photo by: Mike Yoder

Jill Jolicoeur, Douglas County assistant to the city administrator.

After the Tuesday meeting of the Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Craig Weinaug took advantage of his new assistant’s “will do” attitude.

The Douglas County administrator said he left the meeting intending to follow up on about eight things but had an afternoon filled with other duties. His solution was to give the list to Jill Jolicoeur, who recently started as the county’s first assistant to the county administrator.

Commissioners created the position in February, saying they hoped the position would lighten the load on Weinaug and Assistant County Administrator Sarah Plinsky.

“We have a lot of initiatives going on with very limited administrative staff,” Weinaug said. “Commissioners have been saying for years we need more staff. I resisted, but they were right all along.”

photo by: Mike Yoder

Jill Jolicoeur, Douglas County assistant to the city administrator.

Weinaug said Jolicoeur was selected from a stack of applications the county received for the position. Her experience and background stood out among those interviewed, he said.

Jolicoeur said her immediate goal was much the same as the County Commission envisioned, which was to help Weinaug and Plinsky any way she can. It is a “will do” approach the Overland Park mother of two developed as president of the board of the Wonderscope Children’s Museum.

“It’s an evolution of the ‘can-do’ attitude,” she said. “I will figure out a way to get it done. It’s following through on a task until it’s done.”

Early assignments include providing staff support for the criminal justice coordination council and helping with the county’s 2017 budget preparations.

A 2005 graduate of Kansas University’s master’s program in public administration, Jolicoeur worked as a student in the Kansas City office of former Missouri Congresswoman Karen McCarthy and later in a Johnson County office of retired Kansas Congressman Dennis Moore.

“Working in their local offices, I got insight into where things happen in day-to-day life,” she said. “A lot of that responsibility lies with local governments. The KU program, especially, emphasizes taking pride in bringing a working, professional approach to local government.”

After leaving Moore’s staff, Jolicoeur took a position as a budget analyst with the Johnson County budget office.

“It was a great opportunity in Johnson County,” she said. “I didn’t go into this to be a numbers person. It was a very unique, supportive environment that gave me the opportunity to teach myself to be a budget analyst.”

Her current position is an opportunity to grow in the profession by getting experience in areas of local government, Jolicoeur said.

“It gives me a more global insight into local government,” she said. “The criminal justice council is of great interest to me. It has the opportunity to have a big impact on the community on so many levels. I know the criminal justice council in Johnson County has had a lot of important initiatives, although I was only able to watch that process.”