When I became a civil servant many years ago someone asked me did I understand what that meant? I probably looked like a deer in the headlights and muttered something like, "Well..., I work for the State (of California)". I was immediately corrected and told that as a civil servant I was "held to a higher standard because I was responsible for protecting the pubic's trust". Gulp -- wow, that sounded like a lot of responsibility for someone just working for the State...but that thought was always in the back of my mind throughout my state career.
If it is not civil servants...who is looking out for the public, and insuring that their tax and other dollars are spent wisely? We continually read about people and departments that pretty much do their own thing. The Department of Parks and Recreation debacle -- hiding money, while begging non-profits and localities to support their local parks hardly qualifies as "protecting the public's trust". Nor does cashing out vacation time, when there is no announced vacation buy back program. And please do not tell me that those 50+ employees including the Deputy Director of Administration did not understand that a yellow sticky note does not qualify as an official form which one would normally use to request vacation buy back. Really??? And let's not forget CalTRANS that can't seem to inspect their bridges and overpasses correctly -- boy that's another confidence builder for the public. No wonder the public is so outraged about state worker salaries and pensions -- it is just too much!!
Now days in State Government the only two words that matter are -- money and me. Many people are hired at all levels of government who do not have a clue of what they are doing. They do not have the requisite background or knowledge to performs their jobs...but they sit shucking and jiving their way to sometimes a sizable paycheck. Many employees have no knowledge of the basics of state government; laws, rules and procedures or protocols...they just make it up as they go. So you have the blind (sometimes rather innocently -- sometimes willfully) leading the blind.
The mass exodus of state employees retiring over the past 4-5 years has left a huge void -- we were the ones that were good stewards of the public trust. We knew the rules, and abided by them. There used to be penalties for not abiding by the rules -- counseling memos, letters of reprimand and if you were a really bad actor, you could get fired. Auditors were everywhere -- at the State Controller's Office monitoring the expenditures of departments, their travel claims, and contracts. Department of Personnel Administration/State Personnel Board monitored the hiring and classifications systems--write-ups and justifications had to be submitted and approved. And the biggest gun in State Government was the Department of Finance-- they controlled departments' budget expenditures and practically knew every dollar that was spent, every position that was added and every upgrade that was allowed. There was no having the Controller's numbers differ from the department's numbers....if there was a difference, then there better be a good explanation.
Now there are no longer any real control agencies helping to protect the public's trust. They seem to exist only on paper, but not in actually. No one seems to take responsibility for anything and there is not any accountability. And very worst part is that people who are in positions that should care and they get paid to care, DO NOT. The State of California is a a miniature version of Penn State. No one wants to speak up for fear of making the wrong person look bad and then being forced out of their jobs -- be it civil servants or political appointees.
As much as I like progress, I am all for going back to those "good old days" of State Government, (I can't believe I am saying this as I dreaded all of those endless write-ups, etc.) wherein everything had to be justified to the above mentioned "control" agencies. I firmly believe that is the only way that State Government can begin to function in any meaningful way again.
It starts with hiring competent people at those control agencies, holding them accountable for doing their jobs, and they in turn make all of the departments and their employees accountable. It is a trickle down effect which actually worked very well for many years.
Until that happens, there will not be anyone held to a higher standard and there will not be many "protecting the public's trust".
1 comment:
Well said.
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