Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” The recent letter to the editor from Larry Myslewski regarding the city’s personnel committee is so egregiously inaccurate that it begs a response with the facts.
Mr. Myslewski states the personnel committee is the “only committee without a resident appointment.” The fact is that Section 46 of the city code states “The Personnel Committee consists of not less than three elected Commissioners, one of whom the Mayor shall appoint Chair subject to confirmation by a majority of the Commissioners.” There is no mention of a “resident” commissioner or otherwise.
Furthermore, Commissioner Lisa Schlosser, a resident, was a member of the committee for a year until she resigned as chair this September, and commissioners Toni Sharp and Lorraine Zellers, both residents, were members for several years before that.
Mr. Myslewski also claims the personnel committee “accomplished more under Commissioner Chair Schlosser over the past year than did former Commissioner Gossett who chaired over the previous five years.” This is rewriting history and completely without a factual basis.
The facts are these: many of the personnel committee accomplishments Mr. Myslewski attributes to Commissioner Schlosser were initiated, and for the most part accomplished, during Commissioner Gossett’s tenure as chair.
To specifically address his inaccuracies: the discussion between the city manager and the commission regarding hiring a city public works director began in earnest in 2016. Commissioner Gossett strongly supported the hiring of this position, and it was funded in the budget passed in March 2017, before Commissioner Schlosser even was elected.
It was Commissioner Gossett who in 2015 proposed the compensation study of which Mr. Myslewski speaks so highly, and who worked with the city manager and other commissioners to provide the funding for it in the budget approved in March 2017. Again, this was before Commissioner Schlosser was elected.
Furthermore, the specific performance goals for City Manager Sharon Lynn, which similarly gain Mr. Myslewski’s praise, were proposed and originally implemented under Commissioner Gossett’s chairmanship.
Mr. Myslewski neglects to mention that in 2014, when Commissioner Gossett was the personnel committee chair, he initiated and implemented the successful rewrite of the city’s personnel code and policies, to bring them up-to-date and comply with federal rules and accepted best practices. This action alone deserves praise, and was warmly received by the city staff.
Mr. Myslewski inaccurately and derogatorily asserts that certain commissioners and the city manager “rejected adding a resident HR expert in order to protect their own ambitions.” In fact, the commissioners were never called upon to vote on a slate of committee members that included such a resident.
And finally, since Mr. Myslewski has raised the issue of transparency, he should have disclosed that his entire letter was based on a fact he chose not to make public. Mayor Kuhns considered putting Mr. Myslewski on the personnel committee, and later decided not to do so because the code calls for membership of commissioners only, and many personnel matters are confidential and should only be reviewed by commissioners.
Mr. Myslewski hoped his letter to appear as an objective third-party commentary for his readers to believe it. But rather he just complains as a disgruntled citizen who was not appointed to the committee. He is not arguing for the committee to include an unnamed “resident” or “an international HR consultant.” He is talking about himself. That fact, and his resulting biases about the committee, should have been made public. To paraphrase his letter, “That, Mr. Myslewski, is transparency.” And that’s a fact.
Guy Martin
Rehoboth Beach
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