TELEPHONE CALLS

An interesting aspect of manning the League’s telephone, and my Sullivan and Associates’ telephone at home, is the spectrum of calls you receive almost daily. One is so frequent in the League office that I keep it posted on the wall over the desk for quick reference. It is the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office 874-5231. People who have questions about property tax assessments evidently call information, and begin with the words “Sacramento County Tax - something”, and get our number. When called, I then give them County Assessor Ken Stieger’s telephone number for help.

On Monday, June 23rd I got a corker. Evidently one of the protesters of the World-Wide Expo Agricultural Conference somehow got our number, and the conversation began with an aggravated male voice demanding to know whether the League was “concerned about misuse of taxpayers money in the City of Sacramento?” I’m always interested in the City’s use of taxpayer money, so I answered, “Yes we are.” He then regaled me about the many law enforcement officers on the streets in the city on a Sunday, “holding up traffic”, “hassling people” and “being paid huge amounts of taxpayer’s money for unnecessary overtime, and asked me what I was going to do about it.” I chewed on that a moment, recognized I had a crank, and told him, “I consider it an excellent use of taxpayer’s money as those officers provide protection for people often faced with unruly crowds of agitators.” His answer was an abrupt, “You’re not going to be of any help!” and he hung up the phone. I said into the silent instrument, “You’re right.”

The odd ones at home are crossovers between KFBK’s Tom Sullivan of the Sullivan Group and my consulting organization, Sullivan and Associates. Over the years Tom has advertised his Sullivan Group financial services, but sometimes his organization is not listed in the business section of the Telephone Directory under that name. For example, last year his group was affiliated with Wells Fargo Securities, and the Sullivan Group number was 440-4444. But don’t call the number as he left Wells Fargo. The Sullivan Group new number is not in the 2003 Telephone Directory either, so I posted Tom’s new number, (916) 442-6663 on the Sullivan and Associates telephone, and relay his calls, just as I do Ken’s.

But that’s not the end of the story. In 1992 when Rush Limbaugh wrote his national best seller “The Way Things Ought to be”, on page 295 he pointed out that he was right 97.9 percent of the time, and wrote, “Rating is determined each month by an official Opinion Audit conducted by The Sullivan Group in Sacramento, California.” The Sullivan Group number was not in the book then either! Ergo, I got hundreds of calls from all over the US!

I told Tom on the radio a couple of weeks ago that next year I’m going to solve the problem by listing Sullivan and Associates and its (916) 331-8922 number as I always do. But under our number I’m going to indent sub listings for Tom Sullivan of the Sullivan Group (916) 442-6663, and Rush Limbaugh 1-800-282-2882 and become leader of the best organization of Conservatives in the United States.

Joe Sullivan