Miscellaneous Bureaucratic Ramblings

I have been amiss recently in updating this thing, with new postings coming at seemingly random intervals. I am way behind in my New Year's resolution to post 365 entries this year. At this rate, I will still be posting for this year sometime early in 2008.

Point is this: I have a life outside you people.

It's not much of a life, filled with paperwork, yelling, and uncontrollable sobbing, but it's mine.

Anyway, there's this City Council attempt at reforming their own expenditures which would compel council members to get detailed, written contracts and time cards from consultants who receive more than $10,000 a year in city money. So, in case you we're paying attention this basically means, up until now, you could work for council as a consultant and never actually have a contract, outlined deliverables, or objectives, it seems.

This makes me mad, mostly because no one told me about this. I could have been working for City Council as a consultant all this time, instead of working in The Bureaucracy where they, get this, expect "results." Heck, the City contracting procedure is ridiculous; no one who actually works for City Council could actually get away with hiring someone without a contract.

OK, you'll say, this is already appropriated funds to the Councilpersons, and not a new allocation so a contract, per se, isn't needed, but that's really beside the point. The larger issue here is that those that are charged with the fiscal management of the City, should, at least, be showing the same level of fiscal responsibility that they are imposing on their underlings.

I think the silliest comment is from Ms. Payne who said: "It's always curious to me, how do we reform ourselves?" ..."Come on! That's not really going to happen ... We're going to find some loopholes to get through it anyway."

Yeah, and I'm an alcoholic*, but c'mon I'm always going to find a way to drink, so why bother trying to sober up?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go fill out my Council mandated requisition forms to purchase a pencil.

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*Actually, I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings.