Cullen Two: More "Cost Effective"

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I don't know about any of you, but I believe words mean things. When I see the word "red" I think of a certain color; "cube" means an item with six equal sides all connected at right angles to each other. The word, "honesty" means something, and the word "lie" means something. They are opposites and never the twain shall meet.

There are other words that will never meet: at least, not in most people's minds. The words "more efficient and cost effective" as Brevard County Tax Collector, Lisa Cullen, promised to make that office with the words "$1,200 bonuses" for all full time employees and "$600 bonuses" for all part timers. Those words should never be associated with each other: "bonuses" and "cost effective". That's what you see when you read Jeff Schweer's latest Florida Today article. Bonuses and cost effective: good way to prove that you are upholding your campaign promises. Real good.

I think that there are words for people who make that kind of campaign promise and then break them as soon as they get into office (Cullen's first foray into promise-breaking after election was her "work day" that cost the taxpayers of Brevard County almost $20,000). Actually, there are quite a few, but I'll stick to the following and as they are defined by most people:

Liar: someone who breaks their word or tells one person one thing as being true and another person something else as being true.

True Politician: Someone who is everything to everyone while campaigning, then all for themselves after being elected (e.g.: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama).

Cullen's deceit started long before the campaign started, though. As you can read in her letters on this website (Cullen Letter 1 and Cullen Letter 2), Cullen started a campaign against her former boss, Rod Northcutt, long before she started campaigning in public.

Cullen's desire for office, and to get the union into the office, is not a desire to serve the people and to make things better for the taxpayers of Brevard County. It is to get herself into power and to stay in power. This is the usual tactic of the Democrat candidate, but Cullen -- whether a lifelong Republican, or a "turned Republican for the election", I don't know, but the shoe fits either way; just moreso if "turned Republican" -- touted herself as a "true conservative". In her letter, Cullen Letter 1, Cullen states,

"Mr. Northcutt does not want a true conservative who will take office and audit the organization."

"I did not agree with the signing bonus issue and am glad it has been put to rest. For the record, I would not agree to it."

In the Jeff Schweers article, there is this,

"When she took office in January, she hired a Winter Park law firm to continue the labor negotations."

Here is the "Final Proposed Tax Unit Contract" that Cullen is putting before the Tax Collector's Office employees to ratify. Within its pages, on page twenty-two of forty-nine, in blue lettering so as not to be missed, is this little gem:

"Effective May 31, 2009, bargaining unit deputies will convert from semi-monthly pay to biweekly pay periods. Each employee so affected will receive a one time lump sum payment of $1200.00 on June 5, 2009, minus all normal withholdings, not added to their base pay. Each part time employee will receive a one time lump sum payment of $600.00 on June 5, 2009, minus all normal withholdings, not added to their base pay."

Someone on the Florida Today article comment section claimed that under Mr. Northcutt's leadership, the employees in the TCO were being paid for work prior to doing the actual work. I don't believe that for a heartbeat. That doesn't make sense to anyone who can think. If that be the case, then Mr. Northcutt was hiring someone, paying them up front for the first two weeks of work they did before they even did any work! The quality of their work was as yet untested, their work ethic unknown, and (according to the article comment) Mr. Northcutt paid them up front for whatever it was the new hire was willing to do. Is that the case? I don't believe it. I think it is a lie from someone who supports the contract and who is trying to muddy the waters and make the bonus seem more acceptable. It's not acceptable to me under any circumstances.

NOTE: Well, I suppose I have to find a little crow to eat (don't take that the wrong way. I've checked with some of my contacts who would know and -- to my great surprise and amazement -- the TCO is paying its employees prior to the work being done. My contact said that the whole thing was pretty wacky, and I have to agree, but apparently the best intentions of the previous Tax Collector have somehow gone awry and wound up with a pay before you work situation. Amazing. And, I stand corrected. Remember that there are other ways to do the change over. You could move the payday up a day or two at a time, making the employees budget for the extra day and sooner or later it would work out that the entire staff is being paid for the two week time frame they just completed working and no one would be getting a bonus. I think that's a much better idea than the $1,200 bonus Cullen supports. I also think that the person who suggested it to me would make a much better Tax Collector than Cullen!

Consider this: that little bit of info the comment writer threw out there was not mentioned in the contract itself. The contract states that they will be going from semi-monthly (usually the first and the fifteenth) to biweekly (every other Friday, for instance). That's something my husband's company did a few years ago and he didn't get a $1,200 bonus because he got paid a day or two later. That was something we got notice of a few months prior to it happening and it was our responsibility, as mature adults, to budget for it within our household budget. Is Cullen, in inserting this bonus, trying to say that all these people handling our tax money are incapable of budgeting their own money? I doubt it. I think that the whole switch over from semi-monthly to biweekly is set up just to make the union contract a bit sweeter. In other worlds it is called, "bribery". It is too good an enticement to pass up, and why not sign with the union? After all, it can't be worse than what they have now, can it? Won't do any harm, and, hey, they get a bonus to help them through.

Cullen's true politician side is showing through like a shining beacon on a hill on a moonless night and a million megawatt light bulb in the socket. Whatever Cullen wants, Cullen gets and the taxpayers of Brevard County shall pay through the nose, the ears, the wazoo if necessary, as long as Cullen reigns supreme!

Is that what she promised when she said, "more efficient and cost effective" during her campaign, or claimed to be a "true conservative" in her letter to me? I think, my friends, we have a liar in office, and I'm not talking just the presidency!