A second Dane County board committee has voted unanimously to reject County Executive Joe Parisi’s nominee for the top job at the county’s Department of Human Services, with members harshly criticizing the hiring process and the administration’s dealings with the board.
“I’m disappointed by the executive office’s lack of care and time in this process. Their handling of this process highlights a pattern of behavior in which any questions or requests for information by supervisors are seen as adversarial instead of the board completing its required oversight role,” Supv. Elizabeth Doyle, who chairs the board’s Personnel and Finance Committee, said Monday night before voting against the appointment of Shelia Stubbs to head the human services department.
Parisi announced April 13 that he was nominating Stubbs, who represents Madison in the state Assembly and is the pastor at End Time Ministries International. Stubbs served on the county board from 2006-22, chairing the board’s Health and Human Needs Committee from 2008-12. In comments before the committee, she cited her work helping to create county equity and inclusion initiatives and the Community Restorative Court as qualifications for the position.
She also highlighted her life experience working with the community that the department serves when she moved to Simpson Street (later renamed Lake Point Drive) in the 1990s. “I believed in those that lived there. I gave people food out of my own refrigerator, I helped pay rent, I helped babysit, I did what it took to help these single mothers, these families that were so disenfranchised,” said Stubbs.
But supervisors said they were concerned with Stubbs’ lack of managerial and executive experience for a position heading a department with 800 employees and a $240 million budget.
Supv. Mike Bare noted that Stubbs currently supervises two staffers and six interns. “That’s not the experience that was required in the job posting.”
Committee members also said a shorter-than-usual recruitment and vetting process left them with more concerns.
The board’s Health and Human Needs Committee on April 27 also voted unanimously not to recommend Stubbs for the post, basing their votes on what they said was an abbreviated recruitment and application process, errors and inconsistencies in application materials, and Stubbs’s spread of “misinformation” about the confirmation process.
Supervisors at that meeting said they felt surprised by accusations from supporters of Stubbs that they were “refusing” to move forward with her confirmation process just days after her appointment was announced. They said they followed the typical confirmation process and moved forward with each step as soon as they were able to, which Supv. Heidi Wegleitner again confirmed Monday night.
The at times ugly confirmation process has laid bare and inflamed what is already a rocky relationship between the county board and Parisi.
“I believe that we have been used by the county executive,” said Supv. Matt Veldran. “He called us political? I think it’s patently false, I think it’s just the opposite. I think this [appointment] was put up to challenge us.”
