An Open Letter

From 1972 when I moved to West Bloomfield, until 2008 when I left public office, the Township had exactly two Deputy Treasurers.  One of those women served five different Treasurers before retiring.   Since 2008, just 5 short years, we have had five.  That in itself tells me a lot about the current state of our local Treasurer's office.

In office for only two short months in 2009, this current Treasurer went to the Board to change the investment policy, even implying that I had not followed it.

As background, I drafted the revised language for P.A. 20  (Michigan Investment Act) in 1996.  I added the language requiring written policies and subsequent governing body adoption.  I sat on the GFOA committee that drafted the language for the sample policy on which the Township 2005 investment policy was based and I sat on the state MCGAA that drafted sample policy language. 

What did the current Treasurer do in her proposed changes?  She lined out the GASB 40 requirements.  Gone were detailed investment reports.  Gone was weighted average yield.  She wanted to be more flexible but totally disregarded good investment parameters.  And to my amazement she added an investment called 'Electronic Transfer Funds'.  What are those exactly?

I have yet to see a meaningful investment report.  It is verbiage copied from monthly commentaries by investment firms and computer printouts that tell me nothing of use.  And even the information on the printouts is incorrect with interest rates reported in the stratosphere.  Seems that they are not even proof-read.

Madam Treasurer, when you decided to make three illegal investments you called NO ONE.  It was the Township Clerk who contacted me for advice.  I, in turn, contacted the Department of Treasury who told me the investments were considered CMOs and were not authorized.  This was confirmed by another broker.

How long do we continue to pay your salary and hope that you do not send our tax dollars to an investment in Nigeria?  And lest anyone think I am being facetious or ridiculous, the reason we have required quarterly investment reports is because a former county treasurer sent money to Nigeria in 2007.  Furthermore, there were several Treasurers who participated in a Ponzi scheme, the perpetrator of which is now in a Federal prison.

You have been quick to blame the Clerk for your troubles.   Yet, you are the Treasurer of the Building Authority.  So why was it that the Clerk was handling the refinancing of the Library Building Authority Bonds?  The Clerk has no role whatsoever in the authority.  She was doing your job.

You also blamed her for not filing arbitrage documents with the IRS.  But that is not her job.  You are making the investments.  You should be keeping records of your earnings.  You are issuing all the payments from the bond proceeds.  You have all the information to do the reports.  Where are your spreadsheets?  Arbitrage calculations were performed by me in the past.  What makes you so special? 

I felt that you violated the ethics policy by going off on junkets to Rhode Island and California.  Whether you are on the pension board or the chamber of commerce, you are representing West Bloomfield in your capacity as Treasurer and are therefore bound by the policies set forth.  And speaking of ethics, need I remind you that you claimed an endorsement from the County Treasurer when he had in fact endorsed your opponent in 2012?

You were cited in the audit for not performing rebate calculations for Special Assessment Districts.  Do you not think it is important for residents to receive money that is due to them in a timely manner?  Doesn't seem so.

You say you cannot do three jobs.  Can you do one?  I personally don't think so. 

And now the biggie, NONFEASANCE IN OFFICE.  Under what state statute did you close a township office and send employees of that township home?  Crying?  Really?  Send them to the ladies room and tell them to put their big girl panties on and deal with it.  I cannot imagine anything more upsetting and disquieting than Sept 11, 2001.  Yet I and my staff stayed here all day and the days that followed and never dreamed of closing our office.   You put the Clerk in the position of acting outside the scope of her authority to accommodate residents who were inconvenienced by you.

Please, for the good of the community, resign from office now.  Save us the embarrassment of going to the governor or having to waste valuable resources on a recall.  Enough is enough.  No more excuses.  No more blaming everyone else for your incompetence.  It's time to go.

Black Forest Cake

The Barefoot Contessa always tells her viewers to have a fabulous dessert, no matter what they are serving.  Since dessert is usually my favorite part of the meal, I usually follow her advice.

For Thanksgiving I planned to make my pumpkin mascarpone pie and a Black Forest Cake.  I brought some kirschwasser back from my trip to Germany, since it is essential to making a 'real' Black Forest cake.  I planned to use a recipe from Certified Master Pastry Chef Decker, who taught me much of what I know about pastry.

The chocolate chiffon cake was made a frozen ahead of time.  That still left the Swiss buttercream, whipped cream, and cherry filling to make. 



The cake looked great when done.  Four layers of cake, cherry filling, super rich buttercream, all frosted with Chantilly whipped cream. 

 

But, I seemed to end up with way too much buttercream.  I could have made half the recipe.  The whipped cream was just perfect.  But the cherry filling was not quite what I remembered.  Plus, the cold buttercream never reached room temperature for serving until about five hours after it was out of the fridge.

 

So, what had gone wrong?  Was my memory truly shot to hell?  Well, I was now on to planning Christmas dinner and no time to worry about the cake, all of which was eaten.

 

Cherry pie for Christmas due to excess cherries in freezer.  Back to Chef Decker's recipes.  What?  Isn't this cherry pie filling the same thing I used for the Black Forest cake?  Aha!  It is. 

 

I have quite a collection of recipes from the Chef.  I have taken a lot of classes.  And there in the file is the recipe I used dated 2008.  But in an earlier class from 2006 is another recipe.  With a different cherry filling.  And a Swiss buttercream that uses Sweetex.  And kirschwasser added to the whipped cream, not that you need anymore in the cake. 

 

Ahhhh!  This is the recipe I remember.  Why the difference?  Well, the recipe from 2008 is from a class where we prepared the cake ourselves.  He simplified the prep so we could get it done in one night.  The 2006 recipe is from a demonstration class.

 

I actually made the cherry filling from the demo class on Friday.  Just a small amount.  Perfect.  I used the cherries on my oatmeal this morning. 

 

I now have to rewrite the recipe so it is all in one place.  My class notes from the demo have comments all over the margins.  Plus, I know that I can make less buttercream unless I am also making another cake or cupcakes.

 

My fab dessert for Christmas is going to be a dark chocolate mousse cake.  With cherries.  I'm hoping the flavors all work together.  But with lots of food and cookies, my guests likely won't notice if they don't.



My One-in-a-Million Chance. Again.

Just last week I was complaining about my phone going out and Comcast telling me it was a rare occurrence.  So, now, I have another rare happening.

A few weeks ago I bought a new artificial Christmas tree.  I needed something narrower and I wanted something pre-lit.  The last time I purchased a narrower tree (though still too large for a house full of furniture) I did not buy a pre-lit tree.  I figured I already had lights.  But now that those lights were problematic, I decided to kill two deer with one arrow and purchase a pre-lit narrow tree.

Yesterday I decided to put it up and enjoy for more than one week at Christmas time.  Following the directions to make sure that each section would light, I did exactly that.  Except that the first section only lit up on one side.

I went through the entire procedure for trouble-shooting the problem before carting it off to the local store.  The technician spent about 45 minutes fussing with it, doing everything I had already done, only to admit that he was as stumped as I was.  I suggested that the only thing left was a cut wire.  He assured me that that was very unlikely. 

Unable to proceed further, I left the tree and he said he would try to get someone else to figure it out this morning.  And so, shortly after opening time for the store, I received a phone call and was told that the tree was fixed. 

Guess what the problem was.  A cut line.

This could only happen to me. 

Now that it is up, I just have to decorate it.  But I have had enough excitement for a few days.

The Uninvited Guest

Thanksgiving leftovers.  Who wants to spend three days cooking a meal and having nothing to eat after company has left?  Not me.

So, yesterday I sat down to enjoy leftover turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and oh so many good things.   And out of the corner of my eye as I sat at my kitchen table I saw movement.  Wondering what I was seeing, I got up from my chair and wandered to the window to see a deer limping through the park.  And not just any deer, but a ten-point buck.

I grabbed the camera, made a bee-line for the deck and shot this photo:

There he is stuck behind the deer-netting.  Maybe the aroma of turkey attracted him.  Who knows.  After we had a 'stare-down' contest, I think I won.  He left and I went back to eating my turkey.  (If shooting here was legal, we might have been eating venison.)

Giving Thanks

Thanks goodness all the 'Doctor Who' reruns and specials ended last Sunday night.  Now I have time to run off and see 'Catching Fire'.  Or I could if I was not preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

I am doing quite well in that department.  My potato gratin and sweet potatoes are made and only have to be reheated tomorrow.  I used two quarts of my homemade chicken stock to make six cups of homemade turkey stock.  I sure hope this turkey gravy is worth the effort.

And speaking of turkey, today I will 'deconstruct' the bird.  I've sharpened my knives and meat cleaver.  I am all set to take the bird apart for cooking.  The stuffing is prepared and waiting to hit the oven.

My chocolate chiffon cakes are made and today I will prepare the Swiss buttercream frosting.  I think I will wait until tomorrow morning to put the Black Forest torte together so that the whipped cream frosting doesn't turn color.  But I will bake my pumpkin mascarpone pies today.

I hope everyone is hungry and hasn't binged this evening on filling foods.  I've read that Wednesday night is big business for bars and pizza joints offering carry-out.

And if you think my preparations involve a lot of work, remember that I do not think of it as 'work'.  It is something I love to do.  It is my way of saying 'thanks' to my family for just being who they are.

I have only once taken my family out to eat on Thanksgiving.  I do not remember why I had opted not to cook that year.  What I do remember is that I had food-poisoning, contracted the previous Sunday at a local restaurant, and was just miserable.  I was admitted to the hospital on Friday with severe dehydration.  Turns out I was infected with a bad case of campylobacter. 

I guess that in itself gives me not so pleasant memories of eating out.  That and the high cost with no leftovers to show for it.  Plus, being at home I get to spend the day enjoying their company without a bunch of strangers chattering and moving about.

So, before I hit the kitchen to start today's prep, let me wish all of my American friends a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And to those of you who are celebrating both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, a Happy Hanukkah.  To the rest of you, 'Thanks' for being a reader, a follower, or just an occasional visitor.  I hope your days are filled with many reasons to give 'Thanks'.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Technology - It's not Like the Old Days

Ya gotta love technology advancements.  Or maybe not. 

One of the issues I was having, in addition to my temperamental refrigerator, was my land line phone.  I had a dial tone but could neither make nor receive calls.  If someone tried to call me, they went right into voice mail without the phone even ringing.  And it was my Comcast voicemail, not my home VM, so I had no idea.  I was just relishing in the fact that I was not receiving calls from telemarketers.  If I tried to call out, I got a busy signal.  Now I ask you, when was the last time you got a busy signal on the phone?  That is what made me start to wonder if there was something wrong.

I called and made a report that the phone was not working.  It took them five days to fix it.  In the meantime, I was trying to remember to keep my cell phone with me.  How do people hold on to the stupid thing all day?  I spent most of my day looking for it.  (This is the same woman who lost her glasses two weeks ago.  I only wear them to go grocery shopping and cannot fathom how, or where, I lost them.)

Yesterday Comcast called to say it was fixed.  The customer service rep said the tech had a heck of a time figuring out what was wrong and perhaps we need to switch out the modem - again.

While we were on the subject of modems, I mentioned that some of the channels on my TV in my office do not have any sound, just picture.  He told me some story about Spanish language TV not working and how I needed to push the 'lang' button on the remote.  And 'Voila', sound.  (Did I somehow push this button my mistake one day?)

My life was so much simpler when my TV had four channels and I had to get up to actually change the station.

And that is not my only tech complaint.  A while back I complained that an Internet Explorer update had messed up my computer.  I had to have McAfee remotely control the computer to clean up the mess.  Afterwards, all of my followers had disappeared from my home screen of my blog, even though readers still saw them.  I just figured it was a browser issue and was not going to worry about it.

My computer does automatic updating.  I don't usually pay attention to what Windows is updating.  Not a good idea it seems.

This morning when I tried to blog I got an error message from Google.  They told me the browser wasn't compatible.  I checked my browser to find that I was updated two days ago to IE 11.  I though I was back at IE 9.  What happened to IE 10?

Google says it is only compatible up to IE 9.  I managed to post anyway.  And when I looked at my home page, suddenly all of my followers were there.

I think for old times sake I am going to sit down this afternoon and write my cousin a letter.  She is 80 and does not have a computer in her home.  I'm beginning to think she has the right idea.  I am sure her life is much less complicated.

Nuts and Turkeys in the News

I learned from reading the news this morning that eating nuts will lower my chances of dying from heart disease or cancer.  I also learned that Butterball is having trouble with its turkeys gaining enough weight in time for Thanksgiving.  It seems there is an opportunity here for those of us who love nuts and don't want to gain weight eating them.

I suggest that these folks join forces and figure out what is going on.  If these turkeys are producing something that prevents weight gain, someone needs to figure out what it is.  And then maybe they can package it with the nuts I love.

I am not particularly fussy about what kind of nut I eat, although I think pecans, or perhaps cashews, maybe almonds are my favorite.  I remember my son was home from Texas and I prepared one of my favorite dinners, pasta with gorgonzola sauce and walnuts.  He said he had never had pasta with nuts before.  Well, there is a first time for everything.

The problem with nuts are they are high in fat.  Good fat, but still fat.  And they use up lots of points on Weight Watchers.   I have found that it is best for me not to keep them in the house.

But, if they could figure out why those turkeys are not getting fat, I could extend my life span AND eat lots of nuts.  Well, it is good to dream.  I have a feeling that what is going on is not as simple as throwing nuts into all of my recipes.