My Take: We were snookered on Gibbs' 'overqualifications'
Let’s say you’re an employer. You’ve just hired a man to your top administrative position. He had relevant experience, but none in the specific job you hired him for. Despite those shortcomings, you decided that he more than met the job requirements — in fact, you proclaim him “overqualified.” You interviewed no one else and bypassed your own human resources department’s hiring process. You signed him to a three-year contract at $210,000 per year, plus performance and cost of living increases and a car allowance. What’s more, to make room for the new guy, you fired your current top administrator, awarding him $210,000 in severance and a year’s worth of health benefits to walk away.
Two months in, your new hire suddenly tells you he’s drowning in the job, though he has no more duties than the former administrator. The workload is so overwhelming, he says, he needs a lifeline. The job, he complains, is “like drinking from a fire hose.”
What do you do? If you’re the current Ottawa Impact majority on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, you give him whatever he wants. You boost an open executive assistant position to a new, higher level — “senior executive aide.” The aide’s job duties include many of those formerly performed by the county administrator. The new position will cost county taxpayers an extra $37,000 per year in salary and benefits.
Let’s do the math. Your cost for fulfilling the administrator’s duties for this year now are nearing a half-million dollars: $210,000 plus benefits and bonuses for the new administrator who is struggling in the job; $37,000 extra for the new aide to bail him out; and $210,000 to pay off the former administrator you sent packing.
Does this make sense? Is this fiscally responsible?
No and no, but it’s hardly surprising.
The hiring of County Administrator John Gibbs is only one of the Ottawa Impact majority’s questionable financial moves. Since taking office Jan. 3, they have:
Awarded a no-bid, more than half-million-dollar, three-year contract to Kallman Legal Group, a company with no municipal experience. What the law firm does have is a link to County Board Chairman Joe Moss, the leader of Ottawa Impact. Mr. Moss’s business partner is Joel Kallman, the nephew of David Kallman, the head of Kallman Legal Group.
Attempted to replace the county’s health officer — again, bypassing the county’s hiring process — with its own hand-picked candidate. This has resulted in a lawsuit that taxpayers will pay to defend.
Conducted much of its business in secret, violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. This also resulted in a lawsuit that threatens to cost county taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Three days after he was hired in January, Administrator John Gibbs emailed Ottawa County residents, thanking them for the opportunity to serve and touting his prior experience working in the Trump Administration. His email said:
“In my most recent role as Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, I oversaw a staff of 700 and an annual budget of $8 billion, covering homelessness programs, economic development grants to states and counties, and disaster relief funding. I also oversaw the successful and rapid deployment of $9 billion in CARES Act Funds in response to coronavirus.”
Sounds impressive, but perhaps Mr. Gibbs oversold us on his qualifications. Maybe his experience does not match the demands of his new role. Operating in a huge federal bureaucracy — as opposed to a leaner county government — no doubt affords more opportunities for managers to delegate work to others. When he accepted the county administrator job, did Mr. Gibbs understand the duties? If not, why is that now the taxpayers’ problem, and not his?
Thank you to the five county board members who recognized Mr. Gibbs’ bailout as an extravagance and voted to reject it. As for the board’s six-person Ottawa Impact majority, I hope that, going forward, you will get your act together, do your homework, and start acting like professionals and in taxpayers’ best interests.
There’s an old saying in politics, which also is good advice for the county board’s current situation: “When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging!”
— Jerry Morlock is a resident of Grand Haven.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: We were snookered on Gibbs' 'overqualifications'
