Jason Reisdorfer confirmed 7-1

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Stehly was the dissenting vote. Her testimony was very interesting. She said Jason will be coming in at a salary of $147K, the same salary the past Central Services Director was making when she left. Jason is 38ish and has a HS Diploma. The past director had a BA in Business, a Master in Information Technology and 17 years experience in the field. Let’s just say Jason is very, very, very lucky to get this job. I actually support the mayor on his selection. I won’t say why I have had a change of heart, but let’s just say it is NOT for the reasons you think.

One of the interesting testimonies that came from several of Jason’s supporters tonight was a friend from Brandon who said there needs to be LESS transparency in government. I had to chuckle. Fine sir, this is why you are drinking radioactive water in your town, NO transparency in your city’s government.

Jason Reisdorfer will likely be appointed as the new Tech & Innovation Director

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Let’s face it, we still have a lot of questions. Why would anyone leave a successful business they helped build in the private sector to work in city government? I don’t know the answer to that question.

We also don’t know how Jason’s salary was compiled when he lacks a college degree and is solely based on the last person’s pay.

We do know that Mayor TenHaken is extremely happy about his pick since he has been having difficulty getting people from the private sector to work for him. My guess is because of how the last mayor ran the place like a dictatorship. Nobody wants to work for a dictator.

Even if all 8 councilors voted against his appointment, I still believe Paul has the power to override the consent. I do believe Jason will be appointed on a (7-1) vote. Even councilors I talked to who may have their reservations about Jason understand that the Mayor has the executive power to appoint anyone to his team, and they certainly won’t stand in the way of his duties. It’s really his responsibility.

But a bigger question still remains that I think I will try to answer. How can a mayor appoint someone to this highly technical post without the professional experience?

Well this didn’t start with TenHaken or even Bucktooth & Bowlcut, or Dave or Gary, this kind of culture of political appointments has been around for a long time. Only in the last administration we saw it to be more obvious. Corporate marketing types like to surround themselves with other corporate marketing types in some strange attempt to ‘change’ government to run more like a business. While some aspects of that may have worked under the last dude, it certainly didn’t look good for the taxpayers debt load, increased taxes and fees, transparency in government and public trust.

I was hoping Paul would have seen that, but apparently not.

Corporate gurus in government often replace their best talent with people like them. We saw this with Debra Owen. Not only a talented City Clerk, legislative researcher, but one heck of a lawyer. She wore 3 hats well and did it for a lot less pay. It took 3 people to replace her (with a lot less experience and no law degrees) with a combined salary of around $230K.

As I have told several councilors over the past few days that Jason will get easily frustrated with the speed in which government moves. He will also find out that hiring and firing civil service employees isn’t an easy task. He may also get discouraged by having to make important decisions in the open with other directors, city councilors and the public instead of behind closed doors in a corporate board room and a Crown Royal in his hand.

If anything we can take from Councilor Stehly’s Facebook kerfuffle is that Jason is easily tempered. Can he calm these reactions once he starts working for the citizens? Not sure.

While I hope he does good things, and I think he probably has some good ideas, otherwise Paul wouldn’t be so Gung Ho in hiring him, I think he will become easily frustrated and probably not make it very long in city government. But I wish him well in the short time he will be working for us.

Stehly to hold Press Conference Today!

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What: Press Conference
Where: Downtown Library
When: 1:30 pm,  Thursday September 13th
 
Councilor Theresa Stehly will discuss her concerns with the recent appointment of Jason Reisdorfer for the Director of Innovation and Technology.
The City Council is slated to vote on this nominee at the next September 18th meeting.
 
Please contact Theresa  Stehly with questions @929-8783
ALSO Read the Stehly Report HERE: (Doc: Stehly-Report-Fall-2018
Topics covered in Press Conference;
—Our Mayor’s race was driven by the topics of transparency, openness, accountability, integrity and citizen representation. Also, the topic of working with all council members to create a more “partnership “ attitude  for the benefit of the public was discussed.

—I have requested a comparison breakdown of what Sue Quandbeck and her department provided for the citizens compared with this new positions. I also have requested from Paul TenHaken what the salary will be for this new position. I have asked our City staff what Sue Quandbeck was getting paid. (Including  her benefits, which I have been told is based on 30% of the salary for all employees.)

—I enthusiastically supported the Mayor’s choice for our City Attorney. Stacy Kooistra came into our midst with a clean slate and he exudes integrity, fairness, solid knowledge of the law and a maturity and demeanor that is in my opinion very admirable and fitting for our City Attorney. I stated my feelings about him during the Council meeting before we voted   to approve him several weeks ago.

—Many of my Colleagues , and the Mayor do NOT allow citizens the opportunity to comment on their Facebook page. I do allow respectful conversation from my more than 3300 friends on my personal Facebook page. However, I am under no obligation to accept friends , or keep friends who are disrespectful or belligerent. I also reserve the right to delete comments that are disrespectful, and attacking.

—This IT position is so very important for the integrity of information for the citizens and the entire City communication system. We need an IT director who is impartial and of the highest level of integrity. Our  responsibility as Council members is to ensure that we have the best person serving the citizens. It is our right and responsibility to vet each candidate. This position  needs a leader who is committed to Citizen responsiveness, transparency, communication and has a respectful approach to the public and to the Council members.

— The IT Director needs to have the greatest regard for all the citizens and giving them access and representation. I had concerns about the resistance Jason Riesdoerfer  displayed when we brought an ordinance developing district representation for the Park Board. This ordinance   would have given all parts of our community a place at the table. Jason was very opposed to allowing each area of our community to have a representative on the Park Board, instead defending the closed status quo.

–The IT Director needs to be available and open to hearing from the Public. After Jason and the Park Board voted against the ordinance requesting  more citizens representation, I made a formal request at the  Park Board meeting to have all Park Board members  give me their contact information so I could let the public know how to contact them. Jason and the rest of the Park Board members REFUSED.

—The IT Director needs to be committed to transparency and accessibility. Jason and the rest of the Park Board refuses to hold meetings in a place where they can be video recorded.

—The IT Director needs to show professionalism for our community. Jason’s demeanor on Facebook was less than that. After he called me a Liar, I did unfriend him. Although I had concerns about this attitude coming from a Park Board member, I decided not to pursue it at the time, and let it go. But now , with a proposal to put Jason in charge of all the communications that the public will get , as well as the council information, I needed to step out and express my concerns.

—The IT Director needs to be open and transparent. Jason and the Park Board defended the “secret selection” committee’s recommendation to kick the Dakota Golf Company to the curb. The community and the City Council deserved to have the information used for this decision. I was very vocal about this need for the public to know.

 The Mayor’s department,  and the Park Board refused.  When I stated concerns about the ongoing employment for the staff of Dakota Golf on Facebook, Jason attacked me and called me a liar.

We have since experienced that Dakota Golf manager Tom Jansa was Not retained by the new Golf Company.