Dems question hiring of Perdue relative at Ag Center

<p>He's related by marriage to Gov. Sonny Perdue and his daughter just tied the knot with one of Perdue's top political advisers. But Jim Floyd says family connections didn't help him land a state job.</p><p>"I didn't interview on the premise that Sonny Perdue was my wife's first cousin and I don't know, with this group, if it would have helped," said Floyd, 61, agriculture and youth director for the state-operated Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry, near Perdue's hometown of Bonaire.</p><p>He's been on the payroll since June 18, 2003, five months after Perdue took office as the state's first Republican governor since 1872. Floyd earned $45,000 last year, according to the state auditor.</p><p>Democrats, hoping to oust Perdue when he runs for re-election next year, say the situation at least looks odd, considering that as a candidate three years ago Perdue claimed Democrats had perpetuated a corrupt culture of cronyism at the statehouse.</p><p>"Gov. Perdue has invited a lot of scrutiny on the way business is done, and this is one area," said Bobby Kahn, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "He's raised some very good points and he's set some standards he needs to live by."</p><p>Dan McLagan, the governor's spokesman, replied, "What's he accusing us of? He's not accusing us of anything, which is very clever. He doesn't say anything's been done wrong because he knows nothing has been done wrong."</p><p>Executive branch employees in Georgia are required to comply with a code of ethics Perdue signed the day he was sworn in. It requires them to avoid conflicts of interest and to turn down gift offers, and prohibits them from helping close relatives get government jobs or promotions.</p><p>When cases of nepotism led to dismissals and resignations in the technical college system this year, McLagan was quoted as saying, "For many years, it would seem, these kinds of things were condoned. Those days are over..."</p><p>The anti-nepotism rule is quite specific about which family members are to be considered close relatives. A first cousin is a close relative. The husband of a first cousin is not.</p><p>Floyd is married to Perdue's first cousin, the former Jean Talton. Their daughter, Jamie, recently married Nick Ayers, executive director of Perdue's campaign organization.</p><p>Floyd, a former dairy farm operator, was working for a manufactured home company 90 miles away when he interviewed for the job. He said he knew people connected with the Agricenter and had asked them to tell him when there were any job openings.</p><p>He went through an interview process that included a meeting with the personnel committee of the center's oversight board.</p><p>"I don't know if Sonny knew I was coming here 'til I was already here," he said. "If he did, I didn't tell him and I didn't ask him. I don't think he would have stopped it. I don't think he would have helped."</p><p>Mike Froelich, the center's director, said he knew Floyd's wife was somehow related to Perdue but that was not a factor in the decision to hire him. "I like to hire people I get along with, who would do a great job. He was hired for those reasons and no other reasons."</p><p>McLagan said Perdue only learned Floyd was on the payroll after the fact and sees nothing wrong with it. "This is not a story," he said. "Even Bobby Kahn is not alleging wrongdoing."</p><p>Bill Bozarth of Common Cause Georgia, a government watchdog group, sided with the governor's spokesman.</p><p>"If there's no indication the man got the job other than that he was as qualified as he needed to be to get it, I don't know there's anything untoward about that," Bozarth said.</p><p>Still, Democrats say they aren't buying the notion Perdue didn't know what was going on at a major state facility in the district he represented for 10 years as a state legislator.</p><p>"I think it looks very wrong in light of his own rhetoric," said Kahn, the party chairman. "He needs to be held to his rhetoric on this and on everything else. A first cousin, the husband of a first cousin, the Ag center, Perry, Perdue _ that ain't hard to connect the dots."</p><p>___</p><p>Dick Pettys has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/10/137879