By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez exempted his entire administrative team from taking a series of office skills exams required by past clerks for employment.

The battery of tests, implemented under former clerk Malcom Thompson, whom Ramirez replaced, quizzes applicants on nine areas of office skills including typing, data entry, grammar, basic math and numeric filing.

Ramirez has the discretion to exempt employees from the exams because the tests are not statutorily required.

He was not available for comment as he was attending clerk training in Tallahassee.

“Mr. Ramirez hired what he believes are qualified people into those positions and he did not require them to be tested,” clerk’s spokesman Marvin Cortner, who also was exempt from taking the tests, said.

However, under Thompson, all of his top administrators took then test with the exception of his administrative aide, Latifa Ramdani, who later accused the former clerk of pushing her into a door frame.

According to personnel files, former human resources director Kimberlee Zander, former in-house attorney and spokesman C. Rodolfo Celis and former finance director Wendy Collazo were required under Thompson’s administration to take the exams before employment.

The current IT administrator Michael Johnson and finance director Tiffany Morton, who were retained under Ramirez, also took the exams.

Test scores are not public record.

Under Ramirez, despite paying his administrative team top salaries, human resources director Marta Moczo-Santiago, at about $83,000 a year; special projects administrator Caridad Cortes, at about $60,000; and administrative assistant Jennifer Soto, who is Ramirez’s son John’s live-in girlfriend, were all exempted from the tests.

Soto’s salary is approximately $56,000 annually.

Arthur “Beau” Osborne, who was terminated by Ramirez after only a month on the job as deputy clerk, also was exempted. He made approximately $115,000 annually.

Ramirez and his team are currently rewriting the hiring policy to make the testing portion more comprehensive.

“He immediately set up (upon taking office) to revise the testing procedure to make it more fair and job specific,” Cortner said. “A new policy has not been written though one is in development. Under the Ramirez administration, applicants will not be pre-screened but may eventually have to take certain tests to determine their qualifications for specific jobs.”

All employees were, however, required to pass drug tests and criminal background checks, which included being fingerprinted.

“The clerk, a constitutional officer, in general has the authority to set his own hiring practices and to determine what qualifications need to be met for someone to be employed,” Cortner said. “Test results would not be the only criteria for a hiring decision.”

No new employees, with the exception of the administrative team, have been hired since Ramirez took office in January and there are currently no vacancies, Cortner said.

“Because we don’t anticipate having a practice of requiring all exams, when the time comes, and if applicable, we expect to test for the skills/knowledge pertinent to the vacancy,” he added.