Jefferson County Manager Cal Markert admits that the county he manages isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t stop employees from reaching for that mark.

“We’re definitely not great but we’re trying to build a culture of continuous improvement,” he said after Tuesday’s commission committee meeting. “We’ve taught almost every employee how to look at their process and know what the waste is in the process, how to remove it and really focus on being more efficient, always thinking about, ‘How can I improve this process?’

“Our employees have responded amazingly, and they’ve made a lot of improvements just on little things,” Markert continued. “If we keep doing those little bitty incremental things, we’ll start to get a little bit better. But yeah, our employees have been doing a fantastic job.”

During Tuesday’s committee meeting, commissioners said they would take up employment extensions for County Attorney Theo Lawson, Chief Financial Officer Angela Dixon and Markert during Thursday’s commission meeting

“Theo, along with our county management staff, they’re on contracts,” Commission President Jimmie Stephens said. “They’re not merit system employees, and from time to time those contracts come due. This was just a reaffirmation of the work that they do and a continuation of (their contracts).”

An amendment to the employment agreement with Dixon through March 4, 2028, was sent to Thursday’s agenda, along with an employment agreement with Lawson. Markert, who became the county’s second county manager in October 2021, is set to receive a 5% increase in his salary.

“Of course, things can definitely go a whole lot better, but I think it’s much more efficient,” Markert said, comparing the county manager system to the county’s prior governance. “We’re still trying to remove waste and add value straight to our customers. But we’ve got a great commission that’s made a lot of great decisions. Our finances are in great order. They’ve allowed us to hire good people, and we’re just continuing to try to improve. We’ve got a long way to go but we’re going working good together and getting a lot of projects done.”

Markert and Deputy County Manager Heather Carter said efforts are being made to improve the application process for building permits.

“It’ll have lots of additional features that help folks search for information and hopefully will be more streamlined and easy to use,” she said. “We’re going to make it more straightforward so you can find reference information, help (and) give example permits and other things like that in the system. It’s pretty cool.”

Markert said the county is considering the possibility of complications in bridge projects. He cited a bridge project on Old Springville Road where information about delays wasn’t communicated clearly.

“We’re improving that process to make sure that never happens again,” the county manager said. “If we’ve got to close a bridge, we really want people to understand when (and) how long. I think it’s still closed and people have been going around. That’s a communication part of the process.”