Hiring family members is always a terrible idea in politics. Regardless of the person’s competence, the hiring casts doubt on the entire process and makes the motives for such choices suspect.

This can be considered nepotism, or, in other words, favoritism shown on the basis of a family relationship. The term “nepotism” comes from Catholic bishops who would bequeath their wealth and property to their nephews to keep wealth within a family.

The public will be skeptical of the hire because of the relationship, so the new employee is weighted down in controversy right from the beginning.

One of the problems in small communities, such as those that dot the five-county Times News region, is that sometimes interfamilial relationships are almost inevitable because the pool of likely candidates is so limited.

It’s not unusual to see family of board of education members employed in the same district. The rationale is that since the employees don’t report directly to board members it doesn’t present a direct conflict. On top of that, board members are expected to abstain from the official vote.

During my many years as a journalist, I have learned from some municipal, county and school board officeholders that they consider putting in a good word for a relative or a close friend a perk that comes with the office.

As long as it does not cross a legal boundary, they are not necessarily concerned with the ethical or moral implications of their actions.

Last month boys interim soccer coach Alex Wunder, son of board member Dan Wunder, was considered for the post of adviser to the intramural soccer program during two consecutive Pleasant Valley School Board meetings but failed to get the necessary five votes. Wunder’s father was absent from the first meeting due to a death in the family and abstained the second meeting.

There was a large turnout of students and their parents supporting Wunder’s appointment, but, in the end, it didn’t matter. If you have been following what’s been going on at Pleasant Valley, this outcome may not be all that surprising, because there is still bad blood among board members, officials and staff.

A Monroe County grand jury has addressed some of these issues in a list of recommendations it made recently, including that “administrators must adhere to the highest ethical standards in their dealings with staff members, the board, parents and children.”

At a public meeting last October, board member Wunder accused board member Laura Jecker of bullying administrators and other board members. Jecker was one of the those who voted against Wunder’s son’s appointment in January. Some characterized it as payback time. For her part, Jecker said she voted “no,” because of critical comments from some parents.

As it turned out, Alex Wunder was hired as boys’ head soccer coach at the Feb. 14 board meeting by a 7-0 vote with Wunder’s father again abstaining and Kenneth Cocuzzo absent.

Along with three others, Wunder also was approved as co-adviser of the boys’ intramural soccer program. One board member who had voted against Wunder initially said that she felt the head coach’s position should be determined first, so now that this had been done, she voted “yes.”

The Pleasant Valley district follows a nepotism policy, which says a board member can’t vote for a family member, nor can he or she influence other board members to vote for the person. The January votes could have been a reaction to the grand jury report because of his father’s position on the board.

In Carbon County, there has been an anti-nepotism policy on the books since 1992; on the other hand, Monroe County has no such policy, according to county Administrator Greg Christine, brother of the county District Attorney David Christine. Carbon’s policy covers spouses, parents, children, siblings, in-laws and step-relatives. It also applies to those living together who are unrelated.

For years, patronage was the grease that made the political machine crank into high gear, but thanks to competitive Civil Service tests and other practices where competency determines who gets the job, this problem has been significantly contained. There are, however, many other jobs where public officials can manipulate the system and their colleagues to get family members and friends coveted jobs which should go to more qualified candidates. That’s where we get the cynical notion of: “It’s not what you know but whom you know.”

Public officials need to avoid not only actual conflicts but the perception of conflicts to restore integrity to the political system. It also should be mandatory for governmental bodies at every level to have anti-nepotism and conflict of interest policies that are fair and enforceable.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com