After Monday’s fiasco when members of the press disrupted the proceedings of the Rutherford County Election Commission meeting, Chairman Tom Walker released the names of the applicants. One applicant withdrew her name after learning that names would be released.

Unsurprisingly, one of the applicants is County Commissioner Doug Shafer, who is currently a county employee. Commissioner Shafer was hired as a property assesor for the county some time ago. He previously held no experience in that field.

Another applicant, Hooper Penuel, currently serves as the Administrator of Elections.

Honestly, it looks like folks just took a look at the annual salary and sent in their resume. At about $76,000 – who wouldn’t want this job? Some of those overqualified for the job include secretaries, Verizon desk jockeys, and a Nu Skin salesman – a product I haven’t seen in at least a decade.

Notable applicants include:

• Mike Liles – former state representative and election volunteer/machine operator.
• Bob Bartelsmyer - Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Absentee Ballot Coordinator
• L. Elaine Raiola, former election support specialist for Premier Election Solutions.

This process seems easy enough: toss everyone else’s resume in the circular file and hope someone else applies. These three individuals appear to have some experience in this field. I am particularly intrigues with Mr. Bartelsmyer’s background. I wonder if he was around during the 2000 election?

Read the DNJ and Murfreesboro Post accounts. Both stories are horribly misleading and the DNJ goes so far as to suggest that – once the open record request was filed – the Election Commission violated state law by not immediately releasing the names. Good thing one commentor noted:

DNJ, you forgot they have 7 business days to comply, and the DNJ gave 2. Monday does not count since it was after the business day.

10-7-503 (a) (2) (B) The custodian of a public record or the custodian’s designee shall promptly make available for inspection any public record not specifically exempt from disclosure. In the event it is not practicable for the record to be promptly available for inspection, the custodian shall, within seven (7) business days
(i) Make the information available to the requestor;

I say making 90 copies and blanking out confidential information on top of other duties would apply.

I say the county had to waste time since majority of these resumes will be rejected right off the bat. Wonder how many employers going see their employee listed.

In true Larry Brinton-style – again:

Word on the street is that there’s trouble afoot at the RuCo Election Commission. Remember Hooper Penuel? The soon-to-be-former Director of the Election Commission barged into the last meeting with former member Johnny Taylor – waving around some AG Opinion about why Election Commissioners could not be fired from their jobs just because of their party affiliation.

From what I hear, Tom Walker – the new Chairman of the Election Commission – stood firm and defended the upcoming decision of the Republican-controlled Election Commission.

Plain and simple (and it’s really a shame I have to explain this again), the position currently held by Hooper Penuel is a political position. Let’s liken it to the position Matt King holds as Chief of Staff for Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey. Do you think for a second that Ramsey would have kept John Wilder’s Chief of Staff around? Not for a second!

Hooper Penuel and Johnny Taylor need to quit “cryin’ in the breastmilk” – as the old saying goes – and start looking for other work. It’s time to move on.