“Commissioners dismiss Severance by rewriting job description” |
| Commissioners dismiss Severance by rewriting job description Posted: 18 Jan 2011 10:38 AM PST Posted: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 11:22 am | Updated: 12:12 pm, Tue Jan 18, 2011. Public executions tend to draw crowds and that was the case this morning as Pueblo County staffers came to the board of commissioners chamber to learn the fate of Public Works Department Director Greg Severance. Without comment, the commissioners voted 3-0 to rewrite Severance's job description to require that a civil engineer fill the post — a decision that came with lightning speed in the past few days. Severance, who has headed the department for 12 years and been a de facto county manager at times, sat in the audience for the vote and then left the chamber. The commissioners had not spoken to him since a brief discussion at last Thursday's work session, when they said they intended to consider creating a county engineering department to save money on consulting fees. That discussion clearly took Severance by surprise and the commissioners fended off his questions by saying it was just a discussion. By Friday, however, the commissioners were acknowledging that they intended to put an engineer in Severance's job. After this morning's vote , the 48-year-old Severance said he didn't know what his status was as a county employee. A week ago, Commissioner John Cordova moved into the chairman's seat and after Tuesday's vote on the publics works director, commissioners Jeff Chostner and Anthony Nunez quickly left Cordova to answer questions from reporters. "I would hope Greg would stick around as an interim director until we can find an engineer for that job," Cordova said, indicating that process could take two or three months. As he left the courthouse, Severance had no formal comment on the board's decision, only to say he was taking stock of his situation. Several members of the public spoke for Severance before the commissioners voted Tuesday. Longtime businessman and former state legislator Bob Jackson dismissed the commissioners' claim last week that they would be able to save money on consulting fees by having a civil engineer head the county department. Jackson also scorned the commissioners' decision to get rid of Severance by rewriting his job description rather than "face him" and explain the reasons he should be fired. "You may not have a legal requirement to do that, but there is a moral requirement," he told the commissioners. Lee Sternal, a local attorney and friend of Severance, told the board their explanation of saving money by firing Severance didn't pass "the smell test." He noted the county already has a civil engineer in the Public Works Department. "You haven't offered any explanation on how this would save the county money," Sternal lectured the commissioners. Asked afterwards about the fast speed of the decision, Cordova said the commissioners had often heard suggestions that the county public works director should be an engineer. He confirmed the commissioners had not spoken to Severance since last Thursday's work session. "But he could have called us too," Cordova countered. Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 11:22 am. Updated: 12:12 pm. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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