Sioux Falls City Council Candidate John Paulson’s ‘Corporate Administration’ experience

I recently wrote a post about the council candidates favorite buzz word this election season, ‘Transparency’. A word that almost all of them are embracing except John Paulson. He likes the word ‘Positive’ better. So much that when he spoke at Democratic Forum this past Friday he said his only weakness is being ‘too positive’. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, puke or tell Mike Huether to sit down.

Either way, I would like to talk about Paulson’s record on transparency so far in this race.

So a foot soldier says to me, “Did you know John’s office was in Vermillion?” I told them I was unaware of his working situation, but it seems odd to me that an executive with Sanford Health (based out of Sioux Falls) would have to drive to Verm town everyday to his office when he lived in Sioux Falls. Hope he drove a Prius. But I did find this bit of information when his retirement in 2015 was announced;

John Paulson, vice president for corporate administration, will retire after 4o years of experience in health care administration. Paulson joined the health system in 1987 as a system vice president. During the past three decades, he has served in a variety of roles for the organization, including foundation director, chief executive officer for Sanford Vermillion Medical Center and executive chief of staff. Most recently, Paulson has worked closely with the organization’s governing board of trustees.

Apparently John and his boss needed several miles between their cubicles. But my googles did find some other interesting ‘resume’ information, and the many hats he wore with Sioux Valley/Sanford over the years. In his announcement to the Argus he was running in October, he said this;

Paulson, who recently retired after 40 years in the health industry and most recently served as vice president for corporate administration at Sanford Health,

He served in this position for about 2 years after his co-worker, Mark Johnston got promoted (Mark’s resume below);

• Vice President, Health Policy, Sanford and MeritCare Health System, 2013-present
• Lieutenant Colonel, South Dakota Army National Guard, 1993-present
• Vice President of Administration and Corporate Communication, Sanford and MeritCare Health System, 2007-2013
• Press Secretary, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, 2002-2006

It seems that Mark Johnston held that position 6 years before Paulson got promoted to it according to this 2007 article;

The core of corporate activities that provide day to day support to the organization will remain under Kelby Krabbenhoft including: the Legal Department, Finance, Compliance and Human Resources. John Paulson will become Executive Chief of Staff to Mr. Krabbenhoft (2007) while Mark Johnston will assume the job of Vice President of Administration and coordinate the activities of Marketing, Public Affairs and Corporate Communications.

So is Paulson NOT being transparent about his resume? Not at all, he did retire as VP of Administration, that much is true. But doesn’t it seem odd that a guy who started his career 30 years ago with SV/Sanford as a VP had to take another 26 years to get promoted to a similar position within the organization? Talk about coming full circle.

Maybe I’m just being either to transparent, negative, or both. Good thing I’m not running for city council.