Mathews County Administrator Mindy Conner announced that she will be retiring as of July 31.
Conner said her retirement is both for health reasons and because she will officially have 30 years in the Virginia Retirement System as of July 31, making her eligible for full retirement benefits.
During the past year, Conner has quietly battled a rare type of sarcoma that even more rarely was found in her wrist. The cancer had to be surgically removed, along with her pinky finger and a sizeable portion of her wrist. Conner said she’s been surprised to find that the surgery, which took place last October at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, has left her with very limited use of her left hand, and that another surgery will be required, involving the removal of more of her wrist bone. This will require further physical therapy and rehabilitation, she said.
“These are things I will be better able to do if I’m not working,” she said.
The October surgeries left Conner unable to drive a car any farther than from her home near Mathews Court House to her office on the court green. She was finally cleared to drive less than two weeks ago. She expects to continue to have limited use of her hand.
Conner came to Mathews in 2012, after having served in the Town of Clarksville for 18 years. Prior to that, she worked for the Town of Montross, where she began her career in 1991, when Rep. Rob Wittman was on the town council. He was the one who called her to offer her the job. With government jobs scarce at the time, she had been working in a daycare center after completing her graduate degree in Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree in Human Resources.
Conner said one of her first goals when she came to Mathews was to create stability and establish a good working relationship with the staff. The first task she undertook was to modernize some functions of government, moving quickly to paperless meetings on iPads and integrating a lot of technology into the county’s offices. She said the board of supervisors also chose to update the historic courthouse “pretty early on” to make it more functional.
During her tenure, Conner has focused on strengthening the county’s financial position, always advising the board to maintain a healthy fund balance. The fund balance has steadily increased from $4 million to $8 million, she said, at the same time that the county’s debt has gone down.
In spite of conservative management of the budget, Conner said the county has still managed to move forward. Supervisors have supported tax increases when necessary, she said, and overall, “we’ve been good stewards of the resources.”
While there has been a lot of frustration with government during the past few years, Conner said, “local government is democracy at our doorstep, and we’re accountable.” She said the county has tried to be as transparent as possible, and she pointed particularly to record-sharing, which she said is “more than anybody else in the region.”
“There’s a Code of Ethics involved in being a professional government manager that I take very seriously,” she said.
Conner plans to stay in Mathews for a while after her retirement. Her daughter Mandy Moran will be a high school senior next year, and she doesn’t want to uproot her. After that, she said, she will relocate so she can finally live with her husband of six years, Steve Conner, who owns Steven T. Conner Real Estate in Appomattox. With her older son Zach Moran engaged, Conner said she’s looking forward to the possibility of being a grandparent. Her younger son is Kyle Moran.
Conner said she hasn’t ruled out seeking another position at some point, but she needs to get through all her health issues first.
As she looks back over her time at the county’s helm, Conner said her greatest source of pride is her staff.
“What an excellent team we’ve built here,” she said. “We have one of the best staffs of any local government in Virginia.”
Conner said that before she leaves, she plans on making sure the administrative portion of the public safety radio project is completed. After she leaves, she said, she hopes to see the staff continue to have a good working environment and for Mathews to continue to have a functional local government. She said she would like to see the goal of bringing broadband to the entire county realized because “it will be huge for the economy.” Finally, she said, she would like to see Mathews “continue to provide leadership in the region.”
“It’s been a privilege to work with our regional partners,” she said. “We have excellent relationships, and that’s been of benefit to Mathews.”
NOTE: Edited to reflect that Conner has 30 years in the VRS Retirement System, not 34, and that Mathews County’s fund balance has increased from $4 million to $8 million under Conner’s tenure.