What’s the difference between public speaking and public editorials?  Someone else can do your writing for you.  Dedicated staff indeed Elsie, indeed!  It’s far easier to read what Elsie has to say, or whoever does her writing for her has to say than it is to listen to her rambling Sarah Palin-isms.  So she took to the papers today to justify her unprecedented hiring of a high priced attorney out of Billings to handle her affairs on the Land Board.

You have to spend some time around elected officials to have an idea of what the term ‘personal staff’ really means.  In a nutshell, they are positions left for a newly elected official, such as the Governor, AG or in this case Superintendent of Public Instruction, to hand out to their former campaign staff, political operatives and hopefully people who truly understand how crucial operations work.  So in dear Elsie’s case, she has seven appointed positions.  What her editorial doesn’t say is that when she was elected she had no idea how many she could appoint and showed up in Helena for a transition meeting with an entourage and promises of cushy jobs to over twenty faithful followers across the state.  Word has it she was a bit taken aback to learn she had so few positions.  As to that fat $230,000 she plans to save: it’s called vacancy savings (insert hard working permanent staff work even harder to pick up the slack) and savings do to long term staff who flew the OPI coupe before Arntzen took office rather than work for her.

Back to that fancy smancy attorney.  As mentioned in a previous post, the Land Board members are staffed by people who understand the role of the people they work for.  And then there’s that state agency called the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation that employs a whole bunch of people who get this land stuff.  Two of the Land Board members are attorneys and the other three, umm, are, umm ahhh, Lamd Board members.  It’s understandable why Arntzen would blow the bankroll on someone who gets it no matter how ironic it might be that he’s a Billings attorney, you know, her home town.  In Elsie’s words ‘experience counts’, but it’s already there.  Such a shame that she can’t see that through the camouflage of her own justification.

Now about that dedicated staff.  Elsie, you really only mentioned your appointed cronies.  How about those two hundred or so dedicated workers who have put decades and careers into OPI?  Seems you missed the mark of who does the actual work there.  Or maybe you’re still trying to figure out why they come to work wearing life jackets as they ride out Hurricane Elsie and hope for the best in 2020.

TGTJ

‘Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’