Ethnic outreach coordinator applicants get a little more time

Plans to fast-track the hiring of DuPage County's first ethnic outreach coordinator have slowed.

The position - which didn't appear in the budget until three weeks ago - was originally posted Monday with an application deadline of Friday. But after a Daily Herald investigation uncovered it was the only one out of the county's 34 job openings with an application deadline, county officials have decided to keep the hiring process open-ended.

"It will be posted until it's filled," said county board spokesman Jason Gerwig. "It gives people more than just until Friday to get their applications in."

The person hired for the post eventually will report to community services director Phil Smith who said the initial decision to set an application deadline was made to "fast-track" the hiring process so a recommendation could be made to the board in January.

The job will pay between $39,000 and $48,000 a year depending on the qualifications of the person hired. Several board members said former District 1 board member Yolanda Campuzano has been lobbying her ex-colleagues for the post that wasn't in the budget until she had been voted out of office. Campuzano is the board's former health and human services committee chairman and speaks fluent Spanish. A Republican, Campuzano was ousted in the Nov. 4 election by Democrat Rita Gonzalez. Campuzano did not return calls seeking comment.

Patrick O'Shea, the board's current finance committee chairman, said he added the position to the budget at the recommendation of the county's chief financial officer, Fred Backfield. O'Shea said the post met a need outlined in the county's strategic initiatives according to Backfield.

That's news to board member Debra Olson, who chairs the strategic planning committee and is widely credited by her colleagues with helping create the county's strategic initiatives vision.

"Creating a position like this has not been discussed in the committee, and I have never been approached about creating a position like that for the purposes of implementing the strategic plan," she said. "I was just as surprised as anyone to find out it was being considered. In fact, I found out about it after reading the newspaper. It certainly smacks of things that are not good."

She said she had no idea why the hiring process was being expedited.

"I'm not even sure this is a spending priority," Olson said.

Leaders of the county's Democratic party complained the job is a patronage post for a defeated Republican politician.

"It seems odd that this surfaces right after the voters of District 1 voiced their opposition to Yolanda Campuzano continuing as its board member," said DuPage Democratic Party Executive Director Amy Tauchman. "A short Google search will show you that she has contributed nothing in the last four years that could be construed as advocacy for minorities."