I do not understand the fuss about former Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino hiring someone he knew and trusted personally as an assistant to him, although there seemed to be more than 150 other candidates for the position. Wasn’t he entitled to at least one assistant he could trust, even if she was his mistress?
After all, Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe continues to defend the hiring by the City Clerk Charter Officer of a personal assistant for the Mayor who that elected official can trust. If the position had been filled fairly, who knows? A black might have been hired. Or a woman….
Maybe the difference arises from the fact that there were no other candidates considered at all here for the unadvertised position. Apparently the Mayor did not feel there was anyone else he could trust–other than the one and only temporary professional who was hired to work closely with him.
Perhaps another difference was the fact that Petrino’s action is regarded as unusual. In Gainesville, the City Clerk, the City Manager,
the City Attorney, the Equal Opportunity director, and especially the GRU Director, almost routinely disregard the need to consider equal opportunity, when each of those charter officers decides he needs a temporary professional to fill a position indefinitely.
DISCLOSURE—I am a candidate for mayor of Gainesville, FL 2013. I seek to have the City charter changed so that City charter officials can no longer
hire whoever they please, to reward elected mayors and commissioners.
