When we think about the swamp that President Trump is trying to drain, we think about the one in Washington, D.C.  There is also a stunning example in the Los Angeles County government.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer is director of the county public health department.  Seeing that she's a doctor running a health department, one naturally imagines that she's a medical doctor, but that's not the case.  She has a Ph.D. in social welfare; her Bachelor of Arts is in community studies.

Her salary is $465,411 per year.  For context, the president of the United States is paid $400,000 (although President Trump donates all of it to worthy causes).  A U.S. senator or representative gets $174,000.

Dr. Ferrer has been well known recently for two things.  She was recorded speaking to an internal group in the county, and, in answer to the question of when children would be allowed to go back to school, she said sometime after the election.  Since the election isn't a milestone for the status of the COVID-19 virus, the obvious connection is the politically partisan plan to inflict as much inconvenience and impact on people's lives as possible, on the theory that if people are frustrated, they won't re-elect President Trump.

Her second conspicuous issue has been a battle with a large church in the county, Grace Community Church, and its pastor, John MacArthur.  The church has chosen to hold Sunday services every week, contrary to orders from the county and courts that have so far heard the case.  The county has also sent notice that it is terminating the church's lease on a parking lot that has been in effect for 45 years.  The pastor's justification for not obeying the county is, the biblical command to meet and worship, the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, and the highly exaggerated claims regarding the virus.  Using figures from the Centers for Disease Control, he has pointed out that it doesn't qualify as a pandemic, and the death rate from the virus is actually quite small.

Even without considering all that, the rate of new cases in Los Angeles County peaked in July and has dropped rapidly since then, as has the percentage of positive tests, which is now below 4%.

So one doesn't need to look only to Washington, D.C. to find outrageous examples of career bureaucrats whose priorities are unrelated to the public good.

Image: Los Angeles County Public Health Department video via YouTube, edited in Pixlr.