363. Welcome folks to Blog 37 where it’s all about me. Think of this Blog as a continuation of Blog 31. That’s the Blog when the Mayor and Melissa started their unfounded attacks on Jordan Wheat, the potential buyer of the Palace even though they never met her and didn’t know anything about her. Jordan’s only crime was that she was an employee of mine. On top of that, they also never met me or knew anything about me. Seems strange, doesn't it? I decided to do this Blog today to give you a look at my business background over the years.

TRUST AND RESPECT

Trust and respect are two things you can’t buy and you can’t demand. They must be earned. And it’s not easy because you will never please everybody in life. But if you live your life in an honest and truthful way, you will have a better chance of gaining it. The worst part of it is when people who don’t know you pre-judge you. Has the following ever happened to you? You are talking to someone you know and you say “I was just talking to “Joe Blow” and they said “Oh I heard that “Joe Blow” is not a good person”. But after getting to know “Joe Blow”, he is not a bad person at all. In fact, turns out to be quite the opposite. It’s definitely happened to me. It’s a slippery slope isn’t it? And this is why the Mayor, Melissa Hyatt and even soon to be retired Chief Alexander will never earn my trust and respect. The Mayor and the Chief have used their position of power and access to a bias press to malign and distort people like me and Jordan without even knowing us. And why would they go to those kinds of heights for a serial whiner and complainer like Melissa Hyatt defies logic. Because after the ONLY shooting in March 2022, the one where nobody got hurt, shot or injured, they went into full slander and besmirchment mode. 



You would have thought that it was the second coming of the St. Valentines Massacre. And they provided the press with all the ammunition they could. And the press ran with it without any real investigation. And that’s why they call them “Fake News”.

365.

THINK OF IT THIS WAY 

If there was a shooting at one of our local schools or churches, I believe the Mayor and Chief would be there for the ones in the community that were directly affected. The Mayor and the Chief might be talking about getting guns out of the hands of criminals. The school or church would probably be bringing in councilors and mental health professionals to ensure all citizens were taken care of. All that would make sense. I don’t think they would be blaming the school or church for the bad intent of criminals. But not so in the case of Palace Bar. Not once did the Mayor or Chief reach out to us, the owners or staff, to see if we were all OK. Not a phone call or message. They painted us as the bad guys.

366.

ONE LAST THING

As much as I support law enforcement, I do have a couple of beefs with them. It seems to me they never want to take accountability for crimes that are committed. And that’s fine. I don’t blame them either. But they seem to want to blame, at least in my case, the victims of the crime to deflect their responsibility. They don’t have to do that. They should only be blaming the criminals. I hope the new Chief starts to change the mindset of the department in this regard. And the other thing I’d like to see is using their position to speak to the ridiculous treatment some of these criminals get in the justice system. Just look at the sentencing of the idiot from Blaine, Mn got in Blog 23. How many criminals have committed crimes that should have been behind bars? Too many. And as if it’s not hard enough to be a cop, how do you think they feel about this revolving door at the justice system? Frustrated, just ask them.

367.

NOW, BACK TO ME

While the Mayor was busy accusing me of starting WW1 and WW2, being a hit man for the Mob and burning down orphanages and churches among other things, which are all true of course, he forgot those were things I did in one of my previous lives. Below is what I have done in my current life which started in 1955. 

1968-2013---At 13 years old I started working at my father's business (Elgin Sports)

COMMENTS

Since Elgin Sports has played such a big part of my life, I will keep this story until the end.

1974---After graduating high school and attending two semesters at Algonquin College I started working full time at Elgin Sports.

COMMENTS

College just wasn’t for me. While I enjoyed the friendships I made there and cherish my degree in drinking and gambling, I knew what I wanted to do.

1980-Started Ottawa's first video store (Captain Video)

COMMENTS

In the late 70’s I used to go to a place called the Rotters Club. There was a band called Vendetta that used to play there frequently. They were my favorite band and I soon became friends with them. When I bought my first home they played my basement twice. The lead singer, Doug was also a video buff. One day I went to his place and we talked about video for hours and in the end, we decided to open the first video store in Ottawa. It was only 3 blocks from Elgin Sports, so I could go there on my lunch break and after work. We put in $20,000.00 each and my dad lent us $10,0000.00. We did over 1 million in sales in our first year. I think we paid my dad back in 8 weeks. About a year later my dad wanted to retire so I sold my half to Doug and bought Elgin Sports.

1981---My father decided to sell Elgin Sports so I sold my half of Captain Video to my partner and bought Elgin.

COMMENTS

More about Elgin Sports at the end.

1983---Became 1/3 partner of restaurant(Daisy Buchanan's)

I had a friend called Bill that I knew through Elgin. He was a rep for a major tennis supplier among other things. There was this very popular restaurant in Ottawa called the Hayloft that eventually turned into Sidewinders. I became friends with the manager. His name was Mike. This was around the time when the movie “Urban Cowboy” came out and bars all across Canada and the US were installing mechanical bulls. The Hayloft/Sidewinders club had one of them and business was booming. One day Mike and I were talking and he was telling me about a restaurant that was for sale near the University of Ottawa. In fact it was the closest licensed establishment to U of O. Most of the area was residential. He wanted to put a chef driven fancy restaurant on the main floor for teachers and faculty and a pub downstairs for students. He wanted to know if I was interested in investing in it or if I knew anyone that would be. Long story short, Bill, Mike and me opened Daisy Buchanan’s. It was only about 5 minutes from Elgin. About a year and a half later Bill got transferred to Toronto and I started expansion plans for Elgin and we decided to sell it. It was my first involvement in the restaurant/bar business and was a good education and experience.

1984---All 3 partners sold company.

1993---Bought Grand Slam Pub in Fort Myers,Florida.

In 1982 I bought a condo in Ft. Myers, Fl. I would visit a couple of times a year and the rest of the time I would rent it out to friends. I used to go to this bar called The Grand Slam Pub on Fowler St. The owner, Bill, had the best burgers in town. He also frequently, would buy and sell his businesses. At some point he sold the Grand Slam to a woman called Barb. Over the years I became good friends with a guy called Darrell who was a regular there. One day I get a call from him. He’s all in a panic. He tells me that if Barb doesn't get a buyer by Friday she is closing it down. I was in Canada at the time, but I had already planned a trip to Ft. Myers that week and if she could wait till I got there, I would talk to her. Long story short, I met with her and bought it. Darrell ran it as well. It was very similar to Who’s Bar(my favorite burger) in Superior but was about the size of the Palace Bar. Also the bartenders did the cooking like Who’s.

I was in the US on an investors visa that would lead to a green card. Unfortunately the Grand Slam did not meet the criteria. I could still own it, it just wouldn't lead to a green card. So I ended up selling it in 1994

1995---Bought restaurant (Velvet Turtle) in Cape Coral, Florida.

In Ottawa one of my favorite restaurant was Fritzby’s. I knew the manager Steve very well. One day we were talking about my situation pertaining to moving to the US and getting a green card. He then told me he had been thinking of moving down to Florida. Not long after that he moved to Ft. Myers and I purchased an ongoing restaurant bar called The Velvet Turtle and he managed it. It was a chef driven higher end place. It was similar to Shorty’s in terms of layout. It had a dining room and a separate bar. After about a year or so Steve decided to move back to Ottawa. 

1996---Changed name to Stooges Eatery.

I was a big fan of the Three Stooges and had a large collection of Stooges memorabilia. So I changed the name to Stooges Eatery and turned it into a sports bar with a mini Three Stooges museum. I installed about 20 TV's showing Three Stooges shorts and sports. I also changed the menu. Check out the prices back in the mid 90’s. We were also the home of the Kansas City Chiefs. Eventually I did get my green card and sold Stooges in 1998.

2013---Opened Shorty's Pizza and Smoked Meat.

When I moved to Superior in 2007, I had no plans to open a business here. I was still running Elgin Sports and that was keeping me busy. After being here about a year or so, I started thinking of a concept that would eventually become Shorty’s. I had this picture in my head of how it would look and what kind of food I would like to offer. So I started a file and began working on a plan. For the next four years I worked on that plan. I put in hundreds of hours of cooking, planning and thought into the concept. It sort of became a hobby and I really didn't know if one day it would become a reality or not. In 2012, I decided to go for it. I sold Elgin and started to look for a location.

I looked into purchasing C’S and when that fell through I looked at Sammy’s/ Elbow Room and that also fell through. Even though both had layout problems (their layouts didn't match the picture I had in my head) I was still disappointed. At this point I wasn’t sure if we could find the right location. Superior is not a large city with a lot of options.

Then I found out the bank had repossessed Lord Stanley’s Bar. I got in touch with them and arranged a showing. The inside looked like it had been bombed in WW2 and then used as a training center for the fire department. But the layout was perfect. It took me about five minutes(true story) to figure where everything would go. And that picture in my head is what you saw when it finally opened.

My proudest moment was being on not 1, not 2, but 3 different episodes of the Food Network Show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”. Very few places have been on that many episodes. My biggest regret, maybe sadness is a better word, is that my parents were not alive to see all this. They were big foodies and I’m sure they would have gotten a big kick out of the whole thing.

2017---Bought Palace Bar

When I moved to Superior 2007 my wife and I would go to Tower Ave. on many Saturday afternoons and go bar hopping. We usually ended our day at the Palace. It quickly became our favorite spot on Tower. It never occurred to me that one day I would own it. The owner, Kenny, also owned the building next door called Coney Island. I was thinking of putting in a small version of Shorty’s there as a test for the food and concept. That was around 2008-09.

We actually had a signed deal pending inspections and cost of renovations. The price of that work was way higher than my budget so the deal fell through. Not long after that Sclavi’s bought it and opened in 2009.

Fast forward to 2015-16. Remember that monthly magazine that I think was called Real Estate Monthly or something like that? You used to pick up at the grocery store. I would always pick one up, not to look at homes, but to look at the business listings. One day when I picked it up The Palace was for sale. At first I really didn’t think much about it, but as every month went by, I started thinking more and more about it. Then one day I told my wife I wanted to look into to buying it. I then told my banker as well as some friends and they were unanimous. They were all against the idea. They thought “Why would you want to buy the Palace when you have Shorty’s”. My answer was “Because I think it could be a good investment and there is nothing unusual for an entrepreneur to own more than one business at the same time”. Some own many businesses at once.

When I pitched Shorty’s back in the day, I had a mixture of reactions. Some were for, some were against and some weren’t sure. But for the Palace, all were against it. I actually was very surprised. But my gut was telling me to at least meet with Kenny and his realtor Dan, look at the books, talk price and do my due diligence, then go from there. So I did. 

Dan had told me that one offer had fallen through and Kenny told me that Melissa Hyatt and her partner had inquired about it, but he would not sell to them because of the treatment he had received from them. Kenny was also having problems coming to terms with selling the Palace. He made that clear at our first meeting.

I want to make it clear to you, our readers that I am not the kind of person that has a “I’ll show you guys attitude”. In fact I am quite the opposite. I’ve always told my staff that if they have a better idea to come to me anytime and discuss it. As far as business ideas, I always consulted with my wife, friends, bankers, accountants, lawyers and anybody else that I respected and thought that could give me good ideas and guidance.

But despite the lack of support, I just had a gut feeling about making the deal. The biggest obstacle was with the bank. It was touch and go for a while, but the financing came through. I then signed the deal with the realtor. A few days later Dan called and said Kenny decided not to sell. I had invested a lot of my time and some lawyer expenses. I respected the fact that it’s Kenny’s business and yes I was disappointed, but that’s life. I told Dan that if Kenny ever changes his mind to call me.

Several months later Dan called and said that Kenny was ready to sell and he did.

A deal was made and on Jan 1, 2017, we took over the Palace. And the rest is history. I will just say that financially speaking, the Palace was the best investment I ever made. Dollar for dollar it exceeded all expectations that I could have imagined. I didn’t go to the naysayers and say “I told you so”. Well, maybe a little. You can own businesses your whole life and not get one that performs like the Palace. It’s just funny that for me, it happened to probably be the last deal I’ll ever do.

2021...SOLD SHORTY’S

June 30,2022 Closed Palace Bar. 

       City would not renew license.

THE ELGIN SPORTS STORY

My dad started his career selling bicycle parts out of his locker at Ottawa Tech High School. In 1946 he opened his first store on Elgin St. in Ottawa. It was called Elgin Cycle & Sports. In those days and up until the early 70’s sporting good stores sold all kinds of things including toys(lots of toys),radios, watches, bb and pellet guns,knives and all kinds of other stuff that you won’t see today in those stores. There were no national toy or sporting good chains back then. Think of those electronic stores in New York City back in the day. That’s kind of how it looked. 

When I was a little boy I wanted to be a cop, a fireman and all the things little boys wanted to be, but what I really wanted was to work with my dad. The law in Ontario was that you had to be 13 years old to work. When I was around 9 or 10 years old I got a paper route. The government allowed that and at 13 I started working for my dad. 

Do you remember a toy company called Kenner? They had a lot of the “hot” toys back in the 50’s,60’and beyond. They ran commercials on TV and at the end of each one their slogan was ”It's Kenner, It’s Fun” and then this chicken or bird would squawk. After that the announcer would say “Available at Sears, The Bay, Elgin Cycle and Sports etc.” When I saw my dad’s store name on TV, as a 5 or 6 year old, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. My dad’s store name is on TV and he’s selling toys. At 5 years old I wasn't that interested in sports stuff but I sure was interested in toys.

Above is a picture of my dad at his perch at the cash register having a smoke. You could smoke just about anywhere in those days. Everyone called my dad “Red”. Some of the old timers would call him Emmett. But I really didn’t know how many people knew him until I started working there. It seemed like he knew everyone and they knew him. He was a very calm man. Always in a good mood, like to tease people, especially me and my two brothers. Very humble and not at all condescending and the hardest worker I have ever worked with. He wouldn’t chew you out if you made a mistake and he wouldn’t pat you on the back if you did something good. He was a very fair man and all the staff liked working there. 

THE SHOE THAT CHANGED THE INDUSTRY

Around the time I started, a lot of my friends would ask me if we sold the Adidas Rom. We didn’t and I tried to persuade my dad to get some. At first he was reluctant. It could just be a passing fad. He eventually gave in and he knew someone at Adidas and we got our first order from them. It was crazy. We couldn’t keep them in stock and they were hard to get. I think we sold them for $13.98 pr.



While all our competitors were selling them as well, I convinced my dad to try other Adidas shoes and we started adding others models like the Superstar, the red and blue suede Gazelles, the Tobacco and their first actual running shoe, the SL-72.

That made us the place to buy sport shoes in Ottawa. I then started hearing some buzz about a brand called Nike. I didn’t know much about it. Nobody in Ottawa was carrying them. So I called the distributor in Burnaby, B.C. and he told me that they had a salesman in Ottawa called Tony. I called Tony and he said they had no retail accounts in Ottawa. If someone wanted to buy a pair of Nike shoes, they would call him and he would order them a pair. Can you imagine that? We are talking about Nike here. Talk about getting in on the ground floor. I set up a meeting with him and reviewed the line and gave him an order for around 500 pr. of shoes. Then my dad got a call from the distributor wondering if the order was some kind of joke because they had never received one that large before. It was no joke and now we were the first Nike retailer in Ottawa. The timing could not have been better. They flew off the shelves. We started getting rid of things like toys, watches etc. and were transforming into a very early version of a Foot Locker, which did not exist at that time. 

1981

1981-1989

From 1981 until 1989 our sales grew from around a 1 million dollars to 6.5 million.

That would be around 20 million in today’s dollars. I was content with that. I didn’t have any aspirations to go outside of Ottawa or nationally. We opened six stores during that period and a state of the art screening and embroidery company. We called that our wholesale division. We sold to schools, soccer clubs, other businesses, the police, sports clubs and other organizations. We went from around 12 employees to 120. I was busy, very busy. 

In the 1980’s I went to Taiwan twice and Hong Kong once and put together a line of clothing for our wholesale division as well as a line of shoes that we sold in our stores and wholesaled to other stores. Things were going good. I loved my job. My dad and I always talked about what was going on at work. Then something bad, very bad happened. That bad thing was none other than our Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney.

In 1990 he came up with the idea of a federal tax on all goods and services. It was called the GST. Most people gave it the name “Gouge and Screw Tax”. Like the US every province has it’s own sales tax rate. In Ontario it was 8%. He wanted to add a federal 7% tax on top of that. The new tax was to take effect on Jan 1, 1991. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN

If you bought a pair of shoes on Dec 31, 1990 that were 100.00, they would be 108.00 with tax. If you bought them on Jan 1, 1991 they would be 115.00 with tax.

If you bought a car on Dec 31, 1990 that was 20,000.00, it would be 21,600.00 with tax. If you bought it on Jan 1, 1991 it would be 23,000.00 with tax.

Canadians couldn’t understand what was going on. He had just been re-elected for a second term. He was reasonably popular. He never spoke about this during his campaign. He was a Conservative and they normally would not endorse a tax like this. And since nothing like this had ever happened before in Canada nobody really knew what effect it would have on the economy. The mood was scared and confused. In the end they passed the bill and it went in effect Jan 1, 1991.

THE AFTER EFFECT

I think the passing of this tax was the worst thing that ever happened in Canada in my entire life. I don’t think the country has ever fully recovered from it. 30 years later Brian Mulroney is still the most hated man in Canada. Like COVID, nobody knew how this would affect the economy. Would it have a short or long term effect. Would it be mild or devastating. Turns out it was long and devastating. 



There was no precedent for what he had done.

HOW DID IT EFFECT ELGIN SPORTS

In the 10 years prior to the GST our sales were up double digit every year. In 1991 our sales dropped 20%. I had to layoff staff and freeze wages and go into full survival mode. My suppliers told me that down 20% wasn't bad. They had customers that were down 50% and even more. Isn’t it amazing how one man can ruin a country, state or city? The entire country was collapsing. You would think the government would rescind this stupid tax. But the problem with politicians is they will never admit they were wrong. Banks were not lending money, suppliers had tightened credit.

SO, NOW WHAT?

Under pressure, Mulroney, a Conservative resigned in 1993. An election was called and a new Prime Minister, Jean Chretien a Liberal was elected. During his campaign he had promised to get rid of the GST, but when he got elected he claimed he didn’t say that despite the fact they have him on video saying it on multiple interviews on national TV and other occasions. He never got rid of it. Another lying politician and Canada paid a deep price. But the Conservative party paid a heavy price as they deserved to. Back then our House of Commons had 295 seats and before the election the conservatives had 153 of them. Guess how many they had after that election? Two. Can you imagine that? Two. I have never seen anything like that before in politics. Can you imagine that in the next US election that one of the parties ended up with say,5 seats? It took 15 years for the conservatives to be relevant again.

CANADIANS PAY THE PRICE

And they did. For the next 7 years bankruptcies and suicides set records. Companies that had been around for decades, some of them 50, 60 years and more now gone. Kids that I went to school with whose parents owned family businesses, many of them also gone. How could a government do this to their people? The 90’s were a lost decade for Canada. As I said before, they never really recovered from it. The quality of life is nothing near what it was.

SO, WHAT DOES ONE DO?

I took Ronald Reagan’s advice to “Vote with your feet”. I always wanted to move to the US, so in 1991 I started looking into the process to do just that. I felt when both political parties gave up on their people there was nowhere to go but down. At that point I didn’t want anything more to do with Canada. And here we are over 30 years later and I was right. I used to joke with my friends that I was an American trapped in a Canadian body. I just didn’t think it would happen this early in my life. Our two daughters were under 5 years old so I felt this was a good time to do it. And if that wasn't bad enough, when I left in 1993, if you made over one hundred thousand dollars a year, which isn’t much in Canada considering the price of things there, your income tax rate was 56%. Isn’t that crazy? How are you supposed to get ahead with all these ridiculous taxes?

AND WHAT ABOUT ELGIN SPORTS

All my stores were leased and had 3-5 year leases. So starting in 1991 one by one I let the leases run out, except our flagship store. I kept that one. I sold the wholesale division in the mid 90’s. I moved to Ft. Myers FL. in 1993 and continued to run Elgin from home. During all this turmoil we honored all leases, all bills, all loans, all taxes, made every payroll and paid all suppliers. I sold Elgin in 2003 to one of my employees, Karl who was also one my best friends. Elgin Sports lasted 70 years in business which is a very good run by any standard. I always wondered how my life and Elgin might have been different if these corrupt, crooked and stupid politicians had not passed the GST. I guess we’ll never really know for sure. Below are some articles from the local newspapers in Ottawa about the closing of Elgin Sports.

ARTICLE # 1

Elgin Sports to close after 70 years of selling sporting goods

An economic malaise running through the nation’s capital may have claimed another victim.

Elgin Sports, which is located on the corner of Bank and Albert street, has announced plans to close its doors in the coming weeks. The store, which was founded on Elgin Street in 1946, is holding a liquidation sale to get rid of remaining stock before its lease expires. It sells everything from sportswear to shoes and equipment for a number of sports. The store is the latest in a string of Ottawa businesses to announce its closure. Recent economic data from Statistics Canada and card payment processing giant Moneris Solutions Corp. suggests that, while consumers are spending slightly more than they were a year ago, the increase is largely going towards the higher prices for food, insurance, taxes and other essentials, leaving less to spread around on luxury items.

ARTICLE # 2

Ottawa’s locally owned retailers fighting a losing battle to stay viable 

ARTICLE # 3

70-year run ends for Elgin Sports

After 70 years in business, Elgin Sports is closing its doors at the end of this month.

For current owner Karl Kofmel, it was a matter of time. He said business had been slowing due to competition from bigger stores, the economy, and the “changing face of retail.” “I think people have less and less disposable dollars,” he said.Conditions have been particularly harsh for locally-owned retailers who have struggled to compete with bigger stores and online commerce in recent years.

“Smaller retailers who don’t offer niche products that consumers need to squeeze before buying will struggle,” said Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business. “Stores like Elgin Sports just don’t have the economies of scale to survive when I can buy my Nike shoes from Amazon or a big-box store.”

Kofmel has worked at the store at the corner of Albert and Bank streets for 32 years, but represents just a part of its rich history. He bought the store from Brian Noel, whose father Emmett “Red” Noel, known for his red hair, opened the store after the Second World War.

Red’s granddaughter Stephanie Noel inherited that hair, and when she worked at the store as a teenager, customers would recognize her as his granddaughter.

“They would say to me all the time, ‘You must be related to Emmett,’ ” she said. “It was cool to meet people that knew my grandfather in a different aspect than I did.”

She said that when she worked there, she saw a difference in sales as suppliers changed, big stores moved in, and the Internet became more popular for sports gear. “It’s something that I think just in general kills small businesses,” she said of e-commerce.

The store was originally named Elgin Cycling Sports until her father Brian took over in 1981 and renamed it Elgin Sports.

It soon became the largest independent sports store in Eastern Ontario.

“It’s kind of cool that everything’s been within the family,” Stephanie said.

“You get to know people, and you get to know the regular customers,” she said. “It’s kind of nice that way.”

By that time, the store had expanded to specialize in sports shoes. It was the first store in Ottawa to carry Nike, which became popular soon after. Brian Noel not only renamed the store but also began to expand to other locations around Ottawa.

“Ever since I was a kid, I always knew that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.

At its peak, Elgin Sports had seven locations.

But when the GST was introduced in 1991, increasing taxes from eight to 15 per cent, Noel said businesses took it hard.

“That just decimated the entire country financially,” he said. “You couldn’t sell anything.” For the first time, Elgin Sports experienced a drop in sales that year.

Several years ago, Red passed away, and Brian Noel said this was a turning point for him.

“I lost a little of my passion,” he said. “My dad and I always spoke business.”

Brian Noel had always wanted to move to Florida, and he saw this as the right time to do it. During the next few years, he began to close the other locations one by one, until the only one left was at the corner of Bank and Albert.

“The world’s always changing,” he said of the store’s closing. “Seventy years is a long time.”

Ottawa resident Parker MacDonald has been going to Elgin Sports for years. He said he supports family-run businesses because of the service they provide.

He knew Brian Noel, and used to visit the store several times a week. He said he remembers the owner’s blue van, painted with a picture of King Kong, which was always parked outside.



“Family-run, friendly … they weren’t a big-box store,” he said. “Elgin Street was a lot different then than it is now.”

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CLOSING STATEMENT

In summary of my 50+ years as an entrepreneur, I was able to navigate several different opportunities, a family run business and restaurants & bars. Each was a stepping stone moving me forward with insight, knowledge and experience to become successful. I've created 1,000's of jobs over the years, paid millions of dollars in taxes at every level of government, sat in on meeting with CEO's of large companies as well as sporting goods reps, food and liquor purveyors, bankers, and accountants. I've done one on one interviews from hiring a pizza maker to a General Manager. I'm naturally curious and a problem solver. To be successful you need to be an "ideas" person, manage your time responsibly and make tough decisions that effect many people.

Looking back on the way the Mayor handled The Palace situation, concludes in my mind that he is far from a leader. Jim Paine couldn't even spare his time to sit face to face in a meeting says more about him than me. In business, I took every call. I didn't pass the buck onto my staff like the Mayor did. I would have met with him, just like a met with the Chief, Frog Prell and others back in May 2022.

I just read Mayor Paine's bio on line. It took me 26 seconds(I timed it).

With the exception of his military service, my observations are the same. Unremarkable, unqualified, underwhelming and unhireable. I would have never offered him a position in any of my companies.

Here is a link to his bio if you would like to read it.

https://beyondtheheadlineswisconsin.org/superior/communicating-in-a-news-desert-a-forum-mark-your-calendars/presenters/7

While he is busy tearing down good people that in many cases he had never even met, in his spare time he's propping up people like, (See below)

See you on the next Blog!

Brian