Scranton Mayor Courtright: What's the lesser of four evils?

The Scranton Times reported today that Scranton Mayor Bill Courtright hired the brother of a $10,000 political contributor to a non-advertised city job AND the gentleman in question has a criminal record AND the gentleman failed to disclose his record on the employment application.

Come on now, let's play a game called "Pick the lesser evil".

A.  Unadvertised Job
This is an oldie but a goodie.  Qualifications?  Now why would the City of Scranton actually advertise for an open vacancy?  After all, that might actually entail getting a qualified candidate for a job.  Besides, failing to advertise makes it convenient to just claim that someone just happened to ask him for a job at just the right time.

B.  Criminal Record
Heck, I'm all for second chances, so I barely count this one as an evil, that is until it's coupled with "C", below.

C.  Failure to Disclose
According to the Scranton Times, the gentleman in question just happened to leave his criminal history off of his original application for employment.  As an Human Resources professional, let me tell you what this really means (assuming the story is correct):  He LIED on his employment application when it came to a material fact.  For the record, he should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY for this single reason, but what the heck do I know?

D.  $10,000 Campaign Contributor
Forget local PACs trying to influence elections; who needs them? In Scranton it's still done the old fashioned way:  Direct contributions to mayoral campaign of (now) Mayor Courtright, to the tune of $10,000.  Oh, and I'm sure it's just a coincidence that this same contributor happens to be the brother of the alleged "convict-application liar-city employee".


So, what's the answer?  Well I kind of think it really doesn't matter, because all of the above are more than sufficient to come to the following conclusion:  Scranton's Mayor, Bill Courtright, is following in the worst of local political traditions by granting favors to friends and contributors that the non-connected with have not shot at getting.

Something stinks to high Hell in Scranton, and it's not the Sewer Authority.

Jigs up Bill Courtright, you just got caught.