Manchester at-Large Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur published a post on Facebook decrying Mayor Joyce Craig’s nomination of retiring Manchester Police Captain Jon Hopkins to be the city’s next Fleet Manager. The position oversees the city’s entire vehicle operation from purchase, to disposal, to maintenance and repair. Since being created at the behest of former Mayor Ted Gatsas several years ago, alongside other improvements in procuring city vehicles, the operation has vastly improved the condition of the city’s fleet, reduced maintenance costs and improved overall vehicle safety.
Levasseur: Calls Craig out
At a recent meeting, Levasseur’s question about whether or not the deputy fleet manager had applied for the job, was met with a shrug of Craig’s shoulders, who contended her nominee was qualified to hold the position. In the Sunday night post, Levasseur slammed Craig for violating her transparency pledge as a candidate for mayor, saying Craig:
never mentioned that Hopkins just happens to be the brother in law of Mayor Craig’s well known election finance chair/fiscal agent/and her husbands law partner.
We shared Levasseur’s post to our Girard at Large Facebook page, suggesting that Levasseur release Hopkins’ resume and the job posting. Instead of waiting, we obtained that material from the city’s Human Resource Director, who noted the resume was on the agenda for this Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The job posting, however was not. We publish both documents below as they were provided to us and leave it up to you, our followers to determine whether or not Mayor Craig nominated an imminently qualified candidate or a candidate with significant connections to her chief fund raiser, who happens to be her husband’s law partner and the nominee’s brother in law. It would seem there is a long distance between his experience scheduling police vehicles for maintenance and repair and the qualifications necessary to manage the department responsible for repair and maintenance for every vehicle, including fire trucks, construction equipment and heavy equipment, operated by virtually every city department.
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen is scheduled to vote on Craig’s nomination during tomorrow night’s meeting.
