Friday, March 10, 2017
Verner finally breaks out of Peter Principle
Looking through Statcounter, I noticed somebody reading my recent apologetic item on Mary Verner. Made me wonder if something new had happened. Yes, and it's good. Verner has found a position as Finance Director of the city of Olympia.
She is a loyal political worker, good at steady management but not good with emergencies. Her skill set was displayed during her term as mayor here, when she managed construction and police splendidly but fell apart in the 2008 supersnow. Gregoire had to fly in and help.
Later she served in the state Destroyer of Natural Resources (DNR) where she again screwed up an emergency.
The finance director job should use her expertise without invoking her weak points.
= = = = =
Stupid linguistic sidenote: Rereading the above, I was bothered by 'again screwed up an emergency'. Shouldn't it be 'screwed up an emergency again'? After some ponderation, no. It's one of those peculiar subtleties that can't be explained by rules. 'Screwed up an emergency again' would mean that she handled the SAME emergency twice and screwed it up the SAME way both times. Quasi-diagramming the connection of again:
again[screwed_up_an_emergency]
versus
screwed up [an_emergency]again.
¶ 2:11 AM 
