Alamance County commissioners hire new manager from Person County

Alamance County commissioners hired Katherine Cathey from neighboring Person County to lead the county’s day-to-day government, a move that puts a new administrator at the center of budgeting, staffing and board policy in Graham. The hire reaches outside the county at a moment when commissioners are managing tight schedules and a growing list of service and planning decisions.

Cathey comes with local government experience just up the road in Roxboro. Person County commissioners appointed her county manager effective Oct. 4, 2022, and a March 6, 2023 agenda packet shows she was already introducing newly hired Assistant County Manager Brian Hart, who started Jan. 30, 2023. Person County’s county manager office page also lists Cathey in the role, underscoring that Alamance turned to a sitting manager from a neighboring county rather than promoting solely from inside its own ranks.

In Alamance, the job carries broad authority. The county’s own job bulletin says the county manager handles the day-to-day management of county business, implements the board’s directives and policies and manages all county departments. That makes the post one of the most influential in county government even though it is not elected. It is the office that turns commissioner votes into operating decisions for finance, personnel, public services and intergovernmental coordination.

The timing matters because the manager is also the county’s budget driver. An Alamance County FY25-26 recommended budget document was presented May 19, 2025 and featured County Manager Heidi York, showing how closely the manager’s office is tied to tax rates, spending priorities and department funding. More recently, the board held a special commissioners meeting July 14, 2025, and later posted a notice cancelling its regular Feb. 2, 2026 meeting, a reminder that the county manager’s office works inside a fast-moving calendar of board action and administrative deadlines.

Cathey’s arrival gives commissioners a manager with experience in a nearby county government and a working familiarity with North Carolina’s local administrative system. Her first tests in Alamance will likely come where county government is most exposed: the next budget cycle, department management, staffing pressures and the policy disputes that shape growth, schools, public safety and infrastructure decisions.