State expenses need tracking

When Gov. Chris Gregoire learned through a news story in The Olympian that the State Lottery Commission had bought itself a $49,000 Mercedes van to travel around in promoting ticket sales, she put the kibosh on it fast.

The state is still so broke she had just called a special session of the legislature for November and she made clear this was no time for the lottery folks to be gallivanting around in a van they also were having equipped with gadgets for a total cost of $124,000. Sell it, she ordered, and make sure you get back every penny you spent.

While she’s at it, why doesn’t she check on how many state owned cars and other vehicles are at the personal use of state employees?

I remember back when Booth Gardner was elected Pierce County Executive and his right hand man was Greg Barlow who handled the security and charity finances for Booth’s multimillionaire stepfather Norton Clapp.

It was Barlow who rescued the failing Gardner campaign for governor later on by taking the checkbook away from campaign director Ron Dotzauer and mending fences with irate campaign workers who were complaining about being ignored.

A born organizer, Barlow’s special talent is to be able to assess a situation in record time and then take the necessary action, even if it involves those cozy with the boss.

They called him Rambo, and not because they liked him.

One of his first actions after Gardner took over in Pierce County was to call a meeting of all department heads. After they were seated around a big table, Barlow reached in his pocket and drew out a ring of car keys and threw them on the table.

It wasn’t necessary for him to be driving a county-owned car at the expense of the taxpayers, he said, and he invited his cohorts to do the same. The other keys hit the table.

In a more up-to-date happening, there’s the new head of the U.S. Marshals Service in Arlington, Va., who ordered more than 100 headquarters employees to return sport utility vehicles and high horsepower sedans they had been using to commute to work. Boss Lady Stacia Hylton put the finger on “an austere fiscal environment” for her decision.

USMS has 152 “take home” vehicles assigned to headquarters, one for nearly all of the 163 employees with law enforcement badges who work there. Not only has all their gas and maintenance costs been paid for by the taxpayers, they have been allowed to use high occupancy vehicle lanes so they can avoid the commuter rush.

Nearly all the cars will be transferred to USMS field offices around the country.

Now if you think they’re beginning to get the message at the federal level about cutting costs, you haven’t seen the story about the state department’s plans to spend $3 billion on a security force to protect diplomats in Iraq after the U.S. pulls its last troops out of the country. I’ve only seen it in the Wall Street Journal so far.

The department plans to hire a 5,100-strong force to protect diplomatic personnel, guard embassy buildings and operate a fleet of aircraft and armored vehicles.

According to Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, the military is handing over nearly 4,000 pieces of military hardware to the state department valued at about $209 million. It includes biometric equipment for screening personnel and 60 armored vehicles designed to withstand roadside bomb attacks.

State hasn’t released a breakdown of how much it will cost per year and the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, which wants all U.S. military out by Dec. 31, declined to comment on the plans for the security force.

–Adele

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA., 98340)