Qualifications for Assessor job

In a Boeing career that spanned 37 years and in particular as I spent the last 15 of those years in management, I became more-than-ever convinced of the wisdom of ALWAYS seeking the most capable and qualified person when hiring someone for any job. For the most part, I adhered to that premise. There was, however, a situation that happened wherein I strayed from that proven ideal. It happened when I ended up hiring a woman to be an instructor/curriculum developer who had never done any of that kind of work, but who made an excellent presentation of her speaking ability. It was clever and caught my attention. Against the recommendations of my co-interviewers, I hired her. It was one of the worst decisions of my career at Boeing. She never did pan out or perform on the job as brilliantly as she had performed at the interview and eventually we had to get rid of her.

As I see it, there is a similar situation that we face in our decision to select the person who will be our county assessor for the next four years. On the one hand, we have a person, Laure Grammer, who has worked for several years as our assessor. Certainly, she has the qualifications for the job and knows the processes better than anyone else. She is also the one charged with making sometimes tough decisions as in the case of certain large companies who want special tax breaks.

On the other hand, we have a person, Melissa McKnight, who has worked in our court system and now works as the county public records officer handling public records requests. I've heard nothing negative about Ms. McKnight and I'm sure she does a great job in her responsibilities with public records. It does seem to me, though, that the SKAs (skills, knowledge and abilities) required are quite different between the job of public records officer and that of assessor.

My concern in this is that we should elect the most qualified person for this and all jobs and that, in my view, Laure Grammer is unmistakably that person given the qualifications of both candidates. Therefore, I urge all Grant County citizens to vote for the most experienced person, Laure Grammer.

Thank you for listening,

Rick Heiberg

Coulee City