How is Joe Enge qualified to be a deputy director?

The ad for the job of deputy director of the Nevada Governor's Energy Office - paying $65,000 a year - must have been a doozy.

Perhaps it said, "successful candidate needn't be able to demonstrate any experience or knowledge of energy issues." Or maybe it read "successful candidate needn't have any ability to exercise sound judgment."

That's the only way we can think of school board member Joe Enge as being the best candidate for the position he was hired to recently. He admits to having no background in energy issues and, as for the decision-making skills so critical to any management position - especially one at this senior level - well, his background speaks for itself.

It's not just the two DUI convictions in his past, or a third arrest for DUI in 2005 (a breath test indicated a blood alcohol content about three times the legal limit) in which he got off after he revealed in court he'd been wearing dentures, which can affect the accuracy of the tests. That arrest came, according to the arrest report, after the officer witnessed Enge's car leaving a brothel at a high rate of speed.

Most recently, this past Nevada Day, he plowed his car into a person's fence, and then left the scene. Officers found him at his house two hours later after they found his license plate in the debris. His explanation that he couldn't tell which house the fence belonged to and that he planned to return later simply makes no sense.

Contrary to the comments from the director of the agency, these behaviors should have played a role in deciding who should manage this office - Nevada residents deserve that level of scrutiny in the hiring for all publicly funded positions.

Apparently, the State of Nevada does not put a high priority on sound judgment in job applicants or in the people who hire them.

• This editorial represents the view of the Nevada Appeal editorial board.