By Bob Steiner

Finally, after a year in office, the mayor of Edgewood, Robert Stearly, has decided to call for help.  Shortly after taking office he terminated  the previous town administrator and has since then been performing those duties, along with his mayoral functions. The absence of a qualified incumbent  for the position though, has taken its toll on the work load of the town staff. If you doubt this,   for example, go to the town web site and look at the town council meetings and agenda page.  The schedule  lists “January  8th as the most recent town council meeting.  Unfortunately,  information on later meetings is not present on this same page. In all fairness,  it should be noted here that those citizens who have subscribed to the agenda and meeting list do not see this incomplete listing and are automatically furnished the correct data by Email.  It could be very frustrating though,  for any citizen who is not a subscriber.  In any event, while the mayor is to be commended for his heavy workload for the past year, it is time for the town to hire an administrator and give him some relief.

Our “Blog master” in the previous article,  states that he already knows who will be named for the position.  Not being as clairvoyant as my learned  Wordsmith-mentor, I am reluctant to be so bold. Still I would at least like to see an orderly and equitable hiring process take place. Before a final hiring decision is made, I would hope that:

1.  A formal job announcement is posted in the  press encouraging all qualified individuals to apply.

2.  No “Good Old Buddies” or family are given priority.

3.  Avoid taking some one from the already “overworked” town staff to fill the position. While there may be several qualified potential  applicants on staff, we certainly don’t want to “rob Peter top pay Paul!”

4.  As our state seems to have its pitfalls when it comes to appointing public officials, and the job is a position of trust, I recommend that we take note of what our new Chief of Police  is doing and make any hiring decision be contingent upon a favorable Background Investigation on the potential incumbent.

Once again, I wish our mayor well and hope he can now enjoy some leisure time.