LITTLE ROCK — It appears that hiring a director it then had to turn around three years later and fire might not turn out to be bad in the long run for the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District.

Since the district’s board fired director Maylon Rice in September after allegations of management transgressions surfaced, the group has been compelled to compile a genuine job description for the next director soon to be hired. Hindsight proves it’s a document that’s long overdue.

And I’m not sure I’d want to be in that director’s seat, considering the new list of 19 expectations and responsibilities for that position stretches for five pages. Yet I also can’t fault the district’s board members for wanting to ensure that they don’t have to endure what they did in their experience with Rice.

A news story the other day by Northwest Arkansas Times reporter Tony Hernandez elaborated on various reasons behind canning Rice. It contained the findings of an internal investigation by Dan Short (Washington County Judge Marilyn Edwards’ chief of staff), which found that the former director regularly used the district’s cash box to pay employees for what was deemed “extra work.”

Rice also admitted to not placing supporting documents for personnel expenses or income taxes (such as receipts) in the files or on a computer for the extra work. Short’s investigation found that Rice would avoid providing receipts for disposal fees or other work-related charges.

Then there was the former director’s practice of hiring some workers on a “contract status” for months while failing to deduct their income taxes or insurance premiums. I’ve already written about complaints over Rice’s management style within the office and the questionable use of district grant funds to purchase a pickup, as well as other management practices.

In light of the present management debacle, the board also is ironing out how it should proceed in suspending-or terminating-future directors if the need again arises.

I understand why it was high time for this board to produce written guidelines for a new director to follow from the first day on the job.

All this said, I find myself wondering what was behind Rice being hired for the $50,000-plus-a-year position that clearly requires specific management skills and at least some expertise in managing budgets, legislative affairs and a staff.

Were politics involved, or personal connections of some kind? I don’t know, but if so, this is a perfect illustration of what can happen with that approach as opposed to matching the proper person with job that must be done in the public interest. We call that form of hiring acquaintances, friends or supporters good-ol’-boy cronyism.

I also wonder if the person (or persons) who ultimately signed off on Rice’s hiring did much of any background check of his previous work record before putting him on the public payroll and over a staff. And if not, why not?

Thankfully, the board’s set of badly needed guidelines for its director should solve any future problems like those that blew up here on everyone involved.

Yet a lengthy policy document obviously won’t answer my legitimate questions about whoever hired Rice as director, and why.

Effective leadership

Anyone else notice that the city of Rogers is proudly welcoming a new plastics-processing plant that will hire as many as 350 workers? Good for the energies and enterprising efforts ofRogers in growing Benton County!

Such an addition is bound to represent an additional welcome payroll for that city during tough economic times.

Benton County is home to considerable growth today, including the spectacular Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a new Walton Arts Center and now this plant that will convert castoff plastics into reusable resin.

Such success in Rogers and Benton County is enough to make me wonder what’s going on to reflect similar growth in adjacent Washington County and its county seat, Fayetteville.

For instance, it seems to me (as a mere layman observer) that the city’s former Mexican Original plant that has sat dormant for years would make an ideal place for a manufacturing firm that could employ hundreds, perhaps thousands. Any meaningful movement on that possibility in recent years? I’m sure folks would like to hear.

While I’m rambling on the topic of effective public leadership and forward movement in Fayetteville, I also noticed the Northwest Arkansas Times endorsed former Mayor Dan Coody in his bid for election to his old post. The endorsement called Coody “the best fit for the times.” I fully understand why they made that choice.

There’s no question in my mind that Coody did a lot during his two previous terms to move the university city forward through wise hiring and assertive management, including attracting the new Sam’s Club, enlarging the trails system and gaining national accolades for Fayetteville.

I also doubt that the mayorally experienced Coody would have ever signed off on that block headed, backwards parking debacle on Block Avenue or the confusing and tedious kiosk parking nightmare that hampers Dickson Street today.

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial, Pages 17 on 11/03/2012