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Don't fall in love with one applicant

Don't fall in love with one applicant

When hiring an administrator, public bodies like the College of DuPage need to keep in mind that, by definition, there can be only one person the entire world who is the "best" at something. But there are also hundreds of others who can still do the job very well, and at less cost to the taxpayers.

The outrageous demands of school superintendents and other chief operating officers of public bodies need to be resisted. Someone else who can do the job well will always be willing to take it without expecting to being able to reserve their high salary for walking-around money because the taxpayers are paying all of their living expenses and pension share as contractual benefits in a very one-sided contract.

Governor Rauner has just signed legislation sponsored by State Representative Jeanne Ives that wisely puts some limits on excesses by community colleges. It should be extended to apply to all 7,000 schools and other public bodies in Illinois, too.

All elected officials need to ask themselves when setting compensation for their administrators whether the, say, president of their two-year junior college and trade school, or local school superintendent, has more responsibility than the governor of the entire state. The answer is obviously that the governor has much more responsibility, so the governor's compensation should serve as a cap on what the taxpayers pay local administrators.

Instead of falling in love with a particular applicant, they should instead invite a handful of the many applicants acknowledged as being able to do the job well to submit a bid on it. Lowest cost package wins.

Stan Zegel

Winfield

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