EDITORIALS

Steaks all around!

Eat, drink, and file expense vouchers

CALL IT the talker of the week. That’s the story in the paper that draws the interest of mom and dad, Little Davey and Aunt Sally, the hairdresser and rude radio hosts. Also your neighbor, his neighbor, the next neighbor over and maybe even makes it into the conversation/gossip after church. Everybody in Bryant and surrounding area, i.e., Arkansas, is talking about the strip-club steaks.

According to the news-side folks here at Arkansas’ Newspaper, who went through the receipts, the city of Bryant reimbursed its police chief and a “school resource officer” for the steaks-and-trimmings they ordered at an upscale strip club in Orlando this summer.

It seems the chief, Mark Kizer, and a Bryant High School officer, Lee Ledbetter, attended a conference/junket in July. And by now everybody at Bryant High, especially the kids, may still be giggling about it.

Just what’s an upscale strip club is a good question. Since most of us innocents have no idea. Because most folks, at least in these latitudes, aren’t likely to consider any place where ladies disrobe for public ogling upscale. Most might think of a joint like that as decidedly downscale, whatever the check came to.

And please don’t call it a gentleman’s club. That good word, gentleman, has been abused enough already. No gentleman, if there are any left, would use such language. He’d as soon call curtains drapes, or refer to a block of new houses for sale as homes. As for “upscale,” a dive is a dive is a dive. Whatever the decor. Money can buy many things. Good taste is not one of them.

The story is a talker first-class because (1) a strip club is involved, and (2) a strip club is involved. Folks in these latitudes may look down on those places, but folks in these latitudes also have a weakness for tittering. It’s the price of being Southern, or maybe just human.

Both lawmen say they didn’t see nuthin’ from nuthin’. Not a thing. Couldn’t see the stage. The waiter was a dude. No women were in sight. As for employees at the club, who told the paper this week that women are always in sight there, well, let’s give the benefit of the doubt to our cops. After all, Mark Kizer and Lee Ledbetter were there. They’re eyewitnesses. What they say should be given some weight by those of us who weren’t.

But there’s something else going on here, and it hasn’t got a thing to do with pole-dancing.

According to the police chief, the hotel concierge suggested the restaurant. Why? Because it is one of the best steakhouses in Orlando. The club claims to employ five-star chefs. The bill came to $58.06 for the chief. The other officer billed Bryant taxpayers for $50.80.

When asked whether he could justify having taxpayers pay for a $50-plus steak at an “adult entertainment” joint, the chief said, ahem, there is no policy against his being reimbursed. Hint to the wise: Don’t try that at home. Or try telling a cop who stops you out on the road that, well, officer, there’s no specific law against the way I was driving. The unstated assumption and dubious assertion: Anything not specifically outlawed is just fine and dandy, even reimbursable.

Here’s what a friend told us the day the story broke. You’ll not be surprised to learn she’s a writer. Also a taxpayer. According to her, “The real outrage is that they felt entitled to fancy steaks on their city’s dime. The women who might or might not have been disrobing in the aisles are merely gravy.”

You said it, sister.

NOBODY expects government employees to order from the dollar menu at McDonald’s during out-of-state trips. But couldn’t these two, like the rest of us working stiffs, settle for something less than $50 dinners at one of the best steakhouses in town cooked by five-star chefs? Especially if they’re served in a joint with an attraction that was bound to embarrass all concerned later. Couldn’t a police chief, of all people, have used a little more common sense? Even if it’s not specifically mentioned on his Standard Equipment List?

The saddest part of the story is that this kind of thing goes on all the time. There are those public employees who will max out their expense vouchers because, after all, they’re public employees. It’s not real money, just government money. When it’s time to eat on the road, they pick the best steakhouse, or maybe the lobster instead of the chicken. Who’s going to know?

Very few people would. And it’s a safe bet this story about a couple of cops in Bryant wouldn’t have made waves, either, had not a strip club been involved. There’s just something about the words “strip club” that blinks like a CAUTION light. And it shouldn’t be ignored, either. Let’s hope the steaks were good-because these officers, and lot of other folks, may remember them for some time to come.

Editorial, Pages 16 on 10/26/2013

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