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In Touch with Tennessee
In Touch with Tennessee
CTAS - Celebrating 50 Years
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Six former executive directors and Jon Walden, the agency's current executive director sit down to talk about 50 years of history at the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS).
Audio file
Transcript
00:00:10 Susan Robertson
Hi and welcome to In Touch with Tennessee.
00:00:13 Susan Robertson
A podcast of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service.
00:00:19 Susan Robertson
The County Technical Assistance Service, or CTAS, one of six institute agencies, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
00:00:29 Susan Robertson
The agency was formed when Dan McKinnis, former executive director of the Tennessee County Services Association, wanted to establish an organization to provide counties with technical assistance, much like its sister agency, the Municipal Technical Advisory Service provides for cities.
00:00:50 Susan Robertson
The former executive director secured the support of a senator who agreed to sponsor legislation to create CTAS, and the legislation became law in 1973.
00:01:01 Susan Robertson
We're honored to have joining us today, former CTAS executive directors, as well as the current executive director.
00:01:08 Susan Robertson
Welcome gentlemen.
00:01:12 Jon Walden
Thank you.
00:01:16 Susan Robertson
So can I have each of you introduce yourselves and give the dates of your tenure as CTAS director?
00:01:22 Susan Robertson
Mr. Westbrook, we'll start with you.
00:01:24 Jim Westbrook
Well, I'm. I'm a little fuzzy on that. I believe that I became director on April 1 75.
00:01:32 Jim Westbrook
And I left, I think June, January, the 31st of.
00:01:37 Jim Westbrook
What was it, Bob?
00:01:42 Jim Westbrook
88 I think or.
00:01:44 Bob Wormsley
Yeah, that's right.
00:01:47 Jim Westbrook
So whatever how long that was, I guess that's 13 years plus.
00:01:52 Jim Westbrook
Our minus
00:01:57 Susan Robertson
OK, next.
00:02:00 Bob Wormsley
I thought of Jim when Jim left, I became CTAS director and was there until I left in 1993.
00:02:15 Susan Robertson
OK.
00:02:17 Rodney Carmical
And I'm Rodney Carmical. I followed Bob. I was director from 1993 until 2020.
00:02:29 Mike Garland
I'm Mike Garland. I followed Rodney and I was the executive director from 2001 until 2014.
00:02:39 Robin Roberts
And I'm Robin Roberts. I was the director from 2014 until 2002.
00:02:47 Jon Walden
And I'm Jon Walden and I'm the current director, I.
00:02:50 Jon Walden
Was appointed interim director of May of 2020 and permanently December of 21.
00:02:58 Susan Robertson
OK.
00:02:59 Susan Robertson
Well, thank you.
00:03:01 Susan Robertson
So for those.
00:03:03 Susan Robertson
Of you who are in, and I know even before.
00:03:07 Susan Robertson
Some of your directors, were CTAS consultants, so feel free to jump in on any of these questions.
00:03:15
Of you who?
00:03:16 Susan Robertson
Were with the agency kind of near the time.
00:03:18 Susan Robertson
It was established.
00:03:20 Susan Robertson
Can you talk about the early days of CTAS ?
00:03:24
OK.
00:03:24 Jim Westbrook
I guess I'm probably the only one that has been here since it was established I was.
00:03:31 Jim Westbrook
And it's altogether different.
00:03:33 Jim Westbrook
Our client group is different and not to say it's better or worse, but it's a, it's a different ball game.
00:03:40 Jim Westbrook
We were just getting organized and everybody in the world was in the technical assistance businesses, so the Director, I mean the chairman of the Finance Committee.
00:03:51 Jim Westbrook
In the house.
00:03:53 Jim Westbrook
Said everybody's trying to get into it and what development districts, TVA university, other universities.
00:04:03 Jim Westbrook
Everybody and their brother, the state planning and everything, we're trying to get into that was the mention was pretty competitive back.
00:04:11 Jim Westbrook
There was some.
00:04:13 Jim Westbrook
I was new in the business going into it, but of course we all had some experience in county government, which some of those other agencies didn't have, which was a great big advantage.
00:04:24 Susan Robertson
Right. So how were counties?
00:04:27 Susan Robertson
What was their reaction to CTAS?
00:04:29 Susan Robertson
Were they very, you know?
00:04:31 Susan Robertson
Were they excited to welcome the assistance that was available to them at this point?
00:04:36 Jim Westbrook
Well, I think so, although they weren't used to this and we had the first county officials orientation program and down at UT at that time.
00:04:46 Jim Westbrook
UT Nashville, which is a part of the system at that time.
00:04:51 Jim Westbrook
And we were expecting about 100 people there and about 300 showed up.
00:04:55 Susan Robertson
Oh wow.
00:04:58 Jim Westbrook
Kind of got the ball rolling and had a few good licks and and then now it's second nature I just talking to Mike about some work that he was doing and he accounted down at.
00:05:08 Jim Westbrook
West Tennessee and.
00:05:11 Jim Westbrook
You know, it's usual business now, which is fine.
00:05:15 Jim Westbrook
That's the way it should be.
00:05:18 Bob Wormsley
But we at CTAS were very fortunate.
00:05:21 Bob Wormsley
In my opinion.
00:05:25 Bob Wormsley
Became Ralph Harris was short time director, but then Jim came up.
00:05:31 Bob Wormsley
And Jim?
00:05:33 Bob Wormsley
Rather than instant, what I would think was an instant credibility to CTAS because he had been in the county audit division, he had established relationships with the county officials all.
00:05:45 Bob Wormsley
Across the state.
00:05:47 Bob Wormsley
And that gave.
00:05:49 Bob Wormsley
Us some real instant credibility.
00:05:53 Bob Wormsley
Jim had a vision for how CTAS should be organic.
00:05:58 Bob Wormsley
And I think the organization has changed somewhat over the years, but basically that same basic structure is still there, although technologies added a lot of enhancements to it, but I'd like to give him a lot of credit for getting this thing off the ground and really.
00:06:19 Bob Wormsley
Giving confidence to county officials that they could rely on us if Jim said so.
00:06:25 Bob Wormsley
Jim had some great rules that if you got a phone call, you returned it that day or no later than the next day.
00:06:33 Bob Wormsley
And it was very important to him that those of us who were in the field at the time.
00:06:40 Bob Wormsley
That we got out and got into counties and began to get acquainted and work with county officials.
00:06:47 Bob Wormsley
One-on-one.
00:06:49 Bob Wormsley
And Rodney, can Rodney could testify to that.
00:06:54 Rodney Carmical
I started with CTAS in 1978, it had only been in existence.
00:06:58 Rodney Carmical
Five years and.
00:07:00 Rodney Carmical
Jim Westbrook brought me on as a field consultant.
00:07:04 Rodney Carmical
I had worked with him prior to that time at the county audit division in West Tennessee, and without question, he had a lot of contacts in county government
00:07:12 Rodney Carmical
And he expected a lot from his staff and we were small staff at that time.
00:07:18 Rodney Carmical
But you know we did a lot of traveling, a lot of car miles, a lot of telephone calls, payphones not cell phones.
00:07:27 Rodney Carmical
But it was it was a great organization because people just county officials just opened their arms to you because you were there.
00:07:35 Rodney Carmical
To help and it didn't cost them anything and we were providing service in their shop.
00:07:41 Rodney Carmical
And I think that was the key to getting us started.
00:07:43 Rodney Carmical
We were on the ground.
00:07:44 Rodney Carmical
We were part of them and we knew everybody.
00:07:46 Rodney Carmical
Jim wanted to make sure you knew everybody in a courthouse and when you went to a courthouse, you were supposed to see everybody in that
00:07:54 Rodney Carmical
facility and not just the one you went to see, but everybody and you talked about the service that was provided, the professional services we offered at that time and we built a rapport with county officials that I think today it's still
00:08:08 Rodney Carmical
There, the rapport is still there, but it all started from the groundwork and and back in 73 when that started, because it was started with all non-elected county people, county professional people. I mean at that time county government was a kind of an unknown factor, you know nobody.
00:08:29 Rodney Carmical
Any service to county officials until CTAS came on, and it was just one-on-one.
00:08:36 Mike Garland
Yeah, this Mike Garland, I came to work in 1977, just a short period before Bob or Rodney did. And they're both right, Jim emphasized.
00:08:49 Mike Garland
Personal contacts with county officials.
00:08:52 Mike Garland
See you say you do business.
00:08:54 Mike Garland
With who you.
00:08:56 Mike Garland
So we were kind of like a start up.
00:08:57 Mike Garland
Business at that time.
00:08:59 Mike Garland
We didn't know what all we were going to do, but we knew we were going to do good and so basically the way we did that was through our staff.
00:09:10 Mike Garland
We started visiting each courthouse and every county official and got to know them on a personal basis.
00:09:18 Mike Garland
And once we did that, then they would open up to you and and share their problems and ask for your assistance.
00:09:26 Mike Garland
So we just, it was an organization that we just kind of built from the ground up.
00:09:32 Robin Roberts
I'm Robin Roberts and I started in 95 and I will say that when I started, Mike and Rodney hired me and that same.
00:09:43 Robin Roberts
Mantra from what Jim started with, making the customer contacts and being in the field was stressed to us and I was very fortunate in that when I came on we had people like Roger Atkins and Johnny Hedrick and Billy Rodgers and Gary Hayes and who had a lot of experience in the field and were excellent at helping.
00:10:04 Robin Roberts
New people get started and thedepth of their knowledge was unbelievable to me and the welcome that we received because of what had been established by.
00:10:16 Robin Roberts
Our predecessors was just remarkable on how well we were received in the counties.
00:10:23 Susan Robertson
And how many employees did CTAS have?
00:10:25 Susan Robertson
In the early years.
00:10:28 Jim Westbrook
Ohh, we had three what were called Field Advisors, one in Knoxville, one in Jackson, one in Nashville.
00:10:35 Jim Westbrook
And we had a.
00:10:38 Jim Westbrook
Engineering specialist, the so-called and that really didn't work out. That was probably one of the things that didn't work out that we altered and then.
00:10:50 Jim Westbrook
We had the the director and an assistant director who wasn't me.
00:10:57 Jim Westbrook
He had a law license.
00:10:59 Jim Westbrook
I don't think he.
00:11:00 Jim Westbrook
Practiced law
00:11:01 Jim Westbrook
And then we had a volunteer who was doing private acts, Chief MacIntyre, former Fire Chief at Davidson County, Nashville, Davidson County and then a a legal intern, not an intern.
00:11:15 Jim Westbrook
She didn't have her license she hadn’t passed the bar yet, but had graduated
00:11:21 Jim Westbrook
From law school so ever how many of that was plus about 3 or we had more secretaries then they've got now, because now everybody's got a computer back then nobody had a computer, but we went from there to.
00:11:37 Jim Westbrook
And the staffing up by the staff I inherited.
00:11:41 Jim Westbrook
Was probably not as good as the the ones that followed, not because of me, but because Ralph.
00:11:48 Jim Westbrook
Was very careful who he selected and.
00:11:52 Jim Westbrook
Had some they weren't bad people, they just wouldn't, but wasn't on the job every day to put it that way.
00:12:01 Jim Westbrook
But they got on their jobs, so everything worked out to the best, I think.
00:12:08 Jim Westbrook
So ever I don't have any name.
00:12:10 Jim Westbrook
They're just about constituted the whole style.
00:12:15 Susan Robertson
Just a few more these days I guess.
00:12:19 Jim Westbrook
Then after the first year, I was promoted to a position called Director of Field Services.
00:12:26 Jim Westbrook
But I still lived in West Tennessee and that's where I wanted to live and.
00:12:32 Jim Westbrook
We hired a that's when we hired started staffing up for the field of what was called back then.
00:12:37 Jim Westbrook
I guess it still is field advisor.
00:12:39 Jim Westbrook
And and the finance person just specialized in finance.
00:12:46 Jim Westbrook
And we staffed up pretty good not and then got better whole time.
00:12:51 Susan Robertson
So this question I guess is for all of you. What were some of the
00:12:55 Susan Robertson
Challenges that you did see?
00:12:58 Susan Robertson
In those early years.
00:13:01 Mike Garland
Well, in the early years, like I said, it was kind of like a.
00:13:04 Mike Garland
Start-up business.
00:13:06 Mike Garland
We didn't have some kind of elaborate business plan saying we're going to go from A to B to C.
00:13:14 Mike Garland
We simply we knew we could help county governments improve.
00:13:19 Mike Garland
There was a lot of areas where they needed improvement and we just set about.
00:13:25 Mike Garland
To work with them and show them ways to be more efficient and we helped them in a variety of ways with accounting, budgeting, finance and so forth and legal issues where they never had any of that before.
00:13:41 Mike Garland
So it was just a really a nuts and bolt operation when we started.
00:13:46 Mike Garland
We didn't do anything exotic or anything like that.
00:13:50 Mike Garland
It was just day-to-day management issues that we assisted them with where they had never had any assistance before.
00:13:58 Bob Wormsley
Really identifying things that were left undone, that should have been done those early years, we were the field staff and through Jim's direction, we were able to identify areas that had.
00:14:14 Bob Wormsley
Totally been neglected things that counties were supposed to be done, that they were not.
00:14:19 Bob Wormsley
And when we had a staff meeting the various field representatives would, we would brainstorm.
00:14:28 Bob Wormsley
And unlike a lot of meetings, 90 percent of the time when we got together, we were discussing how we could help counties and laying out plans to push forward
00:14:40 Bob Wormsley
To do that.
00:14:42 Bob Wormsley
You know, just one of the things was like board bills, many counties across the state at that time were not filing.
00:14:48 Bob Wormsley
Board bills for housing state prisoners.
00:14:51 Bob Wormsley
And they were leaving a lot of money on the table.
00:14:54 Bob Wormsley
And so that's one of the little projects that we got into that generated some revenue for counties, right?
00:15:03 Rodney Carmical
One thing I want to mention too is this organization is still in existence. In 1977, the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service
00:15:11 Rodney Carmical
with the partnership with MTAS and CTAS and TVA actually formed the local government Data Processing Corporation, which is in existence today.
00:15:23 Rodney Carmical
At that time, when I came on in 78, CTAS was doing all the field work for local government data processing corporation.
00:15:31 Rodney Carmical
We were out telling people about it.
00:15:33 Rodney Carmical
Was it called a batch system at that time, a batch system in the county.
00:15:37 Rodney Carmical
And we were actually installing batch systems accounting you just batch your work up and send it to the local government and they would duplicate it and send it back to you in a computerized.
00:15:45 Rodney Carmical
Form and we were loading payrolls for school systems with five to 600 employees and we were doing the first computerized payrolls for local governments.
00:15:57 Rodney Carmical
And as I said, CTAS and MTAS actually put it in TVA, put into seed money to start that corporation and that corporation.
00:16:05 Rodney Carmical
Today has over 2,100.
00:16:09 Rodney Carmical
Individual governmental customers.
00:16:13 Susan Robertson
Oh wow.
00:16:14 Rodney Carmical
And that is, It's a big scale operation now have over 100 and have over 100. They have about 150 employees today.
00:16:22 Rodney Carmical
And I think the budget somewhere around $3 to $4 million and that may be low, it may be closer to 5 million.
00:16:29 Rodney Carmical
But you know MTAS and CTAS started that and I don't think CTAS and MTAS get the credit they deserve today, because that corporation is a nonprofit corporation.
00:16:41 Rodney Carmical
Gold medal nonprofit corporation.
00:16:43 Rodney Carmical
And they're doing tremendous work even into the in the state of Alabama.
00:16:48 Rodney Carmical
So that's the tremendous legacy that CTAS and MTAS actually started that I think has been forgotten along the way because it's so independent now.
00:16:58 Rodney Carmical
But back when I started in 78 it was just like Mike said it was a start-up company and and now it's and now it's matured to way beyond anybody's expectations.
00:17:05 Susan Robertson
Right.
00:17:12 Rodney Carmical
And on the and I happen to be on the board of the local government and in in their balance sheet, they still show where CTAS and MTAS contributed $50,000 apiece.
00:17:24 Rodney Carmical
On the balance sheet today.
00:17:27 Mike Garland
That was back when $50,000 was
00:17:29 Mike Garland
Quite a bit of money.
00:17:32 Bob Wormsley
Jon is smiling real big, like he wants to get it back.
00:17:39 Mike Garland
But I think it's safe to say, had it not been for us.
00:17:44 Mike Garland
Yes, I doubt if local government would have ever gotten off the ground because we were the ones who marketed the program and helped get it established and they just they didn't have any staff back then.
00:17:57 Mike Garland
To do that.
00:17:59 Jim Westbrook
Who all exactly right, the person that was working back then 50 years ago and went into a courthouse and the person they have working now.
00:18:08 Jim Westbrook
It's the quality of the people is not all this.
00:18:11 Jim Westbrook
It's not because of CTAS, but a lot of it is because of CTAS, the quality of the official and the work that they do and a whole lot of difference now.
00:18:21 Jim Westbrook
And it was back then, matter of fact, it was unhealthy to go in some courthouses,
00:18:28 Jim Westbrook
It would help let anybody, I guess or anything, but they literally were filthy and unhealthy to even go in them.
00:18:38 Jim Westbrook
But it's not that way now.
00:18:43 Susan Robertson
So that's one of the things that has changed obviously, what are and and I think all of you can speak to this, what are some of the changes that you've seen at CTAS or you know even within county government over time?
00:18:58 Jon Walden
Well, I'll speak to our perspective Susan and before I say this, I'd like to thank all of these gentlemen because of the foundation they laid for CTAS.
00:19:00 Jim Westbrook
Hey, Bob.
00:19:12 Jon Walden
The concept that Jim started and everybody else continued to do is still present here today as we,
00:19:20 Jon Walden
We're now at eight county government consultants, two Assessor Consultants, two criminal justice consultants.
00:19:28 Jon Walden
A jail management consultant, four legal consultants.
00:19:34 Jon Walden
An IT department with our media specialists and director of communications.
00:19:43 Jon Walden
Our communication specialist, our IT consulting, our training we have two different training departments now. So from the 10 that Jim mentioned started, when we become fully staffed, we'll have a total of 38 staff members at CTAS and that's all because of the foundation that each of them.
00:20:03 Jon Walden
Laid and put us in good financial position to do things that we can do to take care of things that are needed today.
00:20:12 Jon Walden
That same concept that Rodney mentioned about being in the county office.
00:20:18 Jon Walden
It still happens today.
00:20:19 Jon Walden
Matter of fact the one out of West Tennessee and he's there with Jim now,
00:20:24 Jon Walden
Mike Galey, had he not been helping Jim today, he would be in Lake County, which he seemed to be in this whole.
00:20:32 Jon Walden
Last couple of weeks because of.
00:20:34 Jon Walden
The need they have and his expertise is very beneficial to what they need at this time.
00:20:40 Jon Walden
And and that happens not only with him being in Lake County, one of the major changes that have happened over the years is the use of cell phones.
00:20:50 Jon Walden
So not only is he helping Lake County, he's still getting calls from his other 10 or 11 counties as well and having to help them.
00:20:59 Jon Walden
Well after 5:00 in the evening on a lot of days. So the
00:21:03 Jon Walden
implementation of technology has been good but,
00:21:08 Jon Walden
In some cases like that, they can reach you at times that maybe you don't want
00:21:12 Jon Walden
them to reach you.
00:21:13 Susan Robertson
24/7 it sounds like.
00:21:17 Bob Wormsley
One of the things that I think the CTAS staff.
00:21:22 Bob Wormsley
Assisted in doing or.
00:21:25 Bob Wormsley
And so.
00:21:26 Bob Wormsley
TCSA, the Tennessee County Services Association and establishing a couple of programs that are invaluable.
00:21:33 Bob Wormsley
To county governments and one of them is the Tennessee County Services loan program and the other is Local Government Insurance
00:21:44 Bob Wormsley
And these.
00:21:46 Bob Wormsley
The CTAS field stuff did a lot of the leg work and gathering the data to show the need for the creation of those organizations and.
00:21:58 Bob Wormsley
And I can.
00:21:59 Bob Wormsley
Speak from the insurance perspective in particular.
00:22:04 Bob Wormsley
That counties would today be at the mercy of
00:22:10 Bob Wormsley
For profit insurance companies for.
00:22:14 Bob Wormsley
Was that if that organization were not in existence and it's a real cost saving.
00:22:21 Bob Wormsley
measure for county governments. I have continued to work with the insurance program and can attest to how valuable it is for counties.
00:22:35 Mike Garland
I think that's one of the things sometimes people forget.
00:22:38 Mike Garland
We talked about CTAS and counties and we were created to provide technical assistance to all the Tennessee counties
00:22:45 Mike Garland
But we were also created to provide assistance to TCSA, which represents Tennessee counties and all other county officials associations, so CTAS provides a valuable service not only directly to the counties, but also to all the associations that represent county officials.
00:23:04 Susan Robertson
Right.
00:23:05 Susan Robertson
So what are some of the?
00:23:06 Susan Robertson
Other big changes that you all have seen.
00:23:11 Rodney Carmical
It's already been stated.
00:23:13 Rodney Carmical
I think technology is the biggest change and and that's in everything today, but county officials are more in tune to technology now than they ever have been.
00:23:23 Rodney Carmical
And that allows CTAS to utilize that way of delivering service, but at the same time.
00:23:30 Rodney Carmical
still maintaining their grassroots of contact with elected officials and encouraging elected officials to use technology that's available to them.
00:23:41 Rodney Carmical
which allows CTAS to provide more various types of.
00:23:45 Rodney Carmical
And then what?
00:23:46 Rodney Carmical
We started, you know, most of the service we provided was in the the financial service areas and things of that nature.
00:23:53 Rodney Carmical
But today it is.
00:23:55 Rodney Carmical
It's such a wide variety of things that can be offered by CTAS through using technology, but yet there's there's still maintaining your base of county officials.
00:24:04 Rodney Carmical
Contacts and that's I think that's the important thing to remember.
00:24:08 Rodney Carmical
That's is part of the services is having somebody you can call by name.
00:24:14 Robin Roberts
I think some of the other areas that have created some changes are some legislation and some regulatory changes that have been required, the comptroller's office is now requiring people to go through a CFO program for finance officers for the counties.
00:24:34 Robin Roberts
Also, requiring county commissioners to get some training which prior to that they didn't have to have any training, but now.
00:24:43 Robin Roberts
There is a requirement for county commissioners to get training, so it's elevated.
00:24:48 Robin Roberts
The number of county commissioners that are coming into contact with CTAS and its training programs, and I think that's very beneficial for both counties and for CTAS to deliver better services.
00:25:00 Robin Roberts
To the counties.
00:25:04 Mike Garland
Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest changes.
00:25:06 Mike Garland
That I've seen.
00:25:08 Mike Garland
From the time I started back in the 70s.
00:25:10 Mike Garland
Is that the level of training
00:25:14 Mike Garland
And professionalism of Tennessee county officials has grown dramatically from 50 years.
00:25:22 Mike Garland
Ago and I.
00:25:25 Mike Garland
I think CTAS played a big part in that happening.
00:25:29 Bob Wormsley
One thing, Susan, that shouldn't be that in my opinion.
00:25:32 Bob Wormsley
And that's just my opinion, that shouldn't be overlooked.
00:25:35 Susan Robertson
Right.
00:25:36 Bob Wormsley
Is the importance of the field staff at CTAS.
00:25:42 Bob Wormsley
Sometimes, particularly in the medium and rural size counties.
00:25:47 Bob Wormsley
When a CTAS representative calls on them, that is the only personal contact they have with the University of Tennessee.
00:25:55 Bob Wormsley
So I think in that respect CTAS becomes a very important ambassador for the university and fulfilling its land grant obligations.
00:26:07 Bob Wormsley
In the area of public service.
00:26:10 Bob Wormsley
You know it's.
00:26:11 Bob Wormsley
I've always felt that that's.
00:26:13 Bob Wormsley
A big
00:26:14 Bob Wormsley
advantage for the University of Tennessee is for somebody from the University of Tennessee say.
00:26:19 Bob Wormsley
I'm here from the University of Tennessee and I'm going to help you.
00:26:21 Bob Wormsley
It’s not like I'm from the.
00:26:24 Bob Wormsley
Government. I'm going.
00:26:24 Bob Wormsley
To help you, we're going to have.
00:26:27 Jon Walden
And that alludes to what we talked about a little earlier with Mike Galey helping that particular county.
00:26:35 Jon Walden
And one in the ring, one of the main reasons is they don't have the expertise. That particular person left.
00:26:41 Jon Walden
So he's really filling a void until they can hire expertise to take care of that particular
00:26:47 Jon Walden
void that they're trying to fill.
00:26:49 Jon Walden
And I'm sure,
00:26:51 Jon Walden
Of course, Mike is not a part of this conversation, but I would.
00:26:55 Jon Walden
Think one of the first people they called when they needed help was him because they knew him and had his say on them.
00:27:03 Robin Roberts
To build on what Bob said too, not only with the University of Tennessee, but CTAS has interacted with many of the state departments to help them meet their needs.
00:27:15 Robin Roberts
And he had mentioned earlier about board bills.
00:27:19 Robin Roberts
I came on, we were still do.
00:27:20 Robin Roberts
Being a lot of the board bill work for counties to get that money from the Department of Corrections, we were also doing a lot of work with the litter grants with the TDOT litter grant, and then we also did a lot of work with the business taxes with the Department of Commerce.
00:27:41 Robin Roberts
Insurance and also.
00:27:45 Robin Roberts
The automobile.
00:27:49 Robin Roberts
Renewals and and work like that.
00:27:53 Robin Roberts
So, we help the state.
00:27:55 Robin Roberts
Interact with the county officials and we were a medium to help that go more smoothly and to also provide some consistency statewide for those state departments to operate more effectively too.
00:28:06 Robin Roberts
So it
00:28:08 Robin Roberts
adds a lot to the state of Tennessee and we were somewhat ambassadors for those state departments.
00:28:15 Robin Roberts
Help that transition and those changes be implemented effectively.
00:28:25
OK well this.
00:28:26 Susan Robertson
Question is, for each one of you.
00:28:29 Susan Robertson
What would you say is?
00:28:34 Susan Robertson
Your most memorable moment with CTAS.
00:28:52 Jim Westbrook
I don't know.
00:28:54 Jim Westbrook
I have several moments while I was there and I'm serious
00:28:59 Jim Westbrook
I don't think I’ve really thought about that.
00:29:02 Jim Westbrook
I think about serious moments all time, but not that they expressing what was most memorable
00:29:12 Jim Westbrook
But it was a very pleasant time, my career, my life.
00:29:16 Jim Westbrook
I enjoyed it, enjoyed my association with the university, and I agree with everything that's been said here about the time for that.
00:29:24 Jim Westbrook
I was thinking about a county in East Tennessee large, pretty large county, not Knox or
00:29:31 Jim Westbrook
Hamilton, a pretty large county they got in the computer business and bought a computer that you couldn't even put in one floor of the courthouse didn't have one sole who operated, or knew anything about programming or anything else.
00:29:44 Jim Westbrook
And that was when we decided to go with the local government data process.
00:29:49 Jim Westbrook
And that was a way to go.
00:29:51 Jim Westbrook
And Mike, accept our Rodney.
00:29:53 Jim Westbrook
I guess he was absolutely right.
00:29:55 Jim Westbrook
That was one of the
00:29:57 Jim Westbrook
Best things we've done and all the other things that they've alluded to,
00:30:06 Jim Westbrook
I couldn't tell you anyway.
00:30:10 Bob Wormsley
I don't see it from my perspective and this may not be what you
00:30:14 Bob Wormsley
were getting at but.
00:30:17 Bob Wormsley
It gave me an opportunity to visit every county in this state and over a long period of time to get acquainted with numerous county officials, and that's been a very rewarding personal experience for me to have been able to.
00:30:37 Bob Wormsley
To meet people from Davidson and Shelby
00:30:40 Bob Wormsley
County, Pickett County and Clay County to be with them and their offices and it.
00:30:46 Bob Wormsley
It almost felt like that when I left CTAS
00:30:49 Bob Wormsley
And I think I said when I left CTAS that I felt like that I could almost if I had a flat tire in any county, it would be easy to reach out to somebody and say, hey, I need some help.
00:31:00 Bob Wormsley
Because I learned this from Mr. Westbrook
00:31:03 Bob Wormsley
I don't know how
00:31:03 Bob Wormsley
To change the tire.
00:31:09 Jim Westbrook
Falling along that line, we used to have the retreat.
00:31:12 Jim Westbrook
Folks called at the at the prison of war camp up in Crossville
00:31:21 Jim Westbrook
And the vice president at that time.
00:31:26 Jim Westbrook
I said I've got to go up to Crossville and
00:31:28 Jim Westbrook
Cash a check
00:31:30 Jim Westbrook
He said we you cash a check in Crossville?
00:31:32 Jim Westbrook
I say I can cash a check anywhere in the state of Tennessee from what Bob said, that's one of the rewarding things, I guess, to have know that you could.
00:31:45 Jim Westbrook
Cash a check anywhere in the state of Tennessee or any county in state of Tennessee.
00:31:50 Jim Westbrook
OK.
00:31:52 Rodney Carmical
I would say, this is Rodney.
00:31:53 Rodney Carmical
I would say from a personal standpoint, my personal highlight.
00:31:57 Rodney Carmical
First of all have been employed at CTAS which I was very grateful to and for Jim allowing me and hired me to be part of CTAS
00:32:05 Rodney Carmical
But I guess I was thinking back to the time that I was actually appointed as director of CTAS and
00:32:14 Rodney Carmical
How it was to feel like that you have earned a spot as to follow Jim Westbrook and Bob Wormsley, who I consider two of the most knowledgeable people of county government alive today.
00:32:28 Rodney Carmical
And to be in that position where you were following their footsteps and they set the path for me and I continued that path as much as I could in my own.
00:32:38 Rodney Carmical
OK.
00:32:39 Rodney Carmical
But that that was a personal highlight for me.
00:32:41 Rodney Carmical
Just being allowed to be the executive director of an organization like CTAS it was just overwhelming to me at that.
00:32:49 Rodney Carmical
Time and it was a great tenure.
00:32:54 Rodney Carmical
I I enjoyed my whole tenure and we had at that time we had.
00:32:59 Rodney Carmical
A great group.
00:33:00 Rodney Carmical
It wasn’t as large as the one Jon's got now and the management issues probably weren't as massive as they are now, but we had people in UT cars all over the state of Tennessee and never once in my
00:33:12 Rodney Carmical
Time did I have to discharge anybody or have a person that was reprimanded in any form?
00:33:20 Rodney Carmical
Maybe some minor problems along the way, but nothing major that would cause any problem that would be adversely seen by the University of Tennessee.
00:33:30 Rodney Carmical
And I think that's great and it still happens today.
00:33:32 Rodney Carmical
It's still going on today and I think that's a great legacy.
00:33:35 Rodney Carmical
That has been.
00:33:36 Rodney Carmical
Left for Jon and his staff to follow.
00:33:40 Mike Garland
I guess I'll follow up with that
00:33:42 Mike Garland
I would agree with that.
00:33:43 Mike Garland
One of the highlights of my career of course was being appointed the Executive Director and from a program standpoint.
00:33:51 Mike Garland
I think one of my highlights with CTAS was the county official's, new county
00:33:58 Mike Garland
Officials program when you stop and think about that every four years, this state elects.
00:34:04 Mike Garland
New county officials and they turn over by the hundreds and we are the only organization
00:34:12 Mike Garland
That brings them together and it's, I think kind of like you do with the military, with boot camp, we bring in the new recruits and we start trying to train them up.
00:34:24 Mike Garland
And about time we get them trained up real good, they have an election and get beat and leave, but that has been a valuable service that CTAS has provided the county government having all these new officials come in and really not knowing where to go or what to do and having CTAS as the organization that they can turn to and that will help them.
00:34:46 Mike Garland
With their day-to-day problems.
00:34:51 Robin Roberts
I think one of the highlights of my time at CTAS
00:34:56 Robin Roberts
In addition to being the director, but one of the jobs that I dearly loved and and still tell people the best job I ever had in the world was working for CTAS as a field consultant because you.
00:35:08 Robin Roberts
Saw it
00:35:11 Robin Roberts
Gave you so much positive feedback when you helped the officials and they were so appreciative of the help that you provided them and I think.
00:35:20 Robin Roberts
That it alludes to what goes back to what Jim started as far as providing a high level of service and providing help to the people that really needed
00:35:31 Robin Roberts
Help and connect them with all the areas that they needed to be connected with, whether it was the comptroller's office.
00:35:38 Robin Roberts
Solving an audit issue or working with one of the other state departments or just helping them comply with all the laws that they had to comply with, and you built such really strong friendships and relationships that you know, until that person passes that friendship is still there.
00:35:59 Robin Roberts
With you and I think that is one of the things that I've always loved about this organization is that they were truly here to help others and it gave you so much positive feedback.
00:36:13 Jon Walden
And for me, Susan, my highlight started in 93 and it continues this day from the fact that I've been able to work with such a great group of individuals for almost 30 years.
00:36:25 Jon Walden
And even with the group we have now sitting across the table now from Rodney Carmichael that hired me.
00:36:33 Jon Walden
And I'm very, very blessed to and I I don't know of many statewide organizations that the current executive director has the phone number of five or six former directors.
00:36:45 Jon Walden
And and I do use it on the occasion that they call them and run things by them
00:36:50 Jon Walden
So my highlight continues on a daily basis.
00:36:54 Jon Walden
Just I I'm.
00:36:55 Jon Walden
Blessed to be able to work with a bunch of coworkers now that.
00:36:58 Jon Walden
They're not only great professionals, but they're great people.
00:37:02 Jon Walden
And I can see.
00:37:03 Jon Walden
Family members because I'm with them a lot more in some cases, more time than my own family members.
00:37:09 Jon Walden
So yeah, my highlight continues and it continues from the standpoint and we talk about it in our staff meetings even today we came up with a purpose statement for CTAS which is
00:37:23 Jon Walden
‘Helping Tennessee County governments better serve as citizens.’
00:37:27 Jon Walden
And for me, that's why I get up every day is to help Tennessee county governments better serve citizens and
00:37:34 Jon Walden
They don't have a clue that we're doing it.
00:37:36 Jon Walden
We can walk past them in the grocery stores and the restaurants, and these individuals don't realize that the work we do on a daily basis in most cases helps better their lives on a daily
00:37:46 Jon Walden
Basis here in Tennessee.
00:37:50 Jon Walden
So my highlight continues.
00:37:52 Susan Robertson
Yeah, absolutely.
00:37:55 Susan Robertson
So Jon and you know and the rest of you?
00:37:58 Susan Robertson
I'd like for you to.
00:37:59 Susan Robertson
To chime in on this.
00:38:01 Susan Robertson
As well, but what do you see?
00:38:03 Susan Robertson
For CTAS moving.
00:38:05 Susan Robertson
Into the future?
00:38:07 Jon Walden
Well, and you mentioned earlier, what were some of the challenges and it's not really challenges and opportunity, I think we've had a quite a bit of retirement over the last few years.
00:38:19 Jon Walden
So we're bringing on new staff members.
00:38:22 Jon Walden
In a lot of cases, they hadn't been involved in county government. So not only are we teaching them what we do at CTAS, we're teaching them about county government, but we're trying to develop a team environment so that each of us work together as we need to.
00:38:38 Jon Walden
But that that retirement cycle doesn't only affect CTAS within CTAS, but also with the state.
00:38:45 Jon Walden
Robin mentioned a lot of departments that we work with throughout the state they're having.
00:38:50 Jon Walden
Individuals that are retiring, that were long term state employees and they're retiring.
00:38:55 Jon Walden
So we're actually having to educate those individuals to the services.
00:39:00 Jon Walden
Right.
00:39:00 Jon Walden
So that the partnerships between us and those state agencies
00:39:05 Jon Walden
Could hopefully maintain and become stronger, or at least maintain the the level of success we've had over the years with each other, and one of the challenges today is that.
00:39:17 Jon Walden
When I started and those before we went to an organization and and utilized it or looked at it as a career.
00:39:24 Jon Walden
A lot of the younger generation.
00:39:28 Jon Walden
Are looking at it as an opportunity to gain experience and then move on.
00:39:32 Jon Walden
So those are some of the challenges that we face today.
00:39:36 Jon Walden
But and I can't say it enough, the staff we presently have today.
00:39:41 Jon Walden
Are and over the years have been some great people that they want to get up every day and make county government better?
00:39:49 Susan Robertson
Well, thank you all for joining us today.
00:39:52 Susan Robertson
It's been a true honor to talk to six of the seven directors that have
00:40:00 Susan Robertson
Guided CTAS through the last 50 years.
00:40:04 Jon Walden
Thank you for having us, Susan.
00:40:06 Jim Westbrook
Thank you for having me.
00:40:08 Bob Wormsley
Been our pleasure, Susan
00:40:11 Susan Robertson
And thank you listeners.
00:40:12 Susan Robertson
You can find our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
