Every move you make, every step you take
It seemed innocent enough.
Give a harmless lunch-time talk to the staff of DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Service about my job. A few jokes, a little insight on journalism's ground rules and embarrassing moments, a smidgen of advice on how to get noticed (in a good way) by the media gods. A 40-minute exercise, tops.
But in some parallel universe, where Martin O'Malley reigns and uptight people see grassy knolls, the deep-dive OOOGA horns sounded an alarm.
I was not to be left alone. When I arrived at the meeting, so did my shadow.
Apparently, the Maryland budget crisis is over. Because a member of the DNR communications team drove a state car more than two hours from Annapolis to Rocky Gap State Park, sat through my content-free talk, got up and drove back to Annapolis. Six hours out of a work day and, I'm guessing, about $18 in gas ($155 using the IRS 50-cents-a-mile rate).
It would have been less expensive for Team O'Malley to have given me the $18 as hush money.
Or if they simply had to know what I was saying, I could have just dialed up 1-877-620-8DNR, placed my phone on the podium and let them take notes.
It makes me wonder what "they" were planning had I shouted, "Martin O'Malley is a dootbrain and he throws like a girl."
I don't know what the deal was. I didn't really care. But for state employees, who have seen colleagues laid off and been forced to take furlough days, it's a slap in the face.
As a taxpayer, I'm teed off knowing that money and manpower was wasted listening to me.
To say nothing of it being downright Big Brother creepy. And the election season is just beginning.
On the way back to the Baltimore area, Police came on the radio. I wasn't paying attention until Sting got to his warning: Every move you make, every step you take, I'll be watching you.
I laughed out loud. And then I glanced in the rearview mirror, just to be safe.
Comments
Seriously Candus? Your gripe is over the time and gas money it took to send a DNR employee to a meeting of ... DNR employees?!?! Sounds to me like the DNR communications person was doing his or her job - ensuring that DNR officials communicate and interact properly and adequately with the press, and vice versa. Your gripe could be about whether you think that such a job could exist - but you're insistence that $18 (which isn't even close to accurate, since the IRS reimbursement is not gas reimbursement, but a measure of wear and tear on a vehicle also) somehow would solve the damn budget problem is outrageous. And for a columnist, it's not even in the ballpark of defensible.
Posted by: Scottie | June 9, 2010 6:19 PM
The point, "Scottie" (If that is your real name. You didn't have the courage to identify yourself with an email address), is that tabs were being kept on me by a state employee, on orders of his bosses, to monitor my appearance at the event.
He was NOT there, in your words, "ensuring that DNR officials communicate and interact properly and adequately with the press, and vice versa."
I have been covering DNR for a decade. He has been an employee of the agency for a year. I don't need hand holding and neither did the people I was speaking to.
My shadow is a great guy. A true professional. A credit to the agency.
Being forced to shadow me was beneath his pay grade.
As for the gas and time, well "Scottie," no one defends the need for more manpower and money for DNR than I do.
That precious resources would be used for such a trivial pursuit is galling.
It's the principal of the thing, "Scottie."
It shows a complete lack of priorities.
And, by the way, the $18 gas fee was based on the EPA estimate of a car that gets 25 mpg.
As for the IRS rate, that, too, would be a legitimate figure unless you are suggesting, "Scottie," that state cars don't need insurance or suffer wear and tear?
Posted by: Candy | June 9, 2010 8:02 PM