Mat-Su Borough manager search comes full-circle

It’s been seven months since longtime Mat-Su Borough Manager John Duffy resigned in April. Now the Mat-Su Borough Assembly says it will be at least another 90 to 120 days before his replacement is hired.

Over the past several months, the list of manager applicants was winnowed from 60 to three finalists.

And like many other borough residents, we assumed the search to hire a new borough manager was nearing its end Nov. 20 when the Mat-Su Borough Assembly interviewed Don Baird of Colorado, Desmond Mayo of Wasilla and Gregory Young of Washington in person.

But after assembly members completed their interviews they came back with an announcement perhaps no one was expecting. Rather than hire one of the trio to lead day-to-day operations of the borough, assembly members met in a three-hour, closed-door executive session and eventually voted unanimously to continue the search.

Well, more specifically, they voted to direct staff to hire an executive search firm to recruit more applicants for the manager’s position.

Why spend more borough money on consultants?

We don’t know, and none of us are likely to ever know what took place in those three hours our representatives spent in secret deliberation.

“The statement that was made is the statement that the assembly has allowed to go to the public,” Deputy Mayor Ron Arvin told the Frontiersman. “I’d like to say more. I know there are a lot of people who would like to have more information, but it’s a complicated process.”

He said the plan is to keep the existing three finalists. The borough’s attorney, Nick Spiropoulos, said the goal is to work with an executive search firm to recruit a slate of 10 or so new candidates for the assembly to consider.

For now, Elizabeth Gray is the acting borough manager and the press release from the assembly announcing this decision says she has their full support.

When we asked how much this consultant will cost, the borough’s spokeswoman Patti Sullivan said that isn’t known yet, and they won’t know until a firm is chosen and a scope of work is developed. Sullivan said an average timeline for such a search is 90 to 120 days, though.

Taxpayer Henry Anton Schrieber called the Frontiersman to voice his concern and displeasure over the assembly’s closed-door vote. He told us he thinks the assembly’s decision to hire a consultant is wasteful, especially when the hiring process was already nearly complete.

“Give me a break,” Schrieber said.

Frankly, we agree.

Voting to spend an unspecified, unknown amount of taxpayer dollars to hire a headhunter to hire a manager seems convoluted, lacking in transparency and wantonly wasteful.

We would be slightly more comfortable with the assembly members’ plan to hire a headhunter if the decision had a fixed dollar amount attached to their unanimous, executive-session vote.

Further, it seems more than a little contradictory for assembly members who proudly call themselves fiscal conservatives to sign such a “blank check” to spend an undefined amount of taxpayers’ money on what seems a pointless pursuit of a more perfect candidate.