Washoe County Hiring Mystery: Who's Choosing the Choosers?
Washoe County offers some of their hiring practices in writing after persistent questioning. But they've left the most critical question unanswered: Who selects the screening committees?
This isn't just bureaucratic nitpicking - it's the foundation of the entire hiring process. Think about it:
The screening committee determines which candidates advance
They effectively control who gets hired for key positions
Their composition can predetermine outcomes
Page One
Yet the county remains conspicuously silent on how these all-important committees are formed. Plus the committees are confidential so residents will never know what county employees participated and how often are new committees selected.
Why the secrecy? Who's pulling these strings behind closed doors? Is it County Manager Eric Brown unilaterally deciding who screens candidates? Is it department heads selecting friendly faces? Or is there an actual process they simply don't want to disclose?
Page Two
Remember the recent Registrar of Voters selection committee that had to sign NDAs? That's not normal government transparency. That's the behavior of an administration with something to hide.
The troubling pattern suggests a hiring system deliberately designed with a blind spot - one that allows whoever controls committee selection to essentially predetermine hiring outcomes while maintaining plausible deniability.
Until Washoe County answers this fundamental question, their claims of fair and transparent hiring practices remain hollow at best and deliberately deceptive at worst.
So we'll ask again: Who chooses the choosers, Washoe County?
Page Three