05/17/2006: "CC Gears Up For CA Interviews"

The County Council (CC) will soon begin the interview process for the applicants that made the final cut from a starting field of 47. The CC has cut the list down to 12, and as of Tuesday, two of the twelve had removed themselves. The selection process has been held in meetings closed to both the public and county staff, but now that the final selections have been made, the public and the staff will be able to play a limited role, but the final interviews will be made behind closed doors.

On Tuesday the CC agreed that the process will include two appointed panels that will be able to meet the candidates, and then share their impressions with the consulting firm of Waldron & Company, and they in turn will forward their impressions, of the impressions of the panels, on to the CC.

One of the panels will be made up of elected officials and department heads. The second panel will be comprised of seven hand-picked members of the public: 1 each from Shaw & Lopez, 2 from Orcas, and 3 from San Juan Island. The members selected by the CC will not be identified until after they have agreed to be selected by the CC. Councilman Myhr said the members would represent a "broad spectrum" of the county, but did not explain what the criterion might be for such a selection.

The process will kick-off on June 7, with the 2 panels and the Council meeting the six candidates, then at the end of the day, from 4:30 to 6:30 the general public will also be allowed to mingle with them in a public setting.

On Thursday, June 8th, the CC will conduct interviews in a session closed to the public. The decision to close the meetings behind closed doors was pushed by Councilman Lichter, and opposed by Myhr. Lichter wanted the meetings on both days closed to the public, but both Myhr and Ranker voted him down on the Wednesday meetings. Lichter then asked to close the Council interviews on Thursday (June 8th), and again Myhr said no, but on this request, Ranker, while admitting such meetings have not been closed in the past, voted with Lichter to hold the interviews behind closed doors.

Lichter had again cited Waldron & Company as the reason for closing the meeting, stating that they "had strenuously advised us to keep it private" (See previous Story on this topic). Ranker stated he believed it was important to have candid dialog with the candidates. What sort of candid dialog he felt the public should not be privy to, he did not say.