Hey, remember Tom Salmon? The guy who could hardly be bothered to feign interest in his job as State Auditor? Who always seemed to be looking for something else to do?
Well, he’s still at it.
Salmon, who claimed to have numerous high-ticket job offers when he left office in January, wound up taking a less-than-high-ticket job with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
You’ll never guess what comes next.
Oh wait, you will. Take it away, Paul Heintz:
…after just one month on the job, the State House News Service reported Wednesday, Salmon left to pursue another gig with the federal government.
… “Despite making a commitment to stay on, he has taken that position and moved on,” Massachusetts Inspector General Glenn Cunha said Wednesday at a meeting of the Inspector General’s Council.
… [The Inspector General’s spokesman Jack] Meyers said the IG’s office was surprised Salmon so quickly departed what was supposed to be a six-year appointment.
“You know, there had been a pretty involved search process to select the candidate,” Meyers said. “There was an expectation that he’d be here for a while.”
Bwahahahahaha.
Heintz goes on to recount Salmon’s Vermont history of serial enthusiasms: his party switch, his dalliance with a U.S. Senate candidacy, and his on-again, off-again run for re-election as Auditor.
Oh, and about that “high-ticket” job? Salmon claimed to have “a half dozen potential jobs,” and described himself as having “a skill set that probably can earn between $160,000 and $220,000 reasonably.”
Jack Meyers didn’t know Salmon’s MDOT salary, but his successor will earn $108,000.
For those who have trouble with numbers, that’s way, way below Salmon’s predicted pay grade.
Salmon is known to have a very limited attention-span. Even as the elected auditor of the Sate of Vermont, he always seemed to be interested in doing anything but his own job.
I guess that, in their “pretty involved” search process, the state of Massachusetts, failed to read Mr. Salmon’s clippings.
Maybe the MDOT position just didn’t offer him enough opportunity “to be an authentic self-utilizing power along the lines of excellence” addressing “risks of economic, political and spiritual significance through a new brand of leaders that communicate effectively from the sincere center.”
If that is what they had thought, then they did ZERO research on their job applicant. Even a cursory investigation on Salmon would have revealed his distaste for doing his current job and his eagerness for doing work outside his purview instead.
I just hope the people that have hired him next realize he’ll only be there for six months before the next shiny bauble takes up all his attention.