Erie Rotary Club members started off their year getting to take a measure of new Erie County Executive Christina Vogel. As guest speaker at their regular luncheon meeting, Vogel laid out plans for her first 100 days in office. But she also listened to their questions and concerns, one of which was about inadequate resources for youth mental health issues.
Listening is what the first days have been all about for Christina Vogel. She opened up the 5th floor office on day one to hear from employees in all departments. “I think that they are excited about the collaboration, me listening to their input,” Vogel said. “I sent out an email this morning that talked about how I believe that the people have the answers that work closest with the issues that are happening, so we want to work with them, understand what they see on the ground floor and how we can actually work to make the Erie Eounty better.”
Vogel is ready to collaborate with new Erie Mayor Daria Devlin, and she thinks planning will be one key area where the two governments can align, after what was an icy city-county relationship. “I think that the perception was — they have their own planning department, therefore the county doesn’t need to support them, but the city is one third of the county — we have people, we have programs that they can also utilize and we’re happy to do that,” the county executive said.
County Executive Vogel is encouraging people to apply for open jobs at the county, including big jobs such as director of finance or director of I, where interim leaders are in place for the first couple of years. “I believe those are posted or will be soon, but yeah there are definitely positions that are available at the county and I would ask for people to apply and see what fits with their skill set, and how they can be part of the team.”
A team that Vogel hopes will experience a culture shift from the prior administration. “I think it is a different environment than it was even, you know, a week ago.”
Vogel said already she has gotten to know Mayor Devlin, but the two will hold their first meeting as mayor and county executive in the next few days.