Wednesday morning Patti and I were back at KCC. I had three days of meetings to deal with so I could take the next two weeks off. I had to do my part of the training at the gym.

There would be enough trainers working that if there was an emergency at KCC I could leave. We did need to make a good impression on Peterson and the Rochester Group to get the final approval to be the Rochester College Police Force.

My first meeting was with the board. It was budget time, time to begin work on next year’s budget. Patti had been putting together all the necessary reports for the last two weeks.

I needed to defend my current staffing levels and yet justify the normal pay raise for my employees. The reports that Patti had put together would do just that.

There had been only two campus crises in the last year. One was the Courtney – Maryanne incident in the spring semester. The other was the ID card problem at the beginning of this year’s fall semester. There was even a reduction in the normal day to day student issues.

The dorm repairs from the crane incident had been completed on time and we ended up with a third of the dorm renovated to new standards. I knew the building department was going to request funds to renovate the rest of that dorm.

Insurance had paid Mr. Bozman’s salary all summer because the dorm repair was result an insurance claim. That freed up more funds in my budget.

Overtime in my department was down enough to offset some of the funding for the raises. I had not used even half of the emergency operations budget in the last year so some of the dollars in that budget item were negotiable to cover raises.

My salary was by contract. I had three more years at the fixed level. I had intended to keep extending the contract as long as they were willing to give the state retirement plan.

I was now wondering if that was the smart thing to do. With JBG security growing so fast, my time might be better used there than here. The flip side to that thought was that everything was going so smoothly at the senior management level at JBG; the best thing might be to stay away. I had heard of no disagreements or even arguments between the girls at all on any issue.

My thoughts were interrupted by Patti setting the final print of my report, budget request and hand-outs on my desk and telling me that I needed to be going.

I spent the next three hours listening to departments make the pitch as to why they needed double digit increases in funding for next year. I wondered about the rational in paying some political activist speaker 200 thousand to give a speech that could not be recorded or quoted.

A box lunch was served from the cafeteria and I still I had not had my allotted time. It was almost three before I was finally asked to make my pitch. I could see all the board members looking at their watches and shuffling in their seats.

I passed out the thin handout and quickly covered the highlights. I spent a few minutes covering the numbers and why. Then I did what none of the other presenters had done all day, “Any questions?” No questions were asked as I made my way to my chair.

I thought I should have been done and out by lunch as I looked around the table at the other departments waiting.

One of the board members suggested the rest of the departments be put off until tomorrow, a remark that was quickly accepted. As disgruntled department heads left I stayed in my chair to give the grumps time to clear out of the lobby.

I walked out with Bob Jackson and Dean Nobles, “Marcy might let you borrow her bull whip – if you promise to return it – to speed things along tomorrow,” I said with a laugh to Bob.

“Don’t tempt me, they know they are not going to get those kinds of increases, but they just have to ask,” he replied.

I had been sitting so much today that I went straight out on the gym floor and started working out to loosen up the body. It was hard to believe that after spending so much time training the agency bunch that my body needed more exercise today.

I worked out an hour before I took a 3 minute Marine shower and joined Marcy’s executive meeting in gym shorts and tee shirt with my hair still wet.

I listened at the list of defects the inspection site found on the two busses and the cost to correct them. Two grand later they would still be ready to pick up tomorrow afternoon.

There was a knock on the door and I looked up to see Dad and Mom standing there. That was unusual; Dad rarely came to the office, but I could see they were both smiling.

“I am looking for a job,” Dad said, “I hear you might be hiring, it doesn’t have to be one that I can wear shorts and a tee with wet hair either,” as he looked at me with a grin.

To answer all the questioning stares he explained. “I am retiring. I signed the papers today. I have enough built up vacation and sick time to carry me to May. Jake told me to come see you and get a real job or he was going to kick my ass when I called him a few minutes ago. He and Mindy say Hi.”

After all the hugs and congratulations we decided to carry them to supper at the new Outback Steak House. The call a head seating worked great for that.

“You are still keeping your class A with all the endorsements?” I asked.

“Oh yes, never give up anything, you know that,” he replied.

“Good, we need a bus driver for a couple weeks starting next week,” I said.

“You don’t own any busses, do you?” he replied. “Never mind – I should know better.”

Jenny called Jason and Lisa to see if they wanted to join in the celebration. It was a family night with a real cause to celebrate. Both our parents now worked for us. JBG truly was a family business.

I had a quick thought about where and what the 15 agency people were doing right now. I bet they were all stressed waiting for their ops to begin in a few hours. I gave them a toast for good luck and safety with the last beer of the evening.

Edit by Alfmeister

Proof read by Joe H.