New FIRE Hire under FIRE
Molly Clifford, Mayor Duffy’s former campaign manager and, most recently, holder of a Duffy administration position that was eliminated through reorganization, was appointed to a new administration position. Screams of patronage abound. Via the D&C
Rochester Fire Chief John Caufield said Monday that he never seriously considered any candidates other than Molly Clifford for the newly created job of director of fire administration.
So, the rumors were almost true - instead of being appointed Fire Marshal, Molly Clifford was appointed to Director of Fire Administration. As I said when I wrote this post
Duffy is ultimately the one who makes the appointment and I’m sure the duties will be tailored to the appointee - seems that is what happens with Fire Marshals.
When the rumor was circulating in October - that seemed to be the case with other job postings I looked at before I wrote that post. The job gets tailored to the candidate.
So, what do we have here -
The Fire Chief doesn’t have a problem. Duffy appointed Clifford to an administrative job - a job where, by many accounts, Clifford is a “good” administrator.
I do think this seems weird - sure and it certainly has the outward appearance of favoritism, patronage, and all the rest, but you know what?
It is up to Mayor Duffy and Molly Clifford to work and dispel these perceptions.
Start with transparency. Open the files and allow the public to see what exactly this job entails. What the job goals are and how these goals are achieved along with status reports against the objectives.
Now, in these comments on another post we have Brucefan mixing administrative and firefighting tasks and ultimately “smelling” Morelle and DemWedgie wondering about the the school district appointments. Initial reactions, to be sure, but hang on for a moment.
I’ll have more on City control of the school district later, but as I said earlier, the job gets tailored to the candidate. So, sounds like Clifford isn’t going to fight fires anytime soon - rather, handle the administrative aspect.
Is this good or bad? I say the jury is out - Let’s see how she does and check in from time to time - or more importantly, have the administration check back with the public to dispel the negative perceptions.
Because - if the administration simply thinks the concerns will just burn themselves out - it won’t. In fact, that belief is simply the administration displaying its version of Hubris.
One more thing - if Clifford is serious about this job, as I said earlier -
Clifford is in the job say a year or so and a new opportunity opens - Well, I have a problem with that.
The justifying of the appointment is the the burden of the administration only because of who they appointed and people will naturally assume the worse. The administration needs to get in front of it.
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thank you for this article because of its wait and see outlook. it can always look like patronage when jobs are filled by political operatives. since she is an excellent administrator, i think she deserves the chance to prove that is the case. i am guessing that no one here knows all the details so it is unfair to slam molly clifford for wanting a job that she is qualified to do.
No problem - It is up to clifford and duffy - this isn’t a court of law where innocent until proven guilty - this is the court of public perception where - the onus is on duffy and clifford to give people a reason to believe that the appointment was worthy.
Leaving aside for a moment that Molly Clifford is probably the smartest person at City Hall and clearly has a resume to back up the appointment from working at Rural Metro and then running the code enforcement arm of city government, why exactly shouldn’t the mayor or the fire chief appoint anyone he wants for whatever reason he wants? If they shouldn’t get to choose the at-will employees of city government, who should?
I hate to keep bringing this up but this looks like another situation where instead of challenging an elected official’s decision where it counts during an election, some people just wring their hands and say “boy, that would be a tough one to win”, let them run unopposed and then just complain later.
If you don’t like Duffy’s appoints or Maggie’s projects or Morelle’s smell, run against them in an election. Otherwise, without any other actual options, these types of complaints are getting pretty hollow.
Molly was running the code enforcement arm of the City just a few years ago, when a house owned by a slumlord, on a sidestreet between East & University burned down and caused at least one death. Makes one wonder how good of a job she did in that post!
It has to be apparent by now that the city of Rochester (or Duffy) simply cannot function without Molly Clifford. It’s that simple.
I had forgotten all about the fire position. After Duffy announced he wanted to control the city schools, I thought to myself….Czar of Education Molly Clifford—has a nice ring to it??
But ultimately, I see Molly’s official title as First Lady of Rochester or more likely, First Mistress.
If you can accept Clifford in this position, then Bill Smith as President of MCC would be acceptable as well.
Um No. Recall the process - two different MCC selection committees didn’t select Smith. The name was added after the selection process and the committees were told to deal with it. Mayor Duffy is entirely in his rights to appoint Clifford without modifying the process. The choice can be debated but not the process at whihc it was arrived. In Smith’s case the choice and process was in dispute.
So Molly position was created for her and no one else was considered. Under these circumstances, I’d rather have Bill Smith as MCC president. It is way more fair.
However you want to whitewash it, the wash comes out the same in my eyes.
Giving jobs to friends, Duffy should be ashamed of his tactics, but that’s politics.
If brains is the issue then I could do the job as well or better than Molly. I could use a $100,000a year patronage position too. There are lots of bright folks in our universities with stupid ideas. Raw intelligence isn’t the issue
You have to consider that knowledge is also craft knowledge. It is a practical understanding of situation and context that allows recognition of situations and problems. That kind of knowledge comes from involvement.
Knowledge of code is wrote knowledge
No one with this kind of practical smarts was even considered. She was the only candidate. This says it all
Smoke and mirrors, right? Molly loses one job due to budget cuts just to receive another job of a newly created position. WOW. It must be new math that allows this to happen.
We are going to have to disagree on the comparison. Frankly Duffy as Chief executive can organize within his control as he sees fit with accountability in the voting booth. MCC on the other hand had selection committees and an established process that was circumvented after it had run its course. So, you need to move off the Bill Smith thing - if there were another candidate seledted then Duffy decided insert Cifford, well you would have a point - but I don’t think that happened so you don’t.
Qualifications and all that, well qualifications are in the eye of the beholder.
You’re looking a the micro details, while I’m looking at the big picture.
Bill Smith as MCC President or Molly Clifford as fire director both fall into the category of political friends getting nice political jobs. Whether Duffy creates a position specifically for Molly or someone attempts to circumnavigate an already set process, the end results is the same….political rewards for political friends.
I find it incredibly amazing how few Democrats question what Duffy did. What was the purpose of going through the charade of even mentioning Molly as someone who got caught up in the budget cuts and job elimination when Duffy just creates another job for her?
I think it stinks.
Sorry no - the big picture is Duffy is responsible for appoint his staff - so he did (and he has to live with the consequences) - you just don’t like it. MCC, the collective effort was circumvented because someone didn’t like the outcome that is wrong and unfair.
Now - in terms of creating another job - well, really what he did was do as other municipalities have done, tailor a Fire Marshal job responsibilities to the candidate abilities. In this case, Clifford is supposedly a good administrator so a job heavy on administration.
As I’ve pointed out - I hope this isn’t some stepping stone job and have called for some level of transparency in terms of identifying the job objectives and goals.
Sorry…yes.
Qualifications are not simply in the eye of the beholder. There might not be complete agreement on all things but there is such a thing as an incompetent or unqualifiedcandiadte
Tell that o someone who does well on a civil service exam and gets bypassed
PS Duffy is already moving against the fire dept and cutting jobs Is Molly going to defend firefighters or Duffy
Well, does her job entail hiring and firing firefighters or maintaining the firefighting force? I don’t know.
Re qualifications - I think we are saying the same thing -