The Range Association of Municipalities and Schools (RAMS) held their annual dinner last Friday in Hibbing. Attended by a smattering of city councilors, school board members and county commissioners, the event also featured a defiant speech by now former executive director and State Sen. David Tomassoni. According to one report, the speech was read verbatim from a piece of paper and argued he could have carried on, if it weren’t for the media and blogs.
Regardless of Tomassoni’s sense of being wronged, he did opt to resign the position two weeks ago amid a conflict of interest controversy over his attempt to hold the job with his Senate seat simultaneously.
Over the weekend, a job posting for the organization’s executive director position ran in newspapers across the Iron Range. As this Bill Hanna Mesabi Daily News story shows, there will be a contested election for the presidency of RAMS, but already there appears to be a renewed interest in a more transparent RAMS.
For one thing, the executive director job is being posted publicly. That was only vaguely true of the process that let to Tomassoni’s hiring, in which Tomassoni was the only candidate actually interviewed.
It would appear the local officials who comprise RAMS seem to have learned from the Tomassoni ordeal, even if Tomassoni hasn’t. They are responding with a goal of improving the Iron Range. That’s encouraging.
UPDATE: By popular demand, here is a screen shot of the RAMS Executive Director job posting that ran in the Grand Rapids Herald-Review, Hibbing Daily Tribune, and Mesabi Daily News over the weekend:
Do the excellent communication skills include talking about “Schools Districts”?
RAMS is evidently funded by taxpayer dollars. Why do we even need such an association? Isn’t the IRRRB supposed to be giving money to municipalities? And schools are funded through the State budget. How many other members of RAMS get paid besides the Executive Director?
Great question Elanne..