I love the Delaware River and Port Authority. It hearkens back to a time when government made writing editorials (and blogs) so easy.
Most government entitites have gotten the message that running up government credit cards at places like the Waldorf-Astoria and The Palm - or spending $4,666 for two employees to attend a cruise-ship convention in Miami - is going to wind up being embarrassing. Editorial writers jump on such fish-in-a-barrel excesses with relish; we make bad puns, describe the lavish meals, list the per-night cost of rooms and use the word "shameful" a lot.
Yes, most government bodies don't give us that kind of fodder nowdays. Most have gotten the message that the party at The Palm is over. Most even realize that government credit cards are a bad idea.
But not the good ol' DRPA. It's still out there, providing the kind of story that ran in the Inquirer today, about how top managers at the DRPA ran up credit-card expenses of $38,167 in 13 months, including visits to the Waldorf, The Palm and that Miami cruise-ship convention.
And get this - the DRPA's chief financial officer's charges included a "lean government" management course at Villanova.
Really, you can't make this stuff up.
The DRPA's days of living high at motorists' expense may be over. Even Congress is now looking for ways to rein in the agency. That's good news for the public, bad news for editorial writers. So here's a final toast, guys - Dom Perignon, of course.
