From Harford County Government:
(Bel Air, MD) – – Harford County Executive David R. Craig has today announced that Director of Human Resources Scott Gibson will be leaving county government effective October 1.
Mr. Gibson has accepted a position as Vice President of Human Resources with Melwood, a non-profit that creates jobs and opportunities to improve the lives of people with disabilities in the Greater Washington, DC area.
“Over the last seven years, we have worked with Avensure to make our HR processes more efficient and sustainable, ensuring that our commitments to our employees will continue to be met in the future while remaining fiscally responsible,” stated County Executive David R. Craig.
“I thank Scott for his seven years of service to county government, and wish him well in his future endeavors,” County Executive Craig added.
County Executive Craig has named Senior Assistant County Attorney Deborah Duvall as Acting Director of the Department of Human Resources. Since joining county government in January 1992, she has represented the HR department on legal matters, including union negotiations, training, policy review, development, disciplinary actions, complaints, and appeals.
Really think he should payback the $12,000 the County spent in July 2013 to send for classes at Harvard
Harvard is probably where he networked to locate his new position, and he did it on our dime!
More screwing of the taxpayers of harford county, He had no reason to take that course other than pad his resume and get a new job at our expense.
Thank you David Craig, we will not miss you.
Who cares? Never heard of this clown, is he suppose to be someone of importance? It almost sounds like he had no option but to leave.
And the parade of fools continues. After Gibson was hired with absolutely zero HR experience they replace him with an attorney. I guess in government, having no knowledge of or experience with the activities of a department you head up, is perfectly acceptable.
Actually the interim HR director is extremely qualified to take over the dept. Her experience in labor law, labor relations and negotiation skills are more than well suited to run an HR dept, even more so than most private companies whom can’t really afford to pay an attorney to run a dept as cumbersome as HR dealing with hiring, firing, benefit administration and trainings for county staff from sexual harassment, bullying in the workplace and workforce management. As stated in the article, she already represents the county in many of those areas for the HR department.
Hey “county worker”, what you said may be true, but the potential problem here is the fact that Ms. Duvall has been working for (and under the influence of) Scotty G. for the past few years. So, will she continue in is “style” of management and “go for the throat” of county employees, or will she moderate the M.O. at H.R. to make it more employee friendly? After all, it is called “Human Resources” for a reason (a resource for the employees to go to in time of need for various reasons). Under Mr. Gibson, it’s been exactly the opposite. Keep in mind, Scott Gibson is just a pawn of his boss (and governor wanna-be) David Craig.
JAG:”After all, it is called “Human Resources” for a reason (a resource for the employees to go to in time of need for various reasons). ”
Actually, this really depends on point of view and management practice. The term “human resources” was originally coined as meaning “the management of human resources”, or humans/employees as resources/assets of the company (which they are in some technical sense). Over time this usage has waned and been replaced moreso by the one you used.
But, my point is that they are two sides of the same coin, and either view is acceptable depending on the circumstances. HR departments do a lot more than handle benefits and provide service to employees, but that is just the part of the job that most employees actually see.
JAG, I have worked for in senior management for a few companies, all multi-billion dollar ones, and I can tell you that HR, in my experience, is not an advocate for employees except to let management know what can legally be done or not done. They also help management control employee total cost which in turn impacts profitability and stock performance. It might be different in government but don’t hold your breath.
Hmmmmmmm-usually the Deputy Director gets to be the Acting during the HR Director vacancy. Agreed the new appointee ruled what she was told to rule and I wonder how she’ll handle D.I.L.P grievances and issues with their Director? And yes-Policy enforced on everyone else to the tee—pay back that tuition, education expense. (bet there will be a technicality to prevent payback lol)
With their mentor vacating the Executive’s job in the not too distant future, I suspect we’ll see many Scott Gibsons leaving to “pursue other options,” “spending more time with their family,” etc.
He knew Glassman had already told County employees that he was gone on day one. Hopefully Glassman will clear the Craig Friends and Family hiring plan at 220 S Main St. Not much he can do about Craig’s property buys from his cronies in last 12 months.
Interesting…what sort of real estate “investments” has Craig made? It’s always been my contention and there plenty of evidence that “influence” is much easier locally than nationally and it’s most often about real estate. Mayor Dixon didn’t get Jimmy Choo’s because she’s pretty.
Glad this clown is off to mess another HR dept. He spent months working on a plan to make use of sick/family leave by screwing employees that seldom used it for personal gain by requiring a doctor’s visit to approve the leave. So employees with a recurring medical issue had to go to the dr’s on purpose (thereby increased medical costs too) and by developing an occurrence system when someone did not provide proof of dr’s visit. Finally the CE told him to stop the nonsense since it was costing the county more SS to enforce a stupid rule, since the employee got paid for the time off anyway (just the matter in which it was used). Keep in mind that sick days are paid out either when used or when retired! Did not save the county any $$$. He tried hiring his own family members too even though they weren’t qualified
Will he have to pay back the county for his $12,000 Harvard class? I think they should make him pay back the tax payers
Yes, he should! Any other employee is required to spend at least two years with Harford County Government when the county pays for said employees education (which, by the way hasn’t been available for rank and file employees for quite a few years!).
Also, keep in mind that while Mr. Gibson was at Harvard for 3 weeks with a tuition of $11,800(on our dole), he was also being paid his healthy six-figure salary! Now that’s a lot of bulls#@t. 🙂
This kind of stuff is going on all throughout Harford County within his friends and families circle (Craig’s) – there should be a investigation and it should be made public what he has done during his tenure in this county. He has put in experienced friends and family into positions while pushing county workers out of their jobs and placing them elsewhere. Raises have not been giving to hard workers for about 5 years while friends/family is getting raises by just justifying it by saying they got “promotions”. This kind of stuff is rampantly going on in this county and nothing is done about it.
The general public and taxpayer has no idea what is really going on here. The general county worker is also a hard working taxpayer in Harford County and has been treated terrible by this administration, including this Mr. Gibson. He has dismantled any kind of plan for raises and increases for people with the lie that it is because of economy and wanting to save the budget, while spending money like it is water on things that will make him look good in the public eye. Money being spent on things that are totally not necessary and one is internally re organizing departments and adding staff on the top that is totally unnecessary. Staff that gets paid six figure salaries from the very beginning – People should research what has happened in the past 8 to 10 years in this county – how some departments have been inflated on the top with people added for the sole purpose of giving some friend or family a position in high paid government jobs.
No doubt alot of county employees are happy. Plus I see Craig continues to put people in positions they have no training in and by the way Craig wants to be our next governor so brace yourself
The best part of his leaving is that I will no longer have to see his fat a** on a bicycle rolling down Main Street on Ride your Bike to work day.
Hooray! One idiot down, more to go. Scott Gibson thought he was above us all. He had no respect for county employees and flaunted his influence. I hope that Mary Chance will be the next to get the axe along with Beth Hendrix and Rocky Gonzalez. David Craig’s choices for his department heads has been most disappointing. I don’t know whether Barry Glassman will be any better. Wish we had some good Republicans instead of this lot.
My guess is that this resignation is so Scott Gibson can be in line for the HR director of the new Water and Sewer authority that Craig is just about ready to shove down our throats. Rate payers beware!! This comes out of a report from a committee that Scott was in charge of a few years back. The water and sewer rates in Harford County are going to skyrocket because once the Authority is formed and finalized, it will not take a political vote to raise these rates, and the players want big profits! Your council members may be voting on this as early as October. So far this has all been hush hush.
I knew this guy was a phony from the first time he visited our dept. and told us all of his “vast” experience inH.R.– Vast?! The guy was born 2 years after I started working for the county as was the case with many of us. He was the beginning of the separation of the administration from the actual work force and was responsible for implementing an incredibly draconian policy of “random” urine tests on employees. But on not him.Or on the Lawyers. There was an Employee Assistance Program in place for many decades( because real Harford Countians’ believed in fairness and trust) before this smart ass decided there should be no second chances. Funny how so many workers that had 20 or more years were being tested “randomly”.He was very disrespectful to long time workers due to his insecurities as a young man and his abilities. Ask one of the long time workers. You might be safe to do that now! Ms. Duvall was and is of his ilk and should be examined for competency at this position. She apparently has a great dislike of the Unions and sees fit to fight any Employee benefit.