Mayor Dave Carey Moves Another Buddy Into The Office Next Door

I've previously mentioned what I feel is the Inherent Weaselity™ of the current Borough Administration headed up by the inherently weasely Dave Carey.

Today, Borough Mayor Dave Carey's office issued a press release, saying that 

"Due to the recent resignation of the Chief of Staff, whose last day will be February 19, 2010, Mayor David Carey is announcing that Duane Bannock, currently the Manager of the Spruce Bark Beetle Program, has been named as the Acting Chief of Staff."

The "recently resigned" (apparently, he who henceforth shall remain nameless) Chief of Staff, Hugh "Scooter" Chumley, got out while the getting was good, I expect.

The release goes on to say:

"Mr. Bannock brings with him many years of experience as a Business Manager, and he possesses the skills and knowledge to oversee the current duties of this office."

Well, okay.  

If you say so, Dave.  

But, as my fellow local blogger SOL in SOLdotna has noted, there are people who might question the value of Mr. Bannock's "many years of experience..." especially when he was manager of Kenai Chrysler.

To paraphrase the old Chinese curse, it appears we're in for some "interesting times."

And there's another, almost as interesting item noted in the press release:

During this time, Susan Wilcox, Special Assistant to the Mayor, has been named as the
Administrative Officer for the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Huh.  How about that?  Administrative Officer!  That sounds Important™!

Wait a second... what does the Borough Administrative Officer do, anyway?

Someone I know who works there is guessing that the AO's duties are the duties that were once handled by the very competent yet unceremoniously fired 25+ year Borough veteran General Services Manager (and Human Resources Director) Richard Campbell... and that Richard performed them in addition to his GSM/HR Director job.

However, word on the street is that Campbell's immediately hired replacement, Bonita Miller, after a year on the job, still hasn't exactly got a handle on the HR part... so maybe this is a way to relieve her burden a little, and allow her to focus on the ongoing contract negotiations with the Kenai Borough Employees Association. 

Or, maybe I'm reading way more into it than it really is.

Maybe it's just a way to reinstate Ms. Wilcox's salary without incurring the wrath of the Assembly.

Carey can't be THAT dumb, can he?

Yes, it's a rhetorical question.

(h/t to SOL in SOLdotna.)