Search used back room procedures

They make their decisions regarding the new city manager in secret. Then, they bring their "chosen ones" list to the special council meeting on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. They tell everyone they are going to interview their "chosen ones" on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008.

Further, in this writer’s opinion, on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008 the same candidate search committee will pound through their "chosen one" (new city manager) from their "chosen ones" and the city of Davison will have a new city manager without a dime’s worth of citizen involvement. That’s the end of the Davison city manager search and selection story.

Forget about open meetings. Forget about open and candid public discussion. Forget about the public right to know. Forget about "of the people, by the people, and for the people." It was clear that there was no citizen involvement in the Davison city manager selection process leading up to and including the city council meeting on Thursday, Dec. 20. Why? Go ask the members of the candidate search committee.

At the city council meeting on Dec. 10, the chairman of the city manager search committee jammed through a motion that apparently consolidated the power to select the "chosen ones" in the candidate search committee. The remainder of the council was excluded. The public was excluded (Please note: Methods do exist to have open discussions about candidates without breaching candidate confidentially. However, they were ignored).

Apparently between the Dec. 10 regular council meeting and Dec. 19 there were non-public discussions among the candidate search committee members, the current city manager, and Bill Richardson, who was previously hired to do the preliminary candidate search, and the "chosen ones" (six potential candidates, now five) were selected.

The "chosen ones" are those city manager candidates who will be interviewed on Jan. 5. The city manager selection committee then packaged the five or six "chosen ones" list, the interview selection process guidelines, and the previously prepared candidate interview questions together and distributed this "chosen ones package" to the city council.

However, even before the full council had the special meeting on Dec. 20, the chairman of the candidate search committee leaked some or all of the relevant selection information to The Flint Journal (Dec. 19, 2007 edition).

But wait a minute. Let us focus on the special meeting. Did any member of the candidate search committee explain what, where, why, when or how they made their decisions. No way! The deal was cut and dried; no discussion of this nature was necessary. So much so, that one member of the candidate search committee did not even bother to attend the special meeting.

Was the public given any information by the candidate selection committee about the "chosen ones"? No way! This writer sat through the entire Dec. 20 special meeting and never saw one sheet of paper showing any information: 1) about any candidate, 2) about the interview guidelines or 3) about the prepared questions.

Further, as far as this writer can tell, there was nothing provided by the search committee to the public showing any information about any of the other alleged 12 or 13 applicants who applied with Bill Richardson (again, keep in mind candidate confidentiality methods are available, but were ignored).

Further, there was nothing provided, especially in writing, by the search committee to the public explaining what discussions, if any, took place among the search committee, the city manager, and Bill Richardson.

What happened to the public right to know? What happened to the public being involved in the selection process? What happened to the open and honest discussions promised by the chairman of the selection committee at the Dec. 10 council meeting?

Robert Burley
Davison