Holly council hires interim manager

And...
Let's also not forget there are several cases still pending over alleged labor law violations Ms. Powers perpetrated against local union members. Just because she is gone doesn't make these things go away! Gackstetter said regarding the new hire for DPW director, "I wouldn’t hold it against a person who is trying to right a wrong.”
So as Gackstetter opined, let's not hold it against a person that is trying to right a wrong, or in this case, union members trying to right multiple wrongs. I still believe in the prevailing of truth, and that what goes around comes around. Please continue to keep us informed of any new developments as they become known.
It's almost voting time...

He's going to "try us out" over the next couple months? This sounds like a "rigged" deal from the start and other candidates will know it, reducing the size and quality of the applicant pool. Councilwoman Hamilton is correct, there wont be 70 hours of work going on every week. I wonder what the bosses at TIA think when they read this? Maybe they should start looking for a more dedicated replacement right now. After the charade of interviews the next few months, remember you saw the future in print here first. The good-ole-boys network lives on.

That would be nice Ryan but read between the lines here. Read Mr. Walker's comments about "checking us out" and that he was already looking at the Chief of Police's position and how they all knew each other. Do you think another candidate will get a fair hearing in this atmosphere?? They don't even try to make it appear to be fair, with the exception of Ms. Hamilton who rightfully questions whether 70 hours of taxpayer wages is going to be properly earned in this situation. Thats 10 hours a day,7 days a week for the duration, no days off, or 14 hours a day, 5 days a week when most governmental work is done. Oh, our future candidate/administrator schedules his other job's meetings at his convenience(his own words). What does TIA pay for that position? I'd like a job like that. Show up when its convenient and nothing else is going on with my other job. Sounds like that job should be eliminated and the taxpayers can save a few dollars. Another example of waste in government.

If previous protocol is followed, the public is welcome to sit in on the interviews. I sat in on the interviews for village manager when Aaron Oppenheimer left, prior to Marsha Powers being named Manager/Clerk/Treasurer and later Manager. But there was no opportunity for the public to ask questions or to weigh in on the decision.

As of right now, I don't have any reason to be skeptical of Mr. Walker or his intentions or motives.

Mr. Clemens stated prior to his motion to dismiss Ms. Powers that the Village is in need of a new philosophy of management and a new direction of leadership (paraphrasing). Perhaps an open (and fairly moderated) forum for permanent candidates would be an excellent way for the Village Council (and the incumbents running for reelection) to demonstrate their commitment to listening to and engaging the community.

Folks, this nonsense is happening right in front of us. I dont want coffee and donuts with the council's hand picked man, I want an open process where we pick the best person, not someone who use to work here, has friends here or who knows enough council members to get the votes so he can start cashing those big checks from the tax payers coffers. This is going to be nothing but a sham selection process unless we demand more. We deserve better than this. Hes in their now just because he knew a few people and thats how he'll keep the job. We'll never know if hes the best person for the job, they dont want that. They want to give the job to one of their old buddies who is hooked up politically and pay him $75 grand a year that he is already proving is nothing more than a part-time job, if hes still going to that TIA job at all. There should be protests in the streets about conducting the public business this way but they count on your silence and thats what they are getting. WASTE

Gackstetter and Powers were thick as thieves working for the village, and now one of his buddies is going to fill in as "interim" manager. When is this insanity going to end? This is not taking the village in the right direction folks. It's just making the mud deeper and thicker.But...we have our chance to get some things (perhaps) looked at with different perspectives when we all get out and vote for new council members! That's what makes this country so great! When people in elected positions screw things up, they can get voted out. They are at-will employees, so let's "at-will" them right down the road. I don't care what my ratings are, you cannot hurt my feelings with your thumbs down clicks of the mouse.

Right on the money across the board Elizabeth. These others are either to blind or just dont care about good govt. or what its suppose to be. This is exactly about favors for friends and using taxpayers money to do it with. And most of these lumps sit there and say, well I dont have any problem with Mr. Walker. Hes double dipping 2 govt jobs and I bet showing up about half a day at the most for either one. He sure isnt working 70 hrs, I bet it isnt 40 hrs if you could ever keep track of a guy who sets his own schedule, sets up his own meetings and everyone he works with shows up when its convenient for him so he can have flexibility to lead Holly to the promised land, with the help of his buddies on the council who will vote him in without even looking at another candidate who by some miracle just might be more qualified in every way except being a fair haired boy of the council. Stop this now Holly or regret this nonsense later. Pull your heads out of the sand b4 its to late

Kevin, Elizabeth, Fair Play, and any of your other alter egos;

Hearsay is not evidence and opinions are like…well we all know what they are like, and everyone has one. So far all we have seen are baseless accusations sans evidence to back up any of your claims. Where are the memoranda from the Manager directing an employee to violate the law? Where is the connection between Mr. Walker and Chief Gackstetter that allows you to allege that Mr. Walker a Gackstetter crony? What if the hearing in MERC goes against the Union? If it does go against the Union will you be back on this website to apologize to Mrs. Powers, Chief Gackstetter, and the city council? I sincerely doubt it. Where do you get off alleging that if the city loses the judgment in MERC that it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Usually judgments from MERC involve a strongly worded letter of reprimand that must be posted in a public place. So was that a lie to try to gin up public outrage?

Kevibeth, Fair Play and any of your other alter egos;

And still all we have from you is uninformed opinion, unsupported allegations, and unintelligible conjecture, not one shred of inculpatory evidence that anything has been done wrong or will be done wrong. In the real world chief executives often work with other chief executives on various and sundry projects, just because Chief’s Gackstetter and Walker worked on a project together doesn’t mean that they are life long buddies and it certainly doesn’t mean that they are in collusion with the city council to circumvent the interview/hiring process. That inane conjuring came solely from the voices in your head. As I wrote yesterday opinions are like you know whats, and everybody has one. But just because you have one doesn’t mean that you should use it as often as you do, because in the end all it accomplishes is to stink up the place and diminish a fine community asset like the Holly Express.

E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H

Oh yeah?

Guess I told her.

Save Your apologies you’ll need them at the Pearly Gates. Do you read the stuff that you write? Do you really think that council members are machines who are supposed to be impervious to every stone cast at them whether deserved or not. These are your neighbors for crying out loud, regular people who stepped up to answer the call when others, like you, fled in terror. Somehow I find it rather incongruous when I read “When you go into politics, you better have a pretty thick skin” coming from a person who uses the pseudonym “Fair Play” and then strives to be neither fair nor playful with the comments that you write.

E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H

And yet another unsubstantiated allegation, you just can’t seem to help yourself can you?

E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H

1) I sincerely doubt that Elizabeth is your real name, or at least the name you’re generally known by. My biggest problem with these blog formats is that it allows cowards and liars to post without giving their real name and thus there is no accountability for statements made. 2) You have been posting unsupported allegations about Mrs. Powers, the village (I stand corrected) council, and others for weeks now, leveling one false charge after another without providing one shred of inculpatory evidence. 3) You’re far too well versed in the goings on in the office to not be associated with Kevin/Fair Play you may be an individual but there is no way your not in bed with that bunch, figuratively if not literally. And if that’s the case you are not a resident of the village but an outsider with an agenda. And I suspect that that agenda is money.
The emotions of deceivers matter not a whit to me, but the use or misuse of the truth most assuredly does.

Quoting John Graham:

"... Do you read the stuff that you write? Do you really think that council members are machines who are supposed to be impervious to every stone cast at them whether deserved or not. These are your neighbors for crying out loud, regular people who stepped up to answer the call when others, like you, fled in terror. Somehow I find it rather incongruous when I read “When you go into politics, you better have a pretty thick skin” coming from a person who uses the pseudonym “Fair Play” and then strives to be neither fair nor playful with the comments that you write.

Hey John, they didnt answer any call, there not patriots going to war. How naive can you be? This started with my opinion that the process was not starting out fair and unbiased in the mgr selection. Youre kind of like a little Hitler, we should run our opinions by you for your approval on content. As Elizabeth said, Ill say what I think, when I want, when I like

John, you seem to be on the other side of the coin as Elizabeth, Mr. Walters, and "fair play" as to the opinion of the Village administration.

What are your thoughts about the Village Council conducting moderated, open-forum "interviews" of the Village Manager candidate finalists, where the community could (civilly) ask questions of the candidates or share their input of what they want in a Village Manager?

I know that interviews are public to begin with, but wouldn't the opportunity to open up the process further take strides against the pessimistic sentiments shared here, whether they're true or not?

John, youre on to a great idea here. My ideas are simple and in my opinion fair. I'd like accountability first. Whose "fault" is all these grievances, Ms Powers or the Council for failing to keep her on a tighter leash. Somebody somewhere did something, or didnt do something. Im excited to see how the process for selecting the permanent mgr unfolds. Isn,t everyone? Id like it to be fair for everyone, with the Village of Holly getting the best possible candidate and every applicant feeling like they were treated fairly. Please everyone, tell me that we all agree on those points. The problem is no one is held to account. Remember Pres. Obama promising withdrawl of troops and closing Guantanamo Bay 30 days after taking office. So much for promises and saying what you mean and meaning what you say. My original hunch is that you see your permanent manager already in office because he's their guy. I hope Im wrong and the council shows an open and fair mind to the process. :)

You raise good points, John--there is value in having a more controlled, "court-room" setting as opposed to an open forum, and if it was opened up, there would have to be some explicitly clear guidelines and rules for the public to follow.

But to play devil's advocate for a moment, the "opposing party" might argue that if the Village Council didn't "ask the appropriate questions of" or properly evaluate our previous Village Manager, where does the trust originate that they will do so in selecting the next candidate? Likewise, if proceedings are closed to public input, doesn't that simply empower the rabble-rousers at the expense of the "civil public"?

Just food for thought...this is a very interesting juncture in our local governance. Republicanism vs. democracy, representative vs. participatory government.

From what I have read about the hiring of the last Manager, Mrs. Powers was already acting in the position of interim when she offered to perform both the Manager’s duties and that of the Treasurer simultaneously to create a savings for the community. A laudable offer to say the least, but in fact several months into that agreement Mrs. Powers reneged on her offer and petitioned for a treasurer to be hired to lighten her work load. This is the only action where council need be faulted. Clearly Mrs. Powers lacked the credentials to remain Manager and council should have returned her to her former position. I don’t know where “trust” comes into play Ryan. The council is the elected representatives’ of the people, if you don’t trust them then you shouldn’t have elected them. But let’s face it something like one out of six people voted in the last election that means one out of six people complaining on this website actually earned the right to participate in this process.

Mr. Graham points to the only fault I find with the council in this whole process. Mrs. Powers never should have been hired as manager.

She was led in the back door by Mrs. Kenner, and the rest of the council allowed her to do it. In the three or four years I have been following the council's actions, this is the only issue I have seen Mrs. Kenner take the lead on. She's a very nice lady, but in an effort to give a long-time employee a "chance," she failed the community. She promoted the idea that Mrs. Powers could take on all three roles of Manager, Clerk, and Treasurer, and that it would save the village money. At the time the council felt it would be alright because there were no "large projects" on the horizon, having depleted resources for infrastructure projects. Somehow, council failed to recognize the restructuring of the water billing system as a "large project." (It's too bad the council didn't heed the warnings of that nice columnist Janet Leslie who foretold of disaster in her Community Voice editorial "It takes a village manager.") So when Ms. Powers came to council saying her workload was too large to handle (surprise!), they simply bumped her up to manager without question.

All of this nonsense followed a regular interview process in which a superior candidate for village manager was offered the job, asked for additional compensation in the area of $20,000, and then was rejected for budget reasons. It's more than ironic that the person advising the council on the state of the village's budget was no other than Marsha Powers.

This time around, whether the council invites input from the public or not, I hope the council will not be penny wise and pound foolish. Look at the big picture. Hire a real leader. Learn from your mistakes and do it better this time around.

As for the voters, I hope you will not throw the baby out with the bath water. Look carefully to see who has acted in the community's best interest, and who has acted out of loyalty to their own. There may be a couple of councilpersons who need to be voted out, but it might not be in the community's best interest to remove them all.

It looks like were finding some middle ground here. Cocerns with the council are they have made some terrible decisions regarding the employment of Ms. Powers as well as failing to keep an eye on her as well. Because of past decisions, Im still concerned about whether they have an open mind on filling this critical position. Concerning Mr. Walker, hes making $75,000/yr from Holly for 40 hrs work, plus whatever he makes at TIA for 30 hrs work. How about a leave of absence from TIA while youre trying us out??? Are you really working a minimum of 70 hrs a week??Are you really earning both your paychecks??? These seem fair questions that if Holly is paying him for 40 hrs, thats what he should work. Is the council making sure Holly is getting what they are paying for? Its just hard to imagine everyone is getting what they are paying for here. As I said before, if Mr Walker wants Hollys position, take a leave from the other one and concentrate his time here.Seems fair to me Anyone?

Actually, Mr. Graham, your statistics for readership on the Holly Express are not accurate. The Holly Express currently averages 1,043 unique readers per day, averaging just under 34,000 hits per day. As for the blog, we have 119 registered users - that is, people who have actively made comments, obviously some more than others.

Better and better Amy, great job! My point is that so far only a dozen or so people have weighed in on this group of recent events, so I question if this constitutes a fair weather gauge for public sentiment?

I do not agree that Ms. Powers alone is responsible for doing her job poorly. The council that appointed her to the position had a responsibility to provide a degree of oversight to her actions, which they did not do under the guise of not interfering with "day to day" business. Therefore, I feel that they also hold a degree of accountability for her job performance.
Which leads me to my next question. Was her termination politically motivated, since it took place just now before elections? Is the council trying to garner votes by terminating the village manager, who had been creating such a flurry of negative press for them, and was clearly unpopular with potential voters?

I agree with Elizabeth. This Council has shown extremely poor judgement in hiring Ms. Powers and then allowing her to operate unfettered while it was obvious in most circles that maybe her actions required a little more oversight than they were getting.
I would like to see the new manager hired after the election takes place. That would start a new era with a new Council (hopefully).

Quoting Janet Leslie:

Fred, Ms. Powers alone is responsible for doing her job poorly enough to be fired. And six of the seven members of council eventually did the right thing by firing her. But I do recall that it was Ms. Kenner who argued in favor of allowing Ms. Powers to add the job of manager to her responsibilities as clerk/treasurer.

Janet thank you for the clarification.

Dear Mr. Hooper,
Your blaming Mrs. kenner for everything that is gone wrong in the village

You have collected funds for the 2010 fireworks in the name of the Village of Holly & Holly chamber of commerce. Were these funds used correctly??
Where is your accountability to the Village or the chamber?
The people donated to you for the 2010 fireworks. How much and where is the money that was donated.
What kind of character trait is this for a council person candidate
Have you ever come forward and filled the correct paperwork and accountability to the Village or the chamber?

John K, my facts regarding Marsha Powers being named village manager came directly from the meeting in which it occurred. I attend most meetings of the village council because, since the village is in the township, village residents are my constituents. I care about the decisions that are made on their behalves. And of course, whatever the village does effects the rest of the township, the residents of which are also my constituents.

My point about Mrs. Kenner was not that she acted alone, but that she initiated the discussion and promoted the idea of giving the manager's job to Ms. Powers. This is notable mostly because Mrs. Kenner does not often speak during council meetings, much less initiate a discussion. I mean no disrespect to Mrs. Kenner, who is a truly lovely, well-meaning lady, but the facts speak for themselves.