From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 12, 1975:

City personnel matters were rarely in the public limelight, but in the case of an Army deserter who had been hired by the city under President Ford’s amnesty program, the hiring decision had become a matter of public debate. James York, a Winfield native who had deserted the U.S. Army in May 1969 and had fled to Canada, had been hired under a federal emergency employment program in February. A lengthy protest of his hiring by veterans groups and citizens, who had filled the city commission room this week, had led Commissioner Fred Pence to move for York’s removal from his job as a laborer with the city parks department, in favor of some qualified local veteran. The other city commissioners, however, refused to second the motion, saying the matter was a staff decision and not commission business. The protesters had argued that while the Selective Service Administration was obligated to give York a job as part of the amnesty program, the city was under no such obligation. The job for which York was hired paid $2.67 an hour.