Dirty pool in Maplewood

The chaos in Maplewood city government — budget numbers not in the computer, value of fixed assets unknown, journal entries unchecked and unauthorized, employee turnover rate at 10 percent or more — got an airing from Tad Vezner and Elizabeth Mohr in Thursday’s PiPress. The whole mess, rife with political machinations and power grabs that Paul Demko laid out in City Pages last month and last year, seems rooted in the sudden, surprise appointment of City Manager Greg Copeland (who’s now gone). His past job troubles should have raised red flags, but personal ties to the powerful who put him there appear to have stood in for a proper hiring process — a scenario with echoes elsewhere in the metro.