David Crisp
You need a manager to run your new McDonald’s restaurant. You hear about a guy who’s interested in the job. He’s old, but some people think he did pretty well at the last place he managed.
So, you have a trusted aide check him out. How was his business record? Well, businesses he managed went bankrupt six times, and at least seven side ventures he launched failed in a year or two.
Worse, he claims that he used bankruptcy as a business strategy that lost the money of bankers and investors, but allowed him to walk away with a nice profit. His employees who bought shares in his company claim they lost $2 million.
One restaurant he managed was shut down in 2012 because of 51 health code violations. And the resort where he lives now had 78 health code violations in a three-year period.
Even worse, he has been sued hundreds of time by employees and contractors who claim he refused to pay them money they were rightfully owed. And just recently, he was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records to cover up an affair with a porn star.
There’s more. A “university” he started had to pay $25 million in damages to people who claimed they were defrauded. And a foundation he headed had to shut down and pay $2 million for illegally using charitable donations.
OK, not so good. Did his employees like him? At his last job, your aide says, 92 percent of the people in the top executive jobs resigned or were fired in four years. Nearly half of those jobs turned over at least twice.
Eight people who held positions with him have been sentenced to prison. Three others took plea deals to avoid prison.
Ouch. What did people who worked for him at his last job say about him? Those who have spoken out publicly have called him someone “with the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader,” an “idiot,” “unhinged,” a “racist, misogynist and bigot,” a “dope,” “like an 11-year-old child,” a “moron” and “someone with the intelligence of a kindergartner.”
Well, maybe that was just sour grapes. What did he say about people who worked for him? Among other things, he has referred to someone who was in “way over his head,” someone who would have put us in “World War Six by now,” and others he called “sloppy,” “a lowlife,” “clueless,” “a highly unstable nut job,” a “total joke” and “dumb as a rock.” And these are all people he hired.
Then maybe he wasn’t so good at hiring people. What does human resources say about him?
Not great. More than two dozen women have claimed that he sexually assaulted or harassed them. One woman successfully sued him for sexual assault and defamation, and when he continued to defame her, she sued again and won another big judgment.
He claims that he never sexually assaulted anyone. Unfortunately, he has been caught on tape bragging that he casually grabbed strange women by their private parts. So we’d better keep a checkbook handy if a burger flipper claims sexual harassment.
But that’s all in the past, right? How did that last operation he ran do? Not too bad, for the first three years. The business grew slightly faster than it did under the last three years of the previous manager. The business pretty much collapsed in his fourth year, when we had all of that sickness.
On the whole, the business did not do as well as he claimed, and he spent a lot more than the business brought in. It also turns out that made more than 30,000 false statements in public in four years.
Worst of all, when he got fired from that last job, he claimed that he was fired unjustly, and he encouraged customers to fight the decision. A bunch of them broke into the store, smashed a lot of things and threatened to hang the assistant manager. And after he left the job, he was charged with stealing confidential documents from the business.
OK, you say, I’ve heard enough. Tell him we don’t think he’s a good fit to manage a fast-food restaurant. Maybe he should try going back to that last job. What was he? President?
Between the lines is a weekly column published in the Yellowstone County News by David Crisp. David writes as he sees it from an independent and Democratic perspective.
