PERSONNEL DIRECTOR VALERIA JONES CONTINUES HER ARROGANT AND UNPROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE TOWARD CITIZENS
10-12-07
UNPROFESSIONAL! That is one way to describe Personnel Director Valeria Jones' letter to a local citizen who had questioned the deceptive practices of the City Personnel Department. READ THE LETTER WHICH FOLLOWS AND DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! If you were a public servant such a Valeria Jones, would you write such an arrogant letter to any citizen? Jones' attitude reflects the attitude of the entire Perkins administration toward anyone who questions them.
The context of Jones diatribe seems to be that she and Perkins were going to let Chief Martin take the Lieutenants examination, even though only Sergeants are suppose to take the exam. Another problem with this is that Jones' friend, who makes $12-$15 thousand to make up one of these exams, "asks the Chief of a department to assist in securing role players for administering the exam and assessors for grading the examination." If our interpretation is correct, Martin would take the exam as well as select those who would grade the exam. Something is wrong with this picture and was questioned by a number of police officers who were going to take the exam.
When questioned about who grades the examination, Jones' consultant friend wrote, "I am reminding you of our recent conversation in which I said I thought that the Personnel Department and Decisions (her firm) should handle this task (grading exams) given the situation." "Given the situation" is that enough questions were raised about the exam and who was grading it THAT MAYOR PERKINS CANCELLED THE EXAMS FOR THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. We wonder if, after the exam dates are set, if the Mayor has any authority to cancel the exams?
For sheer arrogance, please read the last paragraph of Jones' letter where she speaks of "our Honorable Mayor". Our opinion of Jones has always been that she is the biggest "suck up" to Perkins in City Hall and probably the sneakiest of all the department heads there. Both Perkins and Jones need to go - or Selma will never reach its potential!
