OTTUMWA —
Four out of Ottumwa’s five city councilmen say the interview process for the new transit director gave the city another black eye.
Dave Silverio was approved 3-2 as Ottumwa Transit’s new director at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, with Councilmen Brian Morgan and Bob Meyers as the dissenting votes.
Out of 30 applications received, City Attorney Joni Keith said a committee narrowed those down to five to be interviewed for the position, which supervises 50 employees, handles a nearly $3 million budget and also supervises 10-15 Transit.
“I prepared a detailed list of questions, and three questions were given to each person in attendance [on the interview committee] to ask,” Keith said.
The consensus of the interview panel of eight was to recommend to the council that Silverio be hired. Councilman Jeremy Weller also applied for the position and was among the final four interviewed.
“I want to thank this council and this city for this opportunity,” Silverio said. “I want to take transit to where I believe it needs to be and that is to the premiere transit agency in the state of Iowa, and I will settle for nothing less.”
But four of the five councilmen had concerns with the interview process.
“For four years and two months, we’ve dealt with a situation where it appeared to me that the louder you were and the more profanity you used, you got the attention of the city administrator,” Meyers told the Courier after the meeting. “This time it went too far. I respect [Keith and City Administrator Joe Helfenberger] and how hard they’ve worked, but this was a mess.”
Meyers said the final candidates were not equally awarded due process.
“I feel as this process went on, we had four excellent people interviewed, but I’m concerned that due process was not afforded to all of them, or to any of them, perhaps,” Meyers said. “I think further that it is well past time the city administrator develops a policy and process so when we do have opportunities to hire people that there is a policy and process in place.”
Currently, city code outlines the hiring process of the city administrator, city attorney and city clerk by the council.
Councilman J.R. Richards said Weller had every right to apply for the transit director position. Mayor Frank Flanders said a policy needs to be developed to ensure an “all or none” concept in the council being involved in interviews.
“When it’s a position the council does not directly hire, then the interviewing panel, if a council member is on that, that would put other council members at a potential disadvantage,” Flanders said. “Perhaps a policy needs to be developed where ... it’s either all in or all out.”
Morgan said Silverio has “a tough row to hoe.”
“The transit system in my tenure on the council has probably been the most stressful or circus-oriented, black-eyed or whatever,” Morgan said. “Good things have come out of it, some things maybe needed uncovered that got uncovered and there are some other things that haven’t.”
But he said that having such high turnover of transit directors in two years is unacceptable.
“If you’re gone in six months, I’m really in favor of looking at transit as either privatized or turned into some type of taxi service type thing like we’re already doing with the vans for handicapped people,” Morgan told Silverio. “There needs to be some changes and regardless, you’re going to have to be the start of that.”
Weller said the process “was messed up start to finish.”
“I didn’t want to deal with the constant of Councilman [Mitch] Niner in my ear throughout my tenure as the director of transit,” Weller said, if he had been hired. “... I think we need to look at the Ottumwa Transit Advisory Board as a whole, and we need to make changes.”
Weller suggested doing away with the board entirely.
“There was information released that shouldn’t have been released,” Weller said. “There were people partaking who shouldn’t have been partaking. It’s been a long, drawn-out mess.”
Following the meeting, Morgan told the Courier that he voted no because the city could have found a better candidate than Silverio.
“Weller had no experience. Silverio has a year or less experience,” Morgan said. “If our No. 1 priority was experience, why not interview more than three people with experience? Four directors in two-and-a-half years — that shows there’s something wrong in there. Where is the issue and why?”
Niner said none of the tension surrounding transit is his fault.
“I think the process was completely fair,” Niner told the Courier after the meeting. “[Silverio] was just an innocent victim in all this, and he was the best candidate. And why they’re picking on the OTA board is beyond me. They had absolutely nothing to do with any of this. What it all boils down to is their favorite person didn’t get it and they’re mad.”
Niner said once an elected official applies for a department head’s position, all interviews should be done from people outside the community.
“We had 30 resumes and six to seven had transit experience,” Niner said. “My opinion is we should have interviewed them first ... and the non-transit second.”
Community News Network
Ottumwa approves transit director amid interview concerns
Councilmen allege interviewees did not receive due process, propose new policy to address the interview process
- Community News Network
-
-
VIDEO: NSA director says 50 plots foiled
General Keith Alexander says two recently disclosed surveillance programs on international communications are critical in the terrorism fight.
-
Called 'Next Stephen Hawking,' teen is perfect on math exam
There's a wall on the third floor of Lewiston-Porter High School dedicated to celebrating perfect scores on state mathematics exams. A new name joined the growing list Tuesday, which brought a smile to the face of everyone involved.
-
Bakery mix-up goes viral after cat drawn on girl's head
A photo of one graduate's cake has gone viral on Reddit due to a bakery mix-up that left a cat, instead of a cap, drawn on her head.
-
VIDEO: Rapper steps on American flag
Lil Wayne sparked a controversy when he stepped on an American flag during the filming of his new music video, but the rapper later said it was a mistake and unintentional.
-
Facebook's organ donor status sends registrations soaring
Facebook's addition of a way for its users to tell people their organ-donor status helped boost the number of people who registered as donors 21-fold in one day.
-
VIDEO: Britney Spears' sons to make acting debut
Britney Spears recorded a new song for the "The Smurfs 2," and her sons Sean Preston and Jayden will make a cameo in the music video.
-
White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids
The White House and NASA on Tuesday will ask the public for help finding asteroids that potentially could slam into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.
-
Caught on tape: Fla. teacher accused of beating autistic child
A surveillance video shows David Baier, a former special needs teacher in Davie, Fla., picking up a 12-year-old autistic student by his hair and then pushing him to the floor.
-
Is it really possible to not know you're pregnant until the birth?
Trish Staine had just finished running 10 miles while training for a half-marathon when she started going into labor. The mother of three said she hadn't gained any weight or felt any fetal movement in the months before and had no idea she was pregnant. Is it possible for a woman not to know she's pregnant before she starts giving birth?
-
VIDEO: Amphibious bus filled with tourists sinks
In Liverpool, England, a "duck bus" -- which is supposed to be amphibious -- sank while full of tourists.
-
State photo-ID databases become troves for police
The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's-license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.
-
VIDEO: Miss Utah flubs answer on income inequality
Responding to an interview question in Sunday's Miss USA Pageant, Miss Utah Marissa Powell says the country needs to "create education better."
-
When trust in Uncle Sam takes a beating, workers are bruised
The recent spate of controversies - revelations about the massive collection of electronic data by the National Security Agency, the Internal Revenue Service's political targeting and conference scandals, and the seizure of Associated Press telephone records - undermines confidence in government.
-
VIDEO: You won't believe how much Google interns are paid
Many interns work for free. Not at Google.
-
Purchases by dementia sufferers put stores in quandary
An increasing number of lawsuits have been filed across Japan against department stores that allowed unusual purchases to be made by elderly people with dementia.
- More Community News Network Headlines
-
