DANGER

Here is a link to a news story from ABC's 20/20. It's regarding the sale of old (not used) tires in the US. Please take a look because it's wise to be informed!


http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

Thoughts anyone?

Management Inbreeding

Here is the last in my current series on government accountability. I call it management inbreeding. This is when management perpetuates itself. That means that the Police Chief started as a patrolman in the same department and the Chief has always been "brought up through the ranks". Again, I'm using this as an example, it is prevalent in every department and division of government, not just the Police Department.

When a government agency promotes from within, as guaranteed by civil service, there is no real opportunity to change. There will be incremental changes as certain people change practices that they didn't like, or they realize didn't work well, but there will be no overhauls of the way things are done. There won't be any real studies to see if there are ways to do things better. Tradition overrules almost all attempts at change and since the new manager used to be "one of the gang" they won't risk losing life-time relationships to make changes that may serve the public better.

Don't think that volunteer agencies are better, in fact, they are usually worse. Since they recruit membership and are not bound by civil service regulations, they have a tendency to "weed out" those that do not share a similar vision as existing management. This is seen in the current "volunteer crisis" throughout the state of New Jersey. It is frequently bemoaned that there is no one willing to volunteer anymore, but that is not true.

This past weekend, I've spoken with three different people who took the time to go through the 130 hour EMT course and then volunteer on a local ambulance, only to become disgusted at the poor management and time wasting internal politics. The end result will be that these three people will stop volunteering and the local ambulance corps will continue to cry about its lack of volunteers. The problem is not the volunteers, they are out there in droves, its the management of the ambulance corps that lives and dies by the phrase, "We've always done it this way."

Again the question, how do we fix this? Is it time that all volunteer government agencies be headed by a paid, full-time professional? If so, who picks that person, what will their qualifications be, and how do we prevent them from becoming stagnant?

Thoughts anyone?

Identifying the problem

Yesterday I asked about how we improve service from government agencies. Today I want to discuss the first step in solving any problem.....identifying it. Many of us are not even aware that we can be (and in many cases, should be) treated to better service. The only way to discover this is to change localities and note the differing levels of service.

Here in New Jersey, much of the emergency services (fire and ems) have been provided by volunteers. This is slowly changing due to the fact that the number of volunteers has been steadily dropping (read tomorrow for that entry). The public has been very slow to address the issue of the change in service resulting from fewer volunteers.

Here is an example. The local ambulance corps' daytime membership drops to the point where they cannot guarantee a crew and have to rely on whomever happens to be in town at the time they receive a call. This means that there may be an ambulance on the road within 5 minutes of the call, or they may have to call to some of the surrounding towns (who are in the same situation) for assistance. The result can be up to a 45 minute delay in response. Unless you are the poor person needing an ambulance and waiting 45 minutes, you don't realize the danger that you are in. All you know is "those nice volunteers" are taking care of your emergency medical needs, but they really aren't.

This feeling results from the fact that some of your neighbors, who you are friendly with, have been volunteers for years and are really devoted to it. They do, in fact, devote hundreds of hours a year to training and response. They are committed and enjoy what they do. They also can't guarantee you an ambulance when you need it.

The same can be true of your police department, your building department, or whatever agency you name. It's always been that way and you've become used to it. The agency serves your needs adequately (maybe) during the limited times that you need it, so it doesn't occur to you that maybe the building department could put permitting on-line so you can apply for and receive a permit any time of day or night, or maybe your police department should have a fitness requirement so they don't look like they would collapse if they had to run after a fleeing felon. None of this would occur to you until you go to another jurisdiction and see what services THEY take for granted.

So, how do you correct this situation because you aren't aware that it exists? I don't have an answer, I merely pose the question. Perhaps we look to our state governments to provide specific service guidelines (ie an ambulance MUST be on the road within 10 minutes of the intial 911 call, the building department MUST issue non-contested permits within 24 hours of receipt, etc). Then the question is, who develops those guidelines and how do we keep them from being influenced by special interest groups? Perhaps we make all government agencies semi-private, they must answer to an elected board of directors, much the way corporations do.

Thoughts anyone?

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Government Accountability

It's an election year and much is going to be said about voting. It is EXTREMELY important that you vote in every election that you can. This is the way that you can make the most impact on what happens in your government. This national election will decide philosophy on taxation, entitlement, and government regulation. It tells our elected officials what the people are thinking about how government affects them.

That being said, now the question comes, how do we affect those who aren't elected? For most of us, our interaction with the government (aside from checks to the IRS), is on the local level. This interaction comes in the form of the local water utility, local building department, local tax authority, local garbage collector, and maybe the local emergency service. None of these people are elected and yet they are the ones that we are most likely to come in contact with. How do we have an effect on how that service is delivered? Unless we make it a public issue that causes embarrassment to the elected officials, the answer is usually, we don't.

Given that we are frequently treated poorly by some of these agencies and we have no recourse, how do we change the system to make it more responsive to the customer, in this case....us? How do we make the garbage man replace the lid on the can when he finishes dumping it? How do we make the TSA worker treat us politely and not like some convicted terrorist? How do we get the building department to issue permits in a speedy and helpful way? How do we get the motor vehicle representative to be polite?

Thoughts anyone?


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