http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article102538.ece
Brown skirted rules in hiring of Thomas
By By James Heaney NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Published:August 16 2010, 8:13 AM
Mayor Byron W. Brown circumvented rules intended to depoliticize the hiring of City Hall's top personnel official in the selection of Karla L. Thomas as human resources commissioner two years ago, a Buffalo News investigation has found.
Most City Hall commissioners, including those who oversee the Police, Fire and Public Works departments, serve at the pleasure of the mayor. But state law attempts to insulate personnel directors, who in Buffalo double as human resource commissioners, by giving them a six-year term that is not concurrent with the mayor's. The City Charter takes it one step further, authorizing a citizen committee to recruit, review and recommend job candidates for human resources commissioner. The job involves oversight of civil service hiring, employee benefits management and labor relations.
But rather than ordinary citizens, the search committee appointed by Brown in 2008 was controlled by insiders. The three-person panel included a senior member of his staff, Janet Penksa, his commissioner of administration and finance. It also included attorney Adam Perry, who has contributed $6,675 to Brown's campaign in the past five years and whose law firm, Hodgson Russ, has done $3 million in business with the city since Brown took office.
The third member was
Jack Kennedy, a union official. The committee was assisted by Dana Bobinchek, an aide to Deputy Mayor Steve Casey.
The committee's choice was Thomas, whose job performance has come under criticism in recent months. There are now calls for her resignation or dismissal after release of an audit that found the city has paid $2 million in health insurance premiums for 152 dead city employees.
Critics contend that Thomas has failed to show even minimal competence in a job structured by state law and the City Charter to promote both independence and experience.
Unlike in 2002, when the city had last sought to hire a personnel director, the search committee appointed by Brown did not conduct a national job search. No ads were placed in national trade journals, which is the norm for recruiting job candidates. Nor did the Brown administration retain a recruiting firm.
Instead, classified ads were placed in two local weekly newspapers -- Business First and the Buffalo Law Journal -- according to documents obtained by The News under the Freedom of Information Law.
In addition, Perry, who served as chairman of the search committee, said he sent notice of the job opening to the local chapters of three organizations geared toward human resources. Perry said he also consulted with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, where he serves on the board of directors, as it had recently hired a labor employment attorney. Perry said he doesn't recall how many job candidates applied.
"Of the candidates who presented themselves for review by the committee, Ms. Thomas was the best qualified of the five actually interviewed," he wrote in a September 2008 letter to the Common Council.
Politically involved
Thomas at the time was chairwoman of Grassroots Inc., an organization that Brown was instrumental in growing and that continues to be a key source of political support and patronage hires.
From 1997 to 2005, Thomas worked for Crystal Peoples-Stokes -- a close political ally of Brown -- first when she served as an Erie County legislator, then when she was elected to the Assembly. Thomas worked for Peoples in a variety of roles, including chief of staff.
Thomas' involvement in Grassroots was an issue when Brown submitted her name to the Council for confirmation, and she resigned as chairwoman of the group when confirmed.
Her professional credentials also were called into question when she was nominated for commissioner. The City Charter requires the human resources commissioner to have a college degree and at least five years of "senior human resources management experience."
Thomas had three years under her belt as director of human resources at the Erie County Water Authority -- two years shy of the required minimum. Perry and his committee maintained that she had previous experience in two private-sector jobs that should be counted.
Perry reiterated that position Friday, saying, "Ms. Thomas obviously had more than the five years of necessary experience."
She also, as it turns out, had received a $500 contribution to Grassroots from Perry in 2007 while she was chairwoman, according to records maintained by the state Board of Elections. It's among the $23,500 in contributions Perry has made since 2004, most of them to Brown and politicians aligned with the mayor. Other major recipients include State Sen. Antoine M. Thompson, Gov. David A. Paterson and North Common Council Joseph Golombek Jr., who is challenging Assemblyman Sam Hoyt -- whom Brown considers a political enemy -- in the upcoming Sept. 14 primary.
Process debated
While not required in the City Charter, Thomas lacked the professional credentials possessed by her predecessor, Leonard A. Matarese, that are issued by the International Public Management Association for Human Resources and the Society for Human Resource Management.
Matarese left in February 2008, when he had nine months left on his term, after being largely pushed aside by the Brown administration. Matarese was appointed in 2002 by then-Mayor Anthony M. Masiello to a six-year term that was to run through November 2008. But days after Brown won his mayoral bid in November 2005, Brown publicly said he should have the right to pick his own top labor adviser. He asked Matarese to reapply fo his job "just like everyone else." Matarese refused, and Brown backed off on the issue, but Brown assigned other administration officials to handle many labor relations issues. Matarese remained on staff, largely shut out of the mayor's inner circle, and then resigned in February 2008. Thomas was appointed five months later.
In retrospect, Council President David A. Franczyk said, the fix was probably in from the beginning of the search process. Franczyk termed the committee's search process "a formality. They knew who they were hiring from the get-go; otherwise they would have done a better job."
Perry strenuously objected to claims that he is aligned with the mayor or that the search process he headed was tainted. "Do not print I'm aligned with the mayor," he demanded.
Was the search committee on a political mission?
"This committee was 100 percent lawfully constituted," he declared.
The Council in September 2008 confirmed Thomas in a 6-3 vote, the first time a Brown appointee had not been unanimously approved by the Council.
"I voted against her. I didn't think she was competent, she didn't seem to know what she was talking about," Franczyk said. "She came into my office to ask for my support, and the first thing out of her mouth was, 'I want to be approved with unanimous support.' I said, 'Huh?'"
Thomas, who makes $91,734, did not return a phone call placed to her office seeking an interview. Peter Cutler, the mayor's spokesman, declined to comment.
Series of problems
Thomas' competence has been called into question over the course of this year over a series of problems her department has been associated with.
They include:
> A finding by the city comptroller in January that the city had made double payments for health insurance for up to 250 sanitation and water workers involving $526,309 in overpayments. The audit also identified other problems in Thomas' department, including paperwork backlogs, poor delegation of work and a weak system of checks and balances. Auditors said Thomas attempted to rebuff them when they were detailing problems by declaring, "TMI," meaning "too much information."
> A surge in the number of police officers collecting sick pay based on claims they were injured on duty. Payments have almost doubled in the past five years, to nearly $10 million in 2009, an increase that some attribute to poor oversight by the Human Resources Department.
> The department's role in the job search this spring for police commissioner. Brown promised a national search, but none was conducted, and only acting Commissioner Daniel Derenda was interviewed. Thomas angered some Council members by failing to attend Derenda's confirmation hearing to answer questions about the recruitment effort that she was charged with managing.
> An audit released by the city comptroller last week that found the city has paid $2 million for health insurance premiums for 152 dead former employees. Comptroller Andrew A. SanFilippo called the findings "a disgrace."
Several Council members have called for Thomas' resignation or dismissal. Brown said he was "very disappointed" but has not said he is willing to seek Thomas' removal.
The process used by Brown to hire Thomas puts the administration's employment practices back in the spotlight only weeks after Derenda barely survived a rocky confirmation hearing. He was confirmed in a 5-4 vote amid questions about his credentials and criticism of the administration's failure follow through on its pledge to conduct a nationwide job search or provide details of the search it did perform.
The administration is continuing to withhold details, failing to provide records requested by The News on July 17 under the FOI Law.
Originally Posted by citizenpain
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