When people go looking for a job, they’re often asked to provide a resume. For more demanding and higher-paying jobs, it’s a standard practice across America. (America: a vast continental republic of over three-hundred million people.)
Wisconsin’s part of America (at last check), but there’s different standard for one highly-placed member of the Doyle administration. The Wisconsin State Journal‘s Deborah Ziff reports that
The University of Wisconsin System offered a $245,000 per year position to Wisconsin Department of Administration secretary Michael Morgan without requesting his resume, records show.
The hire was criticized as political patronage by Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater. Morgan would have been out of a job when Gov. Jim Doyle left office next year.
The university offered Morgan the job as vice president for administration and fiscal affairs without conducting a national search.
The UW System sent a letter of offer to Morgan for the job on June 1 and five hours later, Morgan e-mailed a copy of his resume to officials, according to the records. The State Journal requested the documents under the state’s open records law.
See, No Resume Required for $245,000-a-year University of Wisconsin System Job.
This is outrageous, but other than one state representative and one reporter, where’s the outrage? Nass is right to question this appointment, and the State Journal did good work in showing that Morgan got his offer letter before he sent his resume. Conduct like this creates the clear appearance of unfair preferential treatment. Explanations that the Doyle team’s issued are patronizing and unbelievable.
The Doyle Administration both embarrasses itself and undermines the efforts of Democrats running this year with actions like this.
(It’s Tom Barrett who will be saddled with the taint of the unpopular, outgoing Doyle Administration in the fall campaign. Doyle’s team will head off to lucrative jobs and line up great opportunities while Barrett campaigns.)