Glenn Trudel
Spokesperson Ariana Vruwink says Dane County Executive Joe Parisi is exploring “shifting department head hiring to be civil service hires.”
During the recent confirmation hearings for Rep. Shelia Stubbs to head Dane County’s human services department, county board members questioned not only County Executive Joe Parisi’s choice of Stubbs to lead the department, but the process he used to arrive at his nomination. Once Stubbs’ nomination was rejected by the county board on May 4, both sides said the next attempt at filling the position would have to be different.
Parisi says he will use a national search firm to recruit applicants in a hiring process that will start from scratch. And the county executive is exploring a far more significant change as well — “shifting department head hiring to be civil service hires,” Parisi spokeswoman Ariana Vruwink tells Isthmus in an email. “This would ensure the most objective review of a candidate's experience and education and remove politics and even the perception of it from all hiring.”
Supv. Heidi Wegleitner, who chairs the county’s Health and Human Needs Committee, where much of the early drama of the Stubbs confirmation played out, says she would consider that option. “I share the goal of ensuring an objective review of candidates and am open to the idea of making these civil service positions,” she says. “I know there are other legislative proposals in development I look forward to reviewing as well.”
Supv. Dana Pellebon, Board Chair Patrick Miles, and Carlos Pabellón, the county’s corporation counsel, met May 11 to develop one of those proposals. Miles says the three discussed what the board could change through an ordinance about the hiring process under the current system, where the county executive nominates his pick. “The county exec needs to have the discretion to pick the leadership, to execute that person’s vision and agenda for where to take the county. That being said, I do think there is a role for vetting and transparency in the process,” says Miles. Pellebon says she hopes to have more details available next week.
Wegleitner says that better “communication and collaboration” might have avoided the kind of conflict that developed over the Stubbs nomination. “Creating some clear expectations and procedures for what a good appointment process is would also help.”
Wegleitner says it might also be a good idea to involve people outside the administration in the interview and hiring process, including community members, leaders from city or state government, and chairs of relevant board committees. “I was shocked at how…. slim and subjective this [hiring] process seemed to be,” says Wegleitner. “It didn’t seem to be at all in line with what the county did four years before with Shawn Tessman’s appointment.” Tessman was appointed human services director in 2019, and resigned last summer. Astra Iheukumere, who became deputy director in 2019, has been serving as the interim director of the department since.
While the branches of county government work on a long-term fix, Parisi hopes contracting a national search firm will help fill a director position lacking a permanent title for nearly a year. “We’re going to have them conduct a national search and we want to get their feedback and their advice on how we move forward, and let candidates know Dane County is a good place to work, is a positive place to work.” He did not yet have a date for when the search would be launched.
Parisi announced earlier this week that he had hired former mayoral candidate Gloria Reyes to be the co-deputy director of the human services department as the new search for a director gets off the ground. Reyes was openly critical of the board in public comments during Stubbs’ confirmation process. But Parisi says he appointed Reyes so that the department has needed “additional management capacity” as the department prepares its budget.
He says he wants to put the conflict over Stubbs’ appointment behind him. “The board had some harsh criticism of me last week … but I’m willing to move past that and move forward for the department,” says Parisi.
