The Scott administration staged a nice little feel-good event yesterday. Gov. Phil Scott’s latest flood recovery press conference was held at, of all places, the 802 Subaru dealership in Berlin. Why? Because its billionaire owner, Ernie Boch, Jr., was presenting the governor with a donation to flood relief programs in the form of a great big cardboard novelty check for $250,000.

Boch and the administration got what they wanted. He got to open the presser with a boast about Subaru. The governor got a warm and fuzzy moment amidst the ongoing drudgery of flood recovery. But cynical ol’ me, it brought to mind a probably apocryphal anecdote that’s been variously assigned to Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Groucho Marx, and W.C. Fields, among others, but seems to have been first told in 1937 by newspaper columnist O.O. McIntyre:

“They are telling this of Lord Beaverbrook and a visiting Yankee actress. In a game of hypothetical questions, Beaverbrook asked the lady: ‘Would you live with a stranger if he paid you one million pounds?’ She said she would. ‘And if be paid you five pounds?’ The irate lady fumed: ‘Five pounds. What do you think I am?’ Beaverbrook replied: ‘We’ve already established that. Now we are trying to determine the degree.”

Well, our governor’s degree is a quarter million dollars. And for another 100 G’s, he’s willing to be interrupted in the middle of his prepared remarks and stand there like a goof while the sponsor hogs the microphone.

The money went to good causes, so I guess we can just ignore the unseemly optics. That’s how the media coverage played it, anyway.

The event began, not with the governor, but with Boch clapping his hands and saying “All right, here we go!” as he stepped to the lectern. The Massachusetts resident dutifully declared his love for Vermont (hey, he owns a house here, just like Saul Costa) and noted how much Vermonters love their Subarus: “The most Subarus sold per capita in the world is Vermont, with 15% penetration.” He then acknowledged, in a stage whisper, that his brand is second to Toyota in Vermont sales.

There was no immediate explanation of why the presser was being held outside a car dealership, with administration officials off to one side while 802 Subaru employees held center stage. Gotta get those branded polo shirts in front of the cameras, right?

Scott launched his remarks without addressing the location, but eventually he backed into it. He thanked Boch and 802 for “your commitment to our beautiful state and willingness to step up to help in a time of need” and praised “this incredibly generous contribution that we haven’t announced yet, but I will” before actually divulging said contribution. (The novelty check didn’t appear until the very end of the half-hour-long event.)

He then delivered the details — $100,000 in aid for mobile home park residents; $50,000 for Scott’s binky, the Vermont Strong license plate program; and $100,000 to support a post-flood special edition of Green Up Day on August 26. The latter, which I suspect will prominently feature 802 Subaru in promotional materials, was billed, repeatedly, as an effort to get all the trash out of sight before the fall tourist season. Not a way to help people affected by the disaster, but a way to gussy ourselves up so out-of-state visitors don’t feel uncomfortable. There was no reference to Barre’s tacit policy of allowing unhoused folk to camp “discreetly,” but we can take it as read. They can camp, but it’d be great if they could hide behind a tree if they see a tour bus approaching.

I must take a moment to mention the unintended irony of fundraising off the sale of license plates — and accepting a big donation from a car dealership — to address a storm worsened by climate change, in a state that contributes greatly to the problem with its dependence on motor vehicles. But let’s move on.

As Scott’s remarks continued, Boch strode to the microphone. Scott, looking confused, stepped to the side. The auto magnate then announced a surprise: another $100,000 gift for arts and music education in Vermont schools.

His generosity is welcome. Giving him so much free ad time? That gives me pause.

It also made me ask a question that nobody else in the media seemed to ask: Who the hell is Ernie Boch, Jr. anyway?

The answer is complicated. He’s a wealthy Massachusetts resident who made his fortune by owning, and then selling off, a bunch of dealerships his grandfather and father built. He also made a pile as owner of the regional distributorship Subaru of New England, which means he gets a cut of every Subaru — and every Subaru part — sold in the region. He’s a lifelong musician, hence his interest in arts education. He is a philanthropist who supports a variety of worthy causes.

He was also one of Donald Trump’s first megadonors way back in mid-2015, when Trump was still a curiosity in the political realm. Boch held one of Trump’s first fundarisers at his palatial (more on that later) home. And got in trouble with the feds when he reported the $87,000 cost of the event as an in-kind donation to the Trump campaign. That was a teeny-tiny bit over the maximum individual contribution of $2,700.

Boch had backed Mitt Romney in 2012, and explained backing Trump as a businessman who could get stuff done. And also compared his Trump support to Last Call: “It’s 2 a.m. and there’s a few girls at the bar, you have to go home with one of them.”

Well, you don’t really have to, but musicians, nudge nudge wink wink.

Boch lives in a 16,000 square foot mansion on a six-acre plot in what’s otherwise a neighborhood of single-family homes on small lots. He arranged this by purchasing a bunch of nearby homes and tearing them down. Some neighbors sold out because they couldn’t take the construction activity, heavy traffic, and frequent loud parties including one, per the Wall Street Journal, where “the star act was the Go-Go’s and the get-up included two hookah dens, go-go dancers, ice sculptures, New England Patriots cheerleaders and mounds of cocktail shrimp and lobster tails prepared by Food TV Network celebrity chef Tony Ambrose. (Extras were donated to the homeless.)”

Hey, never let it be said that Ernie doesn’t have a heart.

He also wants his creation to live on after he has joined the choir invisible.

Mr. Boch has a “Master Plan” for his estate that will ensure he is as talked about after death as he is in life. Drawn up by an architect, he says it will be a 10-acre retreat for the public where his house is now. There will be Zen gardens, a hedge maze and reflecting pools. There will also be a 230-square-foot mausoleum where visitors will push a button and the Neil Young song “Light a Candle” will play as they gaze at his glass-fronted coffin.

He also has a mansion on Martha’s Vineyard that checks in at a mere 15,000 square feet, so never let it be said that Ernie can’t exercise restraint.

But really, this is all standard stuff for a member of our oligarch class. You have a billion dollars, you can indulge your whims. And you can support a politician intent on tearing down our political system because, well, he’s not the ugliest broad left in the bar at Last Call.

Having enough money to painlessly give away 350 grand — and donate another 100 as an afterthought — is beyond the imagining of the 99 percent, but it’s just another day in the life for Ernie Boch. It seemed a bit out of character for The People’s Governor, but don’t forget that Phil Scott formally launched his first gubernatorial campaign at the annual convention of the Associated General Contractors of Vermont.

In other words, Boch is in a league of his own by Vermont standards, but he’s definitely in Scott’s comfort zone. Appearing outside a car dealership, surrounded by 802 Subaru personnel and allowing himself to be interrupted by the business owner, is familiar turf for our governor. He can make all the dutiful references he wants to protecting the most vulnerable, but he spends a hell of a lot more time and effort helping Vermont businesses.

And he saw nothing wrong with pimping out his administration for a big novelty check.