County Administrator Jack Yunits, Jr.
HYANNIS – Barnstable County Administrator Jack Yunits, Jr. recently announced that he will be stepping down after five years in the position.
Yunits took on the county administrator role in February of 2016, taking over for Michael Brillhart who had been the interim county administrator since 2013.
He said that when he took over the position, there were a number of challenges waiting for him.
“We had some significant deficits that had been buried. We had no money in the bank and our future prospects were looking dim five years ago. What we did have was just an unbelievable group of core employees,” said Yunits.
“Good people came together, worked hard together. I’ve never seen anything like what I’m seeing now with the pandemic response by Barnstable County employees, and no one is complaining. Many of our employees are packing in 60 hour weeks and nobody is complaining.”
Over the course of his time as administrator, Yunits said that he took on a number of challenges including making county departments more financially sound, working to clean up PFAS water contamination with the Town of Barnstable and replacing aging dredging equipment.
Yunits said that the removal of the county’s obligation to pay the sheriff’s office pension was the biggest accomplishment towards a more fiscally sustainable government.
“It was taking 50% of all the tax dollars we collected from the towns to pay that obligation. The sheriff’s office is a state agency, we never should have been saddled with that obligation,” said Yunits.
Yunits also said that as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the county has expanded its public health department and worked in conjunction with the towns to provide PPE, testing, and vaccinations for the Cape’s most vulnerable residents.
Expanding communication between the county government and residents through websites and other formats, especially during the pandemic, was another accomplishment that Yunits said he was glad to see.
Yunits said that he will be staying on Cape for the foreseeable future and will continue to help Barnstable County’s Director of Health and Environment, Sean O’Brien, in any way he can as a new county administrator is found.
“I’ll be staying here through the budget process, working with our finance director to make sure everything gets done and approved by the elected officials in a timely way. I’ll be helping the next Administrator, whoever it may be, to acclimate to the job. And I’ll do whatever I can to help Sean O’Brien in the COVID response over the course of the next few months,” said Yunits.
“I couldn’t just walk off. That would have been abandoning the battle in the middle of a tough struggle. I’m going to stay on and assist the best I can as long as the county commissioners want me around.”
For the full interview with Barnstable County Administrator Jack Yunits, Jr. listen to our Sunday Journal here.
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