When the board hired interim County Administrative Officer Ray Espinosa 11 months ago, he had a glaring absence on his résumé. He didn’t have a bachelor’s degree and, therefore, lacked the county’s own minimum qualifications for the CAO job. The code required at least a bachelor’s degree in public administration, business or a related field.
Now, after an ineffective recruitment, supervisors appear willing to settle by giving Espinosa the permanent role. To do so, they had to lower the county’s minimum education qualifications for the position to exclude any sort of degree. They agreed in the 4-1 vote – Supervisor Robert Rivas opposed the code changes and hiring – to allow the overly vague qualification of government administrative experience to replace the education requirement under special circumstances.
In the process, they are lowering standards for leadership; deflating employee morale; making secretive decisions without public input by deciding to offer the job in closed session; making a mockery of their own legislative process; and setting up the county for disaster.
Being the CAO of a county – an organization with around 400 people – is a specialized position that demands years of training and experience. Espinosa, previously the county’s information technology manager, has neither.
Although it is short-sighted to believe someone necessarily needs a college degree to reach success, this is a focused role with complicated, specific objectives involving the law, budgeting, taxes, planning, management and politics. The county is not trying to invent the next iPad.
And it would be one thing if supervisors were discussing a rising star of sorts – someone with years of experience in key areas undertaken by a CAO, and someone who had knocked several home runs out of the park while in the interim role. Although Espinosa has done a solid job responding to supervisors’ requests and keeping the house in order, he simply has not obtained the necessary experience to put him in the position to make qualified, confident, complicated decisions.
Espinosa would be better off in an assistant administrative position and, if he wishes to earn the CAO status, could work toward an appropriate degree. The county should maintain its education standards with a narrowly defined caveat. If officials want to keep the door open for someone without a degree who has experience, they should set a minimum number of years – at least five – which that person had to have worked in a CAO role.
In recent years, we have learned about mistakes in county government, under poor management, and how they can cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Two examples at the county are the neglected claim reimbursement in health and human services that cost around $400,000 and the absent monitoring of a part-time employee’s overtime hours that cost about $700,000.
On the hiring side, the City of Hollister has given the county a pretty good idea of what might happen by hiring unqualified management at the top – with two of its last three city managers coming from engineering ranks – and how those decisions can set them up for fiscal failure.
San Benito County cannot be a training ground where unqualified people make their mistakes in key leadership positions, and this is not the time to settle or become grossly cheap.
