Who would you choose? A candidate with many years of experience in city management who has written million-dollar grants or one who has few years of experience in the field and no apparent grant writing experience.
Four members of our assembly chose the latter. When assembly member Kevin Forster asked them to explain how they could make such a choice, assembly member Mark Smith listed 14 attributes, including “unstoppable, honest, adventurous, energetic and uncompromising integrity.”
The candidate interviews are available online. Please look at them. It is mind boggling that Smith could ascribe such a long list of virtuous adjectives to a man who provided little information during his 30-minute interview and instead spent most of that time asking questions about the availability of vets for his two dogs and inquiring about whether or not Haines has a grocery store.
Many residents wrote letters of support for Hunter Rieseberg. The only person to speak in support of Kim Zimmerman, the candidate chosen for the job, was Don Turner Jr. who said…“being as Mayor Morphet likes (Rieseberg) is a great big red flag for me.”
If that was the criteria used by assembly people Richard Clements, Smith, Cheryl Stickler and Gabe Thomas, it was a great disservice to our community. Mayor Tom Morphet said he didn’t care about the politics of borough manager candidates, he just wanted someone who could do the job. We shall now see if the least qualified candidate is capable of that.
Sharon Resnick