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| We will be interviewing at least 7-8 candidates for the next County Administrator job. I am going to ask some tough questions and I am going to demand answers to them for my vote. Here are 10 I'll be asking....... |
I'll be polite----but I won't be bashful.
I will ask tough questions of the 6-8 finalist that will be interviewed for our administrator position.
Because I know this position is critical. This is the "Quarterback" position on the football team.
This is the manager of the "restaurant" taxpayers have invested their futures in.....
This position will be the "face" of our county
This position runs our county and our operation. This is a stressful, mostly thankless, high-paying job that operates in the sunshine but that also deals with a lot of political pressure from 5 separate "bosses."
So we need this position filled ASAP but we need to get the RIGHT PERSON in this seat.
Right now there is a tremendous "leadership vacuum" in Escambia County, and filling the administrator position is the first step in correcting this condition.
So we have our list, we will do group interviews, and then we will do individual, one-on-one interviews with each of the finalists. This is the point where I will make my final decision on my selection of the next administrator. ( I am one-fifth of the vote that will hire Jack Brown's successor)
Here are ten of the most important questions I will ask, and I will PRESS for REAL answers...
1. Knowing this job will be high-visibility and high-pressure--why do you want this job?
2. If you are the eventual selectee and you agree to terms to come to work for us--how many hours per week will you be willing to work on our (multiple) pressing issues (budget, labor union negotiations, fire service, pay issues, tax issues, ECAT issues, BCC personality issues, internal employee issues, etc. etc. etc.)?
3. How will you handle Elected Board Members that want to micromanage you and tell you, for instance, what to do, how to do it, and /or which employees you need to discipline/terminate?
4. How will you handle Elected Board Members that berate staff publicly at the dais?
5. How will you handle Elected Board Members that try to thwart the will and the lawful votes of the elected BODY as a whole?
6. Are you willing to tell an elected member of the BCC "NO" if unreasonable requests are made?
7. Will you bring plans, ideas, initiatives forward to address the pressing issues this board faces
based upon your skills and experience--------or will you take the obsequious and feckless position that you will simply enact the initiatives that "garner a motion, a second, and at least three votes"
8. Will you work, within the parameters of the law, to guide the board toward solutions you feel will be supported by the majority of the board?
9. To whom will your ultimate loyalty go in this position? (e.g. the citizens, the taxpayers, the board, the organization, or the senior staff?)
10. Are you willing to commit to 7-10 years to this community, in this position, to move us in the right direction?
I will ask these questions and I will carefully consider how these questions are answered. I have had the luxury of serving on not one but two locally elected, constitutionally mandated boards. On the first one, there was too much power concentrated in the executive because in addition to the board members, the executive was an elected position. This was problematic; luckily, with respect to that board, that issue has been corrected and starting in 2020 that executive will be a "hired"-not elected-position.
At the BCC--we as board members have an incredible amount of raw power that can make an executive's job excruciatingly difficult. So now that we are hiring a new executive, I need to insure he/she knows what to expect and also what we can expect from this person.
We need a strong, charismatic leader that knows how to say NO and how to bring ideas and solutions.
this is what I am looking for, and this is what we NEED badly at the moment, so far as I am concerned!
6 comments:
Love it. It's like the upper level NCO that needs to tell all the generals and colonels to Back Off. "I'm in charge." They need to not let the elected official have any power to hire nor fire. I imagine people are being jerked around. I don't know that for a fact but it seems that way.
Bergosh you are a good leader and a good person.
The rogue guy on the board is trouble, real trouble!! from what it looks like from the outside looking in... From a facebook conversation ahead of time and the empty chair at the COW and the sudden interview, it looks like he leaked the internal complaint and stirred up a hornets nest. I hope it back fires if that is the case. He wasn't even there for the four of you all heartfelt discussion about things. CENSURE.
It ANGERS ME TO SEE OTHERS IN FACEBOOK AND PNJ MISREPRESENT YOU, but I'm staying out of drama to a point. Hopefully others will notice and not be swayed by a few of the jerks out there.
Ok I got off topic.I hope you get a great administrator and get those position filled and get through this rough spot and through the budget this this summer. Thank you for this information. You are a blessing.
I think everything will be OK. We appreciate our Four member board of CC.in Escambia
Hilarious to pay a consultant, get back a short list, then commissioners add back in their own picks in publicly-- on record. Smack of GOB or what?? Welcome hand picked Mrs. Gilley. Way to get a favor.
See you soon. At least she is from D5. WTG.
WOAH Amy Lavoy just resigned. WTH is the problem? Is some one coming through like a wrecking ball? I suspect Underhill posting what should be done undermining her decisions is the main cause.
i quit ECW to get away from the horrible commissioner causing all these problems. Please don't quit also D1. The county doesn't need to be over run by a pathological power hungry mad man who thinks he knows it all.
What a joke, your questions are for public consumption only. We all know, you already have in mind who you want as your puppet. Its clear, that when this board doesn't get puppet actions from the fine people who have served as administrators, you all do your best to drive them out. Title XI 125.74 (1)(k) explains limited powers an administrator has and you will not let them manage. There is a vacuum alright and this BOCC caused it.
What a joke it was on the poor 95 people who applied it was that after using a transparent process to find the top 5, you as a body decided to mess with the process. It stinks, and people see thru it.
It appears the cronyism has struck again in Escambia County. The obvious choice was Patrick Thompson. He has a proven track record of solving the problems that face Escambia County and was clearly the right choice to break the cycles that have troubled your County for nearly 2 decades.
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