Everyone knows how serious a job interview is.
You get a bit more dressed up than you will on even your first day, and you arrive 15 minutes early even if it’ll inconvenience the person interviewing you, even if you’re always five minutes late for everything.
It’s a job interview. It’s meant to be important, and it’s meant to take time.
Coming from someone who recently went through an interview process for a sports editor position, I know how difficult it can be for people to work through the nerves. I also know it’s not a good sign if the interview lasts 10 minutes or less.
I can keep up a conversation with almost anyone, so when an interview I had lasted only seven minutes, I knew it probably wasn’t going to work out.
If someone doesn’t have a question, it’s a red flag. One of the main things I learned about how to interview for a job is to have a question prepared. Just one little question at least.
Based on solely the interviews alone, I don’t know who I’d choose to fill the Alexander City City Council District 6 seat.
It’s by no fault of their own. Jason Cromer, Steve Harris and Brett Phillips are all great candidates on paper. They all have strong, well-rounded backgrounds and would be fine leaders in our city. All three men seem dedicated to doing the right thing for our citizens.
However, the interviews — all three of them — lasted a total of 34 minutes. One was a mere eight minutes. There were 10 scripted questions asked by the councilors, and none of the candidates had questions of the council.
While the interviews were open to the public, there was no chance for the public to speak or ask questions of the potential candidate.
The only information outside of the interview given to the council to select the ideal person was a resume and letter of recommendation.
This is typically an elected position, picked by a vote of the public. This position is meant to represent the people. It’s one of the highest positions in terms of power in the city.
What’s interesting as well is the candidate is selected by the people he will be working with. The mayor has no input.
To be sure, this is by no fault of the city. It’s not like a typical job interview, such as the one for sports editor at TPI complete with lunch and a tour of the town. This is what’s delegated by law when a councilperson dies. But it’s a bad system.
According to Alabama law, this occurs only when a council seat vacancy happens with less than a year remaining on their term. District 6 councilor Jimmy Keel died June 10, and although the municipal elections will not be held until election August 2025, Keel’s initial four-year term was set to end this August. The elections were moved to 2025 thanks to a legislative act after low voter turnout and high poll worker fatigue, among other elections.
This leaves just over a year for whoever is sworn in on Monday before another campaign and election season.
That’s a solid amount of time to be an official elected off the votes of a few coworkers.
There are other scenarios in recent years where something similar has happened, and all of them have seemingly had different results. Back in 2019, Alexander City Mayor Jim Nabors died while in office and had less than a year remaining in his term; his seat was filled by then-council president Tommy Spraggins.
In 2006, the Tallapoosa County Commission suffered the death of longtime commissioner Bill Thweatt, whose position was ultimately appointed by the governor, Gov. Bob Riley at the time.
Neither of these processes are satisfactory either, really.
While I understand it’s difficult to hold an election for various reasons — they take time and money, for sure — and it might not be reasonable to have one for only a couple months left in a term, having a few people answer a set of 10 broad questions as fast as possible isn’t the answer either.
Lizi Arbogast Gwin is the managing editor of Tallapoosa Publishers Inc. She can be reached at 434-962-9420 or via email at lizi.gwin@alexcityoutlook.com.
