Richland County committee narrows county administrator search, moves to closed session

The Richland County Executive Finance Standing Committee moved into closed session Feb. 24 to narrow finalists for the county administrator position and discussed confidentiality, background checks and scheduling for interviews in March.

John, a county staff member who explained the process to the committee during the meeting, said he had provided a PDF to the chair and that the county had produced short video clips of some candidates to help the committee evaluate applicants. He told members that some applicants had requested confidentiality and that, "What's said in this room tonight stays in this room." He added that if the committee reduced the applicant pool to five or fewer and a candidate had requested release of their name, state law would require disclosure.

The committee discussed options for conducting background checks. John said the sheriff's department had offered to run checks or the county could use a private vendor and recommended starting checks earlier in the process because recruitment is competitive. "If you're gonna have a sheriff's department do it … inform them who the finalists are, and they can begin doing background checks rather than waiting until the eleventh and twelfth," he said.

Members also discussed logistical details for interviews. John said depending on how many finalists the committee selects, interviews could be completed in one day or could take a day and a half; the committee also discussed whether to include a written exercise for finalists, as had been done in the previous hiring round. The group briefly raised the question of travel reimbursement for candidates who travel to interview; staff said they had thoughts to share on that topic but no reimbursement decision was recorded in the meeting.

At the start of the meeting the committee approved the minutes from its Feb. 11 meeting as presented and removed agenda item 7, reducing the agenda by one item. Public comment was called and none was offered.

Later in the meeting a member moved to enter closed session "pursuant to Wisconsin Statute section 19.85(1)(c) concerning employment, promotion, compensation, and performance evaluation data of any public employee," specifically to consider the selection of final county administrator candidates. The motion was seconded and approved by voice vote; the committee went into closed session. The committee reconvened in open session and no action was taken on matters discussed in closed session.

The committee identified March as the month to conduct finalist interviews; members discussed scheduling and the potential length of the interview day or days but did not record a specific interview schedule or list of finalists in open session. Ingrid asked that work on the county strategic plan be added to a future agenda. The meeting adjourned with no additional public actions recorded.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the Feb. 11 minutes, approved removing agenda item 7, and voted to enter closed session under Wisconsin Statute 19.85(1)(c); no roll-call vote totals were transcribed and no subsequent public votes on finalists were recorded.