Nepotism gets green light in Warren County

Thanking the man who hired me

The Front Page

Morning Update

Friday, July 17, 2021

By Ken Tingley

A year ago, The Post-Star editorialized that Sheriff Jim LaFarr was violating Warren County’s nepotism policy by hiring his son.

I know because I wrote it.

The Sunday editorial was the last editorial I wrote before I retired and I took a small measure of satisfaction that four days later, LaFarr rescinded the hiring of his son after meeting in executive session (secret) with the Warren County Board of Supervisors. I believed at the time that the editorial gave the supervisors some political cover to enforce the nepotism policy.

Or maybe they just told him to sit tight and they would take care of him and his son down the road.

This week, the supervisors not only gave LaFarr the green light to hire his son, but they rewrote the nepotism policy.

The new policy provides a loop hole a tractor trailer could drive through that allows a department head to “appoint, hire, discipline or discharge a relative if no other county officer or employee can undertake the action and the actions is under taken in accordance with Civil Service Law and Rules promulgated there under for competitive positions.”

If you understand what that lawyer speak means, let me know.

The way I read it, the supervisors killed the nepotism policy and will follow basic Civil Service rules. It is now OK for Jim LaFarr - or any other department head - to hire a son, daughter, wife, husband or any other relative. The good, old boy network continues to thrive in Warren County.

What is so startling is that LaFarr should know better since he was in charge of the Office of Professional Standards for years before being elected sheriff.

In The Post-Star editorial a year ago, I wrote:

“Nepotism policies are put in place so powerful people with strong political connections do not use their influence - implied or other wise - to benefit family and friends.”

The opposite is now true in Warren County.

LaFarr lobbied the supervisors to pass the new policy because his department is having trouble recruiting people for positions. But he neglected to mention one of those people being considered was his son.

But I suspect the supervisors knew that already.

Essentially, the county has taken the position that ethics will be waived if you are having trouble filling a position.

When LaFarr was first elected sheriff in 1999, he tried to hire his son. When told of the nepotism policy, he threw a tantrum and said he might resign over the issue. This is why you have nepotism policies.

The supervisors tried to save face this week by saying an ethics panel would review those the new policy at least every two years. But ethics panels in government are notoriously ineffective and rarely even meet. The supervisors say they are looking for volunteers to appoint to an ethics panel, but it isn’t reviewing this decision.

That is convenient for Mr. LaFarr and his son.

It is inconvenient for any job applicant who doesn’t have a relative at the county.

Thanks Gary

I got chance to talk to Gary Kebbel recently. Gary was the managing editor who hired me to be sports editor at The Post-Star in 1988. I originally turned down Gary, but then accepted the position a week later. Although he left a couple years later and we have not talked since, I called him to thank him for hiring me. It changed my life for the better. I cannot imagine a better place to raise a family.

I also let him take a look at my collection of column that will be released soon. It is clear he also had fond memories of Glens Falls. This is part of the review he posted.

“For the past three decades, that pattern of typical community life, the best and worst of it, were chronicled by then Glens Falls Post-Star Editor Ken Tingley. Now those columns are a book, “The Last American Editor.” Pick any column and you’ll understand what we miss if local newspapers wither and die. Sometimes newspapers are the soul that help define a place, create its identity and preserve it. Sometimes they celebrate its people. Sometimes they are scolds; sometimes they nurture. The best of this comes when an editor writes not about the events of the day, but what those events teach us about ourselves, and how they are examples to follow or avoid.

“In writing about the people of Glens Falls and the Adirondack region, Tingley writes about hope and what’s best in us. Although his lessons are couched in moving, well-written stories about alcoholism or multiple sclerosis or organ donation or a Naval reservist shipping out for active duty in the Middle East, they much more broadly inspire us. They teach universal lessons about strengths and weaknesses of people who could be us. They exalt humanity, love and caring. They inspire others to help. They honor people and their community. They push us to see how much better life is when the joy of living it right shines for others to see. Quite simply, they show us the benefits of community.”

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Scott Shapiro @scottjshapiro

If the last two years were a movie, in which scientists develop a near-perfect vaccine for a deadly plague, but half the country won't take it, you'd be like: "This is too dumb to watch."