IT
WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
While conducting a course at Scottsdale Community
College’s Senior Adult Educational Program called
“Reminiscence Writing,” I provided suggestions to class participants to help
them get started writing their personal memoirs. “Review old files and
documents from your working days,” I would tell them.
Now I am stuck while writing my autobiography.
I can’t seem to drum up any recollection of 1977. I ponder, what exactly did I
do that year? Did I go on vacation? If so, where did I travel? What family members came with me? My oldest
child, who turned 21 that November, would have excused herself. Her days of
riding shotgun in the back of our station wagon with her five siblings were
“fini.”
I
open a file drawer and withdraw a folder that contains copies of my expense
reports while employed by SRP. As
I flip through them, 1977 returns to life. Look at the fun I had that year! How
could I have forgotten?
The
first report covered a trip I took in March to attend the 1977 Utility Purchasing
Management Conference in San Diego.
Typically, vendor representatives outnumbered utility attendees by a large
margin at these conferences and clamored for their attention. The annual conference
format began with a cocktail party Sunday evening. On Monday morning, distinguished
authorities delivered hour-long talks about significant industry issues such as
the state of the copper market. (Yes. Uh-huh. I see.) After lunch, the audience
always thinned out as many would chose to play a round of golf or sightsee. Monday
evening featured a banquet at the conference center hotel. Tuesday was also a
seminar day, but by noontime, most of the vendors had departed leaving a sparse
crowd behind.
John
O'Malley, Purchasing Agent, and his second wife, Phyllis attended the
conference with me this year. They were newlyweds. She was a long-time employee
of a local utility supply firm and knew many of the vendor representatives.
The
highlight of the conference took place before it began. Certain manufacturers
invited their best customers to private dinner parties on the Saturday night
preceding the conference. John, Phyllis and I opted to accept a manufacturer’s offer
to attend their dinner party held at the famous Del Coronado Hotel. Three
busloads of guests arrived simultaneously. A pre-dinner cocktail party awaited
us. A pack of hungry wolves could not have devoured prey faster than we gobbled
up trays of shrimp and other delicacies while swilling gallons of martinis and
other libations. When nothing remained, we staggered up to the domed wooden
ceiling main ballroom where we were served dinner of the five-star variety,
with more courses than I had fingers to count.
Then
with a drum roll, the CEO of this firm introduced his secret performer, the
singing/dancing star of both stage and screen, Carol Lawrence. Accompanied by a
dance group of six men and a full orchestra, she put on an awesome Las Vegas show, a
memorable event.
After
the dinner ended, the host company doled out lavish gifts to their utility
guests. No doubt they hoped this would influence future purchasing decisions. When
I got back to my office, their sales personnel paid me a visit and worked me
over; trying to induce me to place an order with them despite the fact they
were not the low bidder. That soured me, and I never again accepted an offer to
attend their pre-conference dinner parties.
My
expense report indicates it cost $300 for me to attend this conference,
including four nights in a hotel, airfare, and registration, worth every penny.
It made me become an even harder working employee. I wanted to attend next
year’s conference!
In
April, another report shows that I undertook an exchange program with John
Ravera, Materials Manager for Sacramento Municipal Utility District, or SMUD. We
had previously agreed to spend a few days in each other’s workplace, hoping to
share knowledge and learn new ideas.
I
thoroughly enjoyed my time with John and his wife. He had only recently assumed
this position. Previously he had worked as an engineer in SMUD’s nuclear power plant.
I learned quite a bit about his firm, a true municipal enterprise controlled by
numerous ordinances.
A
month later, he visited me for three days. It astonished him that SRP operated more like a private investor-owned
company than a public utility such as SMUD. His organization had to comply with
numerous state regulations; SRP
had no such restraints. Our procedures were so dissimilar that neither could
benefit much from the other. I regretted that he left this position some years
later, and we lost touch. I really liked this man.
The
expense report shows the trip cost about $200, including $150 for airfare. John
arranged for me to stay at a nearby motel that had no amenities but only cost
$11.65 per night. I didn’t rent a car as he escorted me in his. The extent of
my business frugality knew no bounds.
Upon
my return from Sacramento,
I flew to St. Louis
to meet with representatives of the Peabody Coal Company. They supplied all of
the coal to our Navajo Generating Station from an open pit mine located at
Kayenta, some 80 miles away. I failed to indicate the purpose of my trip on my
report, but I think it had something to do with how they warehoused and
controlled parts and supplies for the mine. I know for certain that this
company did not invite me to dine lavishly on shrimp while sipping wine,
watching Carol Lawrence perform. Despite the absence of such amenities, I am
certain I had a good time. I stayed one night, at a modestly priced hotel.
In
May, my next report shows that I went to Washington,
DC to attend a special meeting of
an Ad Hoc Public Utilities Purchasing and Stores Committee. I loved this trip
because I stayed at (you guessed it) The Watergate, the locale of the burgled
burglary of the Democrat's Headquarters by Nixon supporters. The room rate, an
astronomical $47, doubled the cost of any room I had ever paid while traveling
for SRP. The room had an odd
shape, unlike a rectangle, standard motel room, and the bed squeaked every time
I moved. No wonder I only stayed one night.
The
Ad Hoc members decided to form a permanent committee, and elected me its first
Chairman. This great honor guaranteed I would attend another conference.
The
year 1977 would not end. In September, my peer in the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power, Ed Enfiajian, asked me to visit his firm and to submit an
evaluation of their procurement practices. I spent three days and two nights on
this trip.
LADWP
operates in a fashion similar to a federal agency. The number of people employed
in their purchasing office overwhelmed me. It took an army of clerks to put Bid
packages together as they contained numerous legal documents, including ones to
protect them from being sued by minority-owned business firms.
Ed
took me to the site of their major AC/DC Transmission Station to see the damage
caused by a recent earthquake. I learned from him some of the water history of
LA that is featured in the movie, Chinatown, documenting some of the unscrupulous
methods L. A. used to acquire water from far away places in the state.
My
three-day trip to L.A.
cost the company $179. I was a low-cost traveler.
Later,
Ed came to visit me, but he soon discovered that our firms had few procurement
practices in common. He envied SRP’s
less restricted procurement environment. We parted pals, but did not meet up
again.
Years
later, he told me that a thief had shot him while he was standing in front of
an ATM. He survived, but remained in poor health afterwards.
In
September I went to Louisville
to chair the first Public Utilities Purchasing and Stores Conference. Our
initial meeting drew few participants, but we decided to schedule another
meeting in the near future, hoping to increase attendance by arranging to incorporate
plant tours of nearby major manufacturers. This trip cost $330, of which $280
went to pay the airfare. I stayed at the Galt House for $27 per night. The bed
did not squeak.
I
am glad I kept my 1977 expense reports. They brought back specific memories of
that year that I had long forgotten. I turned 50 years old that June and looked
forward to my future with SRP,
hopeful I would someday make it up the corporate ladder to an executive
management position. As it turned out, I got stuck on the middle management
rung and wound up going nowhere.
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