Saturday, October 07, 2006

Underwhelmed

My faith in good government was dealt a severe blow this morning. I am shocked and deeply disturbed to learn that Bill McReynolds, the Republican candidate in our local state senate race, has made personal phone calls while at work. The taxpayers of Racine were bilked out of $13.46. Though McReynolds has acknowledged the accuracy of the charge against him, and has already reimbursed the county, I am nonetheless dismayed at the outrageous behavior. And it doesn't stop there folks. I have a very reliable inside source who has been in McReynold's home. My source tells me that in McReynold's tenure as County Executive, he has brazenly stolen two pens, four paper clips, and some scrap paper from his office. It gets worse folks. McReynold's has on numerous occasions distributed his COUNTY OWNED business cards to people for purposes wholly unrelated to county matters. The only good news I can report here is that, so far as I know, none of the business cards have been offered to underaged male pages.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am certain he never used his personal phone for county business.

Anonymous said...

Heaven forbid we would have a government leader who understood small business.

Denis Navratil said...

Good point Wade. A job like County Executive is not a 9 to 5 gig, so any normal person would likely engage in some personal business during normal business hours, especially as I am sure that the CE job requires considerable time committments in the evening hours.

Anonymous said...

At what threshhold does an elected have to use his publically funded office for his personal gain before its a problem for you?

See, for me its ZERO. He's paid 90 thousand a year to do the business of the Racine County taxpayers. Once you start crossing the line--where do you stop?

The money may sound small (remember, its what Mac decided to reimburse for from the docs turned over that he was caught with) but was it really that small? Did he use his county car at all?

He can understand small business--he just can't continue to use my taxdollars to further his own interests. Plain and simple--that's what he did with the popcorn and the bumper biz.

Bev

Anonymous said...

At what threshhold does an elected have to use his publically funded office for his personal gain before its a problem for you?

See, for me its ZERO. He's paid 90 thousand a year to do the business of the Racine County taxpayers. Once you start crossing the line--where do you stop?

The money may sound small (remember, its what Mac decided to reimburse for from the docs turned over that he was caught with) but was it really that small? Did he use his county car at all?

He can understand small business--he just can't continue to use my taxdollars to further his own interests. Plain and simple--that's what he did with the popcorn and the bumper biz.

Bev

Denis Navratil said...

To anonymous: I have a low threshhold for use of public office for personal gain. But I don't think it unreasonable that a public official make some personal calls while in office. As Wade mentioned above, it is likely that he made county business calls from home. I wonder anon/bev if you would be upset if a teacher called home from school to check on his/her child? Can a police officer stop for a few minutes and chat with a friend while working, or is that time theft? Of course, you are free to set whatever standard that you wish for your public officials. By all means vote for the ones who never make personal phone calls while at work. But I will remain in the real world. I will vote for the candidates who pursue policies that I agree with. It doesn't make sense to sweat the small stuff. Thanks for your viewpoint though. Keep em coming.

Anonymous said...

dn,

you support his viewpoints ,I understand that--and take no issue with your support for Mac for that reason.

But I think dismissing his conduct is a little dangerous. Scott Jensen's philosophy probably shares a lot of similarities with yours. Would you vote for him knowing what you know? why was campaigning with state resources different along ethical lines? It's using something that is not yours for the purposes of advancing your own plight.

You refer to this as small stuff (which would likely be your argument as to why Jensen and Mac's conduct differ)--but again, like the bumpers--there's just a pattern there that scares me. Calling home is a lot different than using taxpayers resources to help your business. Any teacher who did that would likely get fired immediately.

Denis Navratil said...

You can't be serious anon. There is nothing a teacher can do that would result in immediate firing. As for the comparisons with Jensen, I have to plead ignorance. And I don't think it is relevant. The issue is whether a person in elected office who has personal and/or business interests should make phone calls from government phones. It is not illegal, I don't imagine, so the issue now is whether individual voters should tolerate that behavior. My guess is that if people who made personal phone calls from work were somehow ineligible for elected office, we could not fill all the elected positions in our country. As for the bumpers, a Democrat ruled that there were no legal violations and that the sale of the bumpers saved the county money. I just don't get your concerns here. If you want to vote for John Lehman, by all means do so. But, in all fairness, you should do an open records request first, to be sure he hasn't used a state phone for personal use.

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight...Mr.Mac ran a bumper business, a popcorn business, and was the County Executive? Maybe I'm wrong here, but as a mother of four children, I just can't help but to admire his multi-tasking skills.

Anonymous said...

He gets $90,000 a year as CE, is that right. It sounds high. No wonder you made a run for that office Denis. J/K
Anon
The bumper thing was not illegal so why use it against him.