Posted on 01/06/2004 6:56:20 AM PST by Theodore R.
Fletcher's brother's wife hired at cabinet MOVE REQUIRES WAIVER TO HIRING FREEZE By John Cheves HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher's sister-in-law reports to work Wednesday as a political appointee at the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet. The move smacks of nepotism and hypocrisy, a representative of state employees said.
The appointment of Rachel Fletcher, 60, to be one of three executive secretaries to LaJuana Wilcher, the cabinet's secretary, will require a waiver in the state-wide hiring freeze Fletcher ordered shortly after he took office.
The $25,000-a-year job is "considered critical" though, so it should be filled, said cabinet spokesman Mark York.
Fletcher campaigned last fall on a pledge to "change the culture" in Frankfort. The administration of his predecessor, Gov. Paul Patton, was marked by repeated allegations of nepotism and cronyism.
Yesterday, however, Fletcher said he should be allowed to appoint his relatives to the state payroll if they are qualified.
"I don't think it's appropriate to have reverse discrimination," Fletcher said, "saying you can't hire somebody because they happen to have married my brother."
The chief of the Kentucky Association of State Employees laughed when told of the hiring, and he suggested that Fletcher's career as a government reformer was brief.
"Sounds like it's politics as usual in Frankfort," said Charles Wells, executive director of the employees' association.
"You hire your family and friends; you look out for your own, first and foremost," Wells said. "Everyone else gets hiring freezes and tiny pay raises."
Rachel Fletcher declined to comment. She is married to Harold Fletcher Jr., the governor's older brother, who separately disclosed yesterday that he plans to run for the state Senate. They live in Frankfort.
When Rachel Fletcher gave $1,000 to Fletcher's gubernatorial campaign last year, she listed her job as office manager at an architectural firm. Recently, she worked on Fletcher's transition team with Wilcher's chief of staff, Jean Dorton, and her office skills came to people's attention, said Fletcher spokeswoman Jeannie Lausche.
Wilcher needs to hire a third executive secretary because her cabinet -- born from Fletcher's merger of three existing cabinets -- now employs a sprawling 3,400 employees, said York, the cabinet spokes-man.
That need for more staff at the top was questioned by Wells.
Fletcher said he reorganized state government and merged cabinets at least in part to save money. With the cabinet secretaries getting pay raises though, up to $125,000 from $107,000, and hiring additional staff, it is unlikely the state will save much, Wells maintained.
Not true, countered Lausche. Overall, the Fletcher administration still expects to save a half-million dollars from the reorganization and hiring Rachel Fletcher barely will dent that, she added.
"She's not making a huge salary," Lausche said. "It's only $25,000."
This is a foolish move from a public-relations standpoint. Why do what the Dems have always done when everyone sees it as not rising above the "old ways?"
Hopefully Governor Fletcher will refrain from further lapses in good judgement that create political distractions from the job at hand of bringing efficiency and lower costs to state government.
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