Let’s say for
the moment that you are on the board of directors of a company.
As a board
member, you appoint a president who has a yearly contract. That yearly contract
pays him over $225,000. During your president’s term, he is sued for sexual
harassment, costing your company just under $1 million. Later in his term, another
law suit is filed against him, this time for discrimination, harassment, retaliation,
assault, battery, breach of oral contract and negligent misrepresentation. This
lawsuit is pending, but is certain to cost your company a lot of money. Next,
the same president is given a task by your board, with explicit instructions to
conduct a study on a specific issue. Instead of doing this, he uses the funds
allotted for this study to indulge in what appears to be personal witch-hunt.
What would you do when his contract was up for renewal?
As a board
member it is up to you to decide his fate. Logic would likely tell you to give
great consideration to not renewing his contract and to look for another
qualified and capable candidate who better represents your company. Logic, as
defined by Webster, is “a science that deals with the principles and criteria of
validity of inference and demonstration; the science of the formal
principles of reasoning”
Now consider
the above example as a true one that exists in our county. The members of the board
described above represent our five county supervisors. The president whose
performance has cost us, the tax payer’s ridiculous sums of money is our own chief
executive officer,
Believe it or
not, our board of supervisors recently voted to extend Mike Brown’s contract by
2 years, to May 2011. In addition, they voted to increase his severance pay
from four months to nine months, and they increased his benefit of an annual
contribution to the County Employees Retire
Doesn’t this
leave you wondering how our county is being run -- and by whom? I think the constituents of our county are owed
an explanation as to why Mike Brown’s frivolous behavior is being rewarded and
not reprimanded. I also think the tax money
that I pay the county should go toward useful and needed services, like the fire
and police departments, public works, agricultural support and education - and not to pay for Mike Brown’s lawsuits and
his personal pet projects.
What do you
think?
I would like to note
that although I do not agree with Supervisor Centeno’s vote in favor of Brown’s
contract extension, it was because of his leadership that the Santa Ynez Valley
Baseline Study (which Brown turned into a hit piece on thoroughbred
horse-breeders) was brought back to the board and killed. For this action I
commend Mr. Centeno and extend my thanks.