Countywide : Board OKs Hiring of Staff Analyst
The County Board of Supervisors approved a contract Tuesday allowing the Ventura County Civil Service Commission to hire its own chairman as a staff analyst.
The commission stirred up a controversy in July when it hired Chairman Robert C. Embry to replace staff member Ray Charles, who died. No search was conducted by the commission for other applicants for the $15,298-a-year part-time job. The only other applicant was another member of the commission.
The hiring prompted concern from Personnel Director Ronald W. Komers about what criteria was used in Embry’s selection for the job which entails 60 hours of work a month researching county employee appeals. However, Komers recommended approval of the contract.
The hiring also irked Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury. He said earlier that no law was broken in the commission’s hiring of Embry, but called the hiring “incestuous” and “institutional nepotism.”
Bradbury clashed with the commission last April when the commission found the district attorney had violated county nepotism rules by permitting a division head, C. Stanley Trom, to retain his new wife, Margaret Escobar-Trom, on his staff.
No violation was subsequently found by county attorneys, but Bradbury agreed to move the woman from her husband’s office.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
