Hay tapped for economic development job

Mac Hay will be Sisters' part-time Economic Development Manager.

EDCO (Economic Development for Central Oregon), after culling down the applicants to four, recommended Hay to the council. The recommendation was passed on before the council's regular workshop last Thursday.

Councilors voted 4-1, with Councilor Sharlene Weed dissenting, to accept the recommendation.

Hay was a leading candidate for the job, presently serving as the volunteer chair of the SBART (Sisters Business Attraction & Retention Team), a volunteer group of area business people.

Hay is looking forward to the challenge.

"The energy and creativity of our community is needed to make this effort of economic vitality and stability a success. Together, we have the passion, talent and resources to create an even more vibrant community. I look forward to working with the citizens of Sisters to retain jobs, attract businesses with sustainable jobs and add to an economy that has tremendous potential," said Hay.

Although the recommendation of Hay was no surprise to those following the process, the city council has wrangled over the matter for several months. The need for the position, the recruiting process, and the position's scope of work have been controversial since last spring.

The economic development manager's statement of work reads: "Contractor shall develop specific performance measures and deadlines for the period of this agreement (in consultation with the Sisters City Manager and as approved by the Sisters City Council) within the first 30 days following the execution of this agreement."

During last Thursday's regular council meeting, Councilor Weed aggressively challenged the hiring process, the lack of transparency with the public, and the scope of work for the position.

"I've never seen anything like this. I can't imagine, in my job (Sisters Habitat for Humanity Executive Director), hiring someone and then asking them to develop their own performance measures," said Weed.

Weed was referring to her repeated requests for the council to discuss and create measurable "deliverables and benchmarks" to be written into the statement of work. Similar positions in Prineville and Redmond have measurable goals and benchmarks.

Council candidate David Asson, speaking during the visitors communication portion of Thursday's regular council meeting, said: "I'm troubled that it's taken five months to write an agreement. Here it is September 30 and you're voting on an agreement that is supposed to start tomorrow. I personally think the independent contractor designation won't fly. Pushing it through now does not make sense to me. If there's any way to spend a few more days to address this I think you should."

Following the meeting Asson added, "The city is going to spend $30,000 on this program. We need this kind of economic development, but I personally think the program needs a lot more money than that to be successful. If we blow this $30,000 we may not get community support next time around."

Budget committee member Gwen Chapman said, "I am a bit confused as to how the city could have recruited for this contractor before the services to be provided and performance expectations were decided on by the council."

Back in July EDCO was asked by Mayor Kellstrom to "take the reins" regarding the position description, hiring process, and interview panel. Neither city councilors nor city staff were involved in that decision.

"My choice was to keep the council out of it in favor of an arm's-length relationship in the hiring of the economic development director," Mayor Kellstrom said last July. "We need an arm's-length arrangement, through EDCO, to keep the council out of trouble. We don't want to be accused of using public funds to hire a 'friend' of the council."

That "friend" was Mac Hay.

Concerned that the council and taxpaying residents were not included in the process of choosing Hay, Councilor Weed, last Thursday evening, asked Mayor Kellstrom several direct questions.

"Why were councilors excluded from this process, and why do we not know who the candidates were, or who sat on the interviewing panel? Was anyone from Sisters represented on that panel?" asked Weed.

Mayor Kellstrom, shrugging his shoulders, indicated as he had before, that he made the choice to "keep the council at arm's length from the process" and "I don't know who was on the interviewing panel."

Weed asked Hay, sitting in the audience, who was on his interviewing panel.

Hay took a moment and answered, "I don't feel like I'm the one to divulge that information."

Stepping into the conversation, City Attorney Steve Bryant said, "Why not have Eileen (Stein, Sisters city manager) e-mail EDCO and ask them? They may tell you or they may not."

Weed said she would vote no on EDCO's recommendation because of her concerns with the process.

Councilor Pat Thompson defended the statement of work and said he was comfortable with the process.

"We have to expect a general statement of work (versus specific deliverables) because we don't know what to expect going forward," he said. "I think this statement of work does a good job and, frankly, we need a man in the trenches right now."

Commenting on the entire process of recruiting for the position, Thompson said, "At no time did I not understand what was going on. This (hiring for this position) is the logical next step to keep our city on the right path."