I have often told people, in Sioux Falls the best way to climb the corporate ladder is to kiss a lot of ass and meet a lot of people. It is WHO you know, not WHAT you know.
Just look at the appointment of Darrin Smith in the previous administration. He was appointed to run the parking department than community development without any planning experience, and now he runs an arts center. At least he had a college degree.
Notice that after Mayor TenHaken terminated the Central Services Director he said he was changing the name and purpose of the position. Could he also be changing the job description and requirements? Most city (if not all) directors and management have to have a college degree or a degree in their chosen profession. In fact, the HR director has said in public meetings that is how pay scales are determined. Many government jobs work this way. Agree or disagree, it is just the way it has been done.
So how is it that a ‘NEW’ position is being created, at the top of the pay scale ($147K Salary) for a person without a degree?
How do you think the other city directors feel about this?
While I don’t have a problem with people succeeding in the private sector without a college degree, in the public sector, a director should at least have a degree. Public Works director, Mark Cotter has an engineering degree, for example. The person running Falls Community Health has a medical degree. The recently appointed city attorney has a law degree and is a judge advocate for our armed services.
You get the picture.
Wouldn’t you want the person running our IT services for the city to have a computer science degree (even an associates)? Or something similar.
Maybe Jason has a degree, but all I have seen so far is that he attended Augie for 3 years and studied mathematics.
When it comes to the person that is securing the data for the city, the school of hard knocks just doesn’t cut it.
Mayor TenHaken tried to downplay Jason’s IT experience in a KELO interview;
“It’s less important to me that someone knows the difference between Server A and Server B but understands their impact.”
If you are managing a department, shouldn’t you have some knowledge what your underlings are doing? That’s a scary thought in itself.
I also take issue with the title. It sounds like something a corporation or marketing agency would create to generate more profit. When are we going to realize the city is not in the business of profits and losses. It is in the business of fiscal restraint and a high level of customer service to the tax payers.
We have had enough ‘salespeople’ in city hall. I want to be ‘served’ not ‘sold’ something.