John Giles: Qualifications? Meeting a payroll
Governor Guy Hunt once told me, “John, before anyone runs for office or becomes a journalist, they would be well-served to have met a payroll first. What a profound statement and I agree 100 percent. If you have kept up with my resume, I worked for the Hunt administration in economic development during the late 80’s early 90’s. I worked primarily in the area of Small Business and later with all exiting business and industries. My father was a small business entrepreneur and that mantle passed down to his family. My father taught all of us what it meant to meet a payroll. We all fully understood and appreciated what Governor Hunt was saying. For those who have not had that opportunity, let me share with you what has to happen before you can write a payroll check. First, you have to have a product or service. Then, you have to get in the market place and find your niche among a field of competition. You have to convince the buyer you are qualified to deliver, best in the business and your price has to generally meet your competitors. After getting the order, now you have to deliver as promised, satisfy the customer, invoice and then collect. In addition, one must price the invoice with an adequate margin to meet your overhead, expenses, maintain raw materials and finished inventory, carry accounts receivables, payroll and payroll taxes, and then guess who is last to get paid. Entrepreneurs are often over glamourized, they really work to keep their team employed and in most cases, the last one to get paid. I can tell you from personal experience, on more than one occasion; we had to put our paycheck in the drawer, while paying employees and other obligations first. Entrepreneurs often go to bed and wake up in a sweat, frequently can’t sleep from the financial, physical and emotion load of carrying a business. This same owner is often faced with a tsunami of problems that seem to be insurmountable, and somehow finds a narrow path of escape from total disaster and business failure. At the end of the day, this small business person is responsible for the engine of our economy, and creates 75 percent of all of our new jobs. Prayer, vision, work ethic, tenacity, grit, tough, mission oriented, making one dollar do the work of three dollars, negotiating skills and not having can’t or quit in your vocabulary are the traits that embody a small business entrepreneur. Most people cannot handle this kind of sustained pressure. For an elected official who never met a payroll, it puts them at a great disadvantage in solving problems and getting projects completed. Often, without the skills to find solutions or make very tough decisions, a non- business background officeholder quickly find themselves outside of their expertise. All too often they are tempted with very weak solutions throwing taxpayer money at problems, like raising taxes, toll roads or legalizing gambling, all of which are very regressive ideas. Another example, let’s build bigger prisons rather than fight recidivism. Being successful in business also requires a high level of common sense, which is generally not the order of the day in government solutions. Rarely does a journalist have a small business background, which means they have never met a payroll. Most come from academia where research projects are theory based and not applied real time research. Journalist by most polling data, generally vote Democrat and typically lean leftward in rationale and on issues. As I have written before, journalism and editorial opinion departments have merged, which is unfortunate. In my experience over the years, if you have an elected official offer an idea as a solution like, raising taxes, passing gambling, open borders, free healthcare and college, adding illegal immigrants to the entitlement rolls and allowing them to vote and the like, generally journalist are drooling all over these ideas as if they are a stroke of brilliance. One recent example, Obama’s economic development plan was summed up in two words: Green Jobs. The media treated this notion as astounding. Common sense knew at the outset, this was a flawed concept. Wind energy, solar, and electric cars are not cost effective, so the market potential for these ideas are in the deficit before you wake up in the morning. Government subsidized plants promoting these concepts catastrophically failed on a flawed theory, not applied science. Let’s discuss academia for a minute. I have often proposed that we need corporate business minds running academia, not academics, particularly as College and University Presidents along with Superintendents of Education. You can hire academics to run your educational programs. Education is like any other enterprise, you are in the people business so they have to be led, have budgets, need long term strategic plans with measurable outcomes and who better to address this kind of leadership than a business professional. If you do not have a PhD. behind your name, you can forget about being a university president. Motivating people, being goal oriented, raising funds, selling programs to the public, leadership, making tough decisions and so much more are second nature for a business person. Academics in this environment are at a great disadvantage, because of not having the hard core problem solving skills earned from recession injected experiences, there is just no comparison. As a side note, lawyers often find their way into public office. There are two kinds of lawyers, strict constructionist constitutional originalist (Conservative) and those that believe the constitution is a living, breathing every evolving and changing document (Liberal). Ambulance chasing plaintiff trial lawyers (Liberal) generally are those if elected or appointed as judges practice judicial activism. We do not need these types in any public office. On the other hand, strict constructionists (Conservative) generally make great judges and compliment the business minds in the legislative process, keeping ideas constitutionally driven. Business people have to finish the project or service to get paid; non-business minds are
Kay Ivey awards grants to prevent youth crime, recidivism in Alabama
Gov. Kay Ivey is hoping to put an end to youth crime and recidivism throughout the state of Alabama. On Friday, she awarded grants totaling $210,698 to support programs aimed to do just that. The grants will support five programs that provide mentoring and counseling to youth and their parents who have been referred through the juvenile justice system with a goal of reducing further involvement in the judicial system. “Wayward youth need mentoring and educational programs to help them get on a path to a positive and productive future,” Ivey said. “I commend the work of these organizations and am pleased to assist them in their efforts to help these young people turn their lives around and get on the road to success.” Ivey awarded the following grants: NEST Corporation Inc. (Mobile County) – $45,000: to expand a program to teach parenting skills to all NEST families. NEST mentors who work with at-risk youth will also reinforce and augment the skills that families learn through the parenting program. Family Counseling Center of Mobile Inc. (Mobile County) – $33,000: to work with truant children and their families, schools, juvenile court, probation officers and the district attorney’s office to reduce the number of absentee and truant children in local schools. Vineyard Family Services of Central Alabama Inc. (Shelby County) – $50,000: for the Detention Prevention Program which offers parents with support and instruction to increase their knowledge, skills and attitudes with the goal of healthy interactions and connections between them and their children. The program also works to reduce recidivism with youth in the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Facility by teaching skills to help participants learn self-managing behavior and healthy decision-making. Auburn University ACES (Walker County) – $49,698: to reduce juvenile delinquency in Walker County by working with at-risk youth and their families. The program will focus on substance abuse prevention and strengthening family bonds. City of Bessemer (Jefferson County) – $33,000: for the Bessemer Police Department’s Marvel City Youth Program. The intervention and mentoring program teaches 75 youth skills designed to promote positive behavior, lessen aggression and develop social and emotional controls. The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) is administering the grants from funds made available to the state by the U.S. Department of Justice. “Gov. Ivey and I believe in helping these young people who have the want and ability to turn from bad choices and become healthy, contributing members of society,” ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said. “ADECA’s partnership with these organizations will ensure those at-risk youths and their families have every opportunity to find that better future.”
Cam Ward and Matt Fridy: A positive note in prison debate
The news surrounding the Alabama corrections system seems to be one negative story after another with much of the focus on the need for reform and consolidation in the system as well as higher quality of service and better outcomes. Much of this is true and is a result of inadequate funding, not because of poor leadership or management. In fact, we would argue that ADOC has some of the best leadership under Commissioner Jeff Dunn and his team that we have had in some time. They are tackling the bigger problems and looking for ways to solve them in the face of many challenges. However, not everything at ADOC is bad news, in fact there is one diamond among the rough that Dunn and his team have recognized as an example of how corrections could be run with the appropriate funding and dedication to positive outcomes for those leaving the system and returning to their local communities. The Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility in Columbiana, Ala. will have been open for ten years this coming March and have worked with almost 7,000 ADOC inmates who participated in an innovative six month rehabilitation program at the facility. The program is a partnership between the GEO Group as well as ADOC and the Alabama Department of Post Secondary Education. Here the participants come from DOC facilities all over the state and enter into a six month evidence based program of drug rehabilitation, education and an opportunity for a vocational degree in five different trades and crafts via our community college system. We have toured the ATEF and it is in fact a model of what we as legislators would like to see across the state of Alabama. Why? What are the results from almost ten years at this unique medium security facility? According to the Alabama Department of Corrections this past July, over those ten years, the ATEF has an average recidivism rate of 15%. To put that into context, the state of Alabama’s recidivism rate is 35% (per ADOC) and the national average is 76%. In fact, a U.S. Bureau of Justice study stated that within five years of release, 76% of inmates leaving state facilities are rearrested. The challenge we have in Alabama and will continue to have, is adequate funding for proven programs such as ATEF. However, with a commitment from the Ivey Administration, the ADOC, ALDPSE and the legislature, the teaching and the treatment and the vocational degrees for participants going back to their local communities can continue and will at ATEF. Alabama should be looking for ways to fully utilize ATEF and expand this model with proven results into other areas of our state’s corrections system. Simply put, the results speak for themselves and if we dedicate funding to expanding a program with a 15% recidivism rate, numerous lives will be improved and the state will see the benefits for decades to come. ••• Cam Ward is a Republican member of the Alabama Senate. He has represented District 14 since 2010. Matt Fridy is a Republican member of the Alabama House. He has represented District 73 since 2014.
