Writer's Workshop of Sullivan County: Monticello

Sunday, June 2, 2013

The McDonaldization of Sullivan County

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The McDonaldization of Sullivan County: Being late to work for a cheaper cup of coffee:

It’s worth the extra buck to buy your morning joe & breakfast at a local bakery or diner

by Tommie Jefferson

The other day, a friend of mine was on his way to work, and made his usual stop at McDonald’s in Monticello for a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich.

He had about 20 minutes to spare to get to his job in Liberty in a timely manner.

After getting stuck for 15 minutes in a long line to get his food there, he landed up arriving ten minutes late to work, and got the expected tongue lashing from his pissed off boss,. And it was not the first time this happened either.

He used to go to a local diner every morning and run in for his breakfast roll and coffee, where for years I often met him, but he found a few months ago that he saved two bucks a day getting his coffee and a morning sandwich off the fast food chain’s Dollar Menu.

Ten bucks a week buys a little more than two gallons of gas these days, and as most of us know, that helps make ends meet here in Sullivan County. And McDonald’s coffee is actually pretty good to boot.

So despite that his food tasted better and he always got it very quickly at the diner, he made the change.

My friend is not the type to be late for work.

He was taught by his dad long ago, who employed a number of hourly workers in a business and where he first worked and then took over until it closed, that you always tried to arrive at work 15 minutes early to make sure you actually got there on time. While he now works for someone else, he still prides himself on his individual work ethic.

When my aggravated friend told his boss what happened at McDonald's to explain his lateness, he got this curt reply: “What do you expect? They don’t give a shit how long you wait, how bad their service is or how crappy and unhealthy their food is. You should know that. They may say they are cheaper but they really aren’t, and it’s usually not “fast” food too. And you should be supporting the diners anyway. Jeez, stop being cheap.”

My friend knew he was right, and was pretty upset about the whole thing.

So he posted a comment on one of his social media sites, and found to his surprise an immediate response from McDonald’s customer service. He was asked to click a link and fill out a complaint form. He did so and then received an email from a manager of the Monticello’s McDonalds, about two hours later.

While surprised, and even impressed with the quick response, he asked me: “Do you really think anything will actually change there?”

I told him no.

Our county now has a number of big boxes and fast food establishments that continue to compete against our locally owned restaurants, diners, lumber yards, and other well established entities that have managed to survive. Some of Sullivan County’s family businesses have been put out of business in the last decade or so because many of us abandoned them for the better prices the national chains charge, even if it only a dollar or two more.

My friend abandoning his egg, ham and cheese on a hard roll at the diner is an example of that.

And yes, that low balling $1 dollar coffee that McDonald's offers has seriously affected the morning breakfast business of Sullivan County’s eateries. Many of us have opted to go through a drive thru, even if we have to endure poorly trained employees and inconveniences. As a result, there are more empty stools and booths in local diners in the morning.

We have also lowered our standards as part of this McDonalization. In 2013, our expectations are never high when we go to these national chains.

The other day, someone posted on the Uncensored Facebook Page about how someone provided them great service at Home Depot in Monticello. They were surprised, even shocked. Even my friend was shocked when he got a response from McDonald’s about his complaint.

That personal service and friendship we take for granted in our locally owned Sullivan County businesses is disappearing in much of our country’s suburbia and cities-and it’s changing America for the worst.

We need to support that small town, local way of doing business - and stop taking it for granted too.

While most of us like to whine about Sullivan County, one of the best things about living here is that when we go into a locally owned diner or a restaurant, or any other business, we usually know the owner and his/her staff who, for the most part, try to make it a point to provide good service, be friendly, and provide quality items. They may charge a little more, but they usually have to pay higher costs for goods and also pay higher living wages to experienced, loyal workers too.

So like my friend found out, you get what pay for.

Next week, on your way to work, make it a point to stop at a local diner and get an egg and cheese on a fresh hard roll and coffee-and don’t stop there.

Make it a point to support our local family businesses, even if it costs a little more. It will help preserve our nice, mostly unappreciated small town quality of life here in Sullivan County.

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Monday, May 20, 2013

High Taxes & Inferior Education: Vote No On School Budgets Tomorrow

Protest High Taxes: Vote NO on Sullivan County School Budgets on Tuesday

Too many schools, too many administrators, too high salaries, too many games

by Tommie Jefferson

Vote No tomorrow on school budgets tomorrow and send the message that you are tired of paying too much in taxes, that you are tired of the waste and inefficiency, and that you are tired of not getting the educational value that is necessary to truly give our children a brighter future.

The last post in this Writer's Workshop of Sullivan County by Ruby Pixman entitled"School Budget Vote: Better education opportunities for children translate into better lives for all" urged readers to vote yes for school budgets that are being considered in an election on Tuesday.

Mr./Ms. Pixman gave an admirable, but misguided argument that voting for the bloated budgets and the various new construction projects being proposed was necessary to improve our future as a community. He acknowledged that taxes obviously will go up, but we had to keep the big picture in mind when funding our children's education.

While his or her argument was righteous, it was also misleading. The big picture is that our educational system in Sullivan County is broken. There are several valid reasons to vote NO on Tuesday.

Tomorrow's vote is our only way of protesting an extremely antiquated and very expensive system of funding our children's education in Sullivan County. It's the only real means for overtaxed voters to protest bad budgets, bad administrators, and bad educational products. Sullivan County taxes are too high and much of the blame lies with the school districts.

Many of the school districts have presented budgets where the 2% tax cap is being met. But what they don't tell you is that they are depleting their reserves, some very significantly, that are meant to cover contingency costs in case of emergencies and to help prop bond ratings.

Remember when our county government gave us zero budget increases year after year, then ran out of money? Now every year is a crisis when budgeting there, and voters are facing double digit increases year after year. We will be facing that soon in our school districts

Unlike the old days, teachers and administrators are paid very, very well. The older teachers get health benefits for life after they retire, and the rest of them are given extremely good benefits that cost taxpayers a fortune. On our dime, they have become the true, upper class citizens of our county.

It's cynical and terribly misleading to tell voters that costs in school districts can be kept under 2% a year while the cost of these salaries and benefits continue to explode.

What these administrators are doing are kicking the tax increase can down the road. So those small increases should not be voted for now because we will pay dearly for it in two, three years. It's plainly bad governance.

By the way, did you hear or read about anyone in these school districts freezing, or taking a cut in pay recently, like most in the private sector have done over the years? That would be a reason to vote for a school budget.

Has there been any real discussion in reformulating how our school districts are formed? Some are too big and some are too small. I give credit to Roscoe, which is experimenting with Downsville next year in sharing a Superintendent. But why isn't Livingston Manor, and even Liberty too, looking to join that effort? In terms of administration, shouldn't there be one county district employing one superintendent, one school attorney, one school accountant, etc.?

For the amount of students in Sullivan County, we have too many school districts paying ridiculous salaries to both administrators and teachers. Why should an administrator of a school district with hundreds of children receive the same, if not more, salary than others who oversee school districts with thousands more children and personnel in other parts of the state?

The state education department released a report last week indicating how many administrators in school district are paid over a threshold of $126,000, a standard salary established for NYS education administrators. Here's a table that shows what some of the administrators over that $126,000 are getting paid in the nine Sullivan County school districts.

Seriously, considering that all the Sullivan County school districts are minuscule compared to those in major cities, should administrators get paid over $200,000 in salary and benefits, particularly in these hard times? Sullivan County is not Scarsdale.

Let's look at the stupid way we locally govern our educational system. Basically, our school boards are overseeing the administration of school districts without getting paid, who for the most part are led by the nose by administrators in formulating what policy remains to be formulated that is not dictated by the state education department, which is nil, and who sit on these boards without term limits and run basically unopposed term after term because no one wants these thankless, powerless jobs. There's always a few ex teachers on these boards looking out for their fellow teachers interests too.

And finally, why are budget votes and school board elections held in May in the first place? Why aren't they held in November with regular votes, when the majority of voters come out to vote on a number of races and issues? Is it because they don't want many people voting in these elections and it allows administrators and teacher to drive their voters to the polls unchallenged?

The budgets you will be voting on tomorrow have been formulated by bureaucrats following hundreds, if not thousands of idiotic rules, laws, and mandates from Albany that give them little if no discretion to cut costly, inefficient programs and personnel that don't deliver a fine educational product to our children.

I'm not a tea bagger, but the basic premise that our government, and educational system too, is broken is truly reflected in all of the school budgets being presented for a vote Tuesday in Sullivan County.