Newly appointed Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid had a policy against employees hiring relatives for full-time jobs when he was city manager of Bedford. But the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office now has at least 350 of 1,000 workers related to other employees.
• Read more about the transition taking place in the sheriff's office
The employee roster at the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office resembles a towering family tree with hundreds of branches.
The office employs nearly 1,000 workers, and at least 350 are related to other employees, according to a review of payroll records and interviews with sheriff's employees. Scores of them are second- and third-generation employees scattered throughout the jail and Justice Center.
People have been tapping friendships and family connections for jobs in both the private and public sectors for centuries. But in Cuyahoga County government, the practice is particularly widespread.
A Plain Dealer review of 2007 payroll records shows about one-third of the employees in the county auditor's or recorder's office held political rank or connections to the politicians who hired them.
At the sheriff's office, more than 130 surnames have multiple listings on the employee roster. Many are parents and children, brothers and sisters and husbands and wives. The bulk of the relatives work in the jail, which employs 723 people.
More than two dozen top supervisors and administrators have relatives working in the building. The bulk of the jobs were never posted for the public to apply for and paid starting wages of $30,000 to $56,000.
Sheriff Bob Reid, who took office last week, said he believes the employees under his command are hard workers. But he plans to examine the issue and said he prohibited the hiring of relatives for full-time jobs during his tenure as Bedford city manager.
"It's a good policy," Reid said. "We are going to address it."
None of the workers who are related to one another are ghost employees, said Chris Russ, employee relations administrator. None of his relatives work there, and he played no role in the hirings.
"They are solid employees," Russ said. "They are not scamming their way through a day's wage. We don't have to make any excuses to see what they are doing."
Former Sheriff Gerald McFaul approved the hires. He resigned in March. The details about the hiring are the latest of many revelations that have emerged from a Plain Dealer investigation into how McFaul conducted business during the 32 years he spent in office.
The newspaper has detailed how McFaul and his staff required workers to raise money for the sheriff's election campaigns and how workers were expected to stuff birthday and Christmas cards with cash for McFaul.
Those revelations are part of a state investigation into possible misconduct by McFaul while he was in office. One question investigators are reviewing is whether McFaul approved some of the hires or promotions based on his employees selling tickets for his annual clambake fund-raiser.
County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said McFaul's hiring practices should push the county to centralize its hiring and take the power away from each individual officeholder.
Some family hires may be legitimate, but there is no way every single one of them was the best qualified, Jones added.
"Oh, my goodness," he said. "One could never think it was that incestuous there."
McFaul's chief of staff, Patricia Kresty, and Personnel Director Grace Lynch controlled the hiring process for more than the last decade. Kresty took a medical leave days after McFaul resigned.
Kresty hired three of her relatives. She has told the newspaper never to contact her. Lynch refused numerous interview requests. She took a medical leave last week.
One example of a mass hiring occurred after the terrorist attacks in September 2001 when McFaul needed 15 security monitors for building entrances. McFaul sought recommendations from a VFW hall in Strongsville and his own work force, a security monitor said.
"All 15 of us have relatives here," a security monitor said. "Everybody is related here one way or another."
McFaul rewarded employees who worked hard by hiring relatives, a longtime employee said.
"He took care of me," the employee said. "I played by the rules."
A 15-year jailer said new hires without family connections quickly realize they are stuck at the bottom. It's impossible to land plum assignments or climb through the ranks because top staffers save those spots for relatives and friends, he said.
"Their relatives come through the door and get the good jobs," he said. "You then do what you have to do to survive. It's just a job then."
Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action, a public watchdog group, said it is time for Cuyahoga County officials to end the rampant practice of hiring friends and relatives.
"We expect this kind of nepotism from the mob," she said. "This kind of big family is not what we expect from our government. It's time to break this cycle."
To view the entire article and associated comments visit Cleveland.com at the link below:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/05/cuyahoga_county_sheriffs_offic_2.html
It's odd enough that a Bedford father would actually call police after arguing with his son about cleaning his room. 
