The long torturous search for a new West Wendover City Chief Financial officer took two more twists this week with the majority city council opting for a less qualified local candidate over a more qualified out of state candidate and Mayor Donnie Andersen’s veto of the decision.
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In a special session Tuesday West Wendover Councilmen Emily Carter, Roy Briggs, Johnny Gorum and Bryant Blake voted to offer the CFO position to the local applicant over an out of state candidate, despite the fact that the other applicant for the post was more qualified according to the lone dissenting councilman Ismael Gutierrez.
“I looked at the information everyone else looked at,” Gutierrez said Tuesday. “The local had no experience in public government the other guy did. Not only that but what he did in his current position when faced with budget cuts like our city was and is was praised by everyone there. He was able to fix the budget without any furloughs or layoffs.”
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In an earlier interview Andersen agreed with Gutierrez’ assessment and added that it appeared the majority on the council was going against its reasoning behind searching for the best candidate.
The four councilmen who for the CFO usually vote in lock step with each other and often in opposition to Andersen.
“It made no sense to me then and makes even less sense to me now,” Andersen said early Tuesday morning. “We spent $24,000 with a head hunter group to find a new CFO on a nationwide search, then we upped the salary and then the council votes to hire someone in town with fewer qualifications than the other candidate but at the same high salary. Just what is going on? I know they will override my veto but this is ridiculous. I don’t think they realize how bad this looks.”
The most recent clash was over the decision to increase the salary offered for the CFO’s position, a vote Andersen also vetoed and was overridden this August.
The same majority of the West Wendover City Council overrode 4-1 Mayor Donnie Andersen’s veto and perhaps more importantly disregarded appeals from the city employees union to increase the starting pay of the now vacant Chief Financial officer position by 15 percent in an emergency meeting Tuesday
According to city records the previous CFO, Sondra Schmidt, had been making about $90,000 a year in salary and benefits. When faced with a 10 to 15 pay cut earlier this year, Schmidt resigned and took a post as the Chief Financial Officer for Humboldt County in Winnemucca.
Shortly after she left, the West Wendover city council approved spending $24,000 to a professional employment search agency to recruit her replacement.
Representatives from both the City Employees’ Union and the Policemen’s Union argued strenuously against the raise. Union reps told the council that the raise was grossly unfair considering the fact that the entire West Wendover workforce was forced to take a 10 to 15 percent pay cut just last month.
While it was almost a foregone conclusion that the council would override the Mayor’s veto the confrontation between the majority council and the city employees was a first.
Until the August showdown the city employees unions and the majority on the council were allies in local politics. In last year’s election city employee support was crucial to the reelection of Emily Carter and Roy Briggs who make up half of the veto proof majority along with Johnny Gorum and Bryant Blake.
Six months after the election when faced with the choice of either raising taxes or cutting salaries the council chose the pay cuts without any tax hike.
A reason for the total reliance on pay cuts could have been because of the influence of the Peppermill Corporation who employs three of the four veto proof majority; Carter, Briggs and Gorum.
Allegations of cronyism could even increase, the newly hired yet vetoed CFO is said to be another employee of the Peppermill Corporation or its sister property the Montego Bay.
Remember, these are the corrupt asshats that have run this city into the ground. Really, spending $24,000 for a firm to find someone. What a waste of time and money.