Playing Favorites At The Expense Of Taxpayers
As Republicans assume control of Washington state’s law-making, expect them to infuse it with their philosophical fondness for the private sector.
That doesn’t mean privatization will come about overnight, though, as the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute can testify.
When SIRTI tried to save a few tax dollars by contracting with a private firm for janitorial work, the state employees’ union sued, and won.
A trial court ruling - which SIRTI may appeal says only state employees can do that work.
Union official Tom Watson says civil service laws were written to prevent favoritism in state hiring.
That may be the intent. In practice, however, the civil service laws don’t prevent favoritism, they assure it.
A new spin on bureaucracy
While we’re on the subject of government efficiency, here’s a reminder that good intentions don’t assure favorable results.
If you’re prone to dizziness, be forewarned. This story goes around in circles.
State officials wanted to improve the way services are delivered to troubled teens. So they re-examined the providers with whom they place youngsters.
Now kids are to be shifted from some experienced providers, such as Morning Star Boys’ Ranch in Spokane County, to new ones.
One new provider, Service Alternatives for Washington in the Puget Sound Area, is to receive 187 teens but has no place to house them. So, it proposed subcontracting some to … ta-da … Morning Star.
White-glove inspection; kid-gloves treatment
A career NCO I knew in the Army told of a top-notch unit’s barracks inspection. Finding the quarters spotless, the inspection team punched a hole in the wallboard and reached inside in order to smudge their white gloves and justify a “gig.”
The tale may have been fabricated, but a decision handed down last week by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is a real-life tale of similar desperation.
The court overturned the death sentence of murderer David Lewis Rice. Why? Rice wasn’t there to hear the jurors announce their verdict.
My NCO friend said the resourceful inspection team never cracked a smile. The 9th Circuit judges probably didn’t either.
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