Give Pritchard some credit

Here in the patch, we are howling with delight that even a resident political gadfly like Ted Pritchard sees and acknowledges what HeraldStandard.com will not: That there is absolutely nothing in the work experience of former HS reporter Amy Revak to even remotely suggest she is qualified to manage the Fayette County budget as chief clerk.

Pritchard has filed court papers seeking judicial action to block Revak from starting her new job on Monday. According to Jennifer Harr's May 8 story "Lawsuit opposes Fayette hiring," Pritchard alleges that Revak does not possess the qualifications to develop the county budget and monitor expenditures, which are part of the job.

While we doubt that Pritchard's legal maneuver will put a halt to Revak's hiring, his willingness to at least try to raise questions about the situation puts HeraldStandard.com and editor Mark O'Keefe to shame.

Anyone with an iota of insight knows that Revak's biggest qualification for this job was her friendship with Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Zapotosky. Everyone who read the job description as posted on the county website knows that there was a lot of discrepancy between the skills being sought (accounting, budgeting, finance) and those used to justify the hiring of Revak (English degree, familiarity with the media and open records requests).

If county commissioners Zapotosky and fellow Democrat Al Ambrosini wanted to hire a press secretary or media relations person, shouldn't they have openly advertised the position as such? That would have clued in other people who possess that skill set that this was a job they might be interested in, or have a chance to get. Even if media skills are what matters in the job, there are much better people to get than Revak.

Yet HeraldStandard.com remains strangely silent on this matter. Harr's story recites that Ambrosini and Zapotosky voted for Revak. It also notes that Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink made a motion for a different candidate, but that motion failed for lack of a second.

What the story doesn't note is that the candidate favored by Zimmerlink holds a master's degree in business administration. That's just a few words, but they are important to any fair presentation of this controversy -- and curiously, they were omitted from the story. Why? It isn't as though Zimmerlink was seeking to hire someone who worked at a flower shop, or had last worked as a greeter at Wal-Mart. She wanted someone who actually had a business degree. An advanced business degree.

Using the hiring standard employed by Zapotosky and Ambrosini, anyone who voted for them should immediately call up and ask about gaining employment for themselves or their friends or their relatives.

Using the Revak Standard, the qualifications for any county job, it appears, will be skewed and minimal:

"I have a driver's license. Can I be in charge of Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation?"

"I got three kids. Let me head up Children and Youth Services."

"I just served on jury duty. I learned a lot, so I would like to replace retiring Judge Ralph Warman."

"Man, I'm certifiably crazy. Can I run MH/MR?"

"I have voted in every election for the past 20 years. I would like to run the Fayette County Election Bureau."

The job of chief clerk is a taxpayer funded position, and one that, on paper at least, seems to be viewed as important to the overall operation of Fayette County government. O'Keefe has an editorial platform that he hasn't hesitated to use in the past to influence public opinion.

Why isn't he using it now, either way? He can tell us why Ambrosini's and Zapotosky's hiring of Revak was a good move, or why it was a bad one. He can tell us why Zimmerlink's preference for a candidate with an MBA was a good move, or a bad one.

But the worst thing he can do is what he's done so far: Say nothing.

P.S. -- We found another letter in our email for the "On the Mark" video feature:

Dear Mark:

Is it ethical for a reporter to date someone on the beat that they cover, and to still be doing stories for the paper that involve that person?

Sign me,

Isn't That Supposed to be a No-No?