Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Nepotism Case

Dear Editor

After reading about the nepotism issue, I decided to research it further. Mr. Thompson's comment about contacting the Attorney General's office to verify that this was not nepotism, did not sit well with me.

First, as an attorney shouldn't he be able to interpret code 71? Isn't this his job to uphold the laws?

Second, if it is borderline why in the world would you go ahead and endorse it as a member of the hiring committee?  Hmmm, something smells.

I read the Iowa Code 71 and was still unsure if the case between Supervisor Primmer and his grandson George. was against the law. I contacted the Office of Ombudsman and spoke for quite a while with the staff. Their interpretation to me was that since Primmer did not receive Monetary gain from his grandson being hired it was not against code 71. At least that's my summation of the conversation.

I did read them the employee handbook section on Nepotism and they stated that it is was clearly against the handbook policy. They added that the handbook policy is not the law.

But why in the world would you have a policy published and not abide by it? They also stated That this could lead to other policies not being able to be enforced because the county cannot pick and choose which policies they want to enforce.

I do believe that Mr. Thompson helped draft this nepotism policy after the case between Benson and Burkhart.

So are the county policies for everyone? Or are these policies just for those that the County Attorney deems it should be enforced on?

An inquiring mind, 

Francis D. Thomas