Murphy claims board vote led him to quit

Mallette says stepping
down from vote on niece
was proper action

By kathy baratta
Staff Writer

Murphy claims board
vote led him to quit
Mallette says stepping
down from vote on niece
was proper action
By kathy baratta
Staff Writer

JACKSON — Board of Education member Chuck Murphy said his recent public resignation from the board was done as a matter of principle and a stand against nepotism.

Murphy told a Tri-Town News reporter, "I resigned because I object to the school district being used as a job bank for relatives of school board members."

Murphy said he was referring to a vote taken July 23 to hire Jennifer Glory as a special education teacher. Glory is the niece of board President Kathleen Mallette. The vote carried 4-1, and Glory was hired as a full-time special education teacher.

Speaking after the public meeting and Murphy’s resignation and public accusation of nepotism, Mallette said Murphy’s resignation at the July 23 public meeting was "nothing but pure political grandstanding."

Mallette said she, too, opposes nepotism. However, she said there was no nepotism involved in the hiring of Glory and said the difference appeared to be in the individual interpretation of the practice.

Murphy said even if an applicant for a position is qualified for the job, he or she should not be hired if a relative is already working for the district.

"Qualified or not, they should not be hired," he said. "Suppose there are 20 qualified people for a position, including the relative. Do we hire the niece? I don’t think so."

Mallette called Murphy’s argument "ridiculous."

"It is ridiculous to say that even qualified individuals should not be hired simply because they have relatives already working before them," she said.

Mallette said there are several teachers working in the district whose children are now teachers also working in Jackson. She said Glory, who graduated the Jackson school district as an honor student and from college magna cum laude, was "highly qualified in a field where there is a shortage of qualified persons, not just in this school district, but in districts statewide."

"My family, like many of the teachers whose kids follow them, are service-oriented and carry a certain family tradition and work ethic," Mallette said.

She said that in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety on her part, she had deliberately removed herself from her niece’s vote, leaving the room after recusing herself from the vote.

"If she was close enough to the applicant for her to recuse herself, it was too close," Murphy said.

Murphy, who said he recently retired from a career in federal law enforcement, said, "The idea of nepotism is bad. Government must be on the up and up; otherwise, people lose faith in that government."

Mallette said she "knew Murphy would try to make it (Glory’s hiring) political, like he does with everything" and because of that belief she had tried to talk Glory into taking a teaching position in another district.

However, she said, Glory wanted to stay in the district she grew up in and in which she had completed her student teaching assignment.

Mallette said Murphy’s motivation in the resignation and opposition to Glory’s hiring "are political and due to the fact that her father is a strong player politically that a lot of people oppose."

Mallette went on to say there was "bad blood" between Murphy, a Democrat, and George Glory, Jennifer’s father, a Republican.

"Anyone who knows anything about Jackson politics will tell you they’re not surprised by this," Mallette said.

In conversations with a reporter, Murphy and Mallette both talked about ethics charges brought years ago by Murphy against Mallette and two other board members over a land acquisition by the school.

Among other charges, Murphy alleged that Mallette was trying to influence other board members to consider land owned by George Glory.

Mallette denied the accusation and today they both differ on the outcome of that dispute.

Murphy claims Mallette was censured by the ethics committee regarding the land discussions.

Mallette claims the committee found she had done nothing wrong, but said that "doesn’t stop him."

"Mr. Murphy … thinks that all is fair in politics, and he is a politician," she said, adding, "The bottom line is that Jennifer has a strong work ethic, and she got the job because she deserves it, period."

About Murphy’s decision to resign in the middle of his third term over what he said was "a matter of principle," Mallette said, "If he really felt there was a problem, he should have stayed and worked on it. That’s what the people elected him for."

According to Allison Erwin, public information officer for the school district, following the vote to hire Glory, the board, on a motion from board member Mike Hanlon, will be looking at the panel’s hiring standards and policies to see if recommendations of change are needed.