Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has hired an executive from a former client at the center of the most significant controversy Gessler faced during his campaign.
Gessler announced last week that Gary Zimmerman would fill the role of chief administrative officer, a job that was vacant under former secretary Bernie Buescher.
Gessler said Friday that Zimmerman was the best of the candidates who applied for the post.
“I’m assuming I will take some political hits for this, because, God forbid, I know someone I hired,” Gessler said.
Staff winnowed the pool to three top candidates through an anonymous scoring process, Gessler said, and Zimmerman was the most qualified of those three. Gessler also said he feared losing his overworked deputy secretary, William Hobbs, whom observers credit as vital to the office.
Zimmerman most recently directed the Colorado Independent Automobile Dealers Association, where he was hired in August and charged with correcting a culture that had led to more than $500,000 in fines to the secretary of state’s office, which Gessler wished to occupy. For much of the time period during which those fines accrued, Gessler was listed as the registered agent for CIADA’s political committee.
In early October, Zimmerman placed the blame squarely on the association’s use of a rogue contractor that he said bilked the association and fouled its reporting to the state.
In an explanation of the contractor’s alleged wrongdoing, Zimmerman said that the errors that led to the fines were due to poor record-keeping and possible financial malfeasance on the part of the bookkeeping contractor.
Political critics seized on the fines, which, as a result of Zimmerman’s reforms, were reduced to $8,450 under Buescher. CIADA has begun paying them off.
Gessler said he picked Zimmerman for his experience, and his resume shows that he has worked for more than 20 years in corporate management with Fortune 500, technology and nonprofit companies and organizations.
“You’ve got to make this office work, and you’ve got to make this office work well, and I think this is what’s going to make that happen,” Gessler said.
The hire, with its salary of $120,000 a year, increases the number of full-time equivalent positions at the office. Buescher had proposed 4.5 fewer FTEs for the coming fiscal year. Gessler is asking for 2.5 fewer.
The nonprofit political watchdog group Colorado Common Cause says refilling the CAO position makes sense.
“We think if Secretary Gessler believes he needs to make this hire for the effectiveness of the office, then it is appropriate for him to make this hire,” said Jenny Rose Flanagan, who directs the group.
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
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