Retirements create leadership vacuum

Three long-serving and influential leaders in Cody are retiring. They will be missed.

City of Cody Administrator Barry Cook, Cody Regional Health CEO Doug McMillan and Forward Cody CEO James Klessens have served our community well and will all be retired before the end of the year.

Cook served as city administrator for 10 years. He was successful in hiring good people over the years, kept the city living within its budget and ran the city efficiently.

McMillan, described by hospital board chair Ty Nelson as a “transformational leader” was at the helm of the hospital for almost 30 years.

Under his tenure the hospital grew five times larger and became the regional health care facility for northwestern Wyoming.

Klessens led Forward Cody, Cody’s economic development organization, for 17 years. During that period, Forward Cody was instrumental in bringing a number of new businesses into the community and assisted growth for a number of businesses already operating in Cody.

The community owes those three individuals a debt of gratitude for their service over these years.

However, the retirement of three strong community leaders at the same time creates a temporary vacuum of leadership in those three organizations and in our community.

It is imperative that the search committees and boards tasked with the awesome responsibility of replacing those strong leaders find the best replacements possible. That is not going to be easy.

We strongly urge those boards and search committees to recruit the best persons possible even if the search takes a while.

Candidates for those crucial positions of leadership will benefit from having the best education and training in those fields and experience in administration is critical.

It would be a mistake to rush into filling the positions rapidly just because an individual wants the job and is available.

We believe there are good candidates out there. They just need to be recruited.