NORRISTOWN – Political controversy followed the Tuesday night hiring of a public works director, the black candidate from Montgomery County who did not get the job and the two Norristown council members who argued publicly about the hiring decision.
Robert Glisson was appointed in a 6-to-1 vote to the $75,000 per-year post. Councilman Marlon Millner voted against the appointment. The Oxford, Chester County, resident was the township manager of East Cocalico, Lancaster County for 14 months, from December 2008 to January 2010. Glisson, 59, is currently serving as a group discussion leader for a church high school youth outreach program.
On Thursday evening, Councilwoman Mary DeSouza castigated Millner for lobbying black, Norristown community groups before the hiring decision to get the black candidate hired. She said Millner also contacted the same groups after the hiring vote and violated the confidentiality rules of council .
“Our top finalist was an African-American man but he wanted too much money,” DeSouza told about 75 residents gathered at the PAL Center for a community meeting. “He was my first pick. He wanted $20,000 more than we had budgeted. The average salary for a municipality this size is $69,000.”
DeSouza said that a Norristown official talking about the confidential details of the hiring process could expose the municipality to a lawsuit from the unsuccessful candidates. “There was no racism involved in this hiring,” DeSouza said. “This was all confidential negotiations. Marlon Millner went public with private information and I take offense to that.”
Millner counterpunched Friday afternoon in a 25-minute interview with The Times Herald.
“Norristown, in 200 years, has never had an African-American as a senior manager, ever. We had a fair, and rigorous search,” Millner said. “It is quite likely we had minority candidates because I reached out to charitable organizations and professional organizations to ask for minority candidates. This is about politics and not about sharing things in public.”
Millner said the black candidate for the job was from Montgomery County and was currently working in the public property department in Philadelphia. Millner claimed the candidate was never offered the job by council and that the candidate had not asked for $95,000 in salary.
Millner said he had lobbied for black leaders in the community to come to the Tuesday night council meeting to pressure council to hire the black candidate.
“I reached out to African-American leaders after the decision was made on Tuesday also,” Millner said. “I don’t regret sharing with those leaders. They included pastors in Norristown and leaders of the (Norristown) NAACP.”Continued... 1 2 See Full Story
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Millner claimed the unnamed, black job candidate had asked for a salary range of “$80,000 to $90,000 with some incentives.”
“I take great offense to statements that $20,000 would blow a hole in our budget,” Millner said. “We spent $50,000 investigating 770 Sandy St. We used taxpayer dollars and we did not discipline anybody.”
Norristown officials apparently failed to properly inspect a 26-unit condominium building constructed on Sandy Street and a Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge ordered the municipality to repair the construction defects. Nine condo owners and 15 renters were evicted from the building 13 months ago when the building was condemned. Repairs financed by the municipality are slated to be completed this fall.
Glisson will supervise 21 workers in the public works department. He will start his new job on Monday.
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