Then again, this is Camden, a city that lacks the wherewithal to do much of anything - but where anything is possible if you know the right people.
"We hired who we felt was the best candidate and [whom] the board felt most comfortable with," insists Angel Alamo, authority board chairman.
"At the end of the day, this board will be judged by the work that is done to improve the Camden Parking Authority."
I suppose he's got that right. I visited the parking authority's waterfront headquarters the morning after my colleague Claudia Vargas' story Sunday detailing how Hunter landed the job.
A former authority board member who served as the agency's maintenance chief for a few days in 2005, Hunter apparently was the sole person interviewed among four applicants for the $62,500 post. The hiring was approved at a Dec. 19 meeting attended by four of the authority's five current commissioners, with the vote taken after one of the four had left.
Falio Leyba Martinez says he was called away on a family emergency. He and others are now questioning how the authority, which has been without an executive director since the estimable Judy Fulton retired in December 2010, could choose its second-in-command in such a manner.
Hunter's qualifications are difficult to assess, given the seeming unavailability of his resumé. But I'm guessing his winning attributes were enhanced by his longtime affiliation with the Camden County Democratic Committee.
To his credit, Hunter receives me graciously when I turn up unannounced during his third day on the job.
"I'm trying to come in here and do the best I can for the parking authority," the married father of three says. "It's a challenge, but I'm up for it."
Hunter describes his first order of business as "to learn. . . . We have a great consultant. I'm looking forward to working with him and learning as much as possible. He's an expert about parking."
