The Howard Lee story
isn’t surprising. Public officials are seldom content to use low-end
vehicles at taxpayers’ expense. They always seem to gravitate toward
luxury. I’ve seen this in four states and have covered similar stories
myself. One of my favorites was when I was editing a weekly paper in
Virginia. Our county manager didn’t like driving a car (a low-end but
very serviceable Ford) with a county government license plate, so he
got the county to lease him a vehicle that had a private plate (in
Virigina at that time only undercover cops and industry recruiters
could use a “blind” private plate on a government vehicle). Of course,
instead of a low-end Ford he opted for a Lincoln with a car phone, and
this was in 1985 when car phones were exotic ? and expensive. That
Lincoln cost more than three times what the comparable Ford would have
cost taxpayers to lease. There must be some kind of upgrade gene in
bureaucrats.
by Locker Room contributor