Governor Romney had his chance on the national stage, as head of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, a blew it as anything other than a laissez-faire failure: He hired subcontractors that lied cheated and mistreated employees hired,like myself, from all over the USA. His responsibility; No one else's.
And for Time magazine to ignore or short-term memory forget the disaster that was Romney's SLC 2002 Olympics is shocking in a major news seller. Let us not forget so soon, that bus drivers were hired and promised over $18 an hour to leave their homes, say in SF, and drive for days to work a "maximum of 10-12 hours/day" at the Olympics. On arrival we were collectively by bus company and individually told that that pay contract verbal promise was negated and we would work from "6am-2am, with only 4 hours off to sleep each day", a totally unsafe premise, since Federal law for a 45' commercial bus requires 10 hrs off after the usual max. of 14 hrs work each day.
Plus , we were told to leave our mini or full size buses at the central yard and use the employee shuttle to our hotels or dumpy apartments. But that was never an efficient system ,if it took 30 minutes each way to get to your lodging. At this lodging , we /my group were only given 2 sheets and one thin blanket. I politely asked a few times for another blanket,,,and was ignored, in Winter, in Salt Lake City. My boss in SF said he would pay for an electric blanket and a quilt or fiberfill cover, but on return that was a lie too. The major stores were /had put away, in Winter!!, already all of their electric blankets and most of the fiberfill comforters,,,and replaced them with pre-'seasonal' swimsuits !! This is IN WINTER,,,AT THE OLYMPICS !!
This bus hours of operation non-sense did not last long, for the public's safety, thank God !! I quit after a week(and was fired in SF) and so did many bus companies , like Hotdogger bus company, out of Southern California. Call them and they will easily verify this. Many drivers quit over 1/2pay, unsafe hours, and lousy work conditions, such as the luxury hotel in Park City repeatedly telling drivers they should not try or expect to use the hotel's lobby public toilet, as long as the 'v.i.p.s' of Sports Illustrated were there. Since there was no other toilet option, we ignored these pompous ridiculous tour guides and hotel staff.
The subcontractor sent people out during the Olympics to find other sucker bus drivers. But there were other problems, such as them telling us to "not bother bringing snow chains to this Winter Olympics, as the roads will constantly be plowed". Yet on the opening morning , in Park City at about 7000' there was only about 2 ft of snow pack on the ground. And it was snowing, with 2-3 inches of new snow on the roads ,,,and not a plow in sight. The other driver and i consulted , as he from Maryland did not bring snow chains, and i had. We called the plow and dispatch on our 2-way radio, but it took a long time with very impatient 'v.i.p.s', until they saw the Maryland driver fishtailing and sliding all over the road up to Deer ski area !! Then, total silence,,,Nothing like putting lives at risk visually to get the ridiculously obvious bad plan changed.
I would like Time magazine and all the other major new outlets-sellers to explain now why they thought it was so important to cover-up the fact that Park City in 2002 at the beginning/first week of the Winter Olympics, had so little snow and was going to have to make snow to be successful. I would also like to know why they covered up the fact that our 'custom designed map books' were full of major errors and we had to spend 2-3 days, before the start of the Winter Olympics going around and driving the preferred route ,,,and changing many of these maps.
If security was so high at these 2002 Winter Olympic Games, then why did i have my father's name on my i.d. badge instead of my different name ?
In summary, Time magazine may like to forget Romney's huge public failure--i tried to get in the opening ceremony and was told it was "over $200 a seat, a close to sold out already to corporate sponsors and the media"--at such a "public" event, but hopefully the Blog-osphere will keep them and the Republicans/ politicians more honest.
