Hiring controversy spills into council meeting

This article was published in the 11/3/10 Nugget Newspaper

By Bill Mintiens City Councilor Sharlene Weed pressed City Manager Eileen Stein for answers regarding the controversial hiring process for Sisters' economic development manager last Thursday evening during the regular Sisters City Council meeting. She didn't get any. And she's not the only one pressing for answers. Weed has been pressing the city council for several months over what she considers the lack of transparency with the hiring of Sisters' new Economic Development Manager Mac Hay. Widely reported, the entire hiring process - position description, solicitation of candidates, interview panel members, and final recommendation - was outsourced to EDCO (Economic Development for Central Oregon) by Mayor Lon Kellstrom. Mayor Kellstrom purposely kept all other city council members entirely out of the process citing a "need to keep the council at arm's length so as not to appear to have hired a friend of the council." During the "other business" portion of the council meeting Weed admonished Stein for not replying promptly to the questions sent to her by Mike Morgan, also present at the meeting Thursday evening. "They were just two simple questions, not public records requests that he was asking for. And you didn't respond to the questions. Not responding is not OK," stated Weed. Morgan, along with Ed Protas, has been a vocal critic of the hiring process at past council meetings. Both men have sent several emails to Stein requesting "public records" information. Stein stated that she felt she had addressed their public records requests. "I was not 'not responding' to the request. I took the tack that these were public records requests; there's a $100 deposit required before we can proceed to figure out the total cost," said Stein. Initially Morgan had indicated he wanted certain public records, subsequently boiling his request down to two yes/no questions for Stein for which he believed no records were required. He received no response to these questions. Pressing Stein, Weed said, "The point is we just need to respond." The two questions were: "Was there a board resolution delegating the council's powers and responsibilities as the contract review board to EDCO per paragraph 2.32.020 of the contracting ordinance?" And "Did the city manager set selection criteria per 2.32.120 of the contracting ordinance?" Morgan read both of the questions aloud during the "visitors communication" portion of the council meeting Thursday evening. Morgan added "Oregon Public Policy requires transparency in government. We seem to have a mayor, supported by two other councilors, that disagrees with that policy and the laws of this state that effect that policy." Councilor Weed asked Stein directly, "Did you receive anything in writing concerning EDCO's recommendation (of Mac Hay)? To which Stein replied "No, just Mac's résumé." Stein deferred answers to other questions to the city's attorney Steve Bryant. The furor over the hiring process does not seem to be diminishing, even though Hay's position as an independent contractor has begun. Councilor Weed's final remarks on the situation were, "I feel like we made a mistake (about the hiring process); we need to tell the truth so that the public doesn't think there are shenanigans going on." No other councilors spoke on the issue. Mayor Kellstrom was out of town.