© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Sedgwick County Promoting Interim County Manager

Deborah Shaar
/
KMUW/File photo
Tom Stolz (bottom right) worked as deputy county manager since 2017.

Sedgwick County commissioners voted Wednesday to promote the interim county manager to the permanent role instead of opening the job to outside candidates.

Credit Sedgwick County
Tom Stolz

Tom Stolz became the acting county manager in December. He replaced Mike Scholes who reached a resignation settlement with the county amid legal turmoil.

“Sedgwick County is fortunate that we have such a qualified internal candidate who has the right leadership, vision and commitment to our community,” says Commission Chairman David Dennis.

The commissioners say hiring Stolz will bring stability to Sedgwick County, and save time and money that would have come with a search process.

Commissioner Jim Howell supports Stolz’s promotion but would have preferred to have the county post the job.

"To the extent that we would like to be open and fair and transparent, I have some concerns about just moving in this one direction," Howell says.

The county manager is the highest non-elected position in Sedgwick County.

Stolz was a top candidate during the search process in 2015 when commissioners hired Scholes.

Stolz worked more than 30 years for the Wichita Police Department. After retiring in 2012, he became the first director of the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department, a joint department between the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County.

He went on to work for Sedgwick County in several roles beginning in 2016.

Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.