Letter: Reader critical over proposed county administrator post, HCC sale

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To the Editor-

I want to thank County Executive John Pavelski for proposing a new chief administrator position. The new “chief administrative officer,” at a cost of $127,000, shows just how careless the current county administration has become with our tax dollars.

The purpose of Mr. Pavelski’s new position would be “to provide professional administrative services to the executive office and Portage County.” Wait a minute. Isn’t that what the executive does?

The qualifications he wrote are all over the place, ranging from a master’s degree in public administration (which clearly will not happen) to a master’s in many various fields, to a law degree, to no college at all if they have experience that Mr. Pavelski’s committee would consider the equivalent. He could pick his committee and they could pick any political hack. And we could not get rid of him in the next election.

Now we should pay for two executive positions? This is an interesting turnabout since Mr. Pavelski argued there should be no executive at all before he ran for the position almost four years ago.

Unfortunately, our county officials’ lack of concern for tax dollars is not limited to the “duplicate position” boondoggle; it is also evident in their most recent attempt to sell our Health Care Center.

The county’s own broker, Mr. Ray Gianinni, stated in March that the Portage County Health Care Center should be worth about $4 million on the open market. And he listed it at that price. This is his business, so he should know.

But our County Executive Pavelski and County Board Chair Ray Reser are pushing hard to sell the HCC for a measly $2.7 million. This is $1.3 million below the asking price and the stated market value.

Why are they in such a rush to dump our Health Care Center for a price so far below its market value? Haven’t we been through this before?

Portage County officials have become reckless with our tax dollars, but we deserve better.

Taxpayers expect county officials to value and safeguard our resources, including tax dollars and our beloved Portage County Health Care Center. Join me in telling Mr. Pavelski and Mr. Reser to put the brakes on these two rash decisions.

Mr. Pavelski will be happy to hear from you at 715-346-1999 or [email protected].

Mr. Reser will be happy to hear from you at 715-346-1354 or [email protected].

Taxpayers expect and deserve more careful stewardship of our Portage County resources.

Karlene Ferrante
Stevens Point