A brief history of DLSE Asst. Chief Greg Rupp and his seemingly lifelong ability to hold grudges...

1) almost ten years ago, Greg Rupp wanted to fire an employee for not listing that he was a mayor serving as the opposite political affiliation as Mr. Rupp. The employee got wind of Mr. Rupp's intent and sought legal counsel. Greg was too cowardly to act on his desires, so the employee stayed. Since then, both the employee and Greg remain at DLSE, but the employee has never been promoted. Despite the employee's high rate of success at settling wage claims, it seems that Greg Rupp insists on giving this employee the middle finger for the remainder of the employee's career.

2) as soon as Gov. Davis left office, DIR/DLSE management heads Steve Smith and Chuck Cake left, too. No sooner had they left than Greg Rupp marches into a supervisor's office and belts out that he (Greg) is now the boss again and this supervisor had better run everything thru official channels. Previously, the supervisor was in charge of the now-defunct Low Wage Industries Task Force, and he had authorization to go directly to Chuck and Steve. It seems that Greg's fragile little ego was shattered because he was shut out. If there's one thing that Greg loves, it's his chance for payback...

3) Greg discovers that someone talked at one of his meetings, and that information landed on the blog. He prints out the blog, barges into offices and demands to know who leaked the information. By all acounts, Greg was pissed off, yelling, and very upset.

4) back in the day when he was in charge of Wage Claims, there was an employee by the name of Rowein (sp?). Greg had targeted her (for whatever reason...he can pontificate under oath at a later time) and she was to be involuntarily transferred from the Santa Ana office to the Los Angeles office, assuming that the horrible commute would make her resign. Instead, she files a lawsuit and the matter is confidentially settled. This is what Greg does should anyone make the mistake of not doing what Greg wants them to do. It's too bad that Greg didn't have the grapes to see the lawsuit to the end, but then again, maybe he didn't want to suffer such a high-profile, public and brutal loss.

Greg's best days are behind him, and those days have passed long ago. After having been passed over for a promotion that Lupe Almaraz received, he refuses to retire or transfer. Any of those options make him less than what he is now; it's not about needing the paycheck, it's about the power he'd give up. At Labor Standards, he's a SOMEBODY: staff must obey him. He cannot retire because what is he gonna retire to, some endless honey-do list? Out in the world, he's not a SOMEBODY. I'm sure he's got problems coming to that realization, but let's face it, most people on this planet do it everyday. At the end of the day, Greg Rupp needs to stop acting like a big baby everytime things don't go his way. The guy's approaching sixty, and he's still throwing temper tantrums? By allowing Greg to collect a paycheck at DLSE, Robert Jones and Lupe Almaraz are only giving him the chance to worsen DLSE (Greg hasn't done anything relevant at DLSE for several years).