Andy Wells finished up his day job as mayor today. He's heading off to new digs and much bigger salary as the guy running the provincial utility regulator.
Meanwhile, Ivan Morgan, the reporter who loves jam jams thought he'd give Andy a call and ask his view on having John Noseworthy audit the offshore regulatory board. That's the one an independent panel determined someone other than Wells was better qualified to run, based on merit criteria approved by both the federal and provincial governments.
So anyway, Morgan, who now prefers to take potshots at politicos in his news pieces than in his opinion column, got Andy's viewpoint now that Andy is leaving the board for the utilities crew.
Andy sees no problem with having Noseworthy go in and audit the board in every dimension.
Andy would hardly be expected to do anything to support the board, would he?
Or for that matter hold a consistent opinion in his head.
After all this is the guy who thought it a waste of tax dollars to shift provincial public servants from St. John's to the nether regions of the province.
But when the chance came to shift some federal public servants to this province, Wells was all over it as a phenomenal idea. You see, wells hopped on that bandwagon since it gave him a chance to toe the provincial Tory line and, if it worked, maybe hook up a few more bucks for his city's coffers.
See you can't keep pouring ever more money into Mile One without getting it from somewhere and a few high paying federal jobs would help keep the Wells-Coombs Memorial Money Pit going for a while longer.
Anyway, says Andy, bring John Noseworthy on in and let him have a go at the offshore board.
But last year, Wells had a different tune, at least when it came to the idea of having Noseworthy rotting around in Andy's fiefdom at city hall.
The auditor general (currently John Noseworthy) - whose reports annually shed an embarrassing light on the provincial government - could turn his attention to city hall if he wanted.
But Wells said there is no need, because the city already has an external audit process which produces reports annually.
No need.
Because there is already and external auditor.
Just like at the offshore board.
Makes you wonder if Wells had actually gotten the job at the offshore board, if Noseworthy would not have been told to piss off, in far less genteel a way than "piss off".
The guy who got the job Danny coveted for Andy never said Noseworthy couldn't come in and look the place over.
He just addressed the question, competently - egad - consistently.
-srbp-