Last week, SHIFT reported on state Senator Marko Liias’ new gig working for the City of Mukilteo. Liias’ job description is quite vague but it does include managing a city newsletter. The sitting state senator’s efforts on Mukilteo’s newsletters— we greatly anticipate these pieces of literature—will earn him a whopping $65,450 per year. Of course, Liias will be working on his literary masterpieces describing the day-to-day happenings in Mukilteo on a part time basis in order to accommodate his schedule as a legislator.
Liias’ landed his new part-time job through his “longtime political ally,” Mukilteo Mayor Jennifer Gregerson. Following Gregerson’s decision to hire Liias, charges of cronyism began flying around (we can’t imagine why) prompting Mukilteo’s new-elected mayor to respond.
In a poor attempt make the situation less suspect, Gregerson told interested media outlets that the city is “trying to work out an unpaid ‘leave of absence’ for the time Liias would spend in Olympia.” She went on to assure the public that “Liias is not getting special treatment and remains the best person for the job”… somehow we are not assured.
State Senator Liias has yet to issue a public comment… we can only assume he is hard at work writing the latest edition of Mukilteo’s newsletter.
