Does a 'Rain Garden Specialist' Serve The Public Good

I was browsing the city's website, as I often do for fun, and noticed something peculiar.

(I know that many of you are calling me a dork for looking at the city's website for fun, and, well, you are right. I do a lot of odd things for fun. In fact, here are my top 5 leisure activities:
1. riding my bike
2. bowling
3. browsing the city's web site
4. following sports, especially American football and also European football. Go Barca!
5. continue my life-long mission to mandate that people pronounce the words 'sword' and 'soared' differently)

I noticed that the city employs a Rain Garden Specialist:

One way to help save time and benefit plantings is to prepare a Rain Garden. Our Rain Garden Brochure is available by clicking on these links:

Rain Garden Brochure - Page One
Rain Garden Brochure - Page Two

For more information, call Harry Sandrouni, our City's Rain Garden Specialist, at 410-263-7949.

This blog questioned whether the city should be spending money on a Director of Health and Aquatics--and some people thought: yes, we should.

But a Rain Garden Specialist? Is this position really on the city payroll? I am hoping that this guy is a volunteer. Because if he's not, what's to say the city couldn't have any of the following specialists:

1. Dogfighting specialist
2. Global warming specialist
3. Sister City Specialist
4. Navy vs. St. John's annual croquet (sp. edited!) match specialist
5. etc.

(Edit: it has been pointed out that the gentleman in question is a stormwater management specialist, which would make sense.)

The question of 'when to stop' has to be answered by governments all the time....take minimum wage--why stop at $11.25/hr? Why not $100/hr?

This is a basic illustration of the conservative view of government. Government should exist to enforce contracts and laws, provide public safety, and operate where the private market fails to provide the correct goods and services. If the government tries to expand beyond this, we get waste, and things we don't need.