San Diego Needs Competent Leadership
The root cause of the San Diego pension plan problem is simple: we elect to public office people who are not qualified in any sense to run a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Few elected officials are personally venal, although there is a fair share of that. Most are simply over their heads, and must trust "staff" because they are not themselves qualified to examine intricate financial documents, and they have no independent assistance.
This became obvious several decades ago when I attended scores upon scores of meetings of a certain school board. The members of the school board were certainly well-meaning, dedicated individuals, but they were babes in the arms of the staff. Each year the Board would look at the "summary budget" – that meaningless document that contained numerous defects under line items like "Transportation -- $2,345,000." Without the availability of the detail budget, the Board never knew what was included in "transportation."
And the only people the Board had to ask questions of were the very people who had prepared the Summary Budget! A Board member would point to the transportation line item and sternly ask, "Is this the correct number?" The staff, who had prepared the Summary Budget would condescendingly reply, "Yes, Mrs. Smith, that is correct."
Then the board would go to the next item, and eventually, having gone laboriously but ineffectively through the Summary Budget, would approve the budget. Each year I would ask to see the detail budget from which the Summary was developed, and each year the Superintendent would deny me the access.
Each year I would recommend that the Board hire a libertarian Ph.D candidate at UCSD to work only for the Board, examine the documentation, and report ONLY to the Board. The only proviso I recommended was that the consultant could only be fired for been seen having coffee with any staff member!
Of course that never happened, and I strongly suspect that every school board is exactly the same today. The oversight of complicated financial documents is a complete mystery to most politicians – probably ALL politicians! The inner workings and hidden mechanisms of budgets are the work of green eyeshade people and computer specialists and are a mystery to those who find Microsoft Word to be a challenge.
I have had the opportunity to know several San Diego City Council people since the days of the Yellow Cab Scandal in the late 60s. Most Council members I knew would have found the management of a neighborhood Mail Boxes Etc. an impossible challenge. The management of a multi-billion dollar corporation like the City of San Diego is beyond their expertise and, to be perfectly honest, beyond their intellect.
Most jobs look easy to outsiders…running a City is NOT easy. It is not a job for people without any financial skills below understanding nine zeros, excluding decimal points.
Pick ANY Council Member and ask yourself: Would you select them to be the Senior Management of a major corporation with a $2.3 billion annual operating budget?
The answer is obvious…regardless of their civic service to the community in the past, they are not remotely qualified to run a major corporation. They do not even know the right questions to ask, much less understand the answers that professional staff give them.
The City Council appointed a Board to oversee the Pension Fund…and promptly appointed many people who are paid by the City! Worse, many of their appointees will retire on the money they get from that same pension fund! Their appointees had a massive built-in conflict of interest. Even the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, the CEO of National Steel – who should be able to read the financials, or certainly had access to his own staff who could – is a long-time fundraiser and supporter of the Mayor!
Southern and Hawaiian politicians, as inept and corrupt as those anywhere, are always happy that New Jersey exists as the lightening rod…but San Diego, "Enron-by-the-Sea" in the eyes of a recent New York Times article on the Pension Fund, has nothing to be complacent about.
Believed to be under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Attorney, and other agencies, there is no escaping further public embarrassment.
A $2 billion is too much a pension/health plan shortfall to be covered by "Oooops."
This makes the Charger Ticket Guarantee pale by comparison – and the Chargers proved what happens when a professional group negotiates with a bunch of well-meaning amateurs. The City lost its shorts!
Kudos to Ms. Shipione (a CPA), the one member of the 13 member Board who blew the whistle on this fiasco. She is quoted in the NY Times as saying, "I saw this happen in Orange County, and I realized I had to speak up. I let the retirement board know, I let the mayor and the council know, and no one appeared interested. The city basically did it to itself."
Right, but the Board was hand picked by the City Council, and it is the City Council responsibility. Like the Charger Ticket Guarantee, there is probably no corruption, "only" incompetence. But incompetence is built into the system when we elect people who have no background in business above successfully running a neighborhood copy shop, and often nothing that complicated.
Back in the ancient days of Morse code, radio operators had a Navy code to send when the operator on the other end of the line was unable to keep up, and that signal was the ultimate insult among men who prized their ability to send and receive at lightening speed. That signal was ZBM2 – "Put a qualified operator on the line."
ZBM2!
-- 30 --
Few elected officials are personally venal, although there is a fair share of that. Most are simply over their heads, and must trust "staff" because they are not themselves qualified to examine intricate financial documents, and they have no independent assistance.
This became obvious several decades ago when I attended scores upon scores of meetings of a certain school board. The members of the school board were certainly well-meaning, dedicated individuals, but they were babes in the arms of the staff. Each year the Board would look at the "summary budget" – that meaningless document that contained numerous defects under line items like "Transportation -- $2,345,000." Without the availability of the detail budget, the Board never knew what was included in "transportation."
And the only people the Board had to ask questions of were the very people who had prepared the Summary Budget! A Board member would point to the transportation line item and sternly ask, "Is this the correct number?" The staff, who had prepared the Summary Budget would condescendingly reply, "Yes, Mrs. Smith, that is correct."
Then the board would go to the next item, and eventually, having gone laboriously but ineffectively through the Summary Budget, would approve the budget. Each year I would ask to see the detail budget from which the Summary was developed, and each year the Superintendent would deny me the access.
Each year I would recommend that the Board hire a libertarian Ph.D candidate at UCSD to work only for the Board, examine the documentation, and report ONLY to the Board. The only proviso I recommended was that the consultant could only be fired for been seen having coffee with any staff member!
Of course that never happened, and I strongly suspect that every school board is exactly the same today. The oversight of complicated financial documents is a complete mystery to most politicians – probably ALL politicians! The inner workings and hidden mechanisms of budgets are the work of green eyeshade people and computer specialists and are a mystery to those who find Microsoft Word to be a challenge.
I have had the opportunity to know several San Diego City Council people since the days of the Yellow Cab Scandal in the late 60s. Most Council members I knew would have found the management of a neighborhood Mail Boxes Etc. an impossible challenge. The management of a multi-billion dollar corporation like the City of San Diego is beyond their expertise and, to be perfectly honest, beyond their intellect.
Most jobs look easy to outsiders…running a City is NOT easy. It is not a job for people without any financial skills below understanding nine zeros, excluding decimal points.
Pick ANY Council Member and ask yourself: Would you select them to be the Senior Management of a major corporation with a $2.3 billion annual operating budget?
The answer is obvious…regardless of their civic service to the community in the past, they are not remotely qualified to run a major corporation. They do not even know the right questions to ask, much less understand the answers that professional staff give them.
The City Council appointed a Board to oversee the Pension Fund…and promptly appointed many people who are paid by the City! Worse, many of their appointees will retire on the money they get from that same pension fund! Their appointees had a massive built-in conflict of interest. Even the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, the CEO of National Steel – who should be able to read the financials, or certainly had access to his own staff who could – is a long-time fundraiser and supporter of the Mayor!
Southern and Hawaiian politicians, as inept and corrupt as those anywhere, are always happy that New Jersey exists as the lightening rod…but San Diego, "Enron-by-the-Sea" in the eyes of a recent New York Times article on the Pension Fund, has nothing to be complacent about.
Believed to be under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Attorney, and other agencies, there is no escaping further public embarrassment.
A $2 billion is too much a pension/health plan shortfall to be covered by "Oooops."
This makes the Charger Ticket Guarantee pale by comparison – and the Chargers proved what happens when a professional group negotiates with a bunch of well-meaning amateurs. The City lost its shorts!
Kudos to Ms. Shipione (a CPA), the one member of the 13 member Board who blew the whistle on this fiasco. She is quoted in the NY Times as saying, "I saw this happen in Orange County, and I realized I had to speak up. I let the retirement board know, I let the mayor and the council know, and no one appeared interested. The city basically did it to itself."
Right, but the Board was hand picked by the City Council, and it is the City Council responsibility. Like the Charger Ticket Guarantee, there is probably no corruption, "only" incompetence. But incompetence is built into the system when we elect people who have no background in business above successfully running a neighborhood copy shop, and often nothing that complicated.
Hemphill’s Rules of Elected Politics:
Never elect anyone for whom the elected position represents a pay raise!
Treat all political positions as if they were Senior Management of a corporation with the Annual Budget of the political entity for whom they serve.
Caring is worth one point, financial and management competence – 10 points.
Anyone can run anything with an unlimited budget.
Never vote for anyone with a law degree. By nature, Lawyers are interested in process, not progress.
Back in the ancient days of Morse code, radio operators had a Navy code to send when the operator on the other end of the line was unable to keep up, and that signal was the ultimate insult among men who prized their ability to send and receive at lightening speed. That signal was ZBM2 – "Put a qualified operator on the line."
ZBM2!
-- 30 --
posted by Kimo | 10:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home