Letter to the editor: Baffled by county commissioners’ actions

To the editor,

The decision of the county board to reopen its search for an administrator has us baffled. The board had already done the work required to narrow its search from many applicants to three. We can only assume that they probably felt comfortable hiring any of them. However, when one removed himself from consideration, the board now feels it needs to find more applicants and perhaps even hire an outside firm to aid in the search. Why?

Does the board now question the result of its own work to reduce the number to three? Wouldn’t the withdrawal of one of the three final candidates make the decision easier? How does the withdrawal of a candidate differ from the action the board likely would have made in narrowing its final three candidates to two and eventually offering the job to one? And does the board really consider additional expenditures on this process fiscally responsible?

Finally, offering the position to one of the two finalists (Chad Struss) on an interim basis pushes even more questions to the forefront. After Struss was lauded by the commissioners for 16 years of quality work, do they now feel differently? Do they hope Mr. Struss will take some interim action of which they don’t approve so they can remove him from consideration? 

We don’t know whether the board has a specific motive behind all this or not, but now they’re willing to devote more time and money to the process of finding who we can only now define as the one and only “perfect” candidate.

In our opinion, the commissioners have their man. It’s Mr. Struss. Now, they should do the right thing and offer him the job. 

Loren and Rosemary Brabec

Braham