College officials say they hired Laura Pastor because she was the most qualified of 51 applicants for the position and performed better in interviews than other candidates. She since has done a great job, officials say.

The college district denies Pastor got the position because her father, Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Phoenix, has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into the outreach program, including $1 million in federal grants at the time his daughter was being interviewed in 2005.

Pastor is now touting her leadership of the Achieving a College Education program in her bid for a hotly contested seat on the Phoenix City Council, which will be decided Nov. 6.

But newly released resumes and applications of the top three candidates for the job show that Pastor had the least experience in working with colleges or with outreach and scholarship programs. She has taken an unpaid leave of absence while she runs for office.

For months, the college district fought to keep private the names, resumes and applications of the other two finalists, saying the information is confidential. They later offered the resumes without names. A Maricopa Superior Court judge sided with The Arizona Republic and ordered the college to make all of the records public, which it did Oct. 16. The Republic since has tried to contact all three finalists; it reached Pastor and one other.

College spokeswoman Chris Chesrown said officials were trying to keep the records private to protect the hiring process for anyone applying for a college job. The district was not aiming to protect Pastor from scrutiny, she said.

"What are we supposed to do? Put a warning on applications saying these may become subject to a public-records request?" Chesrown said.

The scholarship program at South Mountain College gives at-risk high-school students a chance to earn a college degree by taking college classes prior to graduating.

Records show that Pastor was hired at a salary of nearly $66,000, which was $16,000 above the advertised maximum range for the director's job.

Chesrown referred questions about Pastor's hiring to South Mountain College President Ken Atwater. Atwater, who could not be reached for comment, has said that he gave Pastor the increased salary based on her qualifications and recommendations from a search committee. After interviewing three finalists, he said Pastor was "by far" the best candidate for the job.

"I wouldn't have applied for the job if I wasn't qualified," Pastor said Friday. "My qualifications speak for themselves."

The minimum qualifications listed for the job included experience with:

• Various high school, community college or university programs.

• Development, administration, promotion, coordination or evaluation of programs, including for at-risk students.

• Securing and monitoring grants.

• Scholarship-based programs.

• Supervising staff and directing work of subordinates.

Pastor has a master's degree in public administration and worked as a middle-school teacher in low-income districts.

In the two years before taking the college job, she worked in two midlevel state jobs with the Department of Economic Security and the Department of Insurance.

In her resume, Pastor highlighted a three-year stint managing a project with Chicago Public Schools to create partnerships with museums in the city.

"Having direct responsibility for developing, implementing and managing a $1.5 million program, securing grant funding, supervising personnel and four years of teaching middle-school students makes me an ideal candidate for this position," she wrote.

Unlike the other two finalists, Pastor's resume shows no experience with at-risk high-school students or any college-related work history.

Finalist Jennifer Steele spent three years directing a scholarship program at Maricopa Community Colleges when she applied for the job.

Steele, who has a master's degree in education leadership, focused on experience working with at-risk populations, including seven years as executive director of Safe Haven Children's Services.

"I have been involved in designing programs that meet the needs of at-risk populations for the last 15 years," she wrote.

The other finalist, Richard Daniel, has a doctorate in education leadership and policy studies and worked for three years as a researcher for a national student lender.

Before that, he was director of alumni relations at the University of Nevada at Reno and director of student affairs at Arizona State University.

Daniel noted that he once developed a program that linked ASU with four of Maricopa Community Colleges' 10 campuses and 10 area high schools. He had also supervised as many as 35 employees and managed a $3 million budget.

Now working for the University of Texas, Daniel said that he was never concerned about whether politics played a role in Pastor's selection. He said he didn't learn who had beaten him out of the job until a few weeks later, when he was hired by South Mountain to run a similar program.

"My outreach program helped support her outreach program and vice versa," he said.

Records show that two phone calls and a letter were lodged with the college over Pastor's selection, calling it favoritism. The college Equal Employment Opportunity officer dismissed the grievances as unfounded, saying there were no violations of laws or regulations.

Rep. Pastor, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, has denied that he pulled strings to get his daughter the job. He also said that he would have continued supporting the scholarship program whether or not she was hired.

Laura Pastor says that she has never used her father's connections to get ahead. She said she didn't know that the scholarship program owed its existence to her father when she applied for the job.

Pastor has run into similar allegations over campaign contributions, which show that she has pulled in thousands of dollars from employees and lobbyists for timber, airline and other industries connected to her father.

She said that she was unaware of the connections to her father and that all of the contributors are personal friends.