Quick pseudo update on the story from last Friday about questions around Democratic state representative Larry Galizio's appointment/hire to high level Oregon Universtity system job on the recommendation of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's staff -- after Galizio provided the key, swing-vote on the Metolius Basin resort ban.
No new news to report on the story itself, however, I had a lengthy discussion with Rep. Brian Clem who sponsored the Metolius bill and shepherded it's passage with a razor thin majority. Clem, who is exploring a run for governor and stopped in Bend last week for 'pre-campaign' meet and greet, said he was confident that there was no quid-pro-quo at work with Galizio, who Clem knows well through their service in the House. However, Clem expressed strong reservations about the system of pseudo-patronage in Salem that allows legislators to slip into state jobs with little review or competition. In the case of Galizio, university system officials told both the Bulletin and the Oregonian that the job was never listed. In fact a job description wasn't even written before Galizio was tapped, according to the Bulletin.
Come today and now another case of a legislator with strong ties to a state agency taking an unadvertised job before the session ends. In this case a longtime Portland area legislator Margaret Carter has been hired as the deputy director for Human Services Program, according to a story that ran in the Oregonian today. While Carter says that conversations didn't start seriously about the job until after the Legislative session, she served co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means and had a key roll in developing the state budget this year, i.e. the trough at which Human Services drinks.
Think they might have been appreciative of any extra effort she put forth to preserve the agency's budget during a time of record cuts?
Oh yeah, one more thing, the job was never advertised.
