Earlier this week, stlo7 noted that County Leg Prez Wayne Zyra (R) disbanded the Public Defender selection committee that he had put together. More in the D&C today:

Input into the selection of Monroe County’s next public defender will be generated solely by the legislature and its attorneys.

The remaining vestiges of a selection committee put together by legislature President Wayne Zyra, R-Sweden, fell apart this week when Zyra decided to disband it.

The decision was made because the involvement of judges in the committee, as Zyra had called for, could create ethics violations, according to an opinion of the county attorney’s office, Zyra said.

Note how he’s already changing his tune from the earlier news report:

In a statement, Zyra said while he disagrees with the conclusions of the Bar Association, he didn’t want to expose judges to ethics complaints, however baseless they may be.

So he must be saying then, that the opinion of the county attorney’s office is “baseless”? Why then is he relying on it for the PD selection?

The original committee was to screen candidates and pass on names to the legislature for consideration for appointment. Now, a legislature committee will screen the candidates and receive input from the county attorney’s office, Zyra said.

So, at this point it’s a purely political process. The GOP isn’t even trying to put up a pretense of fairness. I’m forced to ask the question, yet again: Why change a winning recipe? Tom Smith, Bar Association, has the sense enough to ask the same question:

“It appears Mr. Zyra has totally abandoned any nonpartisan merit screening process and has returned to the previous political spoils system that was heavily criticized 33 years ago,” Smith said. “It’s a really sad commentary on the leadership in our community.”

One of the bar association’s arguments against Zyra’s committee was that qualified attorneys would not apply for the job if they believed the appointment would be made based on politics.

The county has received just three resumes, according to Bronson.

I’ve personally heard of at least 2 highly qualified people who were initially interested until they were told that “the fix was in”. That is the greatest shame of all these shenanigans. The position’s gonna pay about the same regardless of who gets selected, shouldn’t we get the best person and the biggest bang for our taxpayer dollar?

[Update: The D&C Ed Board comes out strongly against this development (emphasis mine):

While community leaders have been urging Zyra for weeks to scrap his selection committee in favor of the community-based method used 30-plus years ago, there now looms an even worse possibility: Zyra could wind up relying solely on fellow Republicans who control the legislature to make the selection.

What's more, there is concern that he could get the ball rolling in that direction as quickly as tonight, when a special meeting of the legislature's public safety committee is tentatively scheduled. Minority Democrats on the committee say they've been advised that resumes of prospective candidates will be considered in a closed-door executive session.

This is starting to look more and more like a setup. Remember, because Republicans constitute the majority in the legislature, they have the votes to pick whomever they please. And it may be that, as many have speculated, that person was tapped even before Zyra's screening panel was created.

County Executive Maggie Brooks disappointingly washed her hands of the matter weeks ago. Someone must stop Zyra from making a terrible mistake.

It's like a dream I had where I'm watching a car, slow-motion, swerve into my yard on a collision course with my kids. And I'm running, slow-motion, yelling for them to look out.]

Related posts:

1. Monroe County Public Defender Coalition Meeting - News Roundup
2. Public Defender Selection: Why Change a Winning Formula?
3. Public Defender Selection committee disbanded
4. Even More Public Defender nonsense, courtesy of Wayne Zyra as seen by the D&C
5. Public Defender Selection: Bar Association Wants to Run It Again