Sal Grosso, a retired man in his 80s, moved to Cape Coral, Florida, after a successful career as a troubleshooter for New York State’s phone network. Since then he has served as troubleshooter for the government of Cape Coral, writing a column, kicking up a fuss.
And boy, does Cape Coral need a troubleshooter! Sal has uncovered a whole network of incompetence and corruption in the water, sewer, and charter school bureaucracies.
After years of trying, he got the state to do an operational audit of the town — which is now under federal investigation.
While preparing a column about him for Townhall.com, I learned about Sal’s methods. He solves problems through a common-sense process he calls “sectionalization.” Start with a problem area, divide it in half. Determine which half holds the problem, focus on it and repeat.
“You keep whittling the problem down until you’ve isolated it,” he says, “to a very manageable size, which enables you to decide on where to look, and what to look for.”
He’s done this with the local water system, the city budget, sewer — you name it.
If you have a knack for problem solving — say, you like puzzles — then why not follow Sal’s example and give your local governments a look? Governments often present huge puzzles. Unravelling the messes that politicians and bureaucrats have made can be very rewarding.
Well, perhaps not so much. But it IS critical in keeping government accountable.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Learning from Sal Grosso”
Bravo Sal, Americans need patriots like you. At age 80,
to keep up the fight, WOW! I hope those young Americans will learn of your efforts and use their
talents for the good our country.
As usual, a great piece, but I had one question that struck me. What is meant by “charter school bureaucracies”? It strikes me as an oxymoron, since public charter schools are freed from much of the red tape, regulation, and union rules that bind traditional public schools.
Does Sal have a good bankroll? I tried unraveling my situation that corruption created but found that having a retiree’s bankroll and pay check can end in real problems.I found that one big lie can create the domino affect. Thereafter, for each unravieling, a new set of lies have to be created to cover up the original one and to sweep all evidence under the carpet. I would like to contact Sal. Give him my web site.
I agree with you 100% and applaud Sal’s efforts but want to know who is doing this for our federal govenment? I know we can’t count on the media to do it so who do we rely on to do it? I do believe it’s way overdue on the federal level.
Ray Quesnel
New Jersey
Mr Grosso’s method sounds interesting does he have a book or article out that would show some examples? Doug A.
Dear Paul, Sal’s ideas are great, – I wish he’d “take-apart” the mess that the Globalists want us to pick-up, at TREMENDOUS PROFITS to them, with none of the administrators taking the axe, but even LIVING…with their billions. Because this “crisis” is MANUFACTURED ( – like that Texas independent-Republican says)…this situation is being done to: generate immense profit, and, to destroy the Dollar as a World currancy. If Lay (Enron) was going to PRISON, ALL the major characters should, too, including Rep.Chris Dodd, Barny Franks, and others.