Jenny Krennin is a political deal maker. She is a dowdy late 40s woman with short hair and expensive pant suits.
For those of you who don’t know how democracies work, there are three tiers. Firstly you have the elected officials. They come and go based on the electoral schedule and make the decisions. Secondly, you have the bureaucracy. These are the people who work for the divisions of government, enacting the decisions of the elected officials and developing policy on which future decisions are made. They also interact with the third tier. The third tier is the lobby groups. These are interest groups that approach government with agendas related to influencing current or introducing specific future policy.
Jenny is a born bureaucrat. She is a director of a major government department. She knows all the other directors and all of the current voted heads of the departments. She knows more about them than thay would want her to know. She spends her days in meetings. Meetings relating to her department, meetings for steering committees and meetings with lobbyist organisations. She knows everyone who matters in government. Governments come and go based on the whims of the populace but the bureaucracy remains. Jenny is one of the most powerful individuals in the government she works for.
When Jenny says ‘I’ll have a word with them about that’ it can be translated as meaning that whatever the issue, it will happen. Jenny will chat with the relevant directors and it will be passed through to the right people so that it happens. As easy as that.
Or is it? Jenny is a patriot. She believes in what she does and she absolutely believes that she is contributing to a better world for the citizens influenced by her actions. Any request that comes to her that does not convince her of this is ignored. If it is illegal she passes it to the relevant authorities. Jenny is a hard nut to crack. But if you can gain access to her and convince her that what you want is best for the people and for the nation as a whole, consider it done. Nothing can stand in her way once she makes a decision.
Using Jenny Krennin
- The Characters are in the USA and need all the Park Rangers to leave Yellowstone National Park for their own nefarious reasons. Through their contacts they form a lobby group and are able to convince Jennny that the Park needs to be closed over a specific weekend because the Rangers must be trained in a new GPS technology at a conference that they bankroll.
- The Characters are in the UK. They are initiating a surveillance operation on a location. By contacting Jenny, a regional security director, they are able to convince her that the local police force should not patrol near the property due to National Security concerns.
- The Characters are arrested by a Law Enforcement Special Operations team. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken their plan to scuttle a ship in a major harbour to director Jenny Krennin. Apparently she is not receptive to bribery.
