LETTER: North Kingstown's Government Reaches New Low

To the editor:

Last week’s rescinding of a previously unanimous vote was a new low in town government affairs. After nearly 6 months in the town manager recruiting process, it was very unfortunate that our first candidate declined our offer. All 5 town council members came together in a rare showing of unity as we unanimously voted to extend an offer to our first candidate; however, several contributing factors led to the undesirable outcome.

Unfortunately the council majority decided to then shelve the $21,000+ 6 month process, ignore the citizen’s advisory committee, and take matters into their own hands. They claim the process was “tainted”. They want to blame Councilwoman Waxman and myself, but it appears to boil down to simple politics. After seeing how the majority handled the interim manager process, I kept a keen eye on the entire process to insure all candidates were treated fairly. I didn’t want any preliminary eliminations and sought to have the citizens advisory committee review the same 7 candidates the council reviewed. The citizen’s panel narrowed the search to 4 and the council actually acted on those same 4 bringing them back for second round of interviews.

After a unanimous vote to make an offer to candidate 1, I made a motion that candidate 2 be made an offer if candidate 1 declined. To avoid having to call an additional meeting, knowing the candidate was the citizens committees first pick having the recruiter, solicitor, and interim manager as witnesses, and watching how the Interim Manager process unfolded; it seemed appropriate and well accepted with another unanimous vote of the council. A week later after candidate 1 declined, the majority decided to rescind their second vote. One wonders how the council majority could go back and face their party if they hired a town manager who had previous ties to the opposite party when they are the majority? Only 18% of North Kingstown registered voters share that affiliation. What about the other 82% of us in town?

It is very unfortunate the town has wasted over $21,000 in fees and travel expenses to award the town manager seat to someone who hadn’t applied. It is unfortunate for all the candidates who put in their time and effort to apply, some interview, some twice. It’s unfortunate for all those on the citizens advisory committee who spent hours diligently interviewing and collaborating. It’s unfortunate for town staff who spent hours interviewing. It’s unfortunate for all council members and staff who spent countless hours throughout the whole process expecting to find the best possible candidate to run our town.

Councilwomen Waxman is particularly being blamed by the majority due to a generalized post/poll question on a Facebook site she hosts asking about preferred qualifications of a manager. No names or details, just an opinion on qualifications. If Ms. Waxman was purposely trying to taint the process for a different outcome, why would she have voted for candidate 1? Same applies to me. If the process was tainted, why did they vote unanimously to make any offers since our votes came after the post was made? Why was the process considered tainted only after the first choice candidate declined? Meanwhile, a separate politically leaning Facebook site had purposely leaked out candidates by name during second round interviews in what looked like a hope to stir up controversy before the council vote. Yet the council majority claims no party to that action nor do they blame that site for tainting the process.

This recruiting process was not tainted, it’s an excuse. I expect you will continue to see ongoing attempts throughout the end of the year to discredit both Ms. Waxman and myself. It is already started.

With a 1 year Town Manager contract ending April 1st, the new council will have to start selecting a recruiter from week one in December and all happening during the budget process.

It is unfortunate for everyone in town that the recruitment process was dropped and at least 2 other extremely qualified candidates in my opinion, won’t be offered the position. And for these reasons, I could not support any town manager appointments which veered from the established vetting process and public oversight of the citizens advisory panel.

Kevin Maloney
Member, North Kingstown Town Council