Small Town News

Public input would improve administrator selection process

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Sussex County Council must select a new county administrator to replace the retiring David Baker. A county employee for more than three decades and its top financial officer for nearly 15 years before taking the county administrator job in 2006, Baker has knowledge and understanding of county business and finances that will be difficult to replace.

It's understandable that everyone on county council wants to be closely involved in the process; that's the reason the council has given for naming all five councilmembers to the search committee for his replacement.

Yet as council well knows, with a few exceptions, anytime three councilmembers are in the same place at the same time, their presence constitutes a public meeting. The public must be given notice of the meeting and minutes must be taken.

Although the committee has already conducted interviews, council last week reversed course and restarted the process. Council publicly named itself to the search committee, identified other committee members and approved the search committee's candidate-selection process, approving, in retrospect, steps already taken. By going back after the fact, council has sidestepped the open meetings law and the Freedom of Information Act. Complaints alleging council violated the open meetings law are now moot because council has taken the required steps in a public meeting.

Council's search committee comprises existing council members and three people who report directly to the council, meaning even the process of recommending candidates will be made primarily by council itself.

This leaves the public with virtually no input into selection of a person whose views will have significant impact on their lives and pock-etbooks. What has been lost, even in the corrected process, is the wisdom that a public process can provide. A selection panel that included citizens with expertise in critical areas such as land use, planning, social services and public finance could have improved the selection process. Council has complied with the letter of the open meetings law, but in leaving the public out of this vital process, it has yet to recognize the essence of the open meetings law.





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