Ray and Associates: Business as Usual in Washington

This from the Tachoma News Tribune:

Same firm, but better results expected

They called consultant Jim Huge “Dr. Huge.”

He isn’t.

They described Charlie Milligan as someone who gets involved in the community.

He didn’t.

They told the School Board they’re “100 percent successful” in their searches.

They aren’t.

The record and the reputation of Ray and Associates and its headhunters are considered stellar in some school districts. In others, the company’s work led to dissatisfaction and at least one lawsuit.

The News Tribune examined the company’s proposal to conduct a superintendent search for the Tacoma School District this year, the work it did for the district two years ago and its record with other districts, and found:

• The company’s application for the Tacoma job listed “Dr. Jim Huge” as the regional associate who would work on the search. Huge doesn’t have a doctorate and says he’s never claimed one. “If they did that, they were just trying to be nice to me,” he said.

• The confidential report prepared by the firm on Milligan before his hire two years ago said this: “When Dr. Milligan moves into a community, he moves in completely. … His visibility both in the school district and with the public makes him a very strong public relations force for the district.” His record in Tacoma was quite the opposite: He snubbed community groups, warred with the media and sparred with the teachers union. Board members cited his poor community relations when they fired him last June.

• Reports obtained through an open-records request showed overwhelmingly positive dossiers on four candidates for the Tacoma superintendent job in 2006. The reports, prepared by Ray and Associates, gave no mention of negative traits or criticisms on any of the applicants, including Milligan.

• Ray and Associates and the Kentucky Board of Education are locked in a lawsuit over a search for the state education commissioner last year. President Gary Ray says his company provided a viable candidate and that the board hired its top choice. The state says the company did shoddy work, didn’t catch inaccuracies in the candidate’s résumé and shouldn’t be paid for a botched search, court records show.
The company defines success as providing applicants worthy of hire.

“We stay with them until the board is satisfied,” Ray said. “We’ve always been able to find somebody who’s approved by the board.”

He admits candidates sometimes don’t work out.

“Every once in awhile, somebody stubs their toe,” he said. “It’s not a perfect science, but we do the very best we can” to find candidates who will be successful and fit into a community, he added.

He thought the company had done that in the Milligan search.

“It was a situation where the board thought they’d found a match,” Ray said...