Garrad, your comments, faithfully recorded below, prove, once again, that you are not ready for prime time.  Moreover, the Council is not ready to make good decisions for our City.

                                    The Council’s vote was an admission of at least three major problems.  These are just some of the factors that Forbes and Sperling use as the basis for grading Modesto very low.

                                    First, you admit that our City Manager is not up to the task of finding a qualified HR director.  Nor is he qualified to negotiate with unions.

                                    Second, you admit that there is no one currently in the department who is qualified to be an HR director.  That indicates a history of                                                                  hiring unqualified personnel.

                                    Third, you admit that the Council has no interest in being involved in hiring a qualified HR director.  Once again, you all are out of the loop.

                                    Ancillary admissions of ignorance include the following:

1.      A hiring freeze is in effect.  Thus the need for a chief hiring officer should be somewhat limited.

2.      The unemployment rate in our county is 17%.  Nearby counties rates are similar.

3.      We have a newspaper in our town, and it has a “Jobs” section.  I would bet that an ad in the newspaper(s) would be pretty effective in attracting candidates.

4.      We just had a “Job Fair” right near 1010 10^th St.  Did you have a booth there?

5.      We have a fine MJC and a State University.  Did you go to their placement offices to inquire about candidates?

6.      Apparently, you have never served in the armed forces.  I have been an enlisted man and an officer.  Your comments about the military are totally ignorant.

                                    Garrad, there is so much more that I could mention, but I have to get back to work.  By the way, how is the bowling alley going?

                                    Regards, Dave

Dave,

Normally, I appreciate your criticism.  It makes me evaluate my/our positions.  While I may not agree or accept your position, it usually has some reasonable basis.

But this email regarding hiring an HR director.  Do you really believe what you wrote?  Are you that stupid?  Would you really want the soldiers hiring their officers?

Do you want the leader of our negotiations with our unions hired by our union members?

Get real Dave.  We are not always perfect, you would probably say we are never perfect, but this time you are SOOOO wrong.

Always yours,
Garrad Marsh



-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Thomas [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text13317 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]
Sent: Tue 9/1/2009 3:29 PM
To: All My Friends
Cc: Brad Hawn; Dan Day; Dave Diamond Show; Dave Lopez; Dave Lyghtle; Dick Monteith ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ); Garrad Marsh; Greg Nyhoff; Janice Keating; Jim Ridenour; Kristin Olsen; Sly, Judy; Steve Rendon; Steve Stavrakakis; Ted Hilliard; Ted Mills; Tom Jensen; Wayne Brown; charles iffland; Will O'Bryant
Subject: Another City Council Failure

                   Good morning.  Tonight, your Modesto city council will vote to spend at least $24,000 on an "outside recruiter" to hire a Human Resources Director.  Hummmmm.  The city currently has a fully staffed Human Resources (HR) department, headed by a director.  The mission of an HR department is, according to my encyclopedia, "...hiring, firing, training employees, and other employee related duties". 



                   Thus, the HR department, and the City Manager who oversees the HR department, abjectly admits that it lacks the ability to hire a competent HR director.  This admission comes at a time when unemployment is at an absurdly high 17 ½% in our county.  Is our council actually brain alive, and living in the present?????  Is there no person lurking in the weeds of Modesto who is an HR kind of person???  If the HR department is not smart enough to hire a leader, who can they be trusted to hire?



                   Would you, as a reasonable person, vote to squander precious funds on a consultant to hire the next person who will hire the next city employee?  If so, you would be admitting that our current HR department is a gross failure.  But then, our current council has failed to deal with the murder problem, the car theft problem, the gang problem, the street problem, the street light coordination problem, the Transit problem, and the problem of department heads.



                   Let us summarize the department heads; the police chief fled, and we have an interim police chief who has a one year deal (interim...for a year???); the fire chief is now the assistant city manager; the fire department is led by an interim chief; the HR department is led by an interim manager who lacks the skill to hire a real HR manager; the parks and recreation department is led by someone, I am not sure, but the former assistant city manager is involved; let me know who I have missed.  Do we have any city departments headed by a competent manager??



                   The tragic fact is that every objective third party who ranks cities and communities around the nation ranks Modesto as poor, poorly led, expensive, undereducated, underemployed, with bad health services; a doctor per capita one third of the average American city; a cop per capita one half of the average American city; more rock wells (that fail in a storm) than any other American city; a City of Trees where city branches drop on cars and block streets in a light wind - that also cause buckled sidewalks; a failed economy with the highest unemployment of any modern urban city; very high water, sewer, electricity and garbage rates; our infrastructure is crumbling, and our taxes are among the highest in the nation.





                   OH!!!   BUT WAIT!!!  Our city council has saved us from the dreaded dumpster divers, AND the pesky stray shopping karts.  My

bad.  Let me know when their consultant tracks down a HR director who can hire someone during the hiring freeze and huge layoff environment.  I ask you, do we even need some one to hire new people when we cannot afford the ones we have???   And that $24,500 will become $55,000, if the consultant is smart enough to finagle it, which means another cop we DO NOT hire.



                   Sleep well, my friends, the city council is at work.     As ever, Dave