From Firestorms… I need to tell you about my next post, let’s just says pre-computer in the 1980’s. The analyst for insurance came back from maternity leave hated my presence and there was no going back to assistant status.
A job came up for Government Operations, aka Gov Ops. It was a real grab bag with cable television franchising (NYC had not been wired yet), fire and building codes, Native American land claims, Veterans Affairs, legislative ethics (???), redistricting, flag law, state holidays and more. 750 bills that I had to capture from daily reports, track and write reports on each one. All by hand, no computer.
My boss wanted to give me the scut work of the job and do the meetings with governor’s office and senate on his own, without me, because this had been his committee. It’s funny that 30 years later he runs the place. I left because of his micromanagement.
But to get my job I had to go to a birthday party and didn’t know everyone on staff, a knowledge exploration I did and ended up knowing everything and telling nothing. I showed up at the door and a guy handed me a shot of Jamesons. I had Tab and turned him down. Yep, he was the birthday boy and my prospective boss.
He hired me anyway and on his next birthday I bought him a bottle of Jameson and two shot glasses. Of course I had to join him in a shot. Last one I’ve ever had.
So that’s the “grab bag” committee. Entitlements (Veterans, Vietnam and Korea), crime victims. Government land sales. One guy wanted me to allow a 12 year-old to participate in a Revolutionary War re-enactment but he would have had to be inducted in order to do so, and the representative was adamant that the child participate.
For the child to participate in the reenactment he would have been eligible to be called up into the NY reserves and ready for active duty, even overseas. It took me two weeks to write my way out of that, the legislative lawyers couldn’t do it.
There was another one, where I re-wrote the Alcoholic Beverage Control laws to allow something, but had to re-write the entire chapter. It looked as if I disallowed Broadway theatres from serving wine during intermission. After a heated conversation in the elevator with that representative, it passed as well.
Then there was the best one. As grab bag, I got naming opportunities, like Haym Solomon Day and Raoul Wallenberg Day. Albany NY’s 40-year mayor was about to die and we had to be ready to name the tower at the state capital after him.
Everyone got together and we got it through Committees, then we had to get it to the floor immediately and the Mayor’s good friend had the bill on file for years and we just had to get the dust off it. He was going to make a speech.
The tower is the tallest building in NY State outside of NY City. So the designate said, with me at his side, that it was only fitting that the largest erection in NY be named after his friend. We all tried to keep giggles to a minimum.
I think we threw a good party after hours. No lobbyists paid for us, we did all the time. But they were not invited to “family” parties. I miss the discourse, the constant friction from many opinions from experts on many issues. It’s not a lifestlye I could even conceive now because it requires too much with little pay but it was great when I was young, and while I never called on anyone, I always knew there was a family at hand.
Hope yours is well too, as is mine, upstairs and snoring. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 