By tylersclark

March 27, 2008

It brings me no pleasure to point out that in this blog's second post, I argued that the city could not win by hiring Carmen Conglose as part-time traffic coordinator. I argued that he had not demonstrated the skills, had not made a compelling financial case that the job was owed him—as he complained, and that the job should be opened to outside competition, where surely there would be found compelling prospects that let the mayor walk away from what was becoming an unseemly display of cronyism.

Imagine my surprise to learn, after all this, that my reasoning was insufficient. Apparently he wasn't even credentialed. I found Terry Gallagher's letter to the editor compelling:

"Being a new mayor, maybe Jay Williams didn’t know about Carmen Conglose and his bogus college degree. I, an ordinary Youngstown resident, knew about it for years. Almost everybody who works for the city knew he had no college degree.

…

I was very disappointed with Mayor Williams when he 'suggested' Carmen return as the traffic coordinator. … When I heard he was retiring, I thought, finally he’s gone and they might actually hire someone with knowledge, sense and tact. … Wouldn’t it make more sense and save money to hire a newer or younger person. All we hear is 'young people have to leave the area to get jobs.' When one is available, they hire the same one who just retired."

Okay, so now can we please start widely advertising city openings, interviewing qualified applicants, and hiring the best people? How else are we going to raise the bar here?