Rick Perry’s Days Off

A simple Freedom of Information Act Request to Rick Perry’s office asking for the Governor’s calendar identifying state business resulted in 453 pages of documents. The calendar was a daily schedule with some days taking more than one page. The calendar produced covered Nov. 1, 2010 through Oct. 21, 2011. Thus 355 days worth of Rick Perry’s calendar was produced. The records produced revealed:

1. Of the last 355 days Governor Perry only reportedly worked a total of 164 days for “State Scheduled Business”. Thus, for 191 days out of the last 355 days, Governor Perry had no “State Scheduled Business.” That means he worked less than 50% of the days in the last 12 months, or just 46% of the days.

2. Perry did not declare his candidacy until August 13th, 2011, and even before that he failed to work 144 days out of approximately 9 ½ months, or 285 days. That means that he worked less than half time as Governor of Texas, even before he declared himself a candidate for President.

3. Of the days that he did perform some type of state business, he failed to work a significant number of hours during a normal work day. Examples include:

a. Thurs. April 7th Total hours worked- two 10:15-12:15 when he attended a

funeral.

b. Mon. April 11th 7:00-8:30 attended a dinner

c. Tues. April 12 one hour

d. Thurs. May 12th, Only work was a “bill signing”

e. Thurs. Aug 4th “tended to state business” a total of 2 hours

f. Mon. Aug. 8th “tended to state business” a total of 1 hour

g. Sat. Aug. 13th “tended to state business” a total of 1hr

h. Sun. Aug. 14th “Tended to state business” a total of 30 min.

i. Mon. Aug. 15th “tended to state business” a total of 1 hr. 5 minutes

j. Wed. Aug 17th “tended to state business” a total of 1 hr 45 minutes

k. Fri. Aug. 19th “tended to state business” a total of 20 minutes

l. Mon. Aug. 22nd “tended to state business” a total of 1 hour

m. Tues. Aug. 23rd. “tended to state business” a total of 1 hour 35 min.

n. Wed. Aug. 24th “tended to state business” a total of 2 hours

o. Thurs. Aug. 25th “tended to state business” a total of 1 hour 50 minutes

p. Friday Aug. 26th “tended to state business” a total of 45 minutes.”

q. Mon. Aug. 29th “tended to state business” a total of 100 minutes

r. Wed. Aug. 3oth “tended to state business” a total of 45 min.

s. Thurs Sept 1st- Only state business listed was visiting an Elementary school for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

t. Sunday Sept 11th Only state business listed was 25 minutes spent at a memorial ceremony for the victims of 9-11.  Whew, that really took it out of him.

u. Mon. Sept 12 Only state business was attendance of an “Execution briefing”  which usually lasted 30 minutes.  No matter who you are or what your crime, in Texas everyone is entitled to 30 minutes of the Governor’s time before being executed.

v. Tues. Oct. 11th Only state business was one phone call regarding “business recruitment.”

4. Of note were the following entries:

a. On Nov. 19th Rick Perry went on a trip to Santa Monica California for “business recruitment.”

b. On Nov. 9th he want to a funeral at 10:00 in the morning (remember this was state business, not personal) . That was evidently so exhausting that Mr. Perry was unable to do any other state business that day.  Rick Perry is so sensative!

c. On Nov. 3rd the only work he did for the State of Texas was to call the Lt. Governor at 10:15.

d. On Friday March 4th Rick Perry devoted a total of 10 minutes to a conference call regarding a response to the wildfires in Texas.  Those wildfires are just an act of God, so talking about them is really not productive.

e. On Friday Jan. 7th Governor Perry attended a Party and Game in Dallas, as part of his duties as Governor. Dinner was held at the Steak & Chop house in Ft. Worth, and he was driven to Cowboy stadium for the AT&T Cotton Bowl: LSU v. Texas A & M game. Lucky for the Governor he was able to get home to Austin that night to sleep in his own bed since he flew with Harrison Aviation, and his flight time was a mere 45 minutes. Upon his arrival in Austin, he didn’t have to waste time hailing a cab since his driver was waiting for him. It was a good thing this was State Business as this trip to Dallas could have cost the Governor a lot of money.

f. On Monday Jan. 31st. Governor Perry attended a TAMU v. Texas Basketball Game in College Station . It was a two hour drive to get there, and he was driven there and back on taxpayers nickle.  Wow!  Texans must really love basketball to make it part of the Governor’s official duties to attend a basketball game two hours from his home.  Thank God Rick Perry is such a devoted Governor that he is willing to make this type of sacrifice for the good of Texas.

g. On Jan. 28th he again had his driver take him, at tax payer’s expense on another trip to college station, his alma mater, for a funeral, that was considered “state business.”

h. On Sat. Jan 22nd Governor Perry was driven by his state-paid driver to attend the Rally of the “Texas Alliance for Life” where Bishop Vasquez spoke.

i. On Monday Feb. 14th he devoted 45 minutes to the briefing of another person about to be executed in Texas.

j. On Feb. 2, 2011, Governor Perry traveled to San Diego to attend an “Instructional Aviation Water Safety” Conference.

k. On March 7th he had a meeting with Pastor Hagee

l. On March 8th Rick stared his day at 3:00 p.m. and ended by 4:10.

m. On March 15th he worked for 1 hour having a conference with bloggers.

n. On April 4th Rick Perry attended the NCAA Mens Basketball Championship Game, and declare it to be state business.

o. On Friday May 6th his state business took him to an Exotic Game Ranch with shooting in the afternoon.

p. On June 10th he had another execution briefing that lasted 30 minutes.  So many people are executed in Texas that it seems these execution briefings are a full-time job for the Governor.

q. On July 5th the only thing on his calendar was two phone calls at 8:45 and at 10:45.  I bet he was so exhausted after those phone calls that he needed a cool one at the side of the pool with his lunch.

r. On July 22nd he attended the ASPEN Institute for “Conversation at the Republican Governor’s Association.”

s. On Aug 10 , just three days before he declared his intention to run for President, he attended the National Conference of State Legislators’ Major Donors from 9:30-11:00 which was considered to be “state business”

As identified by Rick Perry’s own calendar he is not even a half-time Governor. His lack of concern for the State of Texas is particularly troublesome in light of his declaration that he would NOT run for President, and would devote himself to Texas if elected Governor again.

Moreover Texas requires its elected officials to work 40 hours per week.  Not only has Perry failed miserably to comply with his promise of serving as Governor for a full term, but he continues to fail to meet his statutory obligations.  Even Ferris Bueller didn’t take off as many days as Rick Perry.