Wait a minute, SMB with 2 IT depts?
I sense you simplified this to get support for your point. Since small companies under 50 have IT departments of like 2 heads, I'll assume your company creates and sells software as a product or supporting Manufactured Part of an Assembly. Indeed there are politics going on here as well. It appears you were not rewarded for your fight to get someone (and you did, congrats!). Web Site Development is like 25% of creating a web site. Perhaps there is a bigwig who knows this and is actually hiring for more of a Marketing or Sales slant. That's what SMB web sites are for, except for companies who invest adequately in their site and create an after sales support area. I just picked up a great book about company politics off Amazon called "Provocative Business Change" by John A Honeycutt, so I have my business turf hat on right now.
Mix into that pot the fact that I work (programmer) for a retail company (2300 employees) where the web site is completely developed by the Marketing department. We have our disagreements, they require in-depth support (DBA, Infrastructure, etc), but they have their own budget and have to buy what the company needs themselves.
This got long, thanks for letting me vent.
