Do it over
We all want to help our family members and friends succeed in life. However, there are limits, especially for public officials. They’re elected to serve the public, not their friends and family members. They have a moral duty to do what’s in the best interests of the citizens they serve.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened recently, where Uniontown Area School Board member Thomas George voted to hire his nephew Philip Michael as the school district’s truancy officer at a salary of $45,000.
The vote was 5-4, meaning without George’s vote, Michael wouldn’t have been hired. By voting for his nephew, George violated the district’s nepotism and hiring policy which requires board members to remove themselves from the hiring process when the applicant is a relative.
The policy also states that administrators and board members must disclose any personal relationship with a job applicant, be they a relative, neighbor, business associate or close friend.
During the meeting, board member Susan Clay asked if anyone on the board was related to Michael, but no one responded at that time.
Clay called George’s failure to disclose the relationship a “disservice to the district and the people in the district.” We couldn’t agree more.
George did admit after the meeting that Michael was his nephew, but then he tried to downplay the relationship, claiming Michael was his wife’s nephew. That’s flat out ridiculous. A nephew is a nephew whether it’s on your spouse’s side of the family or your own blood relative. To try and make that distinction is nonsense.
To make matters even worse, the job wasn’t advertised and no job description for the post was created. The four other board members who voted for Michael, Bill Gerke, Bill Rittenhouse, Vince Winfrey and Ken Meadows, all share in the blame letting such a fiasco happen.
Clay along with Dorothy Grahek, Don Rugola and Terry Dawson deserve credit for standing up against such shenanigans and voting against the hiring.
The shame of it is that, since the job wasn’t posted, we’ll never know if Michael was the best candidate. He was working for the district as a constable, so it’s possible he might have been the best person for the job. But since he was hired in such a questionable manner, Michael will always have a cloud over his head as to how he got hired.
The only way to remove that cloud is for the board to go back, rescind the hiring, create a job description and post the job. If Michael turns out to be the best qualified candidate, then he should be hired for job. It’s as simple as that.
But George should refrain from voting, no matter how close the vote is. Whether such a vote violates state law or even the school district’s policy isn’t the main issue here. This is about right and wrong. And it’s simply wrong to put the interests of your relatives above the interests of the people who voted you into office.
Things like has have been happening in Fayette County for far too long now. It’s time to put an end to things like this. Local taxpayers should stand up and demand that their elected officials be held accountable for such questionable actions.
In the end, George has a moral duty to do the right thing. If he can’t do that, then he should step down as a school board member and turn his seat over to someone who can do the right thing.