Did something go wrong in the hiring of Bill Clingan? Are there similarities to other hires I’ve been critical of? The answer for me is that I still don’t know and I won’t until I get the information that I requested from Human Resources (still waiting!). In the cases where I thought Jeanne Hoffman, and Enis Ragland were unqualified for their jobs, there were clearer reasons why. And in the case of the Clerk/Treasurer the process was clearly flawed.
In the case of the Clerk/Treasurer, we advertised for a Clerk/Treasurer. There were certain people who were “certified” as being qualified. However, it became clear that the position was not one which you could find someone with both sets of skills. The Mayor then recommended that we hire a Clerk and re-advertise for the Treasurer. This was unfair as people who looked at the job description and decided that they didn’t have the Treasurer experience likely did not apply. The Council ultimately made the Mayor go back and re-advertise both positions and while we hired a Clerk, the Treasurer position still remains open.
In the case of Jeanne Hoffman being hired for the Facilities Manager she had no facilities management experience. And, in that case, the job description called for a certain college degree in a technical area and abilities like CAD drawing experience. The issue here, again, is that we simply didn’t advertise for the qualifications that we ultimately hired for. And again, people who may have the same qualifications as the person hired, were likely turned away when they saw they didn’t have the right degree or experience. This case was similar to what happened when the Mayor advertised for a Clerk/Treasurer and then just hired a Clerk. The issue was false advertising of positions.
In the case of hiring Enis Ragland to head up the Office of Community Services, he has no experience in early childhood development or non-profit contract administration. In fact, some might argue, that he is almost openly hostile about the amount of money the City puts into non-profit agencies and into certain neighborhoods through the non-profit agencies. It’s hard for me to see that he has the best interests of that office at heart. Luckily, this is a position that only last for one year.
In the case of Bill Clingan, I think we have quite a different problem. Here, I think the argument is over if he has the right kind of Economic Development experience. Again, I need to review all the documents to find out if there is some critical skill or degree that is missing as in the cases above. However, I agree, this whole hiring process was botched, but I think the “botching” here that is most obvious is more political. Here are the issues I see at the moment pending review of additional information.
1. The job description.
Like the Clerk/Treasurer position, this is a position that is very difficult to find someone with two different sets of skills. The person hired has to know Economic Development and Community Development. Yes, the two go hand in hand, but if the business community is expecting someone who can go out there and proactively bring in high tech businesses to Madison, the likelihood that they will also have experience in Community Development issues faced by the Senior Center, CDBG office and Office of Community Services is unlikely. Someone who has experience with Community Development is likely to have a different philosophy about what Economic Development entails.
2. What is Economic Development?
The business community folks who are upset by this hiring are upset because the candidates’ background in Economic Development is not the background they want to see. Which leads to a question I’ve been asking for a couple years now. What do we mean when we say Economic Development? What are our goals? How will we create jobs in this community? What kinds of jobs will they be? One could argue, that the chosen candidate has Economic Development skills, depending on your definition of Economic Development.
3. The Mayor’s promises.
The biggest problem here, is the expectations that the Mayor set up. He held several press conferences and told nearly everyone that this new person was going to be an Economic Development czar. He told people he was elevating the position to a “cabinet” level position in his office to elevate the importance of Economic Development. (Which begs the question, who is on the current the “cabinet”? And what exactly does that mean in local governement?) He included the business community in the process of writing the job description, the questions asked and included them in the interview panel, presumably, because he wanted to make sure that he hired someone that they were confident in having the Economic Development skills they were looking for.
I’m guessing that, in this case, as in the Hoffman case, the process was followed. The issue is, were the people certified actually qualified? In the Hoffman case, I’d say not. The question in this newer case is, was the Economic and Community Development job description one which advertised one set of skills and we hired another set of skills. Unfortunately, in this case, I think there are going to be differences of opinion based on your definition of Economic Development.
Hopefully, all those open records requests that were filed will be filled soon and the answers will become more clear.
