I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest follower of Washington County politics, but this was enough to perk my ears up. Washington County Commissioner Bill Pulkrabek had these terribly nasty comments to make in response to the proposed spending on a County housing coordinator:
Many people who are evicted and don’t have homes have found themselves in that position because of their own behavior problems, he said.
“Basically, they’re jackasses,” said the District 2 commissioner .A request to approve $53,045 to continue a county housing coordinator position for the coming year was on the board’s consent agenda. The housing coordinator works with local housing resources and agencies to provide information to county residents to help them obtain or maintain housing, according to information provided to the board.
“We’d be better off spending the $53,000 on one-way bus tickets,” Pulkrabek said, after which the rest of the board approved the expenditure. [Woodbury Bulletin]
As you can see, he’s a very empathetic man. This is the same Bill Pulkrabek that ran Ron Eibensteiner’s successful campaign for Republican State Party Chair only to turn around and run against him (Ron Carey won that one; Pulkrabek came in an embarrassingly far-off third). Maybe he’s just still bitter. I’d be careful about those homeless comments too because by the looks of his photo on the County website, Bill might just be homeless himself.
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The same Washington County that produced Michele Bachmann. Go figure.
Pulkrabek was one of Bachmann’s campaign managers… I think her first: http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2006/11/ltes-to-pipress-bachmann-and-pulkrabek.html
What a… jackass.
Feel free to let this jackass know what you think of his opinion of homeless people: bill.pulkrabek@co.washington.mn.us
OMG, what a douchebag
The oneway bus ticket is used by many counties - it even has a name - “greyhound therapy”.
The article in the local paper was sent to all news media outlets. Yesterday WCCO news website had a blip that “coming up at 6: homeless comment raises concern”
Unfortunately nothing was on the 6 news and the blip on the website is gone - cover-up or more investigation?
Ah ha - it was on Fox 9 at 5:30 and will be on their 10 tonight with a clip from the actual meeting. Basically he said he didn’t apologize for the comments, he meant them - but only meant them for the jackasses they kick out of public housing.
I’m flabbergasted at the uneducated and wasteful comments of Commissioner Pulkrek. The work of the Housing Coordinator has saved the taxpayers of Washington County tens of thousands of dollars yearly. By assisting families and individuals to gain a greater sense of self-sufficiency whether it’s by budget counseling, referral to other resources or just helping out during a tough time (divorce-like Bill, job layoff, medical crisis, etc), saves in shelter costs or other uses of the social service system. Bill, start looking at the big picture!