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Akron, OH.  Summit County

Published March 16, 2005

California heat

When Summit County Executive James McCarthy hired 23-year-old Chrissy Congrove as the new director of animal control, taxpayers deluged the county boss with accusations of cronyism.

Chrissy is the daughter of county Councilman Dan Congrove, and the $61,000 job was never posted for other applicants. Critics ripped her lack of experience, noting that the executive assistant -- read: secretary -- to the county safety director got a 75 percent pay raise when she was promoted.

McCarthy wasn't bothered by the locals who hammered him. But he wasn't pleased by out-of-staters who got uppity. On the Beacon Journal's Ohio.com message board, Tiffanie Hauger of Burbank, California, posted two scathing e-mails she received from McCarthy after she contacted him about his hiring practices.

"You have been sucking too much smog," McCarthy wrote her. "I'm just a Midwest hick trying to understand how a former Akronite got to be sooooo smart by living in a smog haze. What besides hydrocarbons is in the air that makes people so perceptive in BURBANK?"

McCarthy defends his rather unique public-relations techniques. "It was the fact that she took a hit at Akron," he tells Punch. "If you're gonna hit my city, I'm gonna hit you. . . I'm not gonna apologize for telling off someone from California who can't get their facts straight."

McCarthy further defends Chrissy's hiring. "If we want to keep young people in Akron, we've got to give them jobs," he says. "I really like her. She's smart as hell. I had two idiots in there before her, and she came to me saying she was the one who could get the job done. I figured I'd give her a shot. She'll prove everyone wrong."

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