Ed FitzGerald and crew have largely avoided any mishaps in their first year in office. The County Exec has said and done all the right things, from demanding that certain employees choose between working for the county or working at partisan political positions to laying off unneeded and unqualified hangers-on from the previous era to never ever wearing a zebra-print shirt.
A small hiccup in that track record has popped up, according to the PD: the county hired a finance manager without posting the job and the fella who won the position is an old friend of the guy who hired him.
See, back in the Dimora/Russo era, jobs were doled out to cousins, brothers, cousins of friends, brothers of cousins' friends, cronies, and generally anyone who was willing to give their boss a free ice machine. Didn't really matter if you were qualified or not. In fact, being qualified was actively discouraged.
FitzGerald sought to end the patronage gravy train after arriving in office, and to his credit, he and the county have owned the current mistake.
