We attended the Effingham City Council meeting last night and we began to see the slippery slope that the creation of the Director of Administrative Services (city administrator) has caused.

First, the council approved a revision of the ordinance that created the DAS position to allow the DAS to spend up to $2500 in an expense account type situation.  It wasn't until the end of the meeting that we began to see the slide down the slope...

Rick Goeckner, acting DAS, stated that he can't get the job descriptions done before the council deadline of June 1st, so he wants to outsource the job of writing the job descriptions to a local HR business which would cost no more than $2500.  The acting DAS said that writing the job descriptions were complicated and Matt Hortensteine, city attorney, said that they had to conform to labor laws.  Goeckner said he couldn't get the descriptions done because he was busy with the city budget which is due in short time. 

If this is that case, then why is Goeckner getting the full DAS pay of $100,000 when he is wanting to outsource part of his job description?  Why does he not write the job descriptions, give them to Hortensteine for approval and revision?  What is the new acting city clerk doing that she can't help Goeckner with the job descriptions?  How soon is it that the council will decide that the DAS can't do the job all by himself/herself and needs some assistants - which costs more money?  Also, why do we have a city clerk now since the DAS does the clerk's job plus about 50% more work?  And the council and others wonder why many in this town think that our local elected officials play a game of incestuous "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine"?  More on that below. 

Another issue that came up last night also dealt with selecting a permanent DAS next year.  Goeckner wanted the council to use a company that specializes in the selection of city administrators, sort of like a monster.com for government work if you will.  I don't have a problem with this because we need to make sure we select the right person for the job which will require more effort than placing an ad in the Effingham Daily News.  This group also would use community leaders to help whittle down candidates for the job, but the ultimate selection of the position is left up to the city council.  All of this would be done in secret.  Before someone goes off screaming about transparency, we have to realize that people applying for the position could get fired from their current job if it was found out they were looking for another job.  Also, there are labor laws to consider during the early process of selection.  Once the number of candidates are broken down to about 2 or 3, then they will announce who is in the running for the job, which I believe Hortensteine also said they have to do by law.  The thing that disturbs me is that both Hortensteine and Goeckner stated a name that they both like for the DAS position because they had dealt with that person before.  Now to me, who is a bit distrustful of our city government right now, it sounds like they may already have made their decision before even hiring the consultant firm, having citizen advisory groups, or going through a hiring process.  Here we are made to believe that the hiring process of the DAS will be clean as a whistle, but yet considering the Effingham City Council broke the law to create the DAS (they didn't provide a full 48 hours notice for a special meeting) and considering they had all the pawns on the chessboard in place going into that special meeting, I don't believe them. 

On a side note, the way certain members of the council banter with the gallery is a bit unprofessional.  It further ingrains that good ol' boy club feeling.  Don't get me wrong, the council meetings can't always have the seriousness of a funeral, and if someone cracks a joke, then laugh for God's sake, but what took place last night and on other occasions makes it seem like the regular people are outside of the loop or aren't in on the inside jokes.  It may seem petty, but for a governmental body with trust issues within the community it represents, it's just some helpful advice.  Better communication with the electorate as a whole would be much appreciated as well to maybe tamp out some rumors or misconceptions.  Again, just some helpful advice.