Do What You Say, Say What You Mean

Waste
This post is an example of waste. While this time it's about the County and not the Town of Greenburgh (can you all hear Paul Feiner saying, "Phew, thank god it's not about me!"), it's problem is systemic to government in general. On June 10th, 2011, under the poorly veiled event entitled Westchester Educational Safety Training, the County will host the annual Fleet and Equipment Demo Day, typically referred to by County employees as Fleet Day. How many years has this waste of our County employees time been going on?

A Gift
This is basically a paid half-day off for our County employees between 10 A.M. until 2 P.M. Is it another CSEA contractual gift, agree to by all parties when times were good and money was rolling in to the County? Perhaps. But what is the benefit to an excuse such as this? If it is to show new and cutting-edge equipment, isn't that what trade shows are for? It is. Isn't that why taxpayers pay dearly for junkets and trips under the guise of research and evaluation? It is. If a city, town or village wanted to know about a particular piece of equipment, they have several options available to them.


A Better Way
The internet is constantly being touted to the public by our government officials as the information source for all things governmental. Why is it not good enough for the Fleet, Maintenance and Equipment people in law enforcement, emergency services and public works? It is. Yet, once you are taught to "work" the system, it's tallyho, off we go! What's good for the goose must be good for the gander. This is not to say there are never reasons to travel. There are. But they should be scrutinized and used judiciously. You can also contact the manufacturer and they will have a sales rep visit you. Or, they will direct you to the nearest dealer location for you to visit. In this day and age, everybody is hungry, in fact starving to make a sale. Our county employees should not have a difficult time getting information, demos, and hands-on usage of prospective and cutting edge equipment.


What Will Happen at Rye, Playland
The County Executive continually claims we must jettison Playland because the County shouldn't be running an amusement park. They aren't. That's why it loses money every year with it's safety issues, patronage jobs and limited hours. But that's another blog on management. All the County departments will drive a few of their vehicles to Playland's parking lot, park, have breakfast and basically "hang-out" for several hours. The public really won't be there unless its because they walk in that area for exercise and stumble upon it. There is no ROI here. That's Return On Investment, not Rob Oughta Investigate. There may or may not even be a vendor or two who will drive this years suped-up police car with a new LED light rack and radar mounted to it or a new snow plow design that will plow the road itself. 


Fix the Waste in Our County Government
Is this what the County Executive means when he says he has a mandate from the people to lower taxes, reign in spending and streamline County government? We hope not. If this type of business as usual is how he plans to reduce the constituents tax burden, he's got some answering to do. We recently posted about doing the right thing. Mr. County Executive, please do the right thing here and cancel this wasteful event.