Haines Borough Assembly members have mixed feelings on the performance of the headhunting firm they hired to find the municipality’s next manager and police chief, but none feel requesting a discount or refund of the firm’s fee is warranted.
Brimeyer Fursman is charging $27,500, plus expenses not to exceed $10,000, for the two searches. Some members of the public, upset with the firm’s failure to conduct background checks on 10 manager semi-finalists it forwarded to the assembly, called for reimbursement for some or all of the fee.
Assembly member Ron Jackson said he was disappointed the firm didn’t do a “more thorough screening” before submitting the list of semi-finalists.
“I think it was a real embarrassment to (Brimeyer Fursman) and to the borough,” Jackson said. “I’m not sure money is going to make anything better. I think the damage has been done to the reputation of that company.”
Still, Jackson said he is pleased with the four finalists the assembly will be meeting with next week.
Assembly member Margaret Friedenauer said she is satisfied with the firm’s performance so far. Friedenauer pointed out that Brimeyer Fursman’s contract clearly stated background checks would occur after the assembly selected its finalists from the shortlist.
“I just think it’s unfortunate it played out the way it did, but the contract says he doesn’t do background checks until we pick our finalists. So he didn’t necessarily do anything wrong,” Friedenauer said. “I don’t think at this point we have any reason to be disappointed in the job they are doing. I don’t think they’ve done anything that violates their contract.”
Brimeyer Fursman came under public scrutiny when community members were made aware of crass posts a semi-finalist had made on a public social media page. Fursman had apparently failed to check.
“Would I recommend that they do social media checks before giving us finalists? I would probably recommend that after this experience,” Friedenauer said.
Richard Fursman, president of the firm, did not return multiple calls for comment.
Assembly member Mike Case said he is also satisfied with the firm’s work so far.
“What we wanted them to do was bring us a pretty broad list of people who seemed to meet our qualifications with the understanding we would select from that list and then they would drill down and find out about them,” Case said.
Fursman’s contract with the borough states: “Prior to the (in-person) interviews, we will conduct discreet reference checks on the finalist candidates. We will talk with peers and former associates of these candidates. We will speak with individuals who are, or have been, in positions to directly evaluate the candidates’ job performance. We will verify the finalist candidates’ credentials through educational, criminal, and credit checks.”
Case said doing checks on more than the finalists would be time-consuming and expensive. “We didn’t want them going in depth on every single one of those and taking time and spending money,” he said.
Assembly member Diana Lapham said she was “really very dismayed” how people “jumped to conclusions without all the facts.”
“We had to do the short-list and then he was doing the in-depth background checks. So he would have found this issue out and brought it to our attention. But it was like a runaway train,” Lapham said.
Lapham said Brimeyer Fursman has been “extremely helpful” in the hiring process, pointing to the lengthy report the firm compiled on the semi-finalists. Compared to hires the borough has conducted independently – Lapham sat on the hiring committees for former manager David Sosa, former police chief Bill Musser and former community and economic development director Bill Mandeville – Lapham said she felt she was armed with considerably more information to make a decision.
Assembly member Tresham Gregg said he would give the firm a score of six out of a possible 10. Gregg said he would have liked to see some kind of additional screening between receiving the list of semi-finalists and picking finalists, like Skype interviews.
“The process which we were engaged in under (Fursman’s) direction to choose our top four candidates was a little stiff. It wasn’t enough of an interactive experience so we felt comfortable about who we were selecting,” Gregg said. “If you’re going to be spending a lot of money to bring people up, you want to have a good idea of who you are dealing with.”
Assembly member George Campbell said he believes using the firm has yielded higher quality candidates than when the borough hired the last manager without an outside company’s help.
The borough will hold a public reception for the manager and police chief finalists from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 13, at the library. The manager finalists are William Seward, director of auxiliary and recreational boating safety for the Coast Guard in Miami; Mark Karet, administrative services director for Hillsborough County, Fla.; Kate Fjell, assistant to the city manager in Boonville, Mo.; and Kevin Opple, director of operations at a naval station in Everett, Wash.
The assembly will hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 14, to discuss the finalists.The Public Safety Commission will meet at 1 p.m. May 14 to discuss police chief finalists.