It’s a concept that’s been around since the first cave man mayor named his brother as Assistant Sabertooth Slayer.
To the victor goes the spoils.
Most of us understand that a candidate keeps a close group of people around; the posse, the camp, the “team.”
That candidate has the right to keep many of those same “team” members around after the oath is given.
After all, not everyone spends hundreds of volunteer hours for a candidate just to further political beliefs; the hard truth is that those jobs are the rewards for a campaign well spent.
But there are limits.
At least there should be.
Case in point is County Executive Mark DiVecchio’s attempts to find a job for campaign ally Matt Selker.
He first tried to get Selker appointed to run the County’s Redevelopment Authority, a move that came under fire because it prompted the needless firing of Rick Novotny, a man brought into the county position after doing some pretty good things in the Corry area.
So then DiVecchio decides to create a new job in economic development and guess what?
Selker would be the perfect man for the job, as long as we can waive the rules about the maximum money the job would earn.
Now in fairness that is allowed under County rules for a candidate whose experience warrants.
But Selker ran a failed communication business and then was unable to kick start a plan to put a grocery store on Parade Street.
How that experience warrants extra pay for a developer seems a touch beyond me.
In the end, DiVecchio found a 13 dollar an hour temp job for Selker and gave him nearly a thousand bucks to attend a conference in Washington for which he wasn’t registered.
Hey, all in good time.
The city side seems scant better. Incoming mayor Joe Sinnott made it clear early that he would put the best people in the best places to do the job he needs.
Fair enough.
But the end result is that the ENTIRE command staff of the Erie Bureau of Police will retire or leave the job by mid May.
That’s at least the Chief, the Assistant Chief and two Deputy Chiefs.
Doesn’t that seem a touch like the baby going out with the bathwater?
In a perfect world an incoming administration would weed out the bad apples of the previous crew but keep that which works.
The end result would be a government constantly combing through itself to get better each and every term.
In the real world loyalty gets far more points than does competence, and the end result is government that seems to be always starting from scratch every election cycle.