What’s wrong with Sandy Blunt.

The former head of North Dakota’s state workers comp fund has been – and continues to be – vilified by a few people who obviously don’t know the guy. (more on the appeal in a future post).
Prosecuted for ‘misuse of funds’, Sandy’s life has been ruined because he approved payments for balloons, small ($50) gift cards, sweets, and cakes for employee recognition events, along with refusing to seek repayment for relocation expenses for an employee terminated for performance (which was legal and appropriate).

Well, I do know the guy, and there’s plenty wrong with him. Here’s the real scoop on this horrible guy/abuser of the public trust/scofflaw…
Well, he worked for George HW Bush in the White House (our politics are pretty different, but I keep hoping he’ll come over to the bright side).
He’s an avid, very well informed – and extremely loyal – Cleveland sports fan. (Gotta respect that, even if you don’t understand it)
He isn’t a golfer. (Me neither, so that’s actually a big plus)
I don’t think he can dance.
He went to one of those fancy Eastern big-name business schools (Wharton, I think).
He is such an Eagle Scout (which he actually is) that he won’t let his kids download music from file-sharing services because it is unethical. I’m sure the young Blunts think he’s horribly unfair.
For a non-IT guy, he’s pretty good at tech stuff, making me think he was an AV club guy in his high school days (and not, that’s not meant pejoratively).
Sandy was COO of Ohio’s Bureau of Workers Comp before he was recruited to professionalize the NoDak state fund (so much for that honest effort). By all accounts he was well-liked, and more importantly, very well respected in that role. But still, he was a workers comp exec, and you KNOW what those people are like…
He’s unremittingly positive, unerringly cheerful, and undeniably an upbeat person. Despite what the ‘criminal justice’ system has done to ruin his life, Sandy’s always positive. I don’t get it.
He’s a very, very good analyst. Sandy’s helped me on several consulting projects involving analyses of big databases of medical and claims data and interpreting the results, and the guy knows his stuff. This ticks me off, because he sees stuff I don’t.
He knows his college sports, and probably did pretty well in the NCAA pool. Those guys who a) know their sports and b) are analytical usually do. Again, pretty darn annoying.
There’s more, but if I say anything else I’ll embarrass the guy even more. Still, glad I’ve finally come clean on just what kind of bad actor this Blunt guy really is.
I feel so much better now!