If anyone wants to become a moderator, he/she can tender their application then Theymos can access them by also looking at the reports they made to moderators because i learnt that if you make good reports to moderators, you can have a high chance of becoming one in the future so the administrator cannot just make appointments, what if he appoints someone and the person isn't willing to take the job despite that a payment is attached to it? As for approving a moderator via a voting process, it doesn't make any sense because just like you said, it will become bias, political and probably someone that is incompetent might be voted in.