Should Freeborn County commissioners have disciplined Administrator Ron Gabrielsen for his license plates?

No.

Should they have given him a warning?

Yes.

And perhaps they did. Verbal discussion on personnel issues are private, according to state law.

Most computer geeks and military buffs who know what FOAD stands for are going to think the negative connotation. People who know the military uses &8220;IC&8221; for in charge &8212; as in NCOIC for non-commissioned officer in charge &8212; can piece together the HMF, too. Understanding FC is probably a matter of time.

(By the way, we don&8217;t feel like spelling out again what they stand for here because we don&8217;t like having to use &8220;expletive deleted&8221; so often. Go back and read Tuesday&8217;s edition of the Tribune.)

Let&8217;s call a duck a duck. Gabrielsen knew very well what the plates stood for. The plates were vulgar and in poor taste.

There&8217;s real county business to take care of. People can point fingers all they want, but sooner or later someone was going say something about the plates. There&8217;s no one else to blame but the owner of the plates.

Let&8217;s hope that when Gabrielsen picks his new vanity plates, the letter F isn&8217;t on them.