| So the convention of the New Jersey League of Municipalities is over. The attendees were a Who's Who list of New Jersey power brokers. With one exception. Governor Christie decided it was more important to hobnob with Republican Tea Party glitterati in San Diego than to interact with the people he's paid to serve with. But that's another story.
Like any convention, there were working sessions, and there were after-hours parties where the politicians could interact informally with the various contractors who provide goods and services to the taxpayers. There's nothing wrong with this. Public servants who work hard should be encouraged to have some off-hours fun, schmoozing with their peers in the private sector. What is disturbing, however, is the way these events are paid for and the message they send to the politicians.
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| According to an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, the wining and dining of our public servants was paid for by the very contractors that we award taxpayer money to. Free hors d'oeuvres, open bars, and even one party with ten different types of martinis were de rigueur for this event. But it shouldn't be. Informal interaction between politicians and contractors is good, but both sides need to be reminded constantly that this is necessarily an arms-length relationship.
Before I retired, I worked for the world's largest defense contractor, and had frequent interaction with government procurement officials, performance evaluators, and military/civilian end users. Like the League of Municipalities, we worked hard, often away from home in places a lot more godforsaken than Atlantic City. We too, were being paid by the taxpayer; and we had strict rules about gratuities, meals, and the inevitable chazerai that comes from conferences and meetings. If we (the contractor) hosted a meeting and served a lunch, the government officials would pay for their meal. (After all, the officials were receiving per diem just for this purpose). No trinkets valued over a small nominal cost were permitted - so we could hand out cheap pens but nothing more valuable. And alcoholic beverages on the contractor's dime were a strict no-no. Did we like the policy? No. Did the military like it? Of course not. But we understood.
In the grand scheme of things, the amount of money spent on these parties is trivial, and is within the round-off error of budget calculations. That's not the point. The message we want to send to our elected officials and to the contractors is something that needs to be reinforced constantly. You guys are being paid by us. You are using our hard-earned precious tax dollars to provide goods and services to us, not for your own personal gain, no matter how trivial. We don't want to stifle informal after-hours discussions - those are at least as productive as the Death by PowerPoint that occurs during the formal sessions. But for the sake of both reality and perception, austerity is the name of the game. Party away, but elected officials, who are also paid by us and are reimbursed for these junkets, should pay their own way. And ethical contractors should support this policy.
Change starts from the top, and if our officials behave in such a manner that even the appearance of impropriety is eliminated, perhaps the moniker of the "Soprano State" will become a thing of the past. And taxpayers would feel like they are getting their money's worth. |
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