County Picks Interim Social Services Chief

Barbara Fitzgerald, a 28-year county employee, was appointed Monday to serve as interim director of the county’s Public Social Services Agency, county Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester said.

James E. Isom, the agency’s director for 22 years, resigned Friday following months of closed-door meetings with county supervisors over his job performance.

Members of the governing panel had questioned his ability to lead the county through welfare reform, while employees in his department criticized him for a lack of leadership and for failing to resolve many of their complaints about working conditions.

Isom could not be reached for comment Monday.

Koester said county officials will decide within the next two months on the scope and criteria that will be used to select Isom’s permanent replacement.

Fitzgerald, 51, began working with the county in 1969 in the auditor’s office. After two years in the county executive’s office, she took a job as an accounting technician in the Public Social Services Agency and was appointed deputy director in 1986.