CDC to offer contract to new executive director
Following a two-month search, the Presque Isle County Economic Development Corporation voted to recommend the hiring of William R. Valentine as its executive director. Valentine, currently a reporter and columnist for Presque Isle Newspapers, was the one candidate ?who came to the top,? said Jane Kroll, treasurer of the CDC, and member of the interview committee.
The EDC executive committee, plus board member Doug Elliot, interviewed five candidates for the position, most recently held by Sharon Schilke. The announcement of the selection of Valentine came at Thursday?s meeting of the CDC/EDC boards. ?I think the interviews went well and we had some excellent candidates. One person in particular came to the top,? Kroll said in her recommendation to the board. The interview committee used a numerical rating to evaluate the candidates. Valentine scored 284 while the others scored 255, 197, 192, 145. The five finalists were interviewed over a three and one-half hour period December 8. Although all of the details of the contract to be offered to Valentine were not ironed out at the meeting, the board discussed offering Valentine $32,000 per year as a part time contractor. Expenses and mileage will be added to that figure. The recommendation is contingent on a routine background and drug screen test. The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners, which has the final authority to hire the director, meets later this month. It is presumed the issue to offer Valentine a contract will be on the agenda.
EARLIER IN THE meeting, CDC/EDC chairman David Viegelahn asked that a notation be made in the minutes regarding his views on the decision in October to hire CDC board member and Presque Isle County Tourism Council executive director Kammie Dennis as temporary office help for the EDC. The CDC and Tourism Council offices are in the same building on the airport property.
Dennis was hired by the CDC to staff the CDC office at the rate of $12 per hour, in the absence of the former CDC executive director and her assistant, who each had left their positions. Viegelahn clarified his position on the board?s decision to hire Dennis by stating ?I expressed my disagreement with that decision because I felt that payment to a board member officer created a conflict of interest.? Since he didn?t make the original motion, Viegelahn said he ?didn?t have any authority? to ask to rescind the motion, and he wanted the record to reflect that.
Viegelahn also had concerns that the CDC/EDC board may have gone into executive session improperly at its November meeting. The meeting was chaired by EDC vice chairman Peter Pettalia in Viegalahn?s absence. ?For an executive session, you have to state the purpose or reason for going into an executive session. I?m not quite sure, for clarification, what the reason was,? he said.
AT THE November board meeting, the media and public were dismissed to the hall while the board spent 30 minutes presumably discussing time spent by Dennis at the CDC office and wages paid to her. Ac
?There are very limited reasons you can go into executive session, and you can?t go into executive session for that purpose,? Viegelahn said. County commissioner Gary Wozniak, seated in the audience, agreed with Viegelahn. ?We had discussion about wages and salaries and things, and we couldn?t go into executive session,? he said.
THE BOARD spent the last 10 minutes of the two-hour meeting hearing about potential development in the county. Viegalahn said he has been in contact with four potential businesses interested in locating in Presque Isle County. The names of the businesses were not disclosed, for confidentiality reasons, but he characterized them as a food product concern, another as a company in the energy field, a third as a glass company, and the fourth as a high-tech operation.