Recently, I was able to sneak into Ed James’ presidential suite atop the Concord Hilton while he was away ice fishing in Minnesota over the holidays. Dimitri, Ed’s chauffeur, snuck me the room key inside a borscht and cheese sandwich he had slipped to me earlier in the day at a Chamber Luncheon before dropping Ed and his fishing gear off at Buchanan Field so Ed could catch his private charter flight to the land of a thousand frozen lakes.

Ed’s suite has a big bay window above the Iron Horse Trail that faces the backside of Waterworld and the homeless encampments across the creek, underneath the bridge. What an inspirational gateway view! His room looked like it had been the scene of a wild party, but having carefully read for 13 years the bathroom grout at the City Manager’s compound, I knew that just couldn’t be right. Maybe ‘Mitri, who had been muttering something in broken English about relaunching Concord’s Tourism and Convention Bureau out of a back room of a deli on Monument, was entertaining clients and family on Concord’s dime.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

I quickly confirmed that Ed was smart enough to not leave his lap top in the room, hey that’s why he gets the big bucks, right? But miracle of miracles, there was a magenta Hello Kitty note pad underneath the mattress of the bed in the master bedroom. In it I saw some hastily scribbled names and comments below a bold heading:

CITY MANAGER CANDIDATES

Guy Bjerke— now a councilman, dammit
Lydia DuBorg— my first choice last year
Mark Deven— happy in Woodland
Helen Allen— that’d teach ‘em a lesson
Don Blubaugh— triple-dipper downer
Secret Candidates before Lydia was axed— League of Cities baggage

Then the simple epithet:

Screw it… sub it out to a search firm for $40,000.

And finally, some odd masonic-looking, geometric doodling that bordered flight times and arrivals to MSP.

Stay tuned for more of the “Secret Diary of Ed James.” Ed might be back from his ice fishing jaunt by the time you read this, so if you want to get one of Concord’s dirty little secrets off your chest that Ed doesn’t know about or would never reveal, send them to AdminClerkIII@mac.com.