Monday, March 27, 2000
Consultant drops Lebanon as client
BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — The consultant hired to find a city auditor has fired Lebanon as his client, saying in effect anybody would be a fool to work for the fractious council.
“It would be incumbent upon me to let candidates for auditor/finance director know they are likely to get caught in struggles between a faction of council and the rest of council,” Martin Jenkins told city officials in a Feb. 29 letter that The Enquirer obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
“I can project that the focus of that struggle will often be on trying to catch the City Manager in some minor misstatement or omission.”
Countered Councilman James Reinhard on Sunday: “I think if it's a real professional person that we're hiring, they can get past that.”
Mr. Jenkins, senior associate of Organizational Resources Group, has helped Lebanon before, including last year's search for a city manager that resulted in the hiring of James Patrick. Mr. Patrick's tenure has been rocky so far, with Mr. Reinhard saying he doesn't provide needed information and should resign.
Mr. Jenkins was hired last fall to find a replacement for Auditor Debbie Biggs.
He first raised concerns in a Jan. 6 letter in which he urged the city to delay the auditor search until the furor settled over early retirement buyouts given to Mrs. Biggs and two other high-ranking officials.
“I think this is not an opportune time to invite professionals to join the Lebanon city organization,” Mr. Jenkins wrote. “I'm not sure that assurances of a reasonable tenure could be offered which would be sufficient to encourage a professional to relocate to Lebanon.”
He withdrew from the search in the Feb. 29 letter, a week after Mr. Patrick barely survived a 4-3 vote of confidence. Mr. Jenkins was to have been paid $4,700 to $9,500 for the search; it was not clear Sunday how much he received.
Mr. Jenkins, reached by phone late last week, declined to say whether he has ever fired a client before. A search of several hundred newspapers' databases, however, turned up no reports of Organizational Re sources Group doing so. The company, based in the Columbus suburb of Worthington, provides consulting services to municipalities.
Councilman Mark Flick said the political divisions that concerned Mr. Jenkins are healing. “I think that council has started working as a unit again.”
The search for a city auditor will continue without Mr. Jenkins' help, Mr. Reinhard and Mr. Flick said Sunday.
“I personally got the impression that he may have gotten too close to Jim Patrick,” Mr. Reinhard said. “If Marty doesn't want to come to the picnic, that's fine.”
Mr. Jenkins sent candidates' resumes to the city, and the next step is to decide how to proceed with the search.
“It's something that council must do right away,” Mr. Flick said.
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