Updated: Questions Arise About Scope of New 'Operations Director' Job

Fairhope, Alabama

Update(5): Council President Burrell commented on the hiring of the new Operations Director:

"The Mayor did take actions on Monday morning prior to the special-called meeting  to process the hiring of Mr. Peterson, which appear to have been completed prior to adopting the resolution.  One could challenge whether or not a person is actually employed prior to their starting date, however, I do not believe the council will challenge this. 

The city council is not circumventing any state laws.  The council is  well within our rights to institute a temporary hiring freeze so that we can evaluate all of our options.  The council does not, and did not question the Mayor's authority to take the actions she took, even though some may have not agreed with it.  The city council, by state statute, does have the authority to appoint certain positions which meet certain requirements."


Update(4): The mayor says the hiring freeze should not apply to the new Operations Director, Richard Peterson:  "The hiring freeze does not apply Richard Peterson because he was given his offer letter, a contractual agreement, on Feb 23^rd. I believe the hiring freeze that was put in place by council Monday was based on a local law for which legal council also determined its opinion.  The local law, however, should not supersede the state law which states the mayor has the sole authority to hire and fire."

Update(3): The mayor says the seven-page job description applies, with all the duties listed on it (see at bottom):

"Nothing was ever changed with the scope or job description for the Operation Director position. The same procedure for every job opening includes a one-page condensed summary of the job, which is what is posted. It also has a more detailed job description, which is typically a multi-page document." 

Update(2): We just received this from the mayor:

Richard Peterson, P.E., is a Fairhope native and joins the City of Fairhope as the Operations Director. Peterson is a graduate of the University of South Alabama with a degree in Civil Engineering. Peterson has over 30 years’ experience in the utilities industry, 26 of which were with Riviera Utilities in Foley. Since leaving Riviera, Richard has worked with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood on projects across the State of Alabama. At the State level, Richard served on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Natural Gas Association from 2002 through 2015 and as its president in 2014. Richard also participated with the Alabama Water Agencies Working Group on Water Policy by serving on the Local/Regional Planning subcommittee, where recommendations for the structure of the local and regional oversight to water policy were presented.

But, councilman Burrell told us earlier he thought the hiring freeze enacted by the council last Monday applied to this position as well. We asked the mayor if he will have any duties beyond the utilities: check back for further updates. She did not mention the alleged "factual errors" in our first post.

Update(1): We received a message from the mayor objecting to some of the "facts" in this post; we invited her to explain her version so we could post that as well.

Dec. 1, 2016 Public Announcement

JOB DESCRIPTIONS DON'T MATCH

A Times investigative reporter has determined that the announcement (above) for the new position of 'Operations Director' that was posted publicly in early December of last year on the city's bulletin board and website does not entirely match the actual 'uniform job description' on file with the HR Department. (see below).

The single-page posted announcement, required by federal Equal Opportunity Law and the city's personnel manual, refers only to supervision of the Utilities; but the seven-page 'uniform job description' on file references supervision of the IT and and E/M departments as well.

The city currently has an IT department, but no E/M department to our knowledge -- which apparently refers to engineering  and maintenance now under the Public Works department, according to information in the longer document.

Salary ranges and qualifications required are different as well: the announcement calls for a BS degree and/or sufficient, related training/experience; but the full job description allows a BA degree and/or much less experience. Both mention a BE degree as qualifying.

(See the documents for full education/experience/training requirements.)

Apparently only Part II of the job description, 'distinguishing characteristic of the job',  was posted to the public; Part I, 'basic purpose of the position', was omitted for some reason.

The public announcement is dated December 1st; and the actual the job description November 22 of last year.

Former Electric Department superintendent Scot Sligh was initially hired to the job, but resigned suddenly on January 20th  for "personal reasons" -- after only three days on the job -- click.


COUNCIL APPROVED IT

Nov. 28th work session

After a lengthy general discussion with the mayor of the need for the proposed new OD position to supervise utilities during the November 28, 2016 work session (no specific job description mentioned), the city council approved the OD position/job description at the following council meeting by resolution.

The Times can find no record in their current minutes of the matter ever being discussed by the city's Personnel Board.

RESOLUTION NO. 2627-16

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA, that the Compensation and Job Classification Plan along with the Grade Order Sheet be amended and approved to Add the Operations Director Position; the Job Description with stated pay range; and to authorize the use of a City Vehicle. 

No copy of the job description was provided to the public or media nor was it read into the record at the time; only references made about it by council members during the discussion.

No job description appears in the official minutes of the meeting either, as is usually the case; the Times obtained it by a formal public records request. earlier this week.

When asked about it by the Times, Council President Burrell said he was unaware of the discrepancy and had not seen the public announcement until we provided it to him: We have received no further comment from him.

(Burrell told us earlier he did think the hiring freeze imposed by the council last Monday applied to this positions as well.)

Check back here for updates to this developing story.

'Uniform Job Description' dated November, 22, 2016

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