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| The county will begin a search for a permanent County Administrator in the next few weeks. According to the proposal of the search firm selected by the county--the entire process could take as little as 14 weeks.... |
The county is moving forward with the initial steps necessary to begin the seach process for the selection of our next, permanent, County Administrator.
My personal belief is that our current (interim) Administrator, Wes Moreno, is doing a fantastic job. And therefore I am not pushing for the selection to start post-haste.
But because we do currently have an interim admisistrator, and due to the fact that some members of the board have expressed interest in moving this eventually necessary process forward--the purchasing department had been working on advertising a solicitation for this purpose for the last several months. A number of firms submitted packages and letters of interest in doing this work for the BCC.
Staff have now gone through the responses and they have subsequently winnowed the pool of potential firms down to one.
GovHR out of Illinois is the successful applicant and they have submitted a 40-page, detailed proposal that lists their process, their team's accomplishments and respective resumes, and their references. Additionally--the package gives detailed information on over 100 other recent placement(s) this firm has facilitated for cities, counties, and other entities nationwide over the last several years. Page 15 of their proposal has a rough timeline of their process, 14 weeks in total, from commencement to hiring (which seems aggressive and optimistic to me) and also the proposal discusses the firm's protocols for interviewing and meeting potential candidates in the era of COVID-19 with emphasis on the leveraging of technology to assist in this process.
The amount of the purchase, $22,500.00, falls below the threshold necessary for requiring pre-approval by the board. Therefore, the company selected will be paid via a county purchase order to begin the process iminently.
Going by what they believe they can do and the timeline in which they can do it---it seems as if we may just have a new administrator as soon as late April, early May.
We shall see
Read the complete GovHR proposal here
For what is was worth, I was very against hiring anyone that had been in Janice's administration to clean up Janice's mess. But it has been heartening to see just how much of that mess Wes has been able to straighten out in his short time as Interim. He deserves a lot of gratitude for his willingness to not just step in but to really take on some of the most difficult challenges that came with the fallout from arguably the worst administration in Escambia County history. Whoever the new administrator, he or she will have a much smoother path towards righting the ship 100% after the work Wes has done the last few months.
ReplyDeleteGet new blood that isn't beholding to local politics and developers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Pino won’t go crazy and work for years to get the new administrator fired. Your association Jeff, to her is really disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI have known Wes since he came to work in the Engineering Dept some 15 years ago, and when Pat Overton retired, Wes stepped up as PW Director. While I'm sure my ESC sisters and brothers could share multiple stories of Wes Moreno, he has always be willing to put on the green suit and step up to a challenge. The Board obviously has confidence in Wes, by promotion above 2 Assistant County Administrators. Wes has managed to do well with some positive recommendations to the Board, but he did agree at the start this would be a temporary position. While "Uncle" Wes is a good guy, In my opinion ESC needs "new blood" with strong leadership skills to help guide the ESC to a new vision. A vision with a good PLAN; with appropriate regulations to PROTECT residents through effective stormwater management; with political leader guidance to INVEST in resources to leverage increased drainage budgets to match available State fund grants; with well-staffed Departments to manage new projects; with a PW Dept to MAINTAIN and repair existing drainage systems and ponds. A vision where “Paradise don’t flood” and residents don’t spend their life savings to watch it wash away in flood events. Of Course this is my bias opinion with from 25 years of public service in ESC Engineering Department.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 7:55 pm,
ReplyDeleteIf the new administrator doesn't brazenly violate due process; refuse to fulfill public records; build a giant bureaucracy of dishonest, inexperienced, and inept people willing to lie and leak protected documents to the press; break bargaining law during contract negotiations; assist in disappearing paperwork on official HR complaints; subvert government procurement law as stated in the state administrative code; bring fake investigations against County employees; and railroad first responders with bogus criminal charges, he or she will have nothing to worry about from me.