‘No super secret search here.’ Bluffton quietly hired a firm to start town manager search
About two months ago, Bluffton Town Council members quietly agreed, in private communications and without any discussion in public, to pay a Greenville-based headhunting company $1,500 to start the search for the town’s new manager.
To contract with the firm, the town used a little-known list of state-approved contractors that allowed officials to bypass the town’s procurement process. The town will be required to pay the search company 20% of the hired candidate’s salary once he or she is hired, according to the state contract. Based on the previous manager’s salary, that could be over $30,000.
Find Great People LLC, hired by the town in January, has been contacting potential candidates and whittling down the list of prospective hires from 62 to 16. Officials plan to review 16 potential people for the job in an executive session next week, spokesperson Debbie Szpanka said Friday.
In private, Bluffton officials agreed on a recruitment and interview process for the town’s next manager, chose a state-approved company to start the search and agreed to pay the company $1,500, plus an additional $30,000 or so once the position is filled — all with zero input from the public.
News of Bluffton’s behind-the-scenes decision and expenditure of funds without a public vote comes just a few months after the Town of Hilton Head Island poached Town Manager Marc Orlando from Bluffton. Hilton Head’s search was sharply criticized for its secret hiring process in which Orlando was not publicly named as a candidate.
Bluffton’s behind-the-scenes hire of the firm raises questions for the mayor and council members, many of whom were caught off guard by Orlando’s departure, about why they would hire a firm to search for the town’s highest-ranking position outside of the public eye.
In December, Mayor Lisa Sulka called Orlando’s move “a shock, and I had no idea.” In the wake of Hilton Head’s hire, officials across the county promised to be more transparent when hiring top officials. At the time, Sulka promised to hold a public search process for the next permanent town manager.
“I know we’ll find somebody in a public process that will make everyone happy,” she said then.
S.C. law is clear that discussions of public business must be held in the open. Officials cannot use chance encounters, social meetings or electronic communications to bypass that requirement, according to state law.
The town manager works as the town’s chief executive officer, creating a vision for the town’s future, crafting a budget, managing employees and working with other agencies such as Beaufort County and Hilton Head. Bluffton’s search comes as the town is grappling with expansive population growth, a shortage of affordable housing and concerns over the health of nearby waterways, specifically the May River.
Although it’s unclear exactly how the Bluffton Town Council decided to hire Find Great People, whether by phone calls, email, Zoom or in person, a Jan. 14 email obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette appears to outline the process — a process that was conducted outside of public view.
“I would suggest utilizing an executive recruitment firm for this process and am pleased to let you know that the Municipal Association of South Carolina has a contract established for executive searches,” Human Resources Director Katherine Robinson wrote to Bluffton’s mayor and council members. “This means that we could utilize the services of one of these firms without having to publish our own solicitation.”
Robinson’s email describes Find Great People as “known to the Town and the Human Resources Department as a vendor and are well respected across the State of South Carolina.”
“At your direction, I can communicate with Find Great People to assist the Town with this important research,” the email said.
A search agreement provided to a reporter Friday was signed by Katherine Robinson and Find Great People’s Christin Mack on Jan. 20.
‘No super secret search here’
Called Thursday, multiple Bluffton Town Council members confirmed the town hired Find Great People to start the search.
Mayor Sulka said the choice was “easy” because the company was on the state-approved list of contractors and the town was “in a hurry.” She said Robinson, the HR director, took the lead in contracting with the search firm, but the rest of town staff was not involved.
The S.C. Department of Administration has a contract for executive search services with three headhunting companies. That contract is available to assist all state agencies, departments and higher education institutes to recruit “hard to fill positions,” the website says.
To use the state contract, agencies have to be approved by the S.C. Department of Administration. Once approved, the contractor helps set up interviews and provides the town guidance in the search process.
“Purchases by local procurement units are optional,” the contract says.
Find Great People, listed on the state contract, requires a $1,500 fee to initiate the search and 20% of the candidate’s first year base salary once the position is filled. The firm, according to the state contract, has been conducting searches for organizations from $1 million in revenue to $1 billion in revenue throughout the state, Southeast and North America for over 30 years.
The use of the firm appears to be common among local governments. The company’s search proposal, obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, shows Find Great People has been contracted by the City of Greenville, Richland County, Aiken County and multiple other government entities.
But the quiet way in which Bluffton hired the firm raises questions about why the public was given no opportunity to comment on, or even hear about, the process.
Called Thursday, Council member Fred Hamilton said the company was recommended by the town’s HR department and the council reached an “individual consensus” to contract with Find Great People.
“I don’t think we have to vote on it,” he said. “I don’t see it as us trying to be secretive. I think it’s a good way to hire someone. This is a fair process to do a search for employment.”
Council member Larry Toomer, called Thursday, said he went along with the process to contract with the company and it “didn’t even dawn on” him that it should have been done in public.
“I don’t know the procedural stuff for that,” he said. “We could have done it wrong, I don’t know. We didn’t make a decision about anything other than having someone handle the clerical part of it.”
Council member Dan Wood confirmed Thursday that the search has been going on “for a few weeks.” The council needed to replace Marc Orlando and discussed trying to find a company to start the search, he said.
“There’s no super secret search here,” he said. “We hired a consultant, and once we get a couple of names, we’ll present them.”
Asked if the council decided to contract with the company over email, Wood said “Not particularly, no. We talked to our HR director and we’ve been doing phone calls and Zoom calls.”
Council member Bridgette Frazier did not return a call for comment Thursday.
Called Friday, interim Town Manager Scott Marshall said he didn’t remember if the decision to contract with Find Great People was discussed in a public meeting, but said he was not involved in the decision.
Marshall confirmed that he applied for the job and was contacted twice by the search firm.
Find Great People
A job posting on Find Great People’s website says the company is “supporting” the town in hiring its new town manager.
The position announcement document shows it was published on the company’s website on Feb. 9 and says the final evaluation of applications would begin on March 15. The interview process, according to the posting, started in mid-March.
The town, according to the job posting, is looking for a candidate with a bachelor’s degree in business, public administration or a related field and a master’s degree is preferred.
Applicants must have at least 10 years of “progressively responsible experience in government or public sector management, preferably with a comparable municipality.”
Though the expected salary of the position is not posted, the website says Bluffton’s town manager would receive “a competitive salary offer commensurate with his/her qualifications and experience.”
Orlando was paid $161,969 per year while working as Bluffton’s town manager. On Jan. 14, the same day Robinson emailed Bluffton leaders about Find Great People, Orlando signed a two-year agreement with Hilton Head at $200,000 a year.
A memorandum sent to council members on Jan. 14 shows that, with the search already started, the next steps in the process are:
▪ Conduct interviews
▪ Background/reference checks
▪ Finalist selection
▪ Public introductions
▪ Negotiations and contract
▪ Onboard the new town manager
The agenda for the next meeting, published Friday morning, shows the council will discuss the hiring process in executive session at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Asked Thursday if there was any reason why Bluffton didn’t publicly vote to put out a request for companies to conduct the search, Council member Wood said, “Nothing comes to my mind right now.
“I’ll have to look at the facts.”
