Ehlmann

As expected, the St. Charles County Council has approved the hiring of former Missouri Corrections Director Larry Crawford as the county’s corrections chief.

The council voted 5-1 on Monday night to endorse the appointment by County Executive Steve Ehlmann, which was announced late Friday.  He replaced Alan Stahl, whose resignation also was announced then.

The only negative vote was from Cheryl Hibbeler of O’Fallon, one of the two Democrats on the seven-member council. Ehlmann and Crawford are Republicans.

Hibbeler said while department directors serve at the discretion of the county executive, she had “misgivings about the process” used to find a replacement.

In particular, she objected to Ehlmann’s plan to pay Crawford $96,000 - about $7,000 more than Stahl, who had been director for 14 years - during a time of tight county finances. The county last year laid off several employees and officials have talked of the possibility of employee furloughs in the future.

She said if Ehlmann had mounted “a longer search,” perhaps he could have found a director without “having to go to a higher pay rate.”

Hibbeler

Actually, there was no search and Crawford was the only person considered for the job. Ehlmann said he decided a change was needed and that he and his director of administration, Chuck Gross, recruited Crawford because of his experience running the state system.

Crawford, who had been director under then-Republican Gov. Matt Blunt, was available because incoming Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon didn’t retain him when he took over last January.

Ehlmann said Gross, a former GOP state senator, knew Crawford well from their days together in the Legislature and that Gross as Senate appropriations chairman had dealt with him as state corrections chief.

As for the salary, Ehlmann said it was a product of negotiation with Crawford. Ehlmann said Crawford had turned down working for Stahl’s salary and had earned $105,000 as state director.

“If you’re trying to upgrade, you try to get the best people; sometimes you’ve got to pay a little more,” Ehlmann said.

Ehlmann added that no one on the council complained when he last year hired a new Family Arena director at a higher salary than his predecessor.

Ehlmann confirmed that Stahl didn’t learn about the decision to replace him until Friday. As he did Friday, Ehlmann wouldn’t elaborate on his reasons other than to say he’s “constantly reviewing our organization.”

Before his four years as state corrections director, Crawford was a Republican state representative from central Missouri and had been recorder of deeds and circuit court clerk in Moniteau County.