Opinion ID: 206048
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Schmitz's path to the CITY Program

Text: Alabama voters elected Schmitz to the state legislature in 1998, and re-elected her in 2002. [1] Schmitz's legislative duties required her to be in Montgomery three days a week, usually from January through May. While serving in the legislature, Schmitz also taught in a public high school. When her legislative duties prevented her from teaching, she would leave a detailed lesson plan for a substitute. Schmitz was not paid her teacher's salary when she was working as a legislator in Montgomery. After her re-election, Schmitz became dissatisfied with splitting her legislative and teaching duties, so she quit her job as a teacher and started looking for new employment. To this end, Schmitz asked Paul Hubbert, the Executive Secretary of the Alabama Education Association and an influential lobbyist in Montgomery, to help her find a job in the education field. Hubbert in turn contacted Roy Johnson, then-Chancellor of the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education, to find a job for Schmitz in the two-year college system. Hubbert also told Seth Hammett, then-Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, that Schmitz would be coming to see him about employment. In addition to Hubbert's indirect assistance, Schmitz asked Speaker Hammett directly if he would make arrangements to have money placed in the budget so that she could be employed in the postsecondary system. Speaker Hammett told Johnson that he would help fund a job for Schmitz if Johnson could find one in his department. Johnson considered various employment options for Schmitz, but he settled on the CITY Programa federally-funded program that sought to develop the social, behavioral, and academic skills of juvenile offenders in the State of Alabama. Johnson selected this program for Schmitz because it was exempt from strict requirements for hiring processes applicable to the two-year college system. Johnson directed Dr. James Cornell, the administrator of the CITY Program and the president of Central Alabama Community College, to make a position available for Schmitz. Dr. Cornell said he would find a position for Schmitz, but he wanted assurance of additional funding for that position, and he wanted to meet Schmitz in person. Speaker Hammett directed the chairman of the House Education Appropriations Committee to alter the state budget to pay for Schmitz's new position, and Johnson arranged a meeting at the Alabama House of Representatives between Dr. Cornell, CITY Program director and founder Ed Earnest, and Schmitz. After this meeting, Dr. Cornell offered Schmitz the position of Program Coordinator for Community and External Affairs. That position had never existed before, and was specially created for Schmitz. Dr. Cornell did not consider any other candidates for the position, nor did he conduct any serious review of Schmitz's qualifications before offering her the job. Johnson instructed Dr. Cornell to pay Schmitz a salary equal to the amount she had earned as a public school teacher. The letter offering Schmitz the position specified a salary of $42,623. Dr. Cornell met with Schmitz in January 2003 and gave her a handwritten list of job duties for the first few months of her employment. Schmitz was essentially expected to put a face on the CITY Program and improve public relations. In particular, she was expected to develop a statewide public relations plan for the CITY Program; visit with public relations personnel from the Department of Postsecondary Education and the two-year colleges; visit each of the ten CITY Program sites in Alabama and become familiar with CITY Program personnel; develop relationships with various media outlets; solicit ideas from CITY Program employees; and analyze existing public relations materials. Schmitz understood that she was supposed to work forty hours per week for the CITY Program. She formally accepted the CITY Program position on January 24, 2003.