Put this one in the weird-but-true file: a conflict of interest involving a ferret has cost a city employee his $41,101-a-year job.
Officials reported yesterday that Kempe Hope, a “job-opportunity specialist” for the Human Resources Administration, agreed to resign last month after being brought up on charges of violating the City Charter by offering to pay an HRA client to take care of his pet ferret.
City employees aren’t allowed to use their positions for “any financial gain, contract, license, privilege” — or just about anything else.
Paid ferret-sitting apparently falls into those category.
In a settlement with the Conflicts of Interest Board, Hope also admitted to having engaged in “additional conduct that violates the HRA code of conduct.”
The nature of that conduct was not disclosed.