When Susan Boyer became Washington County Common Pleas Court judge in 1986, some people speculated she would clean house and bring new employees into the office.
Boyer thought that was "silly."
"I knew the law, but they knew the functional things of the office," she said.
As Boyer prepares to leave office after more than 26 years on the bench, she's glad her successor, local attorney and court magistrate Randy Burnworth, is taking the same approach.
"There's going to be continuity of staff, which I think will help a lot," Boyer said.
Burnworth is one of four newcomers to county government set to take office in January, but there isn't expected to be nearly that much change among the rank-and-file employees.
Burnworth said he's retaining bailiff Renee Marshall and administrative secretary Teresa Eddy, who've worked for Boyer for 14 and nearly 10 years, respectively.
"They've been there a long time, they know what they're doing, and they'll be there with me," he said.
There will be one change since Burnworth is leaving the magistrate post to take Boyer's place on the bench. The new magistrate will be selected by Burnworth and Common Pleas Judge Ed Lane.
"We've got three attorneys we're going to interview," Lane said.
Two new members were elected to the three-person county commission as well.
Out-going Commissioner Steve Weber said he'll offer whatever assistance he can to David White, who defeated him in the March Republican primary and won the seat in November. But he said White and fellow Commissioner-elect Ron Feathers will already have plenty of assistance in the office, thanks to county administrator Paul Cunningham, county clerk Rick Peoples and sewer clerk Shelly Vincent.
"They're great workers; they're great to work with; they all know their jobs very well," Weber said.
Commissioner Tim Irvine, elected to the commission two years ago, said the thought of changing staff members hadn't entered his mind. White said he and Feathers have no designs to make any changes either.
"We don't have any reason to," he said. "It would just be foolish for us to come in and start making changes quickly."
"We're going to need to have people with experience, no question about that," White said.
Cunningham was hired as administrator/clerk in January 2010, tasked with overseeing the county budget on a day-to-day basis. Later that year, Peoples was hired as clerk when some other duties were shifted. Vincent is in her 10th year of service.
County Engineer Bob Badger and his successor, Deputy Engineer Roger Wright, were both out of the office and could not be reached for comment Monday.
