Wednesday I had an interesting conversation with someone affiliated with the Wicomico County dispensary. This individual confirmed that the dispensaries on the north and east sides of Salisbury were closed so that employees could attend Tuesday's Wicomico County Council meeting. However, this individual was emphatic that employees were not paid for their time while attending the meeting.
Note - this is neither a retraction, nor a correction. As I stated, "If they were paying those dispensary employees in the audience they were (embezzling from the taxpayers of Wicomico County)." As I have no reason to believe that this person lied to me, we can only conclude that they weren't.
Does this mean that I no longer consider the WCLCB a "corrupt dinosaur"? Of course not! IF the members of the dispensary board stop doling out your tax dollars for their own selfish ends ... or IF the the board miraculously becomes good and faithful stewards of YOUR money ... then the dispensary may cease to be corrupt. It will remain a dinosaur none the less.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
Note - this is neither a retraction, nor a correction. As I stated, "If they were paying those dispensary employees in the audience they were (embezzling from the taxpayers of Wicomico County)." As I have no reason to believe that this person lied to me, we can only conclude that they weren't.
Does this mean that I no longer consider the WCLCB a "corrupt dinosaur"? Of course not! IF the members of the dispensary board stop doling out your tax dollars for their own selfish ends ... or IF the the board miraculously becomes good and faithful stewards of YOUR money ... then the dispensary may cease to be corrupt. It will remain a dinosaur none the less.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
So they close the dispensaires to allow the employees to attend the County Council meeting.
ReplyDeleteOne must assume this was designed to perpetuate their own existence, all at the expense of the customer.
But wait, the dispensaires do not have to worry about customer service they are a monopoly.
Well there you go!
A new board may help. However every time we change governor's (Party) the board changes (Or supposed to from my understanding), so for the most part the board members always have had little experience in the sales of alcohol or the operation of the business.
ReplyDeleteI have said before that I thought Mrs. Cecilia Dennis is a person of great integrity and sound moral values. She actually told me to just wait it out until we changed general managers, but again she is a minority of that board in more ways than one and I never thought she got the respect she deserved. I was a shift manager and one of purchasers there when I left. I was the first person that worked there in the entire history of the operation to use a spreadsheet for reordering purposes. Even if I was still there today, with 11 years employment and over 20 years purchasing experience, I would have never be considered for the general manager job and had just come to a dead end there. I knew I could do better.
As it turned out leaving that job, even though it was tough at the time, I did wind up finding even a better job with opportunities to grow within the corporation and have that chance, it's getting real close now. I never ever thought I'd ever be a "corporate minion." I can say that the corporation I work for cares so much for it's employees, we don't need a Union. It's also the first place that I've ever worked that twice a year we get to evaluate the management and the corporation anonymously through an independent survey company and names are never required.
Every general manager that I know of there was hand picked by the board at the time and no one that has the experience of working there for 20+ years was ever given the opportunity to grow and lead that entity. Experience is a key element in any business.
I'd have to say it's had it's time, the county could sell the three businesses for millions, they are already stocked, in good locations and some great employees. Everything is there for private enterprise, strike while the iron is hot.
Tim -
ReplyDeleteWe're in the second year of O'Governor's term and he has chosen not to make any appointments. Ms. Dennis has been on the board since 1989. Haemel and Alessi are holdovers originally appointed in 2003.
I don't know Ms. Dennis. She may be as you say. However, since you know her, you may ask why the WCLCB is making all of these contributions to African-American social clubs in both Wicomico and Somerset counties.
G.A. I know you always do your homework and up until today I was unaware of those contributions. I'm on your side, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteOne issue no one is bringing up is with the demise of the WCLCB, we can all enjoy lower prices on alcohol purchases for home use. For years, everytime I go thru Easton, I used to go to Harrison's and pick up a few items, since the price was so much lower.....
ReplyDeleteAlso, has anybody else noticed the petition in the WCLCB to permit them to sell beer? Interesting....
That is why every restaurant, bar and fraternal organization that's forced to purchase from the county only, should have petitions in their establishments to petition the state and county put it to referendum.
ReplyDeleteBusinesses that serve hard liquor should try to push more beer and wine so they can not only use it as a way to boycott, and make a better profit margin on the beer and wine. As many people as possible should purchase out of the county, hit 'um where it hurts.
Seems like the committee is dragging their feet. All three stores with inventory, computer cash registers etc. can sell for millions of dollars that would fill the void of revenue for many years, more time than the committee needs to decide how they are going to replace the revenue.