news story / By Hank Sims

Zander’s Continuing Adventures

In June 2008, the RREDC board appointed a subcommittee to head up the search for a new executive director. The subcommittee was composed of Arcata City Councilmember Alex Stillman, Blue Lake Mayor Sherman Schapiro, Harbor District Commissioner Mike Wilson, former Eureka City Councilmember Chris Kerrigan, McKinleyville Community Services District Director Helen Edwards and Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board Member Bruce Rupp. According to minutes from the June meeting, the subcommittee was to enlist the help of Humboldt County’s personnel department and Gregg Foster, the RREDC executive director who preceded Zander in the executive director position and later came back to the commission to replace him.

Ron Halverson, a personnel analyst with the county, ended up assisting RREDC in the executive director search. But last week he said that his role and Foster’s didn’t amount to much more than conducting outreach for the search and forwarding applications on to the commission.

“We were approached by RREDC to assist them, because they didn’t really have the staff to do that,” Halvorsen said Monday. “What we did was place ads, and then served as the repository for people to apply.”

“My role was to assist the board with recruitment, which meant identifying trade publications and organizations that would publicize the position,” said Gregg Foster Tuesday. “I then met with the committee to review the resumes and identify those that should receive further screening — ‘this resume looks good, let’s follow up with them’ versus ‘send them a thanks-but-no-thanks letter.’”

Zander was among the candidates that made the initial cut. He was put on the short list for the RREDC job, and was interviewed face-to-face by members of the subcommittee. The entire board later voted to hire him, and was apparently impressed by his bearing. “He presented himself very well,” said Wilson.

But Zander lasted only two months on the job before being placed on administrative leave, for reasons that RREDC still will not discuss, and in the summer of 2008 he was let go with threats of litigation hanging in the air. His past life as a fake military attorney and as his cloudy history with the Paiute Tribe were largely unknown until after he had gone.

“To the degree that he was not the man, and whatever shortcomings he had, I think we were all a part of that process,” Rupp said Monday.

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