As a citizen and voter in Clark County, I have followed the blatant and unethical act of the Clark County commissioners in the hiring of an unqualified state senator to be the director of the Department of Environmental Services. This act violates human resource policies of the county and eliminates the possibility of any equal opportunity for women, racial minorities or the handicapped. The fallout from this political act has resulted in the county administrator and the deputy director resigning, as well as others.
I am currently semi-retired and a doctorate student at Washington State University. My dissertation is in organizational development in the public sector. I have a master’s of public administration from Lewis and Clark College and 30 years’ experience at city, county, regional and state levels as a public manager. I was director of Clark County’s Department of Community Development for nine years. That made me the longest-servicing director in the job. I managed 165 people and a $17 million budget.
So my offer is simple. I would be glad to volunteer to be the interim director of the Department of Environmental Services until a qualified applicant is hired. Understand that I don’t want the job full time, I just want a competent person in charge of an important job.
Richard H. Carson
Vancouver
