Financial Management Committee Meeting 25 May 2012
The much anticipated meeting of the financial Management Committee met this morning at 9:30 in the Courthouse Annex. While apparently everyone in the county was interested in this meeting no one in county government made any arrangements for the meeting to be held in a suitable location for such a crowd.
As people began to gather and fill up the room Deputy Reynolds began directing people to leave the room as, according to his statements there were too many people in the room and were causing a fire hazard. They would have to stand or sit in the hallway outside the door. One question since there is no maximum capacity posted for the room how do you know when you have exceeded the capacity? A second question is which is the greater fire hazard to have people standing around the walls inside the room or have them gathered in the hallway blocking the door as they try to hear? Most of those standing in the hallway coincidentally seem to have been teachers.
So the meeting began and a Mr. Reamer and attorney out of Nashville was introduced and identified as having come to "advise" in the matter before the committee. My question is why did an attorney from Nashville need to be hired to attend the meeting with the county attorney sitting there next to him? Consider 90 minutes travel here and 90 minutes travel back home and a two hour meeting at between two and three hundred dollars an hours you have about $1500.00 for someone who answered about three questions most eight grade studies could have answered the same way.
The first order of business was to "freeze" all county credit card spending. This passed without any objection. Now a question, is the mostly uncontrolled use of county credit cards at the root of many of the problems. Wasn't the county warned about issuing credit cards prior to doing it? The answer is yes on both counts as these cards are often used without any purchase orders.
The next order of business was the read and vote on the unsigned letter of resignation from Mrs Garner the now former Financial Management Director. This resignation became effective as of the vote to accept this date. One unanswered question is, since there was no discussion of resignation terms, what are the possibly owed or expected expenses, if any?
The Committee appointed the current Assistant Director Ms. Beth Moore, as the acting Director.
The next item of business was a discussion of requirements for the future Director. It seems the Committee is satisfied to seek someone who meets only the most minimum requirements.
A schedule was established for the hiring process. An advertisement will be placed in the Pulaski newspaper twice and the Ardmore Shopper and possibly the Daily Herald. If the cost does not exceed 600 dollars an advertisement will be placed in either the Tennessean or the Huntsville Times.
All applications must be in the County Executive's Office not later than 3PM on 8 June 2012 after that they will be screened and on 12 June at 9:30 in the Courthouse Annex and be interviewed and one will be hired that day.
This application process needs a little bit of examination. Between today and 8 June is a total of 14 days but only 9 of those are considered work days. Between the time the Pulaski newspaper is in most homes and the 8th there is only seven days. The state requires a minimum of ten days notice to simply hold a meeting. Does anyone really think there is enough time for people to be notified and get a written resume in to the County Executives Office in less than seven days. Another question is if there is to be a screening process between the time resumes are to be in and the interviews when might it be since there is only one work day between.
I fear, and to this moment based on the way this hiring process has been set up there is no reason to doubt these fears are realistic, this hiring process in nothing but a sham and the person to fill the position has already been decided on. I believe this whole situation may have been made more frustrating by the way it is being set up. You can not reasonably expect that someone who was actively involved in making the mess can clean it up.
There must be a complete independent audit and there needs to be someone from outside the County Executive and Director of Schools sphere of influence hired to do this job.
As people began to gather and fill up the room Deputy Reynolds began directing people to leave the room as, according to his statements there were too many people in the room and were causing a fire hazard. They would have to stand or sit in the hallway outside the door. One question since there is no maximum capacity posted for the room how do you know when you have exceeded the capacity? A second question is which is the greater fire hazard to have people standing around the walls inside the room or have them gathered in the hallway blocking the door as they try to hear? Most of those standing in the hallway coincidentally seem to have been teachers.
So the meeting began and a Mr. Reamer and attorney out of Nashville was introduced and identified as having come to "advise" in the matter before the committee. My question is why did an attorney from Nashville need to be hired to attend the meeting with the county attorney sitting there next to him? Consider 90 minutes travel here and 90 minutes travel back home and a two hour meeting at between two and three hundred dollars an hours you have about $1500.00 for someone who answered about three questions most eight grade studies could have answered the same way.
The first order of business was to "freeze" all county credit card spending. This passed without any objection. Now a question, is the mostly uncontrolled use of county credit cards at the root of many of the problems. Wasn't the county warned about issuing credit cards prior to doing it? The answer is yes on both counts as these cards are often used without any purchase orders.
The next order of business was the read and vote on the unsigned letter of resignation from Mrs Garner the now former Financial Management Director. This resignation became effective as of the vote to accept this date. One unanswered question is, since there was no discussion of resignation terms, what are the possibly owed or expected expenses, if any?
The Committee appointed the current Assistant Director Ms. Beth Moore, as the acting Director.
The next item of business was a discussion of requirements for the future Director. It seems the Committee is satisfied to seek someone who meets only the most minimum requirements.
A schedule was established for the hiring process. An advertisement will be placed in the Pulaski newspaper twice and the Ardmore Shopper and possibly the Daily Herald. If the cost does not exceed 600 dollars an advertisement will be placed in either the Tennessean or the Huntsville Times.
All applications must be in the County Executive's Office not later than 3PM on 8 June 2012 after that they will be screened and on 12 June at 9:30 in the Courthouse Annex and be interviewed and one will be hired that day.
This application process needs a little bit of examination. Between today and 8 June is a total of 14 days but only 9 of those are considered work days. Between the time the Pulaski newspaper is in most homes and the 8th there is only seven days. The state requires a minimum of ten days notice to simply hold a meeting. Does anyone really think there is enough time for people to be notified and get a written resume in to the County Executives Office in less than seven days. Another question is if there is to be a screening process between the time resumes are to be in and the interviews when might it be since there is only one work day between.
I fear, and to this moment based on the way this hiring process has been set up there is no reason to doubt these fears are realistic, this hiring process in nothing but a sham and the person to fill the position has already been decided on. I believe this whole situation may have been made more frustrating by the way it is being set up. You can not reasonably expect that someone who was actively involved in making the mess can clean it up.
There must be a complete independent audit and there needs to be someone from outside the County Executive and Director of Schools sphere of influence hired to do this job.
posted by Allen Barrett | 2:23 PM
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