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Well-Connected Unemployment Director Quietly Fired Amid Crisis [Kentucky / Andy Beshear (D)]
KyCIR ^ | 7/20/2020 | ELEANOR KLIBANOFF and JARED BENNETT

Posted on 07/20/2020 9:12:51 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat

Like thousands of other Kentuckians over the last few months, Travis Powell just wanted a simple answer from the state Office of Unemployment Insurance.

Powell is not an unemployed worker; he’s vice president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, and he wanted to know what to tell state universities about how to handle unemployment claims from work-study students. On April 20, he was put in touch with Muncie McNamara, the executive director of the Office of Unemployment Insurance.

According to emails obtained through an open records request, McNamara said he’d look into it. After a week went by with no answer, Powell followed up again. McNamara never responded, and after another week, Powell learned why: McNamara was no longer working for the state.

The head of the Office of Unemployment Insurance was quietly fired on May 5, amid an unprecedented number of jobless claims, a race to overhaul an archaic computer system and a belatedly-reported data breach.

McNamara had been on the job only four months. The 38-year-old lawyer from Nelson County had no experience with unemployment systems or state government before taking the job.

But what he did have was connections.

He volunteered for and donated to Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign last year. His wife, a recent chair of the Nelson County Democratic Party, considers Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman “a good friend,” according to an interview she gave to the Kentucky Standard. Coleman called McNamara to offer him the job personally, he said.

He was paid $15,000 more than his predecessor, a career unemployment official who the cabinet kept on staff as a special assistant.

But by early May, he was gone, fired “without cause,” according to his personnel file.

McNamara alleges he was fired for raising serious concerns about corners the office was cutting amid the rush...

(Excerpt) Read more at kycir.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: andybeshear; beshear; britainybeshear; eleanorklibanoff; jacquelinecoleman; jaredbennett; kentucky; munciemcnamara; nelsoncounty; travispowell

1 posted on 07/20/2020 9:12:51 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: Republican Wildcat

So, the Unemployment Director is unemployed?

Will he get Unemployment?.................


2 posted on 07/20/2020 9:23:33 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'..........................)
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To: Red Badger

He only worked four months or so, given the number of days out “sick”.


3 posted on 07/20/2020 9:34:08 AM PDT by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives - ban gun free zones)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks Republican Wildcat. More Demagogic Party corruption, grift, and incompetence.

4 posted on 07/20/2020 9:42:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Republican Wildcat

“...He was paid $15,000 more than his predecessor, a career unemployment official who the cabinet kept on staff as a special assistant....”

2X+ the salary for the same output.


5 posted on 07/20/2020 9:54:04 AM PDT by Farmerbob
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To: Red Badger

“So, the Unemployment Director is unemployed?

Will he get Unemployment?.................”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR3jnW2kcUs


6 posted on 07/20/2020 11:03:45 AM PDT by GreenLanternCorps (Hi! I'm the Dread Pirate Roberts! (TM) Atsk about franchise opportunities in your area.)
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To: SunkenCiv

My wifes friend retired from the unemployment office locally a year or so ago and called on behalf of her son who lost his job and talked to a live human. She walked him through the computer system and got her sons unemployment finally being paid after a month of waiting for the first check. The poor guy on the other end was a replacement and he told her he learned more in her 45 minute phone call than all the training he had received.

Little King Andy’s Ky is a disaster from his policies. He’s destroyed the economy with his shutdowns and royal decrees and he has been a demon on attacking the churches and sending his county health departments after them.

The idiot school teachers who elected him, and increasingly I think I am being too generous on the smart side of using the term idiot when speaking of these teachers would kiss his butt and jump in front of a speeding coal truck if he told them too. I have never see a group of absolute mind numbed robots as the public school teachers in KY and their god’s daddy stole their pensions and they would lick his feet and wipe his ass if he decreed it.


7 posted on 07/20/2020 11:34:35 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: sarge83
Thanks, it's clear that the first full purge should be the media shills, btw.

8 posted on 07/20/2020 2:58:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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