By Amye Anderson
UCBJ Managing Editor
COOKEVILLE – Could the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency and the Upper Cumberland Development District eventually be merged into one agency? That’s what members of the UCHRA executive director search committee are reportedly considering following their inaugural meeting on Friday.
According to Putnam County Executive Randy Porter, the search committee voted this morning to retain Mark Farley as the UCHRA interim director and put the search for a new director on hold.
Porter told the UCBJ that Farley, UCHRA attorney Danny Rader, and Tennessee Tech University will be tasked with weighing the pros and cons of merging UCHRA and UCDD into one central agency.
The agencies, both designed to assist the region’s neediest citizens, each offer programs that overlap. In recent months, the workforce development program was trimmed from UCHRA’s roster of responsibilities and given to UCDD to manage after reports of mismanagement and poor documentation were lodged against UCHRA for their management of the program.
Being in the early stages of determining if a merger is feasible, it is not immediately clear what a possible new structure might look like.
Those involved with the study will report back to the search committee with their findings once the study is completed.
