The city of Augusta lost a lawsuit over the secrecy involved in the process of hiring a new fire chief and officials attempted the same secrecy before announcing Florida native Brooks Stayer as the finalist for the environmental services director position.
Now, District 10 Commissioner John Clarke and District 3 Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight say it is time to reign in City Administrator Odie Donald and return the city hiring process back in the hands of the commission.
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“(Donald) is a city administrator, not a city manager, and those job descriptions are completely different. He is supposed to guide the recruitment process, not pick a candidate and expect a rubber stamp vote,” Clarke said.
Records show that Stayer first applied for the job back in 2017, but was passed over in favor of Lori Videtto, a longtime city employee who occupied the position until 2019 when she accepted a position with Waste Management.
Like the search for a new fire chief, the city initially ignored Open Records Act requests on finalist candidates for the environmental services position and only complied with those requests when compelled to do so by a Superior Court injunction.
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However, by the time the records were released, Stayer was already the lone applicant to be interviewed for the job. Like Antonio Burden, the lone finalist for fire chief, Stayer appears to bring baggage along with him to Augusta.
According to an investigative piece by The Ledger newspaper in Lakeland, Fl., Stayer was forced to resign his position as Waste Resource Manager for Polk County over comments he made to the newspaper and “other issues.”
At the time, an audit was being conducted over alleged overcharging of property owners for waste removal services. The Ledger investigation uncovered details that residents of the county may have been overcharged as much as $4.3 million over a period of six years beginning in 2005.
According to The Ledger, some property owners were charged for garbage service on vacant lots.
At the time, Stayer’s comments seemed to blame the property owners for the overcharges by maintaining that the owners should have checked their tax bills and reported the errors.
Out of the 27 candidates who applied for the environmental services job, only Stayer and one other candidate were granted interviews by the commission.
“This is just getting ridiculous. The fact that we (commissioners) are not involved in picking candidates for top level positions is really leaving a bad taste in my mouth,” McKnight said.
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On May 11, Donald gave a presentation to the Administrative Service Committee and outlined a six-step process the city uses to recruit candidates for executive level positions.
According to Donald’s presentation, the steps include sourcing and recruitment, preliminary assessment of candidates, presentation to the commission, interviewing and vetting, a determination of the best qualified candidates and a final presentation for public review.
“He hasn’t done any of that. He isn’t following that process at all. We don’t get a slate of candidates to review, we get Odie’s choice and that is pretty much it,” Clarke said.
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Commissioners are set to discuss the matter again at the next Administrative Service Committee scheduled for May 25 and Clarke says he plans to continue to be vocal.
“I’ve had some folks urge me to quit talking to the media. They want Catherine and me to be quiet, but that is not going to happen. We were not elected to be quiet,” Clarke said.
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com.
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