Done before the vote

So much for hiring slowly. And for transparency.

Nevertheless, by all indications, Longboat Key has lucked out again on the town manager front, with the hiring Monday of Tom Harmer as the successor to retiring Town Manager David Bullock.

How the town landed Harmer wasn’t exactly a model for open, public business. Indeed, the chronology was odd:

•  June 5: The Town Commission agreed to have Bullock begin a “targeted,” 30-day search for candidates to replace him — after which Bullock would ask commissioners how they want him to proceed.
• June 19: The commission directed Bullock to pursue Harmer, currently the Sarasota County administrator.

Harmer expressed interest in the job, and individual meetings between commissioners and Harmer followed.

According to Longboat Key Mayor Terry Gans, in the ensuing weeks, Bullock informed commissioners he was going to prepare a draft of an employment contract with Town Attorney Maggie Mooney-Portale. Gans said “Bullock had my permission to proceed. He did not poll commissioners, but I presume he did not encounter reasons that … would cause him to stop.”

Gans also said he understood that the contract being prepared would be subject to Town Commission approval and that it “was to be based upon Mr. Bullock’s contract, which I found to be an important point.”

On July 12, Harmer announced to the Sarasota County Commission he had accepted Longboat Key’s town manager position. That same day, Bullock sent a memo to Longboat commissioners containing an employment contract signed by Harmer.

“Mr. Harmer has executed the contract,” Bullock wrote, “and I submit it with my highest recommendation for approval to the Town Commission.”

Nowhere in the contract does it express that Harmer’s hiring was subject to the approval of the Town Commission.

Obviously, Harmer signed the contract knowing he had the commissioners’ votes.

Why does this process — from the time commissioners gave their approval to talk to Harmer to his signing the contract — seem like it has the scent of being a behind-the-scenes orchestration? Would not the expected chronology be one in which the town manager asks in a public meeting for the commissioners’ approval to present a contract to Harmer? And for the commissioners to approve in a public meeting the terms of the contract — or at least parameters of the terms — before they are presented to the prospect?

Yes, the town charter specifies one of the duties of the Town Commission is to hire the town manager and determine the manager’s compensation. But the charter does not say how those two duties are to be conducted — in the open or out of public view.

Think of a different chronology. If, say, Bullock came to Monday’s Town Commission meeting with an item on the agenda to recommend the hiring of Harmer and terms of his hiring, that at least would have conveyed to voters: 1) they had an opportunity to be heard before this decision is made; and 2) it was an open, transparent process.

It wasn’t. But let’s not blow this out of scale. It’s not Longboat’s version of “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Nonetheless, the chronology of Harmer’s hiring should serve as a reminder that when Town Commission business is conducted out of voter sight, such behavior damages and weakens the public’s trust in its elected leaders.

Now put all that process aside. In the end, it appears from all that we have witnessed during his tenure at Sarasota County, Tom Harmer is a high-quality choice for Longboat Key’s next town manager. But expectations will be high — especially because commissioners considered him as their only candidate.