The city’s next Inspector General likely won’t come on board until May, nearly a year after the first resigned.
The Inspector General Selection and Retention Committee on Wednesday approved a timeline to put into place the next full-time leader of the office that targets waste, fraud and abuse in city government.
According to that schedule, the position will be advertised from Jan. 23-Feb. 20, finalists will be chosen March 2 and interviews will be conducted March 23-24.
After the chosen candidate accepts an offer, he or she would go through City Council approval in April with a starting date of May 8, should there be no holdups.
The committee has struck out a few times.
In July, it decided to reopen the call for candidates because there wasn’t enough interest.
That led to another round of applications and interviews in September, with two candidates selected.
However, both declined the offer, leading to the current search.
Steve Rohan, former city assistant general counsel, was named interim inspector general in May after Tom Cline resigned.
As the interim, Rohan was expected to handle the office’s budget and work with the city’s independent authorities on a financial agreement for oversight.
After about six months, he agreed to stay on for what looks like another six months. Rohan was given a slight increase in part-time pay and was able to take on more of an active approach with staff designations and payroll.
Rohan said he isn’t surprised about the limited applicant pool and the longer-than-expected search.
He said many people who are qualified are in good jobs now, while others might have to wait until retirement to secure their earned state and federal pensions.
Now that he knows he will be here another six months, Rohan said he expects to accomplish much more.
“I am confident that I am going to be handing off a really good office,” Rohan said Thursday.
That effort will mean filling a couple of vacancies and, perhaps more importantly, starting an outreach effort stressed by council and inspector general committee members.
Rohan said his office is forming a plan to communicate with city employees and the public to ensure they know the office is available and safe in possible whistleblowing cases.
Not every complaint will result in a full-blown case, Rohan said, but people should feel comfortable to report what they see.
He said another goal is to close out the office’s current work as much as possible.
Not counting complaints received since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, the office has 37 ongoing investigations that involve bias and favoritism in awarding contracts; bid rigging; bribery and kickbacks; employee misconduct; and theft of city property.
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