The city issues a proclamation for “Dollar Wi$e Week” and uses the occasion to plug a credit-counseling firm that (are you ready for this?)…. seeking Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. The proclamation is supposed to promote “financial literacy.” Not only did the credit-counseling firm, Durham Regional Financial Center, get lots of plugs at the proclamation-signing ceremony, but city employees were encouraged to take their credit problems there. Mayor Bill Bell said he didn’t remember all the trouble the firm had gotten into, even though it was in all the papers a few months ago.
“It was a goof,” Bell said. “I thought the name sounded familiar, but I didn’t think any more about it. What I should have done and didn’t do was ask the staff how we selected the group to receive the proclamation.”
As a governor’s press secretary years ago I can tell you that the guy signing proclamations never reads them, so I believe Bell was had by bad staff work. The level of incompetence it takes for a governmental staff to promote a firm that has filed for bankruptcy as a place for city employees to go who themselves face bankruptcy is just mind-bogglling. That takes “walk the walk” to a whole ‘nother level.
Durham wonders why it’s the laughing stock of North Carolina municipalities. It’s things like this that keep everyone laughing.
