Pages

Monday, May 20, 2019

ANOKA COUNTY BOARD MACHINATIONS: Sivarajah appointed to the county administrator vacancy; Matt Look casting the deciding vote by joining Schulte, West and Braastad - the three who wanted to kick Rhonda upstairs posthaste from the get-go, without even advertising the opening. The cya motive existed, and the job was advertised; a better candidate applied but was ignored except by two commissioners. Rhonda got a 4-2 super perk with the details of her deal still to be cut by her cronies.

Strib reports. I think Look made a big-time error, and that he should face a contest when the seat is up for reelection, over precisely that issue. The other three perps, each needs a contest as much as Look, but he was the swing vote and swung the wrong way. In analyzing the decision, clearly the opinion here that a better candidate existed, one with administrative experience in the County, is opining based grounded more in subjective than objective judgment. (And the four Board perps can each argue that next time each has to defend a seat - defending their judgment, its soundness, its appearance under a totality of circumstances.)

The County looks bad in having ignored the residence question attaching to Sivarajah, and by not taking time to get a legal opinion of the County Attorney re that question, where an AGO would have been even better. Other persons, in LTE format, have raised the residency issue, and there were recent Crabgrass posts giving LTE links.

An email from Look explaining his vote was also posted here earlier. Other when elections occur will decide what to do, while in my district, with Look representing it, my current inclination would be to welcome a challenger and to vote for such person; absent some intervening development to change my mind.

____________UPDATE___________
Anoka County residents and others who may be interested can read prior posting; in reverse chrono order: here, here, here and here. The belief is that those four posts constitute everything posted about the county's administrator vacancy, and how it was processed by our esteemed board; to get to the 4-2 rubber stamp of what started as a majority putsch, and ended as such.

It is noteworthy that prior posting included the judgement of the anonymous author of the Reflections in Ramsey blog, this item; which was supplemented. That author has a fetish against Dan Erhart, but aside from that posture, that author saw the entire current Sivarajah situation as a raw deal for citizens, the same opinion held here; and (s)he objected more succinctly than here.

BOTTOM LINE: A raw deal for voters, who should vote the rascals out. Otherwise, the single most successful politician in the county I have seen since I moved here, aside from Jim Abeler, gets the last laugh over us all.

A new board majority can fire Rhonda Sivarajah; but bet this bunch of perps creates a golden parachute contract. The writing of a contract for Sivarajah's ascension from common politician to appointed official (with a big, big bigger paycheck) is the one final remaining step in the perps' putsch. Expect Rhonda to garner a super deal from her cronies. Any citizen caring after the event can file a public data disclosure request to get a copy of the expected super-contract; but unless voted out this bloc will have mastered a super putsch for a crony politician and gotten away with it scot-free. Any citizen running to oust one of the perps should get that contract copy and make it the key plank to an ouster platform. A collective effort to oust should be so grounded.

It sucks. It begs reform.

FURTHER; A couple of typos were caught in the original post, otherwise it is as posted originally. Posted in haste without even a headline note of it as a local Anoka County issue, with the headline being updated to clarify that.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Loose ends and parting thoughts; the Strib report concluded:

"My goal has simply been to find the most qualified candidate for the job," Meisner said. "[Being] the top elected official does not and should not necessarily and automatically qualify you to have the top staff position."

Gamache, who was on the interview panel, said he supported Cesare for the job, citing her experience.

"It's a different job between being a county commissioner and being a county administrator," Gamache said.

County officials will discuss Sivarajah's job contract at a May 21 workshop meeting. A special election is planned to fill her board seat.

[italics emphasis added] That is to be done today, the date of this UPDATE. As a bet, she largely gets to write her own deal; possibly giving the "workshop meeting" a draft or a listing of what she wants, friends giving notice to friends. Who knows. Not the public. Not now. Now when the discussion will be happening.

__________FURTHER UPDATE___________
This was all done so quickly . . .

Where was the sense of urgency coming from? Why was the initial suggestion to not even advertise internally to the County that applicants should step forward? The totality of circumstances is a cliche phrase, but when evidence is circumstantial inference and guessing are unavoidable.

Where did the mood of urgency originate? How did the notion to move Sivarajah off council upward gain such immediate traction among a part of the County Board? A residency requirement exists for the elective seats. That is one circumstantial fact.

__________FURTHER UPDATRE__________
HometownSource online reporting in part:

Of the 24 people who applied during an internal job posting period, [...] Three of those candidates – Cindy Cesare, county division manager for human services; Brad Thiel, county economic assistance department director; and Sivarajah – were named as finalists after exceeding the minimum score needed for certification.

On May 14, Meisner said the administrator is the county’s top staff member supervising 2,000 employees and a $300 million budget.

“It is our responsibility to find the most qualified candidate for the job,” she said.

Meisner said that’s why she opposed the direct appointment of Sivarajah for the job at the board’s March 26 meeting and pushed for an external hiring process, although she compromised and accepted an internal hiring process as well as the makeup of the interview panel.

Looking at the education achievements and management experience of the three finalists, Meisner believed Cesare was the most qualified.

While she respects Sivarajah for her work as county commissioner and board chair, appointing her county administrator “does not quite pass the smell test,” Meisner said.

Gamache said he appreciated the work that has taken place since March 26 to put a hiring process in place through negotiations among board members, but he still has concerns and issues with the process.

All the candidates interviewed did a good job and all the finalists had strengths, but he supported Cesare because she had the most experience, Gamache said.

Commissioner Scott Schulte admitted he made a mistake in supporting the direct appointment of Sivarajah back in March because the internal hiring process and interviews went very well with a competent group of candidates, he said.

[...] According to Commissioner Matt Look, the internal hiring process was transparent, and he thanked the interview panel for taking the time to “carry the water.”

It had been a fair, respectful process and he would go along with the panel’s recommendation to appoint Sivarajah, Look said.

[...]

[italics added] The item continues:

Public weighs in

While no public comment was allowed at the board meeting, a number of residents spoke during the Management Committee meeting that preceded it.

Most were concerned about the selection process and what they called a lack of transparency.

[...] Brian Fitzgerald said decisions made in a flawed process have consequences – at the next election.

With discretionary powers of the Board as they are, the appearance is that no law was broken, but that the one commissioner's "smell test" comment and the Fitzgerald mention of the ballot box for a remedy are noteworthy. With the four-box theory of politics it's the ballot box or no remedy other than that. (With the understanding that "political sniping" is or should be only a figure of speech.)

Meisner posted on Facebook.

FURTHER: An item was emailed to me, stating as factual that one of the commissioners supporting Sivarajah from the start, spoke, "at the March 26th Board meeting that Rhonda Sivarajah was their favorite and having any type of process would be a charade and a waste of time." This is posted without verification because it would entail tracking down a meeting video or transcript to ferret out the truth or falsehood of that assertion that such a comment was made, (worded that precise way or substantially equivalent). If true, then was the process anything but "a charade and a waste of time?" Readers are tasked to take the necessary steps to see if the comment is truthful, about the statement being made, and then to judge in their hearts and minds whether it proved truthful in practice. That is an inference to be made from the total picture of timing and events, including comments made which might have been heartfelt, or merely self-serving. And including especially events from which the public was purposely excluded.

FURTHER: The County's official press release on the Sivarajah vote is online here.

FURTHER: That HometownSource statement in earlier quoting, about 3 of 24 selected, i.e., "named as finalists after exceeding the minimum score needed for certification." Why does that make me think of Russian ice skating judges, scoring skaters? (It does differ. The Russians' skater scores are released immediately to the public. They don't score things in secret proceedings where all you know are the names of those passing judgment.)