Panel won’t name any other clerk-recorder finalists, 3 members tell SLO County board
San Luis Obispo County’s three conservative supervisors want more interim clerk-recorder finalists to consider — but a majority of its hand-picked selection committee says it cannot, “in good conscience,” recommend any other applicants.
Supervisors Debbie Arnold, John Peschong and Lynn Compton on Tuesday agreed they want to add more applicants to the slate of three candidates their screening committee advanced for public interviews before the board on Oct. 12.
But Ken Hampian, Lee Price and Marcia Torgerson — three members of the five-person group — on Wednesday sent the Board of Supervisors a letter saying it “would not be productive to reconvene the review committee.”
“As professionals, we have already given you our best recommendations and cannot, in good conscience, recommend added candidates,” the letter said.
Selection committee finds supervisors’ job requirements ‘not sufficient’ to screen applicants
The committee is made up of representatives each supervisor selected. The board created it to find an interim replacement for former Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong, who resigned from his position in July to accept a new job in the Bay Area. A year remains on Gong’s term, and voters will select a new clerk-recorder in 2022.
Hampian, tapped by Dawn Ortiz-Legg, is a former San Luis Obispo city manager; Price, representing Bruce Gibson, is a former San Luis Obispo city clerk; and Torgerson, picked by Debbie Arnold, is a former Atascadero city clerk. Together, they have the most experience hiring people for government positions.
Supervisor Lynn Compton’s former attorney Chuck Bell and Supervisor John Peschong’s legislative assistant Vicki Janssen rounded out the five-person committee.
The supervisors provided only minimum qualifications for potential clerk-recorder applicants. Candidates must be at least 18, they must be California residents and they must live in San Luis Obispo County and be registered to vote in the area at the time of the appointment.
The committee met twice in September to consider candidates a field of 44 candidates, most of whom had no experience working in a clerk-recorder’s office or running elections.
In its deliberations, the committee agreed the minimum requirements “were not sufficient to properly screen the applications,” leading members to collaborate with county administrative officer Wade Horton to develop their own selection criteria, the letter said.
This included elections experience, as well as “nonpartisan, apolitical, team-oriented leadership” and “the integrity and the ability to build trust among differing populations.”
Following those standards, the committee on Sept. 20 recommended advancing the only three candidates who had these qualifications: SLO County clerk-recorder deputy director Helen Nolan, former Yolo County chief deputy clerk-recorder Jeffrey Barry and Santa Barbara County elections division manager Elaina Cano.
Committee has ‘professional duty’ to recommend only qualified candidates
On Tuesday, Arnold led the three conservative supervisors in asking for more candidates because, she said, they had instructed the selection committee to return seven candidates.
However, Hampian, Lee and Torgerson — Arnold’s own committee appointee — said the smaller number of finalists “should be celebrated, rather than considered a disappointment.”
The committee decided early on that “we should not recommend applicants whom we deemed unqualified merely to reach an arbitrary number,” the letter said.
“In addition to respecting the board’s time, we felt our professional duty is only to recommend people we truly believed are qualified,” the letter said.
None of the committee members recommended 37 of the 44 applicants, and they all unanimously favored the three finalists.
The three letter-writers also pointed out “it has been difficult almost everywhere to find up to seven sufficiently qualified candidates for public sector department head level positions.”
“It is particularly challenging in SLO County, given our higher housing prices and generally lower salaries when compared to pay scales in our wider recruitment market,” the letter said. “Your clerk-recorder vacancy has the added difficulty of being only an interim position.”
The letter-writers ultimately believe “attracting three very qualified candidates is a very good outcome.”
“The smaller number of finalists, while not reaching your goal of seven, will allow the board ample time to probe their backgrounds and qualifications before making this very important appointment,” the letter said.
The Board of Supervisors will next discuss the clerk-recorder hiring process at their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 5.
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 1:45 PM.
