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Ranchers.net

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: I wonder who is going to raise a fuss about this??? Probably no one, because of B.S. and his thugs

Just like Walt, doing all the mooooving and the shaking in Helena. :mad:


AG McGrath hires governor's relative
Sister-in-law's $35K-per-year job is a political appointment
By JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Cindy Palmer, the wife of Gov. Brian Schweitzer's brother, Walter Schweitzer, has been hired for a $35,000-a-year job at the state Department of Justice.

Palmer started her job with the Consumer Protection Office this month.

Attorney General Mike McGrath, a Democrat, hired Palmer as a member of his personal staff, meaning the job was unadvertised and Palmer has no guarantee of the job after McGrath's term ends in 2008.

All statewide elected officials can appoint a certain number of personal staff, known as "exempt" employees. McGrath can appoint up to 13 of these employees, which are exempt from the normal rules that govern state hiring and firing. Exempt workers can be fired for any reason by the state official who hires them. Republicans recently have criticized the Schweitzer administration for hiring two state senators for unadvertised jobs in state government. Sen. Mike Cooney, D-Helena, was given the job of head of the Business Standards Division in the Department of Labor and Industry this summer, and Sen. Sam Kitzenberg, D-Glasgow, was hired as an outreach officer in the Department of Revenue, to help explain its reappraisal of agricultural land.

However, Palmer's job differs in that she was hired as a political appointee whose position can be filled at McGrath's discretion, while Cooney and Kitzenberg were offered jobs governed by the normal hiring and firing rules for state government.

Palmer moved to Helena last year with her family after Brian Schweitzer was elected. Her husband, Walter Schweitzer, was a key figure on his brother's 2004 campaign and is helping spearhead the governor's 2008 re-election efforts.

Walter Schweitzer, who works occasionally as a campaign consultant and who also raises Black Angus cattle near Geyser, has worked on various political issues to promote his brother's agenda as governor.

Palmer replaced Roy Tex at the Consumer Protection Office. Tex, a former compliance specialist in the consumer office, left this year to take a job at the new statewide Public Defender's Office.

Tex, who specialized in Montana's automobile "lemon law," was not a political appointee. He came to the job with 25 years' experience in criminal investigations.

The Consumer Protection Office investigates alleged violations of laws intended to protect Montana consumers from abusive businesses.

According to a copy of Palmer's resume provided by the state Justice Department, she has many years of teaching experience but no background in criminal investigations.

McGrath said he did not speak with either the governor or Walter Schweitzer before offering Palmer the job. He said he recruited her for the job and described her hire as part of a reshuffling of the Consumer Protection Office, which had been part of the Department of Administration before the 2005 Legislature moved it to the Justice Department.

"She'll be doing the interaction with the consumers on a variety of issues, lemon-law issues, advising people where they can go," McGrath said.

He said Palmer will not do exactly the same things as her predecessor, who specialized in the lemon law.

"We want to continue that function, but also branch out into general consumer issues," McGrath said.

McGrath said he recruited Palmer because she had the skills he wanted for the job.

"She is personable, a hard worker and a good writer," he said. "This is a customer-relations job, and she's very good at that."

According to her resume, Palmer has a degree in English from Montana State University and is certified to teach school. From 1986 until 1989, Palmer taught English as a second language at the Saudi Arabia International School.

She has taught English at the Chester Public Schools, and from 1998 to 2005 she wrote a weekly column for the Great Falls Tribune. In 2005 and 2006, she also worked at the Montana Democratic Party headquarters in Helena.


Published on Friday, December 29, 2006.
Last modified on 12/29/2006 at 9:48 am


Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

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