Tiny Bubbles

At least pretend like you care about how you spend taxpayers' money

This cartoon was drawn for the FXBG Advance.

So this is what happened, Peezeheads. Oh, yeah…I decided that’s what we’re going with. Anywhosies…

A couple of members of the Fredericksburg school board may have gone a little crazy with credit cards that didn’t belong to them. No, they didn’t steal them. They used cards that belonged to school board administrators for traveling to conventions, and the cardholders would be reimbursed later.

They went over the travel budget with hotel fees, flight travel, renting cars, etc, etc. One of them didn’t even know there was a travel budget. These conventions were in Atlanta, maybe Richmond (since there was a state convention), and Hawaii.

What’s weird to me is that a school board association, serving an industry famously struggling with budgets yearly, would hold a convention in Hawaii. These people should be meeting in places like Columbus, Indianapolis, and, yeah, Richmond.

And why are they renting cars? That’s an unnecessary expense. How much comfort do these public servants require? Have they not heard of this thing called Uber?

I’m on the board of the AAEC, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Our last two conventions were in very cool locations, San Francisco and Montreal, but the one before those two was in Columbus, Ohio, and our next one is going to be in North Bethesda. Ooooooh, North Bethesda.

Someone else on the board mentioned renting a bus for a day trip to Washington, DC, since Bethesda is a suburb community with a Metro stop just a short distance from DC. I howled and protested the idea of wasting association funds on a bus when our members could just take the Metro. I won and convinced everyone that we didn’t need to rent a bus.

I have a thing about trains, and another thing about people afraid of trains and public transportation. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than renting cars and Uber. Public transit, like subway systems, is mostly safe. Don’t listen to Fox News.

During our San Francisco convention, we were all on a group text, like WhatsApp or some shit like that. One member asked if anyone wanted to share a cab from the airport into the city, as the airport is about 40 minutes or so from the city. I didn’t reply to that, but I thought it was stupid. Unless you have a shit ton of luggage (and why would you have that?), why would you take a taxi? It’s ridiculous to take a cab or Uber for an hour-long drive when you could take a train for $10. Or, maybe someone else was paying for that cab.

That’s what the school board should have required of its members while they travel. Atlanta has a subway system, but Hawaii does not. But you can rent Ubers around the city or take the city bus. The city bus in Hawaii is on time to the point that a bank robber used it back in the 90s. He would rob a bank, and time it with when the bus would stop. He would rob a bank and jump on the bus. It took Honolulu’s finest a while to figure that one out.

If the bus system works for bank robbers, it will work for you, too.

I don’t know how I got off on that rant, but anywhosie boozies, public servants need to be held accountable. They need to actually care about how they spend taxpayers’ money. And in this situation, one of them didn’t even know there was a travel budget. I mean, was she asleep when they voted on that shit?

But she was wide awake during the vote that all future spending on travel will have to be pre-approved, because she voted against it.

A good friend of mine said, “The idea that School Board members go on sweet trips while schools themselves are crying for funding and teachers are paying for supplies out of their own pockets is just begging for a public rebuke. Which they are justly getting.”

Creative note: I wrote four ideas, and we went with this one. I drew this Friday night. I also listened to “Tiny Bubbles” to make sure it fit the cartoon. It did, and it was terrible.

Music note: I listened to Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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