When I discovered that a person whom I knew (presumably well) was consorting with a member of the county council in the hopes of getting a lucrative multi-year million dollar contract, I wasn't surprised. She had been pressing the envelope for over a decade, building her small, minority-woman owned business. She'd managed to keep the lights on through gifted manipulation of people and circumstances, building a network of trusted and reliable subcontractors who reaped the rewards as well. What did surprise me was the method she used to do it.

I'd never seen her in that light. I'd often given her counsel on ways and means of moving her business forward, and had even supported her financially when things weren't going so well. In business she has a likable face and a winning smile, and everything about her seems to speak of the high road. Of course, I knew there were two of her when it came to her private life. But I never thought they crossed. It wasn't until I came across an open email on a shared computer that I had to pull up my socks and take a second look.

She'd always professed to having a bright line rule about sex and business.

"No one will ever comment about me as I walk into a board meeting that they've had me," she had said defiantly. "I'm not the kind of woman who will cross that line for the sake of a dollar."

Well, I guess that stance changed when the IRS started breathing down her neck and promising to take the wheels off of her wagon.

Reading the open email, "...I have to thank you for an evening that I'll not soon forget..." the email expressed. "...remember that how long you do a thing depends on how you feel about it."  There was more, of course. A lot of it had to do with setting up the late night private supper in her Largo, Maryland office. She was playful in her solicitation, asking him what kind of food a "country boy" might like to eat.  It would be one of many gratuities she offered him.

They were careful not to say anything explicit, but the language was sultry and suggestive. What struck me at once was that although they had used their official email accounts to make the exchanges, she had forwarded his remarks to her personal account---the one that she used at home...the one she used for reaching out to feed her unusual appetite.  

She was stimulated by that night's events. They  began their liaison telephoning multiple times each day; beginning early in the mornings and through the day. He called frequently. He was stimulated too. He'd probably not experienced a business encounter such as she was capable of making happen. She was more experienced in fantasy life-styles than probably any woman he had met. Well...that explained him rushing to dash off his "thank you email" just hours after they ended their liaison that night.

But she wasn't just doing her high risk paraphilia dance for him because he was cute.  It wasn't a freebie. She needed him. She needed his access to make her plan work. She had her eye on millions of dollars in management fees for an idea that she had borrowed from Jackson, Mississippi. A medical mall in Prince George's County, to be built on the site of a former shopping plaza. Although she had no experience with such a project, that's what consultants did.  She would stretch, drawing on her cadre of consultant cohorts to throw something together on paper, then wing it.  

She dreamed big, and it began to take shape. Meetings with council committees, meetings at the state level, meetings with developers, and of course, those meetings to talk about more meetings. It was those meetings that she enjoyed the most with her contact.  In the end though, the idea was borrowed away from them by other interested parties. others in government liked the idea, but not all of the pieces that she had presented.  Stole the idea, you're thinking?  There's no honor among thieves. 

She knew there was a risk of that happening, but she had to toss it over the transom to get it into play. On hindsight, it appeared she had just seduced the wrong member. He didn't have the juice that she needed...at least not the political juice. There were too many people with more power standing in their way. In addition, it would mean diverting funding away from the existing hospitals in the county, and folks in power just didn't see the immediate sense of that. Particularly the county executive.

Not one to be easily discouraged though, she saw his usefulness for other things-smaller things. There were plenty of county contracts for services that could be swept in through his open door that wouldn't be subject to as much scrutiny.  She'd made the investment.  Patience sometimes rewarded the determined.  Besides, she had already added him to her bedfellows list, and as long as he could keep it up...she would keep it up.  

http://governmentbedfellows.blogspot.com/

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