Get Hired?

Looking for a temporary job? One of this blog's readers sent this to me. Hit this barcode and see what happens.

Whaddya think? Would they hire me?

I was reminded of a temp job I had in Richmond, Va. I wanted another couple of bucks an hour, so I sent what I used for a resume to a different agency.

The manager called and asked if I were a job-hopper, because I hadn't listed dates for the few past jobs I had put on it. I told her I was looking for temporary work and that, if she gave me a job, I would guarantee not to hop before I finished it.

Then she said that she couldn't tell how old I was because I hadn't listed the year of my graduation from college. I immediately asked if the concept of age discrimination had reached Richmond yet.

Then she said, "You know? They want a woman for this job, anyway.

You can guess what I said, but here it is. "Has the concept of sex discrimination reached Richmond, Va. yet?

There was a long silence.

Then I said, "It's a good thing I'm not recording this conversation. I wouldn't have to work for five years!" She gave me a great assignment the next week, and I finished it. And then moved away from Richmond.

School board sticks it to the taxpayers

Read this first paragraph of the press release published tonight right after the school board meeting. And I do mean, right after the meeting. The press release was published to media at 8:02pm. The District couldn't even show the courtesy of waiting until tomorrow to send it. Obviously, it was written before the meeting!

Why didn't the Board take under advisement the administration's proposal and think about spending $9,950,000 for a couple of week???

"COLUMBIA, S.C. — At the March 23, 2021 board meeting, the Richland School District Two Board of Trustees approved the administration’s proposal to allocate the $11.3 million surplus from the Fiscal Year 2019-20 General Fund Budget. The allocations include:

·        a one-time bonus of $1,580 to all full-time permanent employees and $789 to all part-time permanent employees (roughly $1,000 and $500 after taxes, respectively). The estimated cost of this investment is $6,450,000, which includes related fringe.

·        a one-time transfer of $3.5 million for the Building Fund to help lessen the impact on taxpayers for the funding of annual capital improvement expenditures."

The District had collected that $6,450,000 from the taxpayers and other sources of income. Rather than either holding onto it as a future reserve or refunding it to "those what brung it in the door", the District leadership and the School Board chose to provide a bonus to employees.

This smells like the decision in Congress to give $1,400/week to Federal employees who stay home while their kids are not in school. YOU won't get $1,400/week, but the Federal employees will. For how many weeks? And that's in addition to the $1,400 Stimulus check(s).

What kind of responsible fiscal management is that?

An $11.3 million surplus can vanish in a heart beat (or one good disaster).

Richland 2 needs more people on the Board who understand financial management. Right now, there are at least five who do not.

False Police Report = Felony or Misdemeanor

Thanks to a posting on NextDoor.com by Jamie Raub last week (since removed, but not before being copied), I was reminded of a complaint filed against me by Teresa Holmes in March 2019. 

Two years ago a Richland 2 School District trustee-elect reacted to an email I had sent to the full board, on Wednesday March 20, 2019 at 10:30AM. She is believed to have left work in Fairfield County shortly after I sent the email. She went straight to the Richland County Sheriff's Department to file a report that I had been harassing her.

In my email to the full board I had written that, if the District did not inform me by Friday, March 22 (2019), that Teresa Holmes and Amelia McKie would be sworn in before the following Tuesday's board meeting, then I would go to the Sheriff's Department and file a Complaint that they were illegally in office.

No doubt you've heard "the best defense is a good offense". Right? But only if that offense works...

Teresa Holmes complained at RCSD to Deputy Robert Jenkins. In his report dated 3/20/2019 at 1:45PM, Deputy Jenkins wrote:

"C/V (School Board Member) came into RCSD to report that a man that has approached her at several Richland County School Board meetings is harassing her. C/V states she feels threatened by the subjects [sic] behavior. Besides the meetings where she has been approached by the subject, the C/V states he has sent her numerous emails attacking her. The emails provided by the C/V have the subject's PH# listed as 847.971.7083. A case number was issued to the C/V."

Here is the law about filing false police reports. See South Carolina Code of Laws 16-17-722.

SECTION 16-17-722. Filing of false police reports; knowledge; offense; penalties.

(A) It is unlawful for a person to knowingly file a false police report.

(B) A person who violates subsection (A) by falsely reporting a felony is guilty of a felony and upon conviction must be imprisoned for not more than five years or fined not more than one thousand dollars, or both.

(C) A person who violates subsection (A) by falsely reporting a misdemeanor is guilty of a misdemeanor and must be imprisoned not more than thirty days or fined not more than five hundred dollars, or both.

(D) In imposing a sentence under this section, the judge may require the offender to pay restitution to the investigating agency to offset costs incurred in investigating the false police report.

What was false in Holmes' report?

The man she is accusing is I, Gus Philpott. I had not approached her "at several meetings". We spoke at the front of the room after one (only one) meeting, and a Richland County Sheriff's deputy was standing right alongside us the entire time.

I never harassed her. Not even once. Don't you think the sheriff's deputy would have interceded, had I harassed her?

Holmes felt threatened by a polite, short conversation in a public meeting room with a deputy standing right next to her? Seriously?

Holmes claimed "meetings". She and I spoke after only one meeting!

Holmes claimed I had sent numerous emails attacking her. I sent NO EMAILS to her alone. All email communications were sent to the full board. 

I never "attacked" her. 

I did write about Holmes' (and Amelia McKie) taking the oath of office illegally, entering upon official responsibilities illegally, and never taking the oath of office after they had become eligible to do so on December 4, 2018 by filing their Statements of Economic Interests Reports. They still haven't!

When I asked RCSD for copies of the emails "provided by the C/V", they didn't have them.

So, did Holmes file a false police report? Should RCSD have charged her with so doing, after it completed its investigation and determined that no crime had been committed?

I have a copy of that follow-up report, which had to be written by an RCSD Sergeant after I asked for it. The follow-up closing report states no crime was committed.

Are you watching?

Are you watching what is happening to our country on the southern border? 

Are you explaining to your children what Pres. Joe Biden is doing to destroy the U.S.A.? 

Are you explaining what the Democrats in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are doing to this country?

Are you explaining to your children the kind of country they are going to grow up in, if the trend is not stopped and reversed?

You got the $1,400; right? Plus money for other family members? Have you explained to your children what their cost is going to be for that "free" money?

Are you explaining to your children, the students in Richland 2 School District, that Nothing is free?

Who will pay for the $1,400 of "free" money? Who will pay for all the pork (90% of the $1.9T stimulus bill)? Are you explaining to your children what is even in that bill, now Act?

Start by explaining the cost of money borrowed from Chase Bank and Discover, when you don't pay your credit card statement in full every month and on time. Then explain about payday loans and pawn shops (400% interest). Next time they want to borrow some money, loan it to them at 400% - until they understand what that really means.

Ask them about the increase in the price of gas for the family car in the past few weeks. Better fill that buggy up now, during the little dip in gas prices.

Ask them if they understand what a $15.00/hour minimum wage would really mean, in terms of lost jobs and reduced hours for the low-paid employees. 

I doubt your students will learn any of these important things in our "premier" school district. Are there classes in basic money management? They'll be busy getting drenched by cultural diversity, inclusion, equity, socialism, racial injustice, police brutality. And why men playing in girls' sports is okay. 

They'll all know who George Floyd. Michael Brown. Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice were. 

But they won't be able to tell you who retired St. Louis Police Captain (retired) David Dorn was. Or name any cops (white or black) who have been assassinated or killed in the line-of-duty.  Or name very many of the Founding Fathers. Or recognize the names of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices.

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R2 School Board ignores community member request

On October 13, 2020 I addressed the School Board and asked two questions about The 1619 Project. I requested a response.

Does anyone agree that a 4½-month wait for a response is too long?

On March 1, 2021, I sent the following email to the School Board:

Members of the board and trustees-elect McKie and Holmes,

At the School Board meeting on October 13, 2020, I addressed the board and requested answers to two questions. My questions were:

To what extent is The 1619 Project being introduced, taught or discussed in any classrooms in the Richland 2 School District?

If it is not yet in the Richland 2 School District, will the School Board be consulted before it is taught?

I'll add this third question. Is the book A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, being used anywhere in Richland 2 schools?

Will you please provide me with answers to my questions by March 13, 2021, which will be five months after I asked two of them?

Sincerely,

Gus Philpott

As you will read, I requested a response by March 13, 2021. No one on the board and no one from District bothered to extend the courtesy of acknowledging my message or to reply to it.

On Friday, March 12, 2021 I submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request to the School District. That started clocks ticking on response time. The School District cannot legally disregard a FOIA Request. 

If no response is received by April 5, 2021, the next step will be taken.

So, PARENTS, what are your children telling you about The 1619 Project, when they come home from school or step away from the computer screens. Does any of them read from Howard Zinn's textbook that is being used in many schools now in the U.S.?

McKie and Mosby have this in common

What do Amelia McKie, trustee-elect of the Richland 2 School Board, and Marilyn Mosby, Maryland State's Attorney for Baltimore, have in common?

Each owes $45,000 or more to a government.

As has been written here for many months, McKie owes $51,000+ to the South Carolina Ethics Commission, and the Commission filed a judgment in Richland County Common Pleas Court to secure the debt. Her debt totaled $51,800 as of February 8, 2021.

FoxNews reports today that Mosby and her husband, Nick Mosby, who is president of the Baltimore City Council, owe $45,000 to the IRS. IRS filed a lien against Mosby's home in October 2020 for unpaid Federal taxes.

The South Carolina Department of Revenue is charged with collecting money owed to the State. The lien against McKie was filed on July 10, 2019, and there is no recorded activity in the court since the filing date. Is the SC DOR doing anything at all on this collection?

What could the SC DOR do? It could foreclose on the family home. It could garnish McKie's pay from Richland 2 School District. It could place a lien against McKie's automobile and other assets in her name. 

Why hasn't McKie paid even a dime toward her debt? 

Should a person with this amount of debt and this type of debt hold a fiduciary position involving multi-millions of dollars of assets and a $300,000,000 budget of the school district?