Reports: Connections play role in hiring

Web posted November 13, 1999

 Jurors call for special grand jury
  Commissioners' ethics questioned
 Grand jury wonders at city's purchases

    Previous coverage:
 Jury resumes probing waste in government
 Commission standards under fire
 Grand jury report reaction is negative
 The grand jury's report

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By Sandy Hodson
Staff Writer

Too often, getting a city job or an appointment to the city's personnel board falls on connections instead of experience and skill, a Richmond County grand jury's report alleges.

The city has the policies and procedures in place to ensure accountability, the grand jury noted in the report released Friday, but ``they are often ignored or used in an erratic or sporadic manner.''

The grand jury noted three specific areas of concern -- how the city employee pension plans are handled; how employees are hired, given raises and promotions and terminated; and how the personnel board operates.

``The committee examined the role of the personnel board. We found that very few members have human resources or personnel experience or backgrounds. Placements on this board are determined by political patronage considerations and not based on talent or experience of the appointed members,'' the grand jury report states.

The personnel board came under fire this summer after members overturned the firing of a city employee and commissioner's son who was convicted of stealing city property.

In fact, the grand jury learned, one member -- William Alfred Ferguson, 50, -- is himself a convicted felon and is facing charges of child molestation and enticing a minor for indecent purposes.

Mr. Ferguson's case has been transferred to Richmond County State Court for a plea negotiation to misdemeanor charges, according to court records. Mr. Ferguson, who pleaded guilty in 1980 to theft, is accused of having improper sexual contact with a girl, who was 13 at the time, on July 21, 1996.

``The grand jury recommends that criminal background checks be done on all future nominees,'' the report reads. It also recommended that members of boards and commissions should be covered by the ethics ordinances.

According to city records, Mr. Ferguson is still a member of the personnel board. Charles McCain, board chairman, did not return a telephone message Friday evening.

``Well, I've said from day one that board ought to be abolished,'' Mayor Bob Young said Friday. ``It's a carry-over from the old county. It serves no useful purpose. We just ought to get rid of it. We have adequate appeals processes in places in our human resources policy.''

The grand jury recommended that the human resource department play a role in the awarding of performance pay raises, in the screening and hiring of employees, and in screening members of the personnel board.

Too often, the grand jury report alleges, politics guide the hiring of department heads and other employees.

City Administrator Randy Oliver said Friday he and his staff are currently revamping the personnel policies, and changes will be proposed. The commission has the final say in hiring department heads, and the department heads hire their own employees, he said.

``I tell the department heads that it's a lot easier to hire a good employee than to get rid of a bad one later on,'' Mr. Oliver said. He would like to see hiring panels established for all positions, he said. Ideally, the panel to interview and hire prospects would include those who will work with that person, Mr. Oliver said.

And with more than one person making hiring decisions, it would be much harder for someone to improperly influence those decisions, Mr. Oliver said.

The report specifically questioned the distribution of performance pay raises in the Augusta-Richmond County Fire Department. ``Most combat firemen who scored extremely high on their evaluations received much lower pay raises than their superiors who had much lower evaluation scores,'' the report states.

``As it stands now it appears that performance pay raises are based on favoritism and proximity to the department head, rather than on actual work performance,'' the report continues.

The grand jury report also questioned the handling of the city employees pension funds. The city has five different pension plans, and while under the control of the old city government, $975,000 was taken from one plan to buy land along Reynolds Street.

Pension is one area the outgoing grand jury recommended for in-depth study by a special, investigative grand jury. The members raised questions about how the pension funds are managed and invested and if the plans are equitable to all employees.

Mr. Oliver said the city attorney had hired an Atlanta lawyer who specializes in pension plans to serve as a consultant. While joining all employees under one plan might be the fairest option, it's not an easy or cheap thing to do, he said.