OPINION: Time will tell about hiring decision

By not releasing the names of the top three final candidates for that job to the public 14 days in advance, the mayor violated one of the key provisions of the state’s Open Records Law. Look it up: O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(7).

Why is that important? Because by having a 14-day waiting period, citizens and taxpayers have a chance to review the top applicants, compare backgrounds and give feedback to their local government before a final hiring decision is made.

With his tendency for secrecy, Mayor Thompson obviously doesn’t want any feedback.

He didn’t even consult his own city council about the city’s top job.

That’s not a good system. Although it’s clear in Winder’s charter that the mayor has hiring authority (the council can only fire people), to hire a top administrator without council involvement is a recipe for problems. In violating the 14-day rule, Mayor Thompson only made this hiring process worse. And it’s not like the mayor has a lot of career experience in hiring personnel.

We don’t know yet if Mayor Thompson hired the best candidate for the job. Although this newspaper has been asking for days for the names and data on the top three candidates, the mayor has so far not released that information as of this edition.

What we do know is that the mayor hired someone who has limited experience in towns the size of Winder and who has been in four jobs over four years and who was involved in a highly-controversial mess in one town where he served as city manager. In that instance, Donald Toms hired a buddy from Virginia as police chief for the town of Rincon. The chief was later fired and Toms left the position under a cloud.

During that controversy, records show that Toms used some questionable judgment. At one point, he instructed his buddy the chief to write 29 traffic tickets to pay for a new police department computer. But quotas such as that are illegal. He also instructed the chief to kiss babies and generate some “good press” during the controversy, as if kissing babies would make up for some poor judgement.

That’s not to say that Toms won’t make a good administrator for Winder. But given the secrecy of the process, the public has no way of knowing how Toms’ background compares to the other top candidates.

It will be interesting to see how Toms does for Winder in the coming months. If he turns out to be a good, stable administrator, Mayor Thompson can bask in the glow of the credit to come.

But if Toms’ tenure isn’t successful, all of the blame will fall back onto the mayor alone. Only he was involved in the hiring.

Karma is a funny thing, Mr. Mayor. When you seek all the power and glory, sometimes what you get in the end is just all the blame.