County Executive Ed Fitzgerald is quoted saying that, in the past, the County’s summer jobs program:
“...was used as a hiring hall for students who knew the right person or were related to the right person..”Former Parma Mayor Martin Zanotti, who helped in the county reform effort, commented:
“You’ve got to run the county like a business....In some cases, jobs were created not based on need but based on the need to hire someone’s child, friend or nephew. They were hired based on political favors, rather than actual need.http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2011/04/cuyahoga_county_offers_public_policy_internships.html
The Plain Dealer story immediately brought Highland Heights’ own summer hiring process to mind. The majority of the city's summer workers work for the Park & Recreation Commission (P&R).
No doubt you’ll recall the financial debacle of 2009 (the last municipal election year). P&R engaged in massive deficit spending that year. One of the big pieces of that deficit spending----a piece that (to this day) has never been fully or adequately explained---was Recreation Director David Ianiro’s decision to hire 15 more pool employees than allowed by the budget. What made that decision even more puzzling was the fact that 2009 was a cold and rainy summer, which meant that the pool was frequently closed due to low temperatures and/or weather. The pool should have required less staffing that year, not more. Yet pool hiring increased exponentially.
While P&R reined in its spending for 2010 in response to the public outcry over its 2009 fiscal mismanagement (it managed to finish the year in the black), the lesson was apparently short lived. The 2011 P&R budget once again shows P&R operating in the red. Interestingly, the budget includes a significant increase in spending on pool wages---an 11.7% increase over the actual wages paid in 2010---even though summer recreation wages have supposedly been frozen at 2010 levels.
Why the increase in summer hiring? Well consider these facts.
- Mayor Scott Coleman publicly acknowledged at a January 11, 2010 Council meeting that David Ianiro---whom Coleman appointed as the city’s Recreation Director--is a very close personal friend.
- Unlike other cities, Highland Heights does not use an open hiring process to fill summer recreation jobs. (Think about it. Have you ever seen an ad in the Sun Messenger soliciting applications for city summer jobs?). The jobs are mostly filled the way Cuyahoga County used to do it---using a backroom “it’s who you know” process.
- Under Highland Heights Ordinance § 139.06(b), P&R is tasked with hiring “qualified personnel to operate the City’s recreation program within the limits of the budget”. That includes hiring all of the city’s summer park and recreation workers. Yet P&R has never bothered to develop or implement any hiring policies governing the hiring of summer workers. None. Nada.
- Instead, P&R leaves all of the hiring decisions up to Recreation Director Dave Ianiro—even though according to Highland Hts Ordinance § 139.06(a) the Rec Director is supposed to work for THEM and is supposed to implement THEIR policies and programs. With regard to summer hiring, P&R has turned the Ordinances on end, letting the cart lead their horse.
- P&R has the legal authority to adopt policies requiring Recreation Director Dave Ianiro: 1) to advertise summer jobs and solicit job applications from the community at large; 2) to give hiring preferences to residents over non-residents; and 3) to perform background checks on adult workers before they are hired. But P&R has instead chosen to turn a blind eye and walk away, leaving Ianiro to his own devices.
Deficit spending, over-hiring, and the hiring of non-residents whose only connection to the community is who they know---namely Mayor Scott Coleman, Recreation Director David Ianiro, or one of their buddies.
Election season has arrived. The mayor has announced he is running for re-election, and P&R has presented a budget that includes plumped-up pool hiring again this year.
Could there be a connection? Think not? Why not? Haven’t politicians always used political patronage to solidify their political support and power—particularly during election years?
Changing the city’s summer hiring process would be relatively easy to do. All P&R has to do is put hiring policies in place and insist that Recreation Director Dave Ianiro follow them. The barrier, of course, is that except for the Council rep (Councilwoman Cathy Murphy), all of the rest of P&R is composed of mayoral appointees. In other words, P&R won’t act unless Mayor Scott Coleman gives the okay.
So, once again, it all boils down to leadership.The question is:
Will Mayor Scott Coleman follow the County’s lead and give up his patronage power over city summer jobs?
Will he work with P&R to develop fair and open summer hiring policies--or will he keep his current (more politically lucrative) backroom "it's who you know" hiring policies in place?
Some relevant laws:
- Charter. § 11.01(b). (requires that 1 mil of property taxes be given to P&R each year)."The taxes which may be annually levied without a vote of the people for all the purposes of the Municipality of Highland Heights upon the tax list and duplicate of property assessed and listed for taxation according to value for the tax year 1967 and each year thereafter shall not exceed the maximum of the following: ...1.0 mill per dollar of assessed (real property) valuation for the purpose of paying costs of acquiring, constructing, improving, operating and maintaining recreational facilities of the Municipality but the authority granted in this subsection (b) shall not limit the right of the Municipality also to pay costs of acquiring, constructing, improving, operating and maintaining such recreational facilities from the levy authorized by subsection (a) hereof.."
- HHts Ordinance § 139.06(a).
"…The Director (of Recreation) shall administer the recreation program promulgated by the (Park and Recreation) Commission…The Director shall perform such other duties consistent with the position or as directed by the Commission or as may be required by ordinance of Council or as directed by the Mayor." - HHts Ordinance § 139.06(b)."The Park and Recreation Commission shall hire other qualified personnel to operate the City's recreation program within the limits of the budget."
