Jeff Spartz tries not to hate anybody – he says he just likes some people a little less than others. Having such a cool demeanor may prove invaluable because his five new bosses tend to make in-fighting and stalemates a regular occurrence.
Spartz answers to the Lane County Board of Commissioners now, as he was recently hired for the county’s highest non-elected position: county administrator.
The first outsider to hold the position in more than 25 years, Spartz, 62, stepped out of retirement in Minnesota and walked into a potential minefield – the budget crisis Lane County faces this year.
When talking

about his new job, Spartz seems pensive as he reclines in his chair and twiddles a rubber-band between his fingers. The corners of his mouth curve down as if he’s frowning, but he comes out of this gaze and rambles off another subtle joke about how he has an evil twin named Skip that hangs around the office and has already sent a few nasty e-mails.
Hired on Nov. 28, Spartz started as the Lane County Administrator on Dec. 31. He replaced Bill Van Vactor, who spent more than 30 years in county government, 14 of those years as county administrator.
Spartz’ new office is adorned with family pictures, hand-carved wooden airplanes, a paper target from a shooting range, with most of the hits on the bulls-eye, and political cartoons of himself that ran in various Minnesota newspapers, the state where he spent the majority of his public service career.
Prior to his new position, Spartz spent the late 1970s and 1980s as a county commissioner in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis. He then served as Hennepin County Administrator from 1996 to 1999. The county has a population about three times larger than Lane County’s.
Here he will oversee approximately 1,400 employees and a $600 million budget; in Hennepin County he dealt with a $2 billion budget and had nearly 11,000 employees under his watch.
Lane County’s budget may not be as big, but it faces a serious problem: the loss of one of its major streams of revenue.
“There’s no magic wand” to fix the problem, Spartz said. “What I’m really counting on is that (my) years of experience will suggest some solutions when we are dealing with some of these funding crises,” he added.
Next fiscal year the county may lose $47 million in federal funding, and county officials are drafting three possible budgets to deal with the loss.
Spartz acknowledges the solution ultimately has to be one of “self help,” but throws some blame on the federal government’s recent refusal to aid local communities such as Lane County.
“The administration in Washington has ironically gotten fiscally responsible in the last year. I mean, they were spending like drunken sailors up until then, but now the president is being a budget hawk,” Spartz said. “What’s two or three days spending in Iraq that you can’t spend on domestic programs?” he added.
After 20 years of government service in Hennepin County, Spartz became the administrator of the county’s major trauma center, “the equivalent of Harborview (Medical Center) in Seattle,” he said. But he was forced out of the position in 2006, and Spartz said he would rather not have left because he wanted to finish the project he set out on.
In typical Spartz fashion, however, he looks back on the situation as his lips starts to curl down. Suddenly he laughs and points out the $357,875 check framed on his desk.
“That’s the payoff from the hospital,” Spartz said with a smile.
While he may be new to Lane County, he is starting to settle in and make a name for himself. But it might help him feel more welcome if Van Vactor’s picture wasn’t still on Lane County’s Web site, listed as the current county administrator.
[email protected]