McLean County Administrator Camille Rodriguez has resigned from her post after less than two years on the job. She's reportedly taking a public health job in Colorado.
In a communication sent to County Board members on Friday, Rodriguez said she plans to leave on June 7.
“Opportunities for career growth come at the most unexpected times,” Rodriguez wrote in an email. “With that said, I am grateful to have served you for the last (almost) two years as County Administrator.”
Rodriguez has been unavailable for comment. The Daily Camera in Colorado reported she's becoming the executive director of Boulder County Public Health.
Rodriguez previously served as McLean County Health Department administrator for 18 months before she moved to the county administrator’s office.
In 2019, she signed a five-year contract with the county. The contract came with an annual salary of $130,000.
County Board Chairman John McIntyre praised Rodriguez’s work.
“For guiding a county, one of the largest counties, and doing that and going through a crisis situation as well, I think she did a fantastic job,” McIntyre said.
McIntyre also said Rodriguez’s background in health administration became crucial to help guide the county through the coronavirus pandemic.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better person to come in there and take over the reins after Bill Wasson left, particularly with the situation we were confronted with,” McIntyre said. “She was all hands on deck and got right after it.”
Rodriguez is the county’s first female administrator. She previously worked for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as director of its Division of Public Health’s Bureau of Community Health Promotion.
Rodriguez also has worked in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ Division of Child Protection and with the Office of the Executive Inspector General in Springfield.
She leaves at a time when county government is in the midst of the once-a-decade process of drawing new County Board maps.
“I realize the timing of my announcement is certainly not ideal, with all that county administration is poised to do to support the board and the community relative to reapportionment and with the tremendous amount of time that county administration spends… on budget preparation,” she said in the email.
McIntyre said it’s too early to say when the county will begin the search process for her replacement, or name an interim county administrator.
Rodriguez recommended the board name assistant county administrator Cassy Taylor to the interim post.
