To the Editor:
Thank you for adding my comments to the article about the rejected job candidate who didn’t like Town Hall’s decision. As stated, I thought that bringing his rejection (a personnel matter) into public view showed that he doesn’t have the good judgment necessary in the job for which he had applied. Personnel matters are confidential and exempt from FOIA for good reasons. All the candidate accomplished was to become unattractive for future recruiting in Wilton or elsewhere. If he interviews and doesn’t get hired, he might go to a journalist. Who would want to interview such a person?
My comment today is asking GOOD Morning Wilton to use better judgment too. What could possibly be accomplished here, other than getting a few more clicks? The people who did this interviewing are never going to talk about why they decided not to hire this man. It’s confidential. So don’t ask. In my experience, Wilton interviewed several candidates for one schools superintendent opportunity, from about 80 who applied. No one ever revealed even one name of a candidate who didn’t get an interview, or who interviewed one, two, three or more times and then didn’t move forward. The same or similar events occurred for the schools finance director, curriculum director, and multiple principals. During my eight years on P&Z we twice hired a new town planner and an assistant planner, again with many candidates. In all of my search committees’ interviews in total, I met over a hundred candidates who didn’t get hired. How many complained in public? Zero.
All news people owe something to the community that supports them, beginning with respect. When possible, help make Wilton Town Hall a good place to work and help all of our civics to be fundamentally decent, with good character. Don’t elevate cranks. When we had a newspaper printed on paper, it was a good one, with a good editor. One time we had an irate board member who took an email, which he perceived as insulting, to this editor and asked for a story, and showed the email. The editor wrote a brief editorial saying that a board member came to see him, and had a story, but the use of “ostensibly private email” weakened the complainer’s case. He didn’t report the story. He said media wouldn’t always be the best place to resolve differences, or even a good place. I like to think digital media can live up to high ideals too.
John Benson