Bobcast: An audit to nowhere

Latest Bobcast is up. Listen here or read below.

Last year, the Anniston City Council agreed to pay a Uniontown woman $2,500 to review its human resources policies. The work was not competitively bid. The only person considered for the job was Yolanda Jackson of the west-central Alabama city of Uniontown. She was selected at the urging of one member of the council, Ben Little.
According to various sources, Jackson spent somewhere between two hours and two days working on the project. That works out to somewhere between $150 an hour and $1,200 an hour.
Oh, and the actual audit. None of Jackson’s HR suggestions have been implemented. Nor, according to Anniston’s ex-city manager, could they without a complete reworking of civil service guidelines. Councilman John Spain, who is calling for a probe into Jackson’s sweetheart deal, termed the audit "boilerplate information."
For her part, Jackson is clamming up, despite repeated attempts by a Star reporter seeking comment this week.
Apparently, it pays to speak softly and perform a useless audit.