Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Ordinance to help get vets Knox jobs

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and the county's HR department are spearheading an ordinance that will give preference to military veterans who are looking for a county job, at least in the departments that fall under the executive branch.

The county commission will talk about it during Monday's work session.

There's a couple reasons we looked into doing this,” said Richard Julian, the county's human resources manager and a retired Air Force colonel. “One, the unemployment (rate) for veterans coming back is tremendously high and we're trying to help them, and, or course, the mayor fully supports active duty veterans. They're highly trained, dependable and self-starters. You can't hardly go wrong with hiring veterans.”

Julian stressed that applicants must meet the minimum requirements for a job before they are guaranteed an interview.

If all else is equal, then we'll hire them,” he said.

The state and the city also give preference to vets.

1 comment:

Brian Paone said...

In the 21st century, one cannot do preferential hiring. This is a bad move by the administration, and I can't help but thing that if Dr. Fogerson were still around, we wouldn't be dealing with this.

I like military veterans too, but I like them primarily because they're the type that will go off to war to defend our freedom... and our EQUALITY. -bp