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Former Cleveland Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott exits the federal courthouse in 2011 after pleading guilty to accepting a bribe.

(Plain Dealer File Photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former city councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott has landed a new job -- just months after completing a federal sentence for public corruption.

And guess who is paying her? The Cleveland taxpayers she once betrayed.

She has her friend and former colleague, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, to thank for the $55,000-a-year gig.

Pierce Scott, you may recall, resigned abruptly in 2009 amid a massive federal probe of Cuyahoga County government. At the time, she attributed her mid-term departure to personal reasons. Then, in 2011, she pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe from a contractor embroiled in the investigation. She was sentenced in March 2013 to three years of probation and eight months of house arrest.

Pierce Scott – who ran Jackson's 2009 re-election campaign – then turned to the mayor for redemption, or at least another shot at a government job that will pad her public pension.

Jackson delivered. He hired Pierce Scott, 55, in June. She works in the city's public utilities department as "deputy program manager," where she is paid around $20,000 less than what council members are paid. She is filling one of several vacancies in the "Citistat" office, which uses data analysis to measure productivity and deploy city resources.

Maureen Harper, a spokeswoman for Jackson, said, "Jackson's decision to hire Ms. Scott was based on her breadth of experience working for the city and dealing with service delivery/quality of life issues."

Her new job comes with an important benefit – a civil service classification, which means her job is protected. The current or any future administration can't fire her at will.

Jackson's decision shouldn't surprise anyone. He flaunts a critics-be-dammed management style and has a penchant for excessive loyalty to allies and staff, especially those under fire for poor management in the water and police departments.

Jackson trusts Pierce Scott, whose husband is Randell Scott, a top city administrator.

But taxpayers should be troubled by Jackson's loyalty to Pierce Scott. Forget the irony that civil service jobs were designed to keep politics and patronage out of the hiring process. Jackson's real affront is that he rewarded a corrupt friend rather than giving a good job with good benefits to a equally needy and qualified person who did not violate the public trust.

Pierce Scott admitted accepting a $2,000 bribe and soliciting a job for her son from contractor Michael Forlani in 2005. In exchange, she assisted Forlani with a $125 million project near the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center in University Circle, located in the East Side ward she represented.

Jackson has long claimed he abhors politicians who are dishonest or are in politics for themselves. In fact, he ran for mayor in 2005 because he believed his predecessor, Jane Campbell, was less than straight with him as city council president and with city council.

Pierce Scott had spent a little more than 20 years in public-sector jobs, according to her resume. And she earned the respect of many colleagues and associates. Nearly 60 people, including elected officials, showed up at her sentencing hearing to support her.

Pierce Scott could have received a prison term of eight months to two years. She is the only elected official in the public corruption probe to receive probation rather than time behind bars.

Her lawyer argued at the time of sentencing that Pierce Scott was no Jimmy Dimora or Frank Russo, county officials at the center of the corruption investigation, who enjoyed gifts, trips and far more cash over many years. (You can read her sentencing memo to the court below.)

Pierce Scott said the money she took went to pay private school tuition for her daughter. That's arguably better than spending ill-gotten cash on hookers or the blackjack table, as Dimora did, but that does not excuse her corruption.

District Judge Christopher Boyko weighed Peirce Scott's public service record, cooperation with federal authorities, volunteer work and completion of a master's degree from Case Western Reserve University after pleading guilty. The judge also heavily considered her major personal challenge: the daily care she was providing at the time to her then-27-year-old son, Randell Jr., who was shot by Cleveland police in September 2012. Pierce Scott was also helping care for her son's child.

(According police reports, officers stopped Randell Jr. after midnight for an open container and noticed a handgun gun in his waistband. He was told to keep his hands in the air, according to the police statement. He eventually lowered one hand and was shot in the abdomen. The city didn't respond Tuesday to a question about the status of the investigation into the shooting. UPDATE: City says the investigation is closed and the city reached a settlement with Randell Scott Jr. Read the story here.)

Pierce Scott deserved the break from the judge given her personal challenges. But her second chance shouldn't come at the expense of taxpayers.