Ohio Democratic legislators are calling for a probe on the hiring process of the state's Department of Transportation. It is suspected that there is cronyism in the hiring process of the agency after a Facebook post from a politician revealed that young Republicans will get preference for summer jobs at the department.
Cindy Oxender (R), a member of the Marietta City Council, advertised in her March 29 Facebook post regarding six summer job openings in the Ohio department for college and high school students. She wrote that Young Republicans who will apply will have a leg up.
"It's good money, good experience, and a very nice résumé builder," Oxender wrote, and added between parentheses, "Preference is given to Republican youth on this!"
After several criticisms from news media came out, she deleted her Facebook post.
One person, Teresa Asselinh-Hayes, wrote: "It's illegal to give hiring preference based upon political affiliation in employment such as this. You have just opened the door to potential lawsuits."
As their response to the incident, Matt Brunning, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation said: "We hire the most qualified people for these jobs. It's not based on their voting records."
This incident brought unwelcome attention to the city and its Governor, John Kasich, a presidential hopeful.
David Pepper was quick to take advantage of the situation and said: "Apparently, the Kasich administration now applies a partisan test even for summer youth jobs. This is totally inappropriate and should be looked into by the Inspector General."
After deleting her post, Oxender apologized for her statement. But she also tried to shift the blame by saying that she was not the one who wrote the post, but just shared it with others.
"I made an error in judgment in sharing a post made by a colleague on my private Facebook page which was a summer job notice, and indicating there might be a political preference in the selection process," she explained.
