Head hunting the head hunters
To the editor:
I can’t believe that somewhere out there, there isn’t a qualified, competent candidate for the Lee County Manager position who isn’t tainted by allegations of impropriety, incompetence or other baggage.
Recent News-Press editorials were right on when they slammed both the consulting firm who created the short list and the County commissioners who accepted their finding and chose the candidate they deemed the least undesirable. This looks like another disaster waiting to happen.
Almost concurrently the Lee County School Board made its choice for superintendent of a left-over candidate from a previous search (which blew up after two years). They then backed away and decided to hire their own consulting firm to do a new national search.
The “head-hunter” consulting business is quite a lucrative racket. Governments, businesses and colleges whose boards don’t want to do their own homework hire these people. Unless it can be proven later that the consultant really screwed up, like undiscovered crime or moral turpitude, there is little liability for recommending a bad candidate. It’s like weather forecasting. You can be wrong half the time and still stay in business.
I have a solution. I’m going to start my own consulting firm called “Head-Hunter-Hunters.” The service will be to vet other consulting firms about their success and customer satisfaction ratings and recommend the firms most likely to get clients the best candidates. I’m going to be rich.
Jay Light
Fort Myers Beach