LISA HOBBS – News Editor
Alderman Keri Morton says the negative comments online about the selection of Kelvin Ridgley to be the next city administrator are not helpful and maybe, misdirected.
“I just feel it's important for people you know that we should always try to be friendly and welcoming,” she stated. “Give him a chance. With all of the negativity that has been thrown out on social media, it is very disheartening. I mean, you can bash us, if you want to, all day long as far as the decision that we made, but it is not fair to an individual that has applied for a job and has been offered that job to see all the negative stuff online. It’s very unfair to him. We have thick skin, we know the process, and we know what we did was right. Give the guy a chance, without saying so much negative stuff about him.”
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen were in a ‘no win’ situation with this decision, she says.
“Honestly, Lisa, we were going to get thrown under the bus either way. If we had picked Justin, they would have said ‘it’s the good old boy system.’ We would have been criticized for spending money on posting the position and going through this process when we knew we were going to just let Justin [Scott] have it. We had to make the best decision for the city at this present time and that's what we did. As unpopular as it is with a lot of people, popular with a few, this was a decision we had to make and we did it. Honestly, when we finished interviewing, Kelvin was just the best fit.”
When questioned if she felt that the new law, which allowed board members to hold interviews in executive sessions, may have created some community mistrust in the selection process, Morton stated that it may have but that the law aims to protect the identities of prospective candidates who were employed at the time.
When asked about the process, Morton stated that they had score sheets provided by Municipal Technical Advisory Service.
“We each graded each one of the candidates. During the interviews, we asked each one of them the same questions and we scored them as to how they answered each question. After the interview, we’d give the score sheets to Libby, who them in the computer system and it come up with a grade. It was a fair process.”
Department directors were allowed to interview the candidates, says Morton, and they also scored them.
“I'm not sure how many people have ever sat down in an interview or done an interview before, so I guess they don't realize how it works. In order to be fair with everybody, we followed the process. We followed the process the whole way through. We even allowed the department directors to interview the candidates and score them. We wanted their input. At the end of the day, this was the decision.”
As far as the recommendation by Mayor Ryle Chastain to establish a city administrator in waiting, Morton says a new position will not be created. Instead, they are going to tweak Scott’s current title and allow him to work alongside Ridgley.
“We’re not creating a job. We're just going to – I don’t know what you would call it – maybe change his title and split his responsibilities so that he can work very closely with Kelvin, while he's also training someone at Parks and Rec to step into his role. Justin's done a phenomenal job over there. When somebody moves up into a higher position, if they've been trained by somebody currently that has done a phenomenal job, it sets them for success in the long run.”
As for Scott, Morton says everything they say about him could be perceived as negative, but that’s not how it’s meant.
“He interviewed very well, but he does not have his MBA. He does not have the experience managing a city and all departments. He kind of got thrown, for lack of a better word for it, into this. He does not have all the experience that Kelvin does, and you know what, anything you say as a reason why about Justin, it makes it sound negative about him and that’s the one thing we all don't want anybody to think. There's nothing negative at all about Justin. It's just that he doesn’t have the background in city management at this time.”
Morton thanked Warren County Way for reaching out and allowing her a chance to explain the selection process and defend the decision to offer the position to Ridgley.