Local Hiring Stressed By Kempthorne

U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne said Thursday that the Forest Service should make sure it doesn’t exclude local residents when it hires.

Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin and U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth have criticized the Forest Service for its minority hiring programs, saying Kootenai County’s unemployment level should dictate local hiring and minority recruitment should be abandoned.

“There can be opportunities, certainly, where you can look for minorities,” Kempthorne said when asked about the issue during the taping of KTVB-TV’s “Viewpoint” program. “But it should not be at the exclusion of looking at your existing base of a 9 percent unemployment.”

All hiring should be based on ability, the first-term senator said.

“I don’t think anybody wants to set quotas,” he said.

“Why aren’t we taking a look at providing good jobs for the people that are there that are trying to make ends meet? … If they’re qualified, let’s put them to work.”