It's whom they hire, not where they search

By Times editorial
Published June 3, 2007

It isn't your sweet conversation

That brings this sensation, oh, no

It's just the nearness of you.

Hoagey Carmichael's 1937 tune, updated most recently by Norah Jones, characterized close proximity as a compliment. If only that were true in government.

Twenty years ago, then-Pasco Commissioner Sylvia Young was perplexed at the issue of the day. It was beyond her immediate comprehension and she searched for a delay or advice.

We need to bring in an expert to tell us what to do, she offered.

Who's an expert? asked another commissioner.

Somebody who lives more than 15 miles away, land-use attorney and Democratic Party power broker Clyde Hobby deadpanned from the audience.

Sarcasm to some is gospel to others. The thinking hasn't changed much in two decades. Today's commission wants a national search as it seeks a replacement for retiring County Attorney Robert Sumner.

Sumner formally announced his departure plans last month, but it's been no secret he intended to leave at the end of 2007, shortly after his contract expires. He endorsed his top deputy, Barbara Wilhite, for the job, which brought the commission's stated preference to search far and wide for Sumner's successor.

Neither a broad search nor hiring a familiar face guarantees success. Consider the track record of county attorneys since the mid 1980s. The highly regarded Ben Harrill was promoted from the staff. The late Tom Bustin came from the outside and departed after an unsuccessful three-year tenure marked by mounting courtroom losses. Karla Stetter Owens was an in-house hire handpicked after the commission declined to interview any of the 40 applicants drawn by a national search. She resigned after 4 1/2 years of being used as commission doormat and apologist. Sumner, a Pasco native and private practice attorney, took the job on an interim basis in 1999 and the commission dropped "interim" from his title after three months.

Instead of focusing on geography, commissioners would be wise to emphasis the characteristics they want in their county attorney, one of only two personnel decisions that rest exclusively with the board.

They don't need a lawyer as much as they need a leader.

Sumner, who had worked exclusively for himself before joining the county, doesn't mince words and isn't shy about telling the commission what it needs to hear.

He demonstrated that early in his tenure when commissioners unveiled a convoluted map of rural roads they wanted designated as scenic highways protected from billboards.

If that's what you want the county to look like, then you should just consider an outright billboard ban, Sumner told his bosses. That apparently hadn't crossed their minds, nor had it been offered as one of the proposed alternatives from County Administrator John Gallagher. The commission agreed, and Sumner's fingerprints have become evident on important public policy decisions since including school impact fees and a rewritten comprehensive land-use plan.

His advice isn't exclusive to legal matters. He threatened a building moratorium to win acquiescence from land owners objecting to a settlement of a challenge to the land-use plan, lectured citizen advisory boards offering parochial solutions to water use and trying to delay to much-needed school impact fees and told planning commissioners to stop acting like a rubber stamp on housing developments.

His success comes from a strong personality and a knowledge of Pasco's heritage and the players with which he interacts. It is a common sense, but procitizenry influence that will be missed from the dais.

The task at hand, for the commission is hiring a replacement before year's end. If commissioners want to look nationally, that is their prerogative. Certainly, they shouldn't hire based on convenience or politics and a search doesn't preclude the next county attorney from being local.

But what does the search say about the commission? Either they want the best or, at least on this matter, they don't trust Sumner's judgment.

Oh, well. If Commissioner Michael Cox, a Pasco resident since childhood, thinks there are people outside the county more suitable for public service who are we to argue?

Just let us know when the commission endorses a national search for future commissioners.

[Last modified June 2, 2007, 19:24:08]