OPINION: Winder: A ‘stealth’ government?

Maybe this shouldn’t be a surprise. Mayor Thompson has established a long, messy record of making decisions in secret, holding illegal secret meetings and generally acting as if he were a petty dictator.

The mayor said he is withholding the name so the person he hired could let his current employers know about the situation. That’s a five-minute conversation in our estimation.

But it really doesn’t matter what the new administrator wants or what Mayor Thompson wants. State law makes it clear that when the head of any government agency is hired, the names of the top three candidates are supposed to be released 14 days before a final hiring decision is made.

Here’s what Georgia law says about the hiring of agency heads: “At least 14 calendar days prior to the meeting at which final action or vote is to be taken on the position, the agency shall release all documents which came into its possession with respect to as many as three persons under consideration whom the agency has determined to be the best qualified for the position and from among whom the agency intends to fill the position.”

That’s pretty clear. Note that it says “shall be released,” not “may be.” When a government hires an agency head, the names of the top three candidates are supposed to be released two weeks in advance of a final action.

We don’t argue that the mayor has the authority to do the hiring. But it doesn’t matter in this case that the city council isn’t voting on the new city administrator; no matter how the hiring is done, governments are supposed to follow state law.

If this were the first time Mayor Thompson had violated the state’s open meetings and open records law, we’d give it a pass. But this is part of a much larger pattern of abuse that he’s shown.

And it’s weird. We’ve never heard of a government hiring a top administrator, but refusing to tell the citizens who had been hired.

Is Winder a “stealth” government?