result.

I then had Assistant County Administrator duties added to my planning responsibilities for Darlington County and while in that job I decided to pursue my Masters in Public Administration degree in Columbia. 

MidlandsBiz:
When did you move to Columbia?

I had met Charlie Compton at one of my professional associations.  Charlie is an icon nationally when it comes to the planning field.  He had a job opening for a Development Administrator and I joined him primarily to work in zoning and subdivision development.

I was back in an urban setting, doing what I was trained to do, and really excited to be a part of a company that practiced performance-based zoning.  I thought that I was going to retire as a planner. 

MidlandsBiz:
What is performance-based zoning?

Katherine Hubbard:
Most zoning that takes place has traditionally fallen under the category of Euclidean zoning which is a more formal approach to deciding what will go where in a particular community. 

Performance-based zoning is based on the idea that growth will follow infrastructure (sewer, water, roads etc) and that by allowing a community to grow more naturally, you will achieve better long-term results for the community.  You are in effect funneling your commercial development to the location of your infrastructure.  It’s a complex model for planning and many communities are afraid to use it because it takes a lot of discipline and dedication to pull it off.

Shortly thereafter, I was asked to consider a position as the Human Resources (HR) Director here at Lexington County.

Ten years after taking that position, I was promoted to the role of County Administrator.

MidlandsBiz:
You spent 10 years in HR!  That’s a tough job, isn’t it?

Katherine Hubbard:
Actually, I loved being the HR Director, but I am well aware of people’s perception of the HR function in any organization.  Nine times out of ten, the HR director is the person you call when your personnel problem is so terrible that you need someone to intervene. 

This role allowed me to develop the relationships that I would need to be successful at the Administrator level.  While I was in the HR role, my job description expanded to include the role of Assistant County Administrator so I had the opportunity to look at the entire organization.

The unprecedented growth over three decades in Lexington County has put on enormous strain on our internal and external services.  The demand for services has risen faster than has our ability to add services.  The biggest hurdle has been meeting the demand.

But this rapid growth forced us to evaluate our staffing needs and to define which type of employee would be best suited for our organization. 

MidlandsBiz:
Define success for a County Administrator. 

Katherine Hubbard:
If we are going to be successful with strategic visioning, we need stability on both County Council and in the role of County Administrator.  I will gauge my success by the long-term relationship that I have with County Council.  They place their faith in me to set the tone for the organization and to carry out my duties. 

There are no plateaus – you are either going up or going down.  My hope that we can achieve a culture of constant institutional and organizational improvements and that this culture will survive beyond my time here. 

MidlandsBiz:
How does customer service relate to a government entity?

Katherine Hubbard:
Whether it’s maintaining roads, providing Emergency Medical Services (EMS), or helping someone register to vote, we have a monopoly here.  Governments can become complacent because there is no other game in town.  The term bureaucrat leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. 

I want citizens of Lexington County to walk away impressed with the level of professionalism and courtesy, the timeliness and effectiveness of service that is provided by this organization.  I want it be an experience that is unexpected and positive. 

MidlandsBiz:
What are your hobbies outside of work?

Katherine Hubbard:
I like gardening, reading, fishing and practicing yoga.

My philosophy is that my family loans me to the County during the week.  My first priority is my family and all the time that I spend outside of work is with them.  Even though my children are older now, we still spend time around the dinner table talking and making sure that we keep up with what is going on is each other’s lives.