Bill Becker TRIPLE Dipper

acclaro wrote: Gosh, why did I not get that Masters in Public Administration than a useless MBA. Oh... BB doesn't have a degree.

Who cares about what degrees Becker does or doesn't have? More importantly, who cares about what degrees you may or may or not have ? They're just silly letters after your name and don't have anything to do with competence to perform a task.

[Who cares about what degrees Becker does or doesn't have? More importantly, who cares about what degrees you may or may or not have ? They're just silly letters after your name and don't have anything to do with competence to perform a task.[/QUOTE]

Prithee, tell us what these great thinkers with all of their lofty degrees have done for our fair city lately?

Learned barristers such as Messrs. Adkins and Landen have done nothing but help to lead our once proud city down the road to ruin, luring scoundrels to city hall, and the poorest of the poor to suck from our communal teat.

Well-degreed miscreants such as Messrs.  Kohler and Mulligan have assured our community that no sane businessman would even attempt to either ply a trade or engage in commerce within the metes and bounds of this municipality, and have schemed to pilfer the tax man’s pouch for their own gain.

Highly educated hooligans such as Ms. Gilleland have easily been hoodwinked by sly suitors, only to end up party to shenanigans certain to drive the final nails into our municipal coffin.

Nay, give me those souls who are blessed with common sense, and who have become educated by life and its school of hard lessons.  Give me those who are honest, and have the character to put the good of the many before the good of the few, the gnarled men who have run the good race and fought the good fight, who have both won and lost but have learned that putting virtue before their own fortunes is the greatest reward.

Such an education as that is worth one hundred—nay, ten thousand—times as much as any fading sheepskin scribbled upon by some long forgotten, bribed academic, who most likely knew only that the recipient of that scrap of paper had someone pay his or her tab.

A pox on those with degrees, but who have used their store-bought knowledge only for selfish ends and to the detriment of their fellow citizens.

Neil Barille wrote: ...   You may be correct if you are literally doing a "task" as you say.  Turning wrenches, answering the phones, putting up a DirecTV dish, and even advanced work done in labs, doctor's offices, and tax preparers are all "tasks". What college education (and up) teaches is not to do a task but to think, to analyze, to evaluate, to present a business plan in front of the board, etc.

"What college education (and up) teaches is not to do a task but to think, to analyze, to evaluate, to present a business planaa in front of a board, etc."

And non-degreed people can't do the same thing? They can think, can analyze, evaluate and the only reason they aren't asked to present a business plan in front of the board is because that is an opportunity for middle management to shine in front of the VIP's of the company and to be on stage for that next promotion. It is a suck-up opportunity for middle management to play the corporate game in front of the big wigs. Middle management isn't going to give the presentation to the lower echelon when they can use it for a promotion opportunity. Saw it all the time at P&G, the epitome of the corporate game of "climbing the ladder while you step on the backs of your people to lift you up". Disgusting behavior. Disgusting company culture internally.

Mr. Nagy, excellent point. Bill gates and Mark Z. from facebook fame, and worth about $25 bb left Harvard without earning a degree. I simply meant in the context of Bill Becker and working for the county in particular, albeit Butler or Warren, it doesn't take much to land a top position. Bill Becker benefitted from being in the military, adding points to his application and his testing. He was tight with Middletown's mini Vatican community. Throw in nancy Nix and other council members who wanted to give him a gift of cit manager, so he could get that nice bump so many public servants get as they aproach retirement, adding about $20,000 annually to his "calculation". He then pops into Warren County, when he wasn't a serious contender for the EMS position in the same county he worked for many years, but landed the same position in Warren County, with absolutely no experience in EMS, other than knowing the functionality of a dispatcher. Next, although his impact was limited and rather dismal while a city manager, with the gift of the extra bump by his Vatican friends on council, he can't get the levy passed, what a surpise. Then he fills in as interim city manager based upon a three year track record in Middletown which was certainly by any standard, unremarkable. Add to this the lack of a degree when the richest county in Warren is mason (Deerfield Townshipj, where his predessor mas a marked man before he arrived, not being within the inner "political" circle. Commonsense had nothing to do with his appointments in these positions, and the vast majority within city management do possess a MA or MS in Public Administration. The degree was not holding him back, and commonsense did not propel his advancement. Other factors played a role, a link to John Boehner, aka Xavier University and a family of eleven, was pivotol. That trumped a degree and commonsense.  

If I lived in Deerfield Twp I would be dismayed at spending $117,000 on an administrator. Seems excessive to me.