Tony Scallon is right. The negativity of some citizens and commissioners has done far more to harm the search process than most will ever know. One can simply look at the decision of last year's finalists to withdraw at the last moment to see its potential impact. What's ironic, is it now appears those who complained the most about the lack of process last year, are trying to control the current process to ensure the outcome they prefer. (i.e. eliminate Gurban and there is only one candidate left)
Let the process proceed and conclude in a civil manner. Scott Neiman
Neiman just posts more of the same spin and uses the same fallacious logic of attacking straw men as Scallon.
Scallon is still wrong.
The plain facts, as pointed out by several other writers, are these:
1. Candidates for top positions such as this often decide to withdraw because they often get better counter-offers from their current employers, or because they are actively looking for another position in several locations and have a more attractive offer elsewhere. Sometimes they back out for other reasons, as well. Given that the salary the Park Board is offering is said to be $20,000 to $40,000 lower than the going rate nationwide, no one should be surprised if a candidate withdraws due to a better offer.
As was said before, this is completely normal for this kind of process.
2. This year's process has the appearance of favoring an inside candidate. As others also pointed out, job applicants will often drop out if it looks like that the process is favoring one candidate. This year's process has looked unfair from the start to those who have been attending all of the board meetings. I have. Neiman and Scallon have not.
3. False Straw Man Argument: Neiman accuses those who complained about lack of process last year of trying to control the process this year. Wrong. They want a real-live, fair process to be followed this year, and the best qualified person to be selected. Instead, we are once again getting a farce for a superintendent search.
4. False Straw Man Argument: Those who complained last year are not trying to eliminate Gurban so that there is one candidate left. Most of us do not feel Gurban is qualified on paper. Our park system is among the best in the nation and deserves the best superintendent, not someone mediocre.
But even if Gurban were technically qualified on paper, he is clearly a bad choice for superintendent. He has too much bad blood with citizens and some commissioners, and he is clearly the puppet of other commissioners. Even if he were a brilliant park and recreation manager, the underhanded way in which he has operated in back room cooperation with commissioners Fine, Dziedzic, Kummer, Olson and Hauser is more than enough to disqualify him.
5. What the citizens who have been complaining really wanted and STILL WANT, is a REAL superintendent search process where the outcome is not preordained, where the commissioners actually get to look at a pool of at least 3 (three, not two) finalists and preferably 5 (five) finalists. All along in this process the board talked about having 3 to 5, or sometimes 5 finalists.
If five finalists had been chosen (or were chosen going forward) then the problem of having one or two withdraw would be a non-problem. The remaining pool would still be reasonable. And that is precisely what we have been advocating for -- not this nonsensical misrepresentation that Neiman tries to pin on us in order to defend Scallon.
6. It has been commissioners Fine, Olson, Dziedzic, Kummer and Hauser who have prevented the process from "proceeding and concluding in a civil manner" by making impossible restrictions on it, by excluding viable candidates, and by giving the inside track to their man Gurban. When elected officials REFUSE to perform their fiduciary duty, to behave ethically and to be responsive to the electorate, it is precisely the place of the press and the electorate to complain, lobby, protest, march in the streets, raise money and do whatever it takes to correct the problem -- as well as voting the bums out of office. And that's what we intend to do.
Chris Johnson Fulton
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