It was so hot and dry Monday, that all I had to do in the middle of PJ’s Bar and Grille was stick my hand out and a tall glass of cold beer suddenly appeared.

Thursday, March 09, 2000

It was so hot and dry Monday, that all I had to do in the middle of PJ’s Bar and Grille was stick my hand out and a tall glass of cold beer suddenly appeared.

It’s sad but true, a hard-working reporter cannot drink a beer in public without somebody getting on his case.

That would have been Fred Harvey or Mr. World-Famous Adams American Legion Chicken Fry Guy.

Technically, I was "off the clock," when I decided to whet my whistle at PJ’s in Adams. My genuine reporter’s notebook was still in its holster and my pen in my pocket.

But that didn’t keep Mr. Harvey and his friends from teasing Yours Truly. I could read their minds. They were just itching for Yours Truly to fall off a barstool and run to the darn Noterman sisters to put the story in the Monitor-Review.

Sorry to disappoint you Mr. Harvey and friends. This old boy knows when to say when.

I just wish the Mower County Board of Commissioners did.

Just when I want to stop picking on these guys, they go ahead and do something to irritate me.

It happened Tuesday, when they met at the always-under-renovation courthouse.

One of them, Gary Nemitz, pulled the old "Hey! Your fly is open" trick on me and darned if I didn’t look. He got a real kick out of that.

That was only a hint of what was to come. Dick Cummings cracked a joke during the meeting, that got a chuckle from everyone.

But, this was not a day for laughter. Bruce Henricks, who, like Craig Oscarson, is technically not a county commissioner, couldn’t resist razzing me, "Your columns have been a little flat lately," Mr. Henricks said.

It wasn’t just because Mr. Henricks is a failed karaoke backup singer to Dave Quinlan that prevented me from responding with a sophisticated retort like "So’s your mother."

No. I knew the stress he was suffering. I could see it on his face. Like all other county employees, he was heading for the same meeting I was: the county commissioners were to hear the results of a comparable worth study of county employees.

The room was crowded. People were standing in the back. Everyone was fidgeting. Some carried notepads and pencils. The tension was palpable. The commissioners themselves looked nervous at the front of the room. I didn’t sleep a wink.

For all I knew, it was another Lansing Township brouhaha that the county commissioners were going to have to sort out.

Maybe, an illegal mobile home that the county is afraid to move?

But, no, this was something else. This was about money and whether or not the county employees are paid too much or too little or just the right amount.

It’s human nature to talk about public employees’ pay and done everywhere.

You don’t suppose those hefty pay hikes the Austin Utilities female employees got a few years ago went unnoticed by the city administration employees just across the hall?

No sirree. Mention money and it transcends every boundary. It’s nobody’s business and everybody’s business all at the same time.

When you consider the county workers were surveyed by a consultant about what they did and how much they got paid for doing it, it makes sense they should have a right to know what the results of that survey were.

So, Tuesday’s county board meeting was the most eagerly anticipated discussion since the Austin City Council tried to explain why council member Todd Penske didn’t do anything wrong while he was the president of Cooperative Response Center and a public official at the same time.

I take that back.

So Tuesday’s county board meeting was the most eagerly anticipated discussion since Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz tried to explain how/why she voted her good friend and former college colleague Roger Boughton into the Second Ward council post.

Well, what did the county employees learn Tuesday? Answer: Nothing.

The county commissioners – I am not kidding – "received" the public information, but they did not "accept" it; therefore, it could not be shared with anyone but Craig Oscarson and Al Cordes, who are in the study, and the five elected officials.

Gimme a break.

The county is asking its labor attorney, whoever that is, if they can make the public information public.

Stay tuned, county employees.

Lee Bonorden’s column appears Thursdays