Monday, June 1, 2009

Summit Board interns get zero pay!

FIVE COLLEGE STUDENTS who have worked as interns at the Summit County Board of Elections are learning early in their young lives that, as Jimmy Carter once put it, life can be unfair.  Having worked part--time at the Board for two to three weeks, their promised paychecks are now being held up by Republican Board chairman Jack Morrison, who doesn't think they should have been hired in the first place.  In other words, the students are being treated as hostages while  Morrison insists on  some kind of unlikely compromise with the two Democrats on the Board.  

Morrison, an Akron lawyer and member of the University of Akron Board  of 
Trustees, is in enough hot water following his indictment on seven misdemeanor ethics charges and has rejected calls for his resignation from  as high up as Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut.   Now this.  How exciting can one's life be?

He had asked Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to resolve the interns issue, but she sent it back to Summit County and called for the Board to take care of its own business.  But it's not likely he'll gain any ground with Wayne Jones, a Board member and chairman of the county Democratic Party who supported the summer hirings.  The blood on the board is darker and murkier than the stuff old men dig up in the Irish bogs.  

Oh, regardless of the political feuding,   it will eventually be resolved, which shouldn't be the point here.  If the kids were promised a paycheck, shouldn't they be paid for their work? It's an old-fashioned idea no matter how modern the world is.  I wonder how far Morrison is willing to go to ignore the Board's obligations.  Or as the legal advisor to the County GOP, is he counseling the interns to learn  the value  of pro bono work?  Jeez.  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If they did it for the money, they should have traded on insider information (real estate) instead of working like a bunch of chumps. Twenty-first century America values connections, not work.

Anonymous said...

Contrary to what some think is Law I am pretty confident that the Interns will be paid. These are "Part Time" employees and these are paid positions. Irregardless whether one party tries to pull a fast one by holding back employees to try and prove a point. First this county is dominated by Democrats and their party has the right to make up the difference by bringing in more. Second this so-called "Cost cutting" measure has already been exposed as a charade to oust non Alex loyalists.
But Abe the thing is, this is only the beginning of a lot more fun!
CYA Buddie!