Editorial: All in the family

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | 9:10 a.m.

Nineteen-year-old Jenna Buck has an advantage over other college students looking forward to a career in law enforcement. As the Sun reported Monday, she is the first paid summer intern in the history of the North Las Vegas Police Department, having been hired earlier this month at a salary of $12 an hour. Especially advantageous for her was not having to waste time filling out an application, or waiting anxiously to hear if she got the job. There were no applications. The job was hers from the start.

Jenna's grandfather is a former chief of the department. And her mother, Shari Buck, sits on the North Las Vegas City Council, which oversees the department. Shari Buck acknowledges having conversations about the internship for her daughter with City Manager Gregory Rose and Police Chief Mark Paresi. Little wonder there was no need for a competitive application process. Paresi's comment that "There was no influence by anybody ... " is laughable. He also said, "I looked at it from a business aspect of future potential employees and making an investment for them to take a look at us." Does this mean that after graduation from Brigham Young University, a job for Jenna will be there for the asking, again with no application needed?

Defending the hiring, police spokesman Tim Bedwell asked if Jenna, a sociology major, should have been dropped from consideration because "she is the councilperson's daughter." A better question is: Should all of the other potential candidates for the job have been dropped from consideration because a councilperson's daughter wanted the job?