Observations of a Thwarted Candidate for Interim Town Treasurer

The danger in offering commentary on the process that turned aside my application to become the interim town treasurer of Tiverton is that readers may assume the result to have determined my opinion more than my honest observation. Nothing written here will dissuade those predisposed to see sour grapes as my motivation, so I'll sidestep the charge with two statements.

First, during the hour or so between the Personnel Board's opening of the 10 applications and its selection of six for interviews, its members gave no reason to suspect their motivation to be anything other than responsible. The five appointed officials clearly take seriously their role in filling public positions.

Second, inasmuch as the audience for the meeting was by all accounts unusually large and consisted only of three Town Council members, one local journalist, and me, it is clearly not the norm for residents to attend without some ulterior interest. Readers should most definitely consider the fact that my interest was as a candidate for the job when judging my testimony, but they shouldn't invalidate my observations on that basis alone.

One can objectively question some of the more peculiar aspects of the process. For instance, in every blind selection process that I've encountered --- whether for employment or, say, for college admissions --- the identities of the candidates are withheld from the people making the decision. In Tiverton's hiring practice, they are the only people permitted to know who the candidates are.

It is certainly reasonable of candidates to expect some level of public privacy.  Indeed, Personnel Board Chairman James Camara related an anecdote about a previous applicant who lost his or her current job after being mentioned in the local press. (Of course, this didn't stop the journalist in the room from publishing my name without seeking either permission or statement.) Still, how can the public have confidence that the Personnel Board isn't applying political litmus tests or stacking the pool of interviewees when they alone have access to the identities of applicants?

This peculiarity compounds into another. Were the town clerk's permitted to open the envelopes (perhaps to black out identities), they could photocopy the applications and forward them to members of the board for review prior to their meeting. In that way, the time spent in open session could be devoted to discussing the nature of the position to be filled and the attributes of those wishing to fill it.

Instead, the members of the public in attendance mostly watched the board quietly read through some forty to fifty pages of letters and resumes. No doubt, the Personnel Board consists of well-rounded appointees with deep understanding of the requirements of every job in town, but the timeframe under which they work is hardly conducive to deliberative action.

A case in point: Personnel Board Member Karl Malafey quipped that he didn't think some of the applicants understood what "the job entails," but it was apparently assumed that he and his peers did. There was absolutely no discussion of the daily activities of the treasurer, the Town Charter's description of the position, or the controversies and difficulties that characterized much of former Town Treasurer Philip DiMattia's abbreviated term of office. Presumably, the Town Council set the criteria for the interim position, published as follows, but the Personnel Board's interpretation thereof was hardly a verbatim reading:

"Graduation from an accredited college or university with a BA or BS in finance, accounting, or a closely related field is preferred. Five to seven years of progressively responsible experience in municipal finance, accounting, auditing, or comparable experience may be substituted for the college degree. The position requires a person with strong leadership skills and effective communication abilities. Because the Town Treasurer is an elected position, preferences will be given to applicants who are electors of the Town of Tiverton."

Simply by the language of the ad, proof of leadership and communication ability is required, residence in town is preferred, and a financially based college degree is also preferred, with multiple years of experience satisfactory to counter that preference. In actuality, the Personnel Board treated a financial degree as a baseline requirement and residency (in Rhode Island, much less Tiverton) as no more than a tie breaker, while experience in leadership and communication were not discussed as justification for interviews at all.

That order of priorities might represent the wisest possible approach to this particular hiring, but it is arguably a precise reversal of the wishes of the policy-setting body, the Town Council. In the rapid execution of the Personnel Board's duties, the question was never discussed. The three councilors in the audience would surely have answered any related questions, but quite apart from not being asked, they were not charged with that authority by the rest of the council.

Mr. Malafey may disparage residents who exhibit the audacity to seek appointment to public office, but the process should require that his judgment not be substituted for that of officials who are more directly accountable to the electorate. Considering that the treasurer is an elected position, except under unusual circumstances, with no minimum requirements determined by the Town Charter, the qualifications are at least a matter of debate.

Personally, to the extent that a treasurer needs to be elected, I'd suggest that "the job entails" - above all - balancing the many interests of and constituencies in the town and communicating effectively with other elected officials and with the folks who elect them. An out-of-town accounting pro may step into office on day one fully versed in the lexicon of the finance world, but he or she won't necessarily understand the state policies that will lead, say, the School Committee to engage in costly litigation against the Town Council if the two bodies don't come to agreement over accounting for state education aid before the financial year is over...to name just one of the controversies that characterized the treasurer's office over the past couple of years.

Such are the specific matters of local governance that a Personnel Board should take into consideration. In this observer's opinion, at least, they are currently thwarted in doing so by the process that they follow.