Peter Schorsch
Congratulations to Kathy Mears, chief of staff to House Speaker Steve Crisafulli. Thanks to the intrepid reporting of Michael Van Sickler and Kathleen McGrory of the Times/Herald bureau, we’re learning this morning that Mears is the only person in Tallahassee whose spouse also works in state government:
“Matthew Mears filled a vacancy created five months ago when his wife … hired Department of Education lawyer Matt Carson to be the House general counsel.
“It’s a unique situation that apparently isn’t covered by state law. Agencies are prohibited from allowing relatives to hire each other, but Kathy Mears doesn’t work for the DOE. Nor did she hire her husband.”
Evidently, this is the first case in the long history of state government where a qualified candidate for a job vacancy won a position and is also married to someone else in state government.
Capitol watchers are unsure how to react to this extraordinarily rare situation.
“Do I still call Kathy if I want Matt and her to come over to watch the game?” wondered John Daniel Baxby, a longtime state government worker who has been friends for years with both Mears.
“A lot of people are going to be confused,” said Baxby.
Fortunately, Van Sickler and McGrory have committed to launching an investigative series on people who are married who happen to both work in state government. Unfortunately, they’ve hit a road block because this just never happens, right?
Meanwhile, Van Sickler refused to answer questions from the Columbia Journalism Review about the fact that his wife works at a partner news agency and That. Is. None. Of. Anyone. Else’s. Business.
“There’s no comparing two people who are married working in state government with two people who are married working for the same news bureau which covers state government,” said Van Sickler.
None at all, Michael. After all it’s so rare for two people working at the Tampa Bay Times to also being married to each other, right Adam and Katherine Smith?
