Trego's Mountain Ear

2-2-302. Appointment of relative to office of trust or emolument unlawful — exceptions — publication of notice. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2), it is unlawful for a person or member of any board, bureau, or commission or employee at the head of a department of this state or any political subdivision of this state to appoint to any position of trust or emolument any person related or connected by consanguinity within the fourth degree or by affinity within the second degree.

(2) The provisions of 2-2-303 and this section do not apply to:

(a) a sheriff in the appointment of a person as a cook or an attendant;

(b) school district trustees if all the trustees, with the exception of any trustee who is related to the person being appointed and who must abstain from voting for the appointment, approve the appointment of a person related to a trustee;

This is what happened Tuesday night, when Sam was selected as Trego’s District Clerk.  I sat and abstained. 

It was in the early nineties when I pointed out nepotism at Trego School to Mary Hudspeth, then county superintendent.  Mary’s reply was that Trego’s clerk was the only one who completed the required reports perfectly, and that enforcing the anti nepotism law wasn’t worth dealing with screwed up reports.  A low (like below sea level) attitude toward enforcing 2-2-301 lasted until Mary’s secretary, Nancy, retired as county treasurer twenty-odd years later.

Five years on the school board have taught me quite a bit – Mark Twain’s comment: “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.” came before the Office of Public Instruction was created.  Over a century of legislation has changed things – the volunteer board has all the responsibility only when acting collectively.  Serving on the board of a small school, without an administrator, shows that sometime in the past century, the concept of a school board without a hired school administrator became outdated.

So, instead of spending time on the school’s needs, my existential question has become simpler – to end any appearance of nepotism (a practice that spent years as part of Trego school) is it enough just to follow the law?