EMERGENCY ENTRANCE

OK so this one might be a little inside baseball (hell the whole blog is written for the 20 people that care about integrity compliance in NY so doing an entry for the 5 people at the commission who care is only 25% self-indulgent).

On the 3rd floor of the PIC offices there are two doors you can use to enter the commission (you need a special super secret card to get in and they monitor who goes where and when trust me it took forever to hack into their security system) RELAX all you 2nd floor trolls I really don’t have one . . .yet.

Anyway one door is the “main door” but the second door is a shortcut staffers can use to get to the IT department or the lunch room. With the added benefit of not having to go by the prairie dogger compound (these are the employees who monitor everyone’s location at all times sort of a gps for busybodies).

Lo and behold a sign recently appeared on the outside of the door (the side the public or staff would use). The sign said only use this door for emergencies. HUH what kind of emergency could it be where you need to get into the commission? That is one of the all-time great questions related to the commission so good I may have to ask it at the commission meeting tomorrow. I’ve got others though like:

1. It’s been 2 months and the chair has not answered what he termed the simple question of did the commission change the way it calculates due dates will he ever answer?
2. Is the chairman embarrassed by not having answered this question?
3. Do any of the commissioners know the answer to the simple question?
4. Why do they have a question and answer session when they don’t answer questions?
5. Have they failed to answer the question because a yes answer (which it is) means they would owe a lot of money in refunds?
6. Did Ralph change commission policy related to this question without approval of the commission?
7. If so when?
8. Did Barry know what Ralph was doing related to this change in policy?
9. Did commission staff in programs tell Ralph he was wrong about changing due dates?
10. How many times was Ralph told?
11. How many times was Ralph told in writing?
12. Has the commission reviewed my complaint about Mr. Miccio and Mr. Ginsburg’s actions?
13. Did they investigate my complaint more fully than the complaint the DA made about disgraced ex executive director Teitelbaum?
14. Which commissioner was put in charge of writing my lifetime bar opinion?
15. Did the chair assign staff to write it even though I have a complaint pending against Miccio and Ginsburg?
16. How many commissioners have violated the lifetime bar as Ralph has interpreted it?
17. Did disgraced ex governor Spitzer violate the lifetime bar as Ralph has interpreted it?
18. Did any former executive director of the ethics commission violate the lifetime bar as Ralph has interpreted it?
19. Does the commission know that former Chairman Feerick discussed with me what I could and could not do after leaving the lobby commission?
20. Does the commission know that former Chairman Feerick recommended me as a consultant to some of the companies where he sat on the board of directors?
21. Would that be relevant to the issue of a lifetime bar as Ralph has interpreted it?
22. Do the commission members know that Ralph allowed me to represent a client on late fees 8 months ago and actually waived some of those fees without notifying me of a potential lifetime bar issue as Ralph has now interpreted it?
23. Would that be relevant to the issue of a lifetime bar as Ralph is now interpreting it?
24. Do the individual commissioners have liability for the actions of the staff if they knew or should have known (that language I stole from you Ralph) that said actions were beyond the statutory authority of the staff members?
25. And lastly why would they allow one staff member who doesn’t like people walking behind her put the emergency entrance sign up?

When you let a staffers personal desires or vengeful behavior exist and don’t nip it in the bud it infects the entire office. If it was me I would use the emergency entrance even when I didn’t need to. I might even put my own sign up “WELCOME please use this door anytime”

That way everyone could benefit kind of like what I’m doing with the blog and the commission’s approach to late fees.