Aug
24
Check Rex sex pix? Or nix?
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
Now that Rex Johnson has been reprimanded with a pay cut and a letter in his file, and has promised not to use his office computer for personal stuff any more, and is back on the job Monday, should we, can we, and do we feel like demanding to see specifically what the dang x-rated emails were?
Well, sure, if they were good. Rimshot. No, seriously. Blogger Doug White sent word from his sector of cyberspace http://www.poinography.com that he thought the public had a right to know. He thinks, or anyway wonders if, Johnson is being given a pass on something that taxpayers might have been angrier about if they had seen the actual material.
I dunno. I’ve been trying to imagine two kinds of racy email attachments, such that X would strike me as mild enough to forgive and forget while Y would leave me wondering why they didn’t dismiss him on the spot. Apart from certain things that would have gotten him arrested rather than rebuked, I can’t think of anything. Either I’m a prude or I’m not, and on human resources policy either I’m a hardliner or I’m not.
Here’s the thing. I hear Johnson had an “at will” contract. This would mean he could be dismissed at any time and there would be nothing he could do about it unless the board did something so egregious that federal law would empower him to file a wrongful termination suit.
It would have been easy to oust him, and anyone who thinks state legislators had the clout to prevent it is overestimating the power of state legislators, and they’d be the first to tell you the same. Can you imagine the fuss people would kick up if lawmakers tried cutting the tourism marketing budget during a downturn?
It’s human nature to make a spectator sport of VIP mortification and, as part of that, to speculate on high crimes and misdimeanors behind closed doors, but I rarely find anything in such inner circles but good intentions and, on occasion, a bit less competence than one would prefer. In this case I think the board tried to do the right thing, and very likely did.
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The board “very likely” did the right thing? How do you know that?
Well, we (or at least I) will have the data to make an informed comment soon, unless DBEDT denies my UIPA request…
Thanks for the post, even if you didn’t include a link! [hint]