Saddled with debt, one lawsuit away from bankruptcy, Jefferson County is in such shambles that it can’t even hire interns in a sensible, expedient way. Commissioner Bobby Humphryes wants to change that.

I mean, who’s going to make the coffee around here?

But seriously, again the problem seems to be the Jefferson County Personnel Board. Having been under federal receivership for years and wrecked with discrimination lawsuits, the Personnel Board has become to Jefferson County and the municipalities here what the Alabama Constitution is to the rest of the state — the underlying cause of all of our problems. It can takes months or even years to hire fire fighters, civil engineers or police officers, and so seems to be the case with interns.

“We’re not bringing these people in here to train them to be county commissioners,” Humphryes said.

Commission internships are categorized positions under the Personnel Board, and therefore almost impossible to get and probably not worth the trouble anyway.

“I could not have gotten an internship here,” Commissioner Shelia Smoot said. “By the time they go through the system, it’s too late for a summer job.”

— Kyle Whitmire