How can the board and director ensure the establishment and maintenance of a healthy board-director relationship?

The best way to establish and maintain a healthy relationship between the social services board and the county social services director is for the board and director to reach a clear and mutual understanding of their respective roles and responsibilities and to respect the other’s role and responsibilities in their day-to-day activities.
This task can best be accomplished by the board’s adoption, in consultation with the director, of governance policies (along the lines suggested by John Carver’s Boards That Make a Difference) that (a) describe the role of the social services board as a governing board; (b) describe the social services director’s role and responsibilities as the board’s chief executive officer; (c) establish the executive limitations that apply with respect to the director’s and staff’s work and empower the director and staff to exercise their professional judgment, discretion, and authority within those limitations without the necessity of further approval by the board; (d) define the way in which the board will relate to the director and staff and the means by which the board will hold the director accountable for the agency’s performance.
Once established, these governance polices or mutual expectations should be made available to the director and all board members, provided to newly-appointed board members, discussed with applicants who are being interviewed for the director’s position, considered whenever the board is evaluating the director’s performance, and reviewed (and revised as necessary) by the board and director periodically.