Job opportunities

Dear editor:

While my family and I have enjoyed Mount Ida since moving here, I see the job market in Hot Springs has exploded. And great jobs they are. Honestly, you can’t get a job like these in many places. City manager, for example. Even with a checkered past, termination due to alleged racially insensitive comments made at your previous employee, the board of directors in the Spa will give you a contract better than the governor of the state. Then, when, like a cat that can’t change their spots, you goof up again, they will give you $223,000 worth of Hot Springs taxpayer money just to go away. That’s a heckuva gig. We don’t have anything like it in Mount Ida.

Then there’s the two-time interim city manager, called back again and given a bump in pay. This employee, Bill Burrough, had a 2015 sexual harassment suit against himself and another city employee. Taxpayers of Hot Springs paid $300K to make that nuisance go away and let Burrough keep his job. The city takes care of their own.

The real culprits in this are Larry Williams, Elaine Jones and the rest of the board who have allowed this to happen and wasted over a half-million dollars of your taxpayer money. David Frasher never misrepresented who he was or denied the allegations that followed him from Oregon City and a previous position in which he was forced to resign. No, Williams, Jones and the others not only unanimously approved him, they gave him a contract with a license to leave a richer man under pretty much any circumstances. They also approved of the $300K settlement and voted to leave Burrough in place. Hey, when it’s not your money, who cares?

On that note, we’re happy in Mount Ida, but unfortunately, those type of job opportunities just aren’t available in Montgomery County. Speaking of job opportunities, Williams, Jones and other board of directors will be up for re-election or trying to get elected in other positions this fall. Remember their names. It’s your money they’re wasting. Casey Alexander Mount Ida