N.C. DHHS hiring: Two "Whats???" and an "Oh, Brother"

by Travis Fain, Greensboro News-Record, September 18, 2013.

Do you remember Aunt Linda, the eye-rolling Saturday Night Live character who rated movies somewhere between "Puuhleese!" and "What???"

Given this latest story, I'm wondering where this ever-widening DHHS hiring saga ranks on your personal version of the Aunt Linda scale.

Just to recap: There was the whole Dianna Lightfoot fiasco back in February.

Then Sarah Ovaska noticed that a couple of 24-year-old McCrory campaign workers were making $85k-plus, and one of them was a "senior policy advisor."

That got bounced around like a ping-pong ball and resonated, because it's one of those easy-to-understand-microcosm-things when you're freezing teacher salaries.

Then there was this, which I still don't quite follow, but paraphrases one of the aforementioned 24 year olds as declining "to say where the money is coming from."

The News & Observer made an infographic from this ill-advised McCrory campaign picture.

DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos agreed to pay an executive from her husband's company more than $300,000 because he's five kinds of awesome. So awesome that she felt the need to explain his awesomeness, and her dismal department's need for it, to state legislators via email, but not quite awesome enough to respond to newspaper inquiries on the subject.

But don't worry, because we're totally going to fix all this bad p.r. by hiring a guy that worked for the governor's campaign to "brand" the department.

And then there's this: $95,000 a year, to a McCrory campaign donor, given an unposted job, in a newly created position.

It seems she's got some resume chops … which she and Wos declined to be interviewed about. But she has a masters degree in health education and lectured at East Carolina University before becoming a stay at home mom in 2001.

And then, damn it, socialism:

In October 2008, Grubb posted to an online forum that she hoped to move with her husband and children to Chile, where the couple had honeymooned. She sought information on how her husband, an anesthesiologist, could obtain a visa and a medical license for Chile.

She also listed some of the reasons for wanting to leave the United States: “how many dollars can the treasury print before they are worthless? what will happen when the entitlements have to be scaled back?? For us we also have additional concerns relating to healthcare. One concern is the move to a socialized system in which folks who move outside the system are punished (Hillarycare) and the lack of torte (sic) reform – I could go on ad nauseum (sic).”

It's not for me to assign value, or lack thereof, to any of this. But at the same time, I'm a fair-minded guy, and I'd be nearly as bad as a liar if I didn't tell you that I'm metaphorically concerned that my eyes won't unroll.

Oh, brother.