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Islander Blog

Clever Kitsap Sun and Bainbridge Islander have wheeled out their own blog, hosted by vivacious Bainbridge stringer, Rachel Pritchett.

We're invited to "converse" with RP, which may sound a tad twee but their hearts are clearly in the right place, so let's give it a go.

Après Peddy: It's already got me hooked, thanks to shrewd inclusion of an email by The Man, much-missed Steven Gardner:

"Cleaning out my e-mail and I found this. It's old news, but it's the news story from Fresno after Peddy was ordered to pay a sexual harassment claim."

Ah yes -- should have thrown this in with my article today.

It's the 1992 Fresno Bee story about a jury awarding a woman $150,000 for having her life upended by on-the-job sexual harassment by William Peddy.
The deeper you dig ...

The firing of Will Peddy over his inflated resume has been an embarassing [spelling?] and hurtful experience for our community.

I simply cannot imagine how this could not have been picked up upon during the application process.

Who didn't do their homework? Are they still there?

Many have used this to illustrate why the city council was wrong to ax the human-resources position.

I disagree.

I believe that with a work force the size of the city of Bainbridge's, the department managers will do a better job of checking out prospective employees that a human-resources person.

My credentials have been thoroughly checked out for every major job I've ever held, not by the well-dressed human-resources person upstairs, but by the future immediate supervisor. In my field, it takes a journalist to ask the right questions about hiring another journalist. A human-resources person would not even know the questions to ask.

I have faith that the department heads with the city of Bainbridge will successful raise the bar in checking out prospective employees. Checking them out until the last question has been answered. So that this never happens again, ever."

Nice one.

The Convo will be updated throughout the day and RP is interested in all and any comments -- not just on what's in ink but whatever's going on in our own lives.

I look forward to seeing what appears and what elbow space it carves amid the other local blogs.

Page 9 of the Islander has Pritchett's report on Peddy's padding including a marvelous new excuse that I must remember for when next *I* am in a similar tight spots:

"... A reference letter from the Colville mayor appeared to have a date altered from 1979 to 1978, the investigation revealed.

When asked about the altered date, Weber stated Peddy told her he might have been trying to darken the letter to make it consistent with the rest of the type." [My darkening ].

Oh, William - naughty naughty  boy.

Is it my imagination, or has Will's photo - quixotic enough to start with - become increasingly mournful over the months as the evidence piled on?

As I suspected, all this twaddle about Imperiling Papers was a load of codswallop, dreamed up to keep "Buzz" Paulson and the Sun's editorial sirens at bay as he and Sancho beat a hasty retreat.

Real and Present Danger: Pritchett invites views on her Peddy coverage but much more lively would be a competition offering dinner for two at the Madoka for the winning entry of what those papers might have contained - and no, Jåmes, you may *not* enter. That would be unfair, albeit entertaining. Oh all right, on the judging panel, then.

I suspect we are nearing the end of this tawdry saga, but it won't be over til the chubby butler sings one more defiant aria in our letters cols. Maybe even a contribution to christen this gleaming new blog?