As many of you know, the city’s current city auditor is cashing in his retirement very soon and will be replaced. The internal auditor position is under control of the city council. Not just a couple of them in leadership or with connections, but the ENTIRE council. It is their employee.
But for some reason the council decided to use the mayoral appointed human resources department of the city to help select candidates and make ‘recommendations’.
This is circumventing the process totally, and unacceptable.
The city council has had two executive sessions to discuss the candidates over the past two days. While the confidentiality of what is said in these sessions and who these candidates may be is guarded, there is nothing preventing the council from telling the public key things about this new appointment, like;
• How many applicants?
• How many finalists?
• Are there any conflicts of interest with either the mayor’s administration or the council (ex: personal friends or working relationships with the mayor or any of the city councilors)?
These are important things to know, that can be relayed to the public without exposing the applicants. The public has a right to know if the hiring process has been fair, or rigged for someone with ‘connections’. Trust me, once the finalist is put on the agenda for hiring, we will launch our own investigation of this person and if they have any ties to the current council or mayor. We have taken notice with how city clerk Debra Owen was fired and how current city clerk Thomas Greco and council budget analyst David Bixler ‘got their jobs’. Let’s just say it had little to do with their resumes or the tie they were wearing in their interviews.
When is leadership going to stop worrying about people wearing hats and start addressing the public’s concern about insider horse trading? Maybe we will have to wait until the golf courses close for the season before we get those answers.