2001-2003 was when all this happened.
I prefer not to give any more clues. However there was a VP we did retain because he had excellent connections in state and local government. We were very wary of pissing him off. Until 2006 I kept a supply of their old budget forms (four carbonless copies) for him to submit his budget request on. His admin would type it with a typewriter. Then an analyst in Finance woul log into the web based budgeting system and try to figure out how to enter it. Then the CFO would sign a copy of the paper form and send it back to him as evidence. He once was livid because he put in $10,000.00 for six conferences, and the analyst entered $1,666.67 six times. Which caused the system to budget $10,000.02. He said we didn’t have problems doing math with the old system.
He went on to become a consultant. If you needed the rules bent a bit on zoning, health etc., he was the go-to guy. Or if you wanted to make sure your competitors projects got delayed and had cost overruns. We basically paid him for four years just so he wouldn’t screw us.
The unions loved this guy. Every time we negotiated a contract he would say we don’t have to control costs, we can just raise prices and use our clout to keep out the competition. Competing on price and quality was for suckers.