Somnambulance

Published June 10, 2014

by Carter Wrenn, Talking About Politics, June 9, 2014.

Horrified by the vision of legions of fired Democratic state employees, back when Jim Martin was elected Governor, Democrats changed the law so Martin couldn’t fire much of anyone – then announced (with a show of virtue) they’d gotten nasty old politics out of the state government.

 

But the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray: One day the typical state employee had a boss and the next he didn’t, then he figured out in place of a boss he had not a person but a set of rules (called the ‘Personnel Act’): He didn’t have quite the same job security as a tenured professor but he wasn’t far from it as long as he didn’t do anything egregious like larceny. 

 

Which turned out to be a temptation no self-respecting man should have to bear. 

 

The typical state employee’s day subtly changed.  He fell into a rhythm, eating, sleeping, tending to his wants and needs, and placidly spending eight hours in his office receiving and filing reports on, say, coal ash ponds.  Then, as the years rolled by, placidness compounded and compounded again and deepened into somnambulance until, one fine day, reality reared its head: A coal ash pond ruptured.

 

Pat McCrory had run for governor in 2008 and lost, toiled three years preparing to run again, built a new and stronger campaign, whipped Walter Dalton, and arrived in Raleigh full of new ideas but, when that coal ash pond ruptured, found himself face to face with an unforgiving fact: He had no one to clean up the mess except the same bureaucrats who’d spent decades blissfully asleep at the switch ignoring what had turned out to be a ticking time bomb.

 

Worse, wherever he looked he had the same problem. Over in the Department of Health and Human Services, they’d spent eight years and $500 million working on a new computer program but the minute the Governor pressed the go button there was a meltdown.

 

The program sputtered then settled into a smoking heap and the only people he had to fix it were the people who’d told him to press the button.

 

It seemed the Governor could set policy (and had plenty of well-meaning people like State Senators telling him what his policy ought to be) but what he really needed were people who could do things – who could fix problems.  Like coal ash ponds. 

So he tried a logical step: He asked the legislature to give him not the kind of unlimited power Jim Hunt had during his first two terms but a bit more power so he could replace somnambulant bureaucrats but as soon as the words were out of his mouth the State Employees Association and Democratic Legislators started hollering, accusing him of putting nasty old politics back into state government.

http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com

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June 10, 2014 at 8:49 am
Norm Kelly says:

And once again we come to the ugly truth of government. If you are a government employee, there are no requirements. You don't have to work to keep your job. Even though your job description calls for you to enforce rules/laws, if you choose not to do your job, you have nothing to worry about. The old saying used to be 'those who can't do, teach'. The new saying is 'those who don't want to do, become government employees'. Even when you are caught watching porn on your government supplied computer during your government job, you still can't be fired. And it's possible that the investigation into how you spend your day will be dropped because it could be seen as discriminating against someone who has an addiction. And, since you are a government employee, your addiction has to be tolerated.

What is government these days? Waste of money. A means to reward your friends and supporters. Someplace to put people who need a job so you can claim the unemployment rate is coming down. A lie perpetrated upon the people who pay for it. With the final curtain being a retirement package that can't be compared to anything in the private sector.

Are there some good government employees? I'm sure some can still be found. But every day they go to work they see their fellow employees slacking and it encourages them to slack off also. After all, why should I bust my butt if I can do virtually nothing and still get paid.

There is virtually no single government budget that has been cut to the bone. Government is bloated and wasteful.

Thank God I live in Cary. Where the budget has truly been cut to the bone. Where no money is wasted on government programs. Thank God The Cary is a private business, where we know tax dollars won't be stuffed down that rat hole for years to come. Thank God the park planned for downtown, to revitalize, will draw people by the boatloads to frequent private businesses. The boutique hotel planned in downtown Cary will be self-sufficient because the park will attract people who will want to stay in the hotel to frequent the park. And the coffee house across the street from the park & hotel is also self-sufficient so that no tax dollars are being wasted on that either. Thank God I live in Cary where they are so concerned about how they spend every one of my precious tax dollars. At least we don't have any employees NOT working!

June 10, 2014 at 9:15 am
Richard Bunce says:

The biggest hurdle to efficient government is the inefficient, ineffective, incompetent government bureaucrats.