Comments on: A 24 Year Old Boss

By: bel air republican

bel air republican — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:34:48 +0000

Does anyone want to start throwing hats in the ring now for the next election? Remember that there will be an influx NJ/NY people in a few years. Some of them may have political aspirations.

By: Get Real

Get Real — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 07:41:58 +0000

David Craig has once again shown his arrogance. He has placed Scott Gibson in a terrible position. The negative PR has made the GOP look horrible. It is the cumulative effect of hiring one’s sisiter-in-law, son-in-law, and then an inexperienced campaign worker at $101,500. Craig did not have the support of most county workers in the last election. He can forget them next time. Even staunch GOP members are disgusted with Craig. He has absolutely no business sense about him. The scary part is that if he had business sense, he probably would igonore it and do whatever he wanted anyway.

Craig has also lost the suppport of most of the business community. Oh, they may still cut him checks, but they are looking for a primary opponent. They need a good Republican who will run the county like a business. I can see Barry Glassman, Nany Jacobs, Mike Geppi, or even Jim Harkins saying ‘enough is enough’! Any of those folks could take him out. One thing that is being repeated all over the county is that Craig “just doesn’t listen.” He is perceived as being so arrogant that he would hire a 24-year old at $101,500 and thumb his nose at anyone who would complain. He may re-think that strategy in 3 years when a true Republican takes him out hard in the primary. It needs to be someone who is not afraid to speak the truth. Someone who will go at Craig’s jugular. Someone with a real connection to the business community. Watch out Craig. And to those who would go down with the ship . .. Erin Tomarchio, John Richardson,
Scott Gibson . . . wise up and realize that you have no real infulence with your boss. Even you Gibson. Craig has not really done you any favors here. If he was smart, he would have put you in a reasonable postion that is comensurate with your experience. He has embarrassed all of you and shame on each of you if you continue to enable him!

The GOP is not going to let you make a mockery of them indefintely. Hopefully the central comitee will wake up and help put the brakes on Craig’s mismanagement.

By: PolJunk

PolJunk — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:22:15 +0000

[quote comment="4183"]Yes I do think you need to be conservative to win a primary in Harford County and here is why. Biggs was more conservative than Mullis and he won. Glass appeared more conservative than Pate and then more than Kohl in the General Election. Stifler is much more conservative than Parrott. Maybe these are fluke examples, but they look like a trend to me.[/quote]

I don’t think you should ingnore these races. 1) Shrodes over anyone, 2) Boniface over Kazi, 3) Slutzky over Spatz (Spatz attacked from the right), 4) Hopkins over Christoforo

By: Bel Air Conservative

Bel Air Conservative — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:01:58 +0000

I don’t think age should be the primary concern, but rather the lack of relevant experience. There are plenty of mid-20 year-olds out there who have started their own business or are otherwise successful demonstrating leadership in the corporate world. I’m one of them - I have an MBA and have quickly risen through the ranks at my mid-sized corporation to a significant leadership position.

Gibson’s claimed expereince seems to be that he managed Hooper’s 2002 campaign. The truth is that Hooper would get elected no matter who managed his campaign, because of his name.

Some of the comments cite an MPA degree as relevant expereince. Note that an MPA is not the same thing as a MBA, which would be a better indicatior of one’s aptitude for managerial compotency. As GOPerative pointed out, a Wharton grad is someone who can command respect. The MPA is probably for people who couldn’t get into Wharton.

This is a clear case of cronyism on the part of Craig. I am a lifelong conservative, and am disappointed with “Republicans” like Craig.

By: bel air republican

bel air republican — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:46:37 +0000

As a person gets further and further from their graduation date from college, where there degree came from means less and less. That is because with time comes experience and teh thing that is looked at most closely what have you done in the real world. College and university learning is not the real world and does not always correlate. The reason the type of degree and college one graduates from is important is that in in the first few years after graduation there is no relevant experience. The basis is on what you MAY have learned and what background you MAY have experienced and the people you MAY have known.

Top schools often provide the best of these categories which MAY give the person a jump on the rest of the other schools graduates. But it does not guarantee it because it is not what you know or MAY know that is important but how you apply it. How you apply it can only be demonstrated through experience.

From this, you could surmise that a person from a top school with the jump on the group would have earlier opportunities to demonstrate their skills and knowledge and would gain the higher level experience at an earlier age. Is this guaranteed? Definitely not! That is why the experience because the teller not the degree.

Does Scott Gibson have this experience? It does not seem so. Could he acquire it at an earlier age than expected of someone with a lesser academic background? Possibly. Should the people and employees of Harford County be his proving ground at this upper level position without the demonstrated experience? No. Is it his fault that he was put in this position? Not entirely, because he doesn’t have the experience to know better.

In this case, who is responsible for this mistake? The hiring authority which would be the CE and the approving council. Who will feel the loss? The taxpayers and employees of Harford County.

By: BullElephant

BullElephant — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:18:06 +0000

SJ, a degree means absolutely nothing without something to back it up. Qualifications equal experience. You need experience to lead a department. Experience in that field as well. Not on the job training. Lets compare this again. I just earned my MBA from *** school and I am 24 years old. I think I’m good enough to be the COO or whatever of a leading Fortune 500 company. Don’t you think that the shareholders will be just a bit upset at the board of directors making a move like that? In this instance the citizens of Harford County are the shareholders and Mr. Craig is the board. I don’t think Harford County would be paying someone over 100K a year to oversee a small office. If thats the case then we have a whole new issue to discuss.
I once again have to disagree also on the management issue. The HR director does manage these people. He is directly involved in their pay and benefit design as well as their ultimate peril of having a job or not (hiring and firing). No he doesn’t write 1800 evaluations but he controls how they are designed and handled.
Being nice is wonderful but it doesn’t help instill confidence in anyone when it comes to your knowledge skills and abilities as a department head.

By: GOPerative

GOPerative — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:13:07 +0000

SJ,
You guys can try to spin this all you want. A degree means absolutely nothing. I have a degree from a top 20 university and it means absolutely nothing. We are not asking for “low level experience.” We are asking for high level experience managing a successful company’s HR department or at least something close to it. Others have made this argument and I will repeat it. If this is such a nothing job with little responsibility then cut the salary in half and stop ripping us off. Either way you spin this Craig loses. He hired a political crony who was not qualified for the position he received. Or he hired a qualified person who has no real responsibility but makes over $100,000 per year. Lose-Lose for Craig. Lose-Lose for the citizens of Harford County.

By: Max Powers

Max Powers — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:20:28 +0000

I feel bad for Scott. He seems like a nice enough guy. It’s not his fault that he was put in a position that he wasn’t really ready for. Who is going to turn down 100k at the age of 24?
You have to question the judgement or arrogance of the person that offered him that kind of deal though. I guess the Executive doesn’t much care what people think or how things look. That’s the message I take away from this; that the Executive can and will do what he wants.

By: SJ

SJ — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:59:52 +0000

The Director of Human Resources does not oversee 1800 employees! The Director will oversee HR-related activities for all County employees. In a typical office place, your HR manager is not your boss. Mr. Gibson would be overseeing a small office of employees who cut paychecks, oversee training, etc.

And yes, Scott does have a graduate degree from Penn — an IVY LEAGUE institution. With that, I would contend that he has accomplished more in his 24 years that most people will in 50. No, Mr./Ms. BullElephant, this position is not National Security Adivsor - this is a supervisory HR position overseeing a small office.

If an Ivy League graduate degree is not enough to fill this position, what qualifications must an employee have? Multiple graduate degrees? A degree from Oxford? Or would you state that, say, 5 years of low-level experience is more valuable than a Penn graduate degree? My bet is that if he did nothing for the next 6 years but watch paint dry, and then be selected for the same position, nobody would question it. Why? Because of his age - not his qualifications.

By: BullElephant

BullElephant — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:09:59 +0000

r.jackson, a degree does not earn your the experience on how to handle hr issues nor manage 1800 employees. No one should use a degree as the sole factor for employment. I personally am not impressed regardless of the degree or institution to where it was earned. I am impressed with the hard work put behind the classroom education.
If I just graduated from *** institution of higher learning with a political science masters degree does that qualify me to be the National Security Advisor? Think about it.
Pay your dues first then rise to the top.