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Sassing at Treasury

What!?!?  You mean if you elect a complete neophyte with a flaky record you get a complete incompetent dunce?  Whodathunk?

As the state treasurer’s office tried to eliminate the biggest backlog of unclaimed property requests in at least a decade, state Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass headed to California.

Sass spent much of last week at the posh St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Calif., for the National Association of State Treasurers annual meeting. In addition to attending informational sessions and giving a talk on Wisconsin’s unclaimed property program, Sass went on a two-hour sea-life cruise.

Sass did not disclose on her state ethics statements that she attended similar corporate-funded conferences in 2007 and 2008. The state’s ethics enforcement agency said it was unclear whether the travel needed to be disclosed, although such disclosure is generally required under state law.

The trip comes at a time when Sass’ office is rife with tension over the hiring of her niece and other family members for temporary jobs, as well as a wave of job vacancies for permanent positions. The niece spent some of her five-week stint on the job traveling with the treasurer, even though she was supposed to be processing claims and working at the office’s front desk.

As Sass traveled to California, her aides tried to dig the office out from under a backlog that reached about 2,900 claims for property.

The problem is exacerbated by five vacancies in the 15-person office - some of which occurred after Sass sparred with employees.

Posted by Owen at 2202 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

1. Despite the liberal editorials at the MJS, I have to commend them on this investigative reporting and in-depth reports they’ve been focusing on.  They have been going to town on all sorts of responsible government type stories here the past year.  And while they don’t draw huge headlines or readership, they are great. 

   That childcare scandal story was a great service to the public.  And it isn’t just political articles.  The articles on the Grass Carp that is coming down the Illinois River into Lake Michigan are excellent as well. 

   Just an overall good job by MJS.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 07, 2009 at 2220 hrs
   
   
   

2. Sass spent much of last week at the posh St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Calif., for the National Association of State Treasurers annual meeting.

   AIG insurance reps attending this resort = BAD

   NAST attending this resort = Hush!  Good for me, not for thee!

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 08, 2009 at 0636 hrs
   
   
   

3. Sass is a glorified sales clerk who stumbled into the job on the coattails of the 2006 election.  Thus, she’s obviously getting as much juice from the position as she can before the voters send her back to the Boston Store.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 08, 2009 at 1142 hrs
   
   
   

4. If she is smart (which so far hasn’t been proven out) she’ll save herself the embarrassment of getting creamed in the next election.

   If she can’t even handle the personnel issues - how badly is she handling all the other duties of the office?

   Kudos to MJS for some good investigative reporting.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 08, 2009 at 1155 hrs
   
   
   

5. Sass said hiring her niece was needed because it would be hard to find someone else to take the $14-an-hour job for just a few weeks.

   “Would be”?    Did she even try—I’m sure there would have been at least ONE of the 130,000+ people in Taxconsin who lost their job who would have jumped at this.

   The treasurer’s office also hired Dawn Sass’ cousin and the cousin’s two children to work at the treasurer’s State Fair booth last month. They earned $10 an hour.

   Sass said her relatives weren’t receiving preferential treatment in obtaining state work.

   “None of my relatives are regular state civil service employees,” she said. “They’re not here long term; they help out in a bind.”

   Again, does her office even advertise for stuff like this?  I think there are some of the 130,000+ people in this state who lost their jobs who would be happy to “help out in a bind.”

   Posted by hsgbdmama on September 08, 2009 at 1658 hrs
   
   
   

6. Not the best job performance for an elected officer.

   Most elected officials only need to fulfill two requirements for a position.  One they reside in the proper area and two that they are likable.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 08, 2009 at 2018 hrs
   
   
   

7. I’m convinced that this administration is run by idiots, for idiots.

   Remember the HAVA checks for voter registration? 85000 folks in WI had them triggered, including me.

   So the GAB goes and writes a letter to 85000 folks and tells them they have 10 days from the postmark to call a number or their registration may be cancelled.

   So it takes 3 days for the letter to get to me. That leaves me with a week, right?

   Yeah, right. We’re dealing with bureaucrats here folks, so life’s gonna get interesting.

   I call the number. After 10 minutes on hold, it rolls over to voicemail, but the mailbox is full and the system dumps me out. Repeat 9 times over the next 3 days.

   Give up and call the GAB main number and it only takes two tries before I can get a real human on the line. They admit they’ve been swamped and dumping the voicemail box without listening to it and they STILL couldn’t keep up. They take my information and promise to have a “specialist” call back “in a day or two.”

   Or I can go to my town clerk. Oh, my town clerk is open 2 days a week during office hours when I have to be at work? Well, that’s out of the question.

   Wait a week. Call. “We’ll have the specialist call you tomorrow.”

   Repeat for 3 weeks.

   Give up and figure I’ll just reregister next time voting comes around.

   Finally, nearly 6 weeks after the letter went out saying I had 10 days to respond the GAB calls. All they wanted was my middle name since they farked it entering it into the system once and all of a sudden I was registered 3 times.

   Yeah, I want these folks running my healthcare system. No private company would survive with service like this, and not too many patients/clients would either.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 08, 2009 at 2350 hrs
   
   
   

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