It is unfair to hand pick people for tourism jobs

I am told there has been an effort, which will culminate at Monday’s meeting of the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission, to hire Corbin Main Street Manager Sharae Myers on a month-to-month basis as some sort of grant specialist.

Board members tell me the impetus behind this idea springs from concerns that the city may lose some grants – particularly a $20,000 grant to help pay for a downtown park in honor of Kentucky Fried Chicken Founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

When local businesswoman Suzie Razmus became Tourism chairwoman earlier this year, I praised her and the rest of the board for getting the ball rolling on a laundry list of clever, and in some cases brilliant, ideas to encourage more tourists to visit Corbin. The Sanders park is among the best of those and it just seems like the kind of thing our Tourism Commission should be doing.

Tourism has really hit its stride lately.

But this idea to hire Myers stinks.

It has the same rotten odor to it that so many government hiring decisions have. People complain all the time about this idea of a "good old boy" system in politics, particularly here locally. I would argue there is a "good old girl" system too. Many thump their chests and demand government clean up its act. Officials, it is said, need to stop making decisions that benefit their family or friends and do what is right. I agree.

Myers’ job as Main Street Manager was reduced to a part-time position just last month. Now, in the nick of time, there is a sudden, desperate need to hire someone to fill out grant paperwork?

What convenient timing!

Sounds like the good old boy/girl network is working overtime.

Is this just a way to supplement someone’s income by handpicking them for a bogus position? Maybe. Maybe not. But that’s sure how it appears.

Let’s suspend disbelief for a second and assume this is necessary. The Tourism Commission already employs a full-time secretary who should be capable of handling this. The paperwork involved is not that voluminous or difficult.

Honestly, I question the necessity of this to begin with. According to the agreement for grant funds on the Sanders park project, it has to be completed by March of next year. Perhaps it could be done before then, but the officials I talk to all doubt it. Property for the park hasn’t even been purchased yet. There is no firm concept of the layout of the park or even what it’s main feature, a bronze statue of Sanders himself, will look like. No bids have been taken yet for architects, sculptors, excavation firms … nothing. Since the grant money is basically to cover the cost of benches and trashcans in the park, maybe it could be used to buy those without the entire project being finished, but that’s iffy. It is very conceivable the grant won’t be used because there is no possibility of an extension of time. For a project that will probably cost at least $300,000 to $500,000, why go to so much effort to preserve $20,000 that will likely be lost anyway?

If it is necessary to hire someone for this very important work, then shouldn’t there be a legitimate process involved? Maybe whoever is hired could write grant applications for Tourism and procure more grant money. That would be great! But why not take applications and do interviews. If Myers is the best candidate at the end of it all, then by all means hire her. It is highly likely she would emerge as a top candidate anyway. She has shown a knack for landing grant funds and I am told her applications are very professional and thorough. But it needs to be done the right way.

Taxpayers deserve honest, open government. Backroom deals and good old boy/girl back scratching don’t equal that in my opinion.