While reading this article, about a six page letter from the Legislative Black Caucus to NCDHHS Sec. Wos, demanding answers for the department's many public missteps of late, a couple of things jumped out at me.
First, this:
For the first time in weeks, DHHS Spokesperson Ricky Diaz talked to ABC11 on camera. Diaz got one of those raises -- more than $20,000. We asked him about that and other complaints lodged against the department.
Jon Camp: How do you justify some of those salary increases including your own?
"The secretary, when she walked into the department, walked into a leadership team which was vacant," said Diaz.
Wow, what a great non-answer Ricky. Is that what you call communicating? Giving the same pat answer every sleazy pol in the last fifty years has used to excuse their own leadership failings? Blame the predecessor! I see now why you were chosen to be Aldona's number one tool spokesman.
Then there was this little jewel:
As for the problems with specific programs, Diaz said they are working on them -- noting that many of them they were inherited from previous administrations.
"It is a number one priority for the department to make sure folks are getting their benefits on time and to make sure that providers are getting paid," said Diaz.
A number one priority??? Tell us Ricky, how many "number one" priorities does the department have these days, and please clarify what the order of these "number one" priorities is? Unless things have changed drastically since I finished high school, well before Diaz was born, they can't all be number one, can they?
I know, I'm splitting hairs, but dammit, if this boy deserves upward of $80,000 per year to be a chief communications specialist for any department in my state government, at a time when school teachers can't get raises and are expected to fund their classrooms, in part, from their own meager salaries, I believe we all have an obligation to hold this person to a much higher standard than we expect from the average Facebook post.
Comments
I may not have made it to journalism school
But I do know a thing or two about communications, grammar, and general use of the English language, and in this interview, little Ricky earned an F.
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"...the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be."
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Give him time
Aldona's Communication Boy hasn't been on the job long. He's learned only two lines:
He has learned variations of these, but so far, just these two lines.
Hence, the response to "How do you justify your obscene raise when teachers are underpaid?" is "Well, the place was a real mess"
And in reply to "What are you doing about all the real problems at DHHS?", Ricky shows excellent potential by combining BOTH responses: "Well, Bev messed the place up, and a number one priority is to get the benefits to those welfare leeches".
In time, Little Ricky will learn more lines. But for now, we'll need to get used to exchanges such as:
"Of all the people she could have hired, why did Aldona hire her husband's crony and pay him exorbitant consulting fees for questionable work?" "Hey, you should've seen the place when we got here. What a mess!"
"Why is Aldona so obsessed with what fonts people use for email signatures and business letters?" "One of our number one priorities is to ensure that the 47% get the benefits they don't deserve"
"Recently, the state health director quit in exasperation over Aldona's policies, and Aldona recently fired the state's top dentist, a 35-year state employee, apparently because of Aldona's petty snit. At what point will Aldona consider that maybe it's not everyone else, and maybe the problem is her?" "Out of all the number one priorities, a number one priority is to make sure that we get benefits to the lazy folks who feed at the public trough. You should've seen what a mess the place was!"
[By the way, our inside source tells us the next phrases Ricky will learn]:
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"I will have a priority on building relationships with the minority caucus. I want to put substance behind those campaign speeches." -- Thom Tillis, Nov. 5, 2014
At what point will Aldona
She can't see the problem because sociopaths don't realize everyone else isn't a power hungry megalomaniac like them.
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"...the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be."
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail