County Executive Interviews at Civic Center

I would like to make two comments about this news site before I move on to my article.

1. No matter how long of an article I've ever written, Joe has always printed the entire article. Other sites will limit you to 150-200 words. To me that means they are not really interested in what you have to say as much as being able to say, "We give our customers a chance to respond in the Opinion Section". Perhaps they should change this and they would get more attention to their newspapers.

2. When you go to the right side of the site and scroll down you will start seeing many years written out. If you click on them it's like a history book. You can go back many years and see articles on what has been happening in Wicomico County and lately more national news. For instance, say you want to find out how many times the council has voted on an important issue and then allowed public comments. Kind of like what happened at the Civic Center last week. Check history, not the first time. Suppose you want to know if there was other times when the council changed their mind and revoted to change their previous vote. Again just recently they revoted on buying property in Delmar after they had voted down buying it. BMS was voted down then later the council came back and voted for it. Look at how many times past Councilwoman Prettyman came back and flip/flopped on an issue.So precedence has been set on this revoting idea.

I believe my main concern was in the way these interviews were conducted. First, what was the darn hurry? There was only three applicants and the council has until 9/13 to get this done. I've had many years of experiences on search committees and I've never seen one like this. They had two minutes to introduce themselves and tell about their backgrounds. Two minutes! You've got to be kidding. For the highest position in the county and the council allows TWO minutes. Then a sixty second follow up at the end. 

Unbelievable. This was the time that I would ask the candidate if they had any questions for the search committee and give them the time to answer.

Then there was the questions. Search committees are suppose to develope questions to see if the candidate is qualified for the job and how he would fit into the job. Now the council asked if the candidates could devote their time to this position as a full time job but I didn't hear any explanation from the council on exactly how much time this job would entail. There is presidence already set for the time needed. We've had two County Executives, and though I didn't agree with a lot of Mr. Pollits ways of doing things I do know he spent a lot more than forty hours a week on the job. Then Mr. Culver must have set a record for hours worked. He could be found all over the county at any time day or night from checking how methane gas generators work at the landfill to what's happening at the sewage plants to driving a snow plow at night while it was snowing. This doesn't even count the time a County Executive has to spend out of town in Annapolis or in New York during budget and bond time. Yes, they did ask if the candidates could perform this position as a full time job but they knew everyone would say yes because it would have been stupid to shoot yourself in the foot at an interview. But what they didn't ask was how they could do that knowing each candidates situation. They knew what they did to Ms. Ennis the week before, they knew that delegate Anderton would have to resign his position to take this job but what they didn't know and didn't find out was how Dr. Demarais would be able to hold down two full time positions. Since he was a full time employee at PRMC with a very demanding position they did not appear to be concerned if he would have to give up part of that position and lose patients (I only mean the number of patient here because I hear he is a very good cardiologist) and revenue for his family. Here again I had to ask myself that with a job of such responsibilities why didn't they give him more time to explain, why the hurry?

When I was a search committee chair I would ask that each member on my committee to assign a number of 1-5 as to how well each candidate answered the questions. Then we would tally the numbers to see who had the highest numbers and that person usually got the position. Did the council members do that also? I would love to see their grading sheets and explanations of the grades. But maybe they didn't have to do that process. I mean who is going to check them? Perhaps there was another reason though and the public viewing of the hiring process was just a show and tell for the public. Perhaps they already knew who would be chosen. But the question is was this a fair, thoughtfull process for the candidates and to the public? You will have to make that decision yourself now and at the election in 2022. Maybe the Good Doctor should ask more questions to the council because it's only fair before he signs on.

Now I know I'm going to get all those nasty comments but I will at least sign my name. It's John Palmer, Delmar, Md. I'm in the phone book. Call if you like. I'll be glad to speak with you.