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Confessions of a Government Man is filled with astute, often hilarious memoirs of Alan Greenberg's thirty-nine year career with the U.S. General Services Administration. His real-life tales of deception and sleight-of-hand maneuvers in high government places include a cast of characters worthy of Hollywood.A few of his stories are a bit risque and some show that incisive philosophical advice sometimes comes from the most unlikely sources. Throughout we see plenty of salty New York culture. At various times Greenberg was threatened with arrest and contempt of court, detained at gunpoint by a judge, had an off-the-cuff wisecrack end up on national television, and even had a curse put on him by a spiritual leader. Through it all he maintained his sense of humor. Greenberg gives us a true insider's vantage point. With contracting authority for a stack of taxpayer money which had the potential to provide a lot of lifetime meal tickets, it was little wonder that Greenberg was very popular with the construction industry and any politician with an eye for publicity. Many of his stories give the reader insight into realities that media coverage somehow missed. Reporters, in their zeal to dig up dirt, often followed minutia while the true stories went unreported. One example was the $10 million "savings" to a project, which was actually a $40 million addition. Amazingly, nobody was the wiser. Experience is the best teacher, and during his many years on the job, Alan Greenberg knew what it was like to be under siege by the media, the Congress, the White House and concerned citizens. He developed rules of survival that enabled him to be a success in the large, complex bureaucracy of our government. He shares these years with us, happily turning them into a delightful and entertaining romp. Alan L. Greenberg, a product of New York and with an attitude to match, retired as the senior official with the Public Buildings Service of the U.S. General Services Administration - Northeast and Caribbean Region. He had management responsibility for a billion dollar real estate and construction program and supervised a staff of over four hundred people. During his career he had hands-on responsibility for some of the largest and most controversial federal construction projects in the country. He had dealt with presidents, big city mayors, members of Congress, judges, military leaders and giants of industry as well as community activists, labor unions, militant coalitions and a generous share of petty thieves and con artists. Through it all he had demonstrated a unique and successful leadership style and an ever-present sense of humor, often making light of things others might take just a bit too seriously.
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