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SMDC Cancels New Years
Eve Party
I've long felt that this
party represented a total conflict of interest for
SMDC's mission of health care and wellness. More liquor
was consumed at this event than probably any other
indoor event in the community annually! In addition this
massive non profit sponsored party shut down many other
New Years Eve parties at locally owned private
establishments.
Watch for many new parties
and opportunities to pop up now that this event has been
cancelled.
Government Out of
Control-Take a Bureaucrat to Work Day
(as written for
the READER by Tracy Lundeen)
I recently sent an elected official an email and as I
was reading it over I thought it would make a good start
for a column. Here’s a little of what I wrote.
Government is funny (actually more like “scary”) Some
government workers create these little kingdoms
(programs) and then add layers of bureaucracy to them so
they become virtually impossible to eliminate. They have
so many people dependent on them or expecting the
service that they are almost impossible to eliminate.
In many cases the workers and department heads actually
have developed this mind set that they are in private
business and forget where the money to fund all these
programs comes from. Quite often it would appear they
have lost track of the reality that they are public
servants spending our tax dollars. It's very unsettling
and frustrating.
Back in the 80's and early 90's I had several contracts
with the City of Duluth and worked in the building and
as a private business man it drove me crazy the way some
government employees thought and functioned in their
employment capacities. I can only imagine what it might
be like now.
Another theory that was recently pointed out to me is
the fact that many government workers have been in their
positions for so many years they have no sense of what
it is like to work anywhere else or do anything
differently than they have always done it. That is why
on my radio show last week I suggested that government
take a page from the popular “Take your daughter to work
Day” or whatever the politically correct term for it is
today and sponsor a “Take a Bureaucrat to Work Day”
program. Every government employee would have to spend a
day, or better yet a week, working in a similar type
work/skill but in the private sector and find out how
things work when you have to balance a budget and have
the responsibilities of living within “means.”
I don’t think
Duluth ’s financial woes can be solved as easily
as the Mayor asking employees and department heads to
come up with solutions and ideas on how to cut budgets
or be more efficient. I think many of those folks are
the problem or they are so wrapped up in the system they
can’t see the problem. Their idea of cutting back is not
similar to how we’d do it in the private sector I don’t
think.
One suggestion might be to propose the formation of a
high power citizen group led by some of our brightest
business minds to go thru each and every department and
make recommendations of how to start over or get back to
the basic business of how to do the peoples business. If
that isn’t workable then lets bring in a crack auditing
team to do it.
Sometimes when you are too close to a problem you can’t
see it.
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