11:53 p.m. - 2004-06-20
Food for Thought
Yesterday was a blur again. Called Ottawa before leaving home. One of the incumbent politicains running in another area lives in my Electoral District. Politicians are given special exemptions on residency, because they have to travel back and forth so much. They can actually have their names on four different electors lists all at the same time. They still only get one vote of course. Trick is the candidate in question wants to appear as though he lives in the riding he represents. His office asked if I could move his street from my ED to the other ED. Um no. However, because of the complexity of the regulations, the questions being asked, and the past history of the candidate in question, I decided I wanted to know all the minor details of the legislation before he showed up at my office. If in fact he chooses that avenue at all. It set the Ottawa staff aback a bit, but they promised to have an answer for me by the time I got to the office. Good.
The cats had stolen one of my shoelaces from my runners the night before. Decided a quick trip to the drugstore was in order before going in to work to replace said shoelace that was nowhere to be found. The store had rearranged its shelves and I ended upwalking around for a while trying to figure out where to find that one item. Emerged about 15 minutes later with three bags full of stuff. Clever marketing that.
When we pulled in to the parking lot there were several staff sitting and waiting to start their day even though we made it clear that we don't want people arriving much before opening time. Made an exception for the morning but wasn't happy about it because it means I have no time to prepare my work first. Sigh.
Worked on the polling site spreadsheets because I am going to have to amend the leases I've already created and sent off. There shouldn't be any problems because it just means each landlord receives more money for each facility.However, one never knows what weird issue will arise as a result. I want to have as much lead time as I can to get everything in place. Went shopping for office supplies with a quick - half hour - foray into a charity book sale nearby. I was looking for Mosquito Creek Roundup which contains a lot of factual information about my Dad's family and their settlement in to Southern Alberta. No such luck but I did find an obscure book on Mayan Astronomy/Astrology that I had been trying to locate for a long time. For me a deal -only $4 when it would have been 10 times that new. I was meant to have it said the volunteer manning the rare books section. Bonus.
Advance polls - well yes. I had each team of workers brought in to see me before they started their day. Just going over the requiements and rules since there had been so many problems the day before. The first two women didn't let me get three words out before they were blaming eveyone in the building - they were quite hostile and I almost sent them packing. Decided against it but it was very close. They didn't like the security requirements - they felt it was a personal slight and that "we office" drones were playing favorites. No we just don't want to risk anything more going missing thank you very much. The rest of the teams were fine with it when I explained the reasoning even when they didn't like what it meant for them and that was a relief. Later in the day one of the "traffic cops" was sent around to ask me an odd question. What to do with the food that had just been dropped off at the door. Huh? Apparently two workers from a restaurant not even in our riding had stopped in to vote and decided they felt sorry for the group stuck in the back. When I called the manager to verify the intent of the gift he said that they wanted to reward the staff's hard work? Well ok, but what about all the other minimum wage workers in all the stores along that avenue they have theri establishment? It didn't quite fit so I called Ottawa to see if there were any prohibitions in accepting such things. Normally the rules for us are that we can't accept anything offered because it might imply bias. The response was that there could be no tie to anything political in the form it took and no obligation could be imputed. Fine. The Red Lobster fed the 20 staff in the back and made them feel a lot happier about being where they were. Nice gesture.
Continued working on the database and the paperwork that was piling up. Worked with my finance officer to transfer funds from one account to another so that the payroll could be submitted without problems. Some of the positions have way too much money allocated for the work to be done while others are absurdly short of hours. We wrote up the justifications and the amounts and did the transfers necessary. Payroll went smoothly as a result. Paid workers are happy workers. Right?
Lots of weird politics being played out in and between different Returning Officers, Ottawa reps, and Ottawa itself. Didn't get involved but one does have to be aware and able to protect one's own office from becoming a pawn. Database and software failures make us vulnerable to that in a backhanded sort of way. The perception that one is not reporting or complying with requests from head office can be made even though it is because the system has crashed hourly and work is being lost or destroyed. Argggh.
Some strange - and worrisome people - wandering in the office the past two days. At one point at the end of yesterday, four of the males on my staff were standing in the foyer while I dealt with one fellow. He had come in asking for the most senior government official - me. He wouldn't talk with anyone else or state what business he had with me. I didn't recognize him at all. He was presenting himself as one thing - a polling day worker - but coming across as another. He sounded like the guy who had called in in a rage because his name was on the list without his knowledge or consent. He was asking very arcane questions about the legal implications and interpretations. One of those cases where every one's gut feeling was that something was very wrong. He tried to insist that I go off with him on my own, but I didn't feel safe enough to do that. It was a bit rude maybe, but our reception desk is a very large imposing structure and I stood behind it and one of the males on my staff who had placed himself between me and the person in question, while I responded to his questions. Witnesses were something I wanted at that point.
Hospital voting began today so one of the team leads and I went in to work at 9 am this morning rather than noon. Quiet morning with no staff meant I could catch up correspondence with the rep and security in Ottawa without being interrupted or impaired in the expression of the concerns arising from the past few days. Calls from Ottawa to various staff asking them to verify the answers I had placed in the daily questions we send in. I think one of the staff causing trouble might have decided that they could stir up trouble for me by implying I wasn't being responsible in my responses either. The look on their face when the feedback arrived told quite a tale in itself. Good thing their positions end on Monday, EH?
Training for 70 people in the afternoon as well as all the other tasks carried over from Saturday. Almost all the work I wanted to complete by day's end was done by 5 PM. I put in a lot longer day than most other officers, but at least it's done now. Kept up my strength by going on a carbohydrate binge the past two days. Sponge toffee yesterday and cream filled pastries today courtesy of number two son and his partner. They treated the whole office so everyone was in a haze. My aching tummy. Oh well even comfort food has it's downside right?
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