Oregon Public Broadcasting

A 57-year-old accountant and Air Force veteran will start a new job on Monday in the Oregon Secretary of State's office. Last week, a state judge ordered that William Abel get the job. Ethan Lindsey reports.

It's been a long time coming for Abel.

He says he applied to be a state auditor about a dozen times in the past 8 years.

The judge's ruling says he faced age discrimination. Abel's lawyer says in the past decade, no one older than 50 has been offered a job with the the Secretary of State audit division, without holding an advanced degree.

Don Hamilton is a spokesman for the Secretary of State.

Don Hamilton: “He's going to be treated like every other employee, and he's going to come in and go through the procedures that all new employees go through when they get hired.”

Hamilton couldn't speak to Abel's case because of a pending federal lawsuit against three state officials in the case.

Don Hamilton: “Hiring for the audit division is really different from many of the other hires in the Secretary of State's office. We're in the early stages, right now, of a review of these procedures and the processes for hiring.”

In issuing his ruling, the judge called current hiring practices “embarrassing.”