I was appalled when I read the article describing the hiring of the new city manager for Rancho Santa Margarita. The article implies that non-merit and discriminatory factors (marital status and religion)were used to select Ms. Cervantes and for the postion and eliminate other candidates. Mayor pro tem Steve Baric was cited in the article as saying that Ms. Cervantez best mirrored the qualities of the community - family, faith, and a professional attitude and Councilman Jerry Holloway was quoted as saying "Our expectations were so high for all the right reasons." If the "right reasons" included her marital status and religion, then the hiring manager broke federal law. I hope that at least one of the 99 other candidates who applied for the position and was not selected files a complaint of discrimination with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)! The Rancho Santa Margarita city council may have broken the law when they hired the new city manager and the selection process should be investigated.