Last week, the Carroll County Board of Supervisors concluded three interviews during their regular meeting, selected a candidate to act as the new county IT director and then made an offer. John Pitner, of Minot, N.D. accepted the offer shortly after it was presented, but then the very next day called Chair, Neil Bock, and rescinded his acceptance. This left the board with a decision to make; whether to offer the position to their second choice of the three finalists or to go back to square one and re-open applications. One current county employee had also applied, but had not been selected by the IT committee to move into the interview round of the process. Louie Grote was at Monday morning’s meeting to make a comment and ask for consideration.
Current IT Director, Carl Wilburn, also said he would like to see Grote interviewed for the position. Supervisor, Dean Schettler, says he believes that at the core, even though Pitner said his family was not actually behind the decision to move to Carroll, this is really a money issue.
Bock asked Schettler if he was insinuating that Pitner could be bought.
Bock and another member of the hiring committee, County Treasurer, Jean Seidl, say they were contacted by highly-qualified candidates that were unable to originally apply and would like the opportunity now. After a lengthy discussion about their options, the board did decide to re-open the position for general applications and to have the committee again whittle down the applicants to those most qualified for the position to move through to the interview phase. They are also willing to explore the possibility of outsourcing all or a portion of the county’s IT needs.
