In an editorial published this morning, titled "Election housecleaning?", the Times makes some very insightful comments about Nicole Way's reinstatement. First, the Times rightly points out that while Ms. Way's superiors are at fault, she is too. Editor Bruce Ramsey (who wrote the editorial) puts it, "some matters are so serious that a second chance is not reasonable. The 2004 election...was one of those matters."
Second, Ramsey opines that this is just the most recent example of how public sector unions make it nearly impossible to fire incompetent people.
Now, the new head of elections in King County will have a leadership team consisting of Garth Fell, Bill Huennekens, and Nicole Way. If their conduct in 2004 wasn't enough to get them fired, I see little hope of competent leadership in the elections department any time soon.
Posted by Jonathan Bechtle at August 23, 2006 11:01 AM | Email ThisBut the idea that one person, Nicole Way, far down the chain of command should be plucked out and held accountable through termination - the workplace death penalty - while Fell received a two-week suspension held in "abeyance" (meaning, he never had to serve it, nor suffer workplace embarrassment), and Huennekens was transferred to another job where still earns $80,000 a year "researching" voting devices, is ridiculous. Both of them had much more culpability for the situation than Way.
The arbitrator simply ruled that, compared to the punishment meted out to the others, Way's was too severe, and the arbitrator is right.
And the Times editorial page has proven, once and for all, that they are fundamentally hypocrites.
Apparently, it was OK for Dean Logan to fail to heed Ms. Way's warnings about numbers coming in off, it was OK for him to lie to the public when 93 additional ballot were found, actually it was OK for him to do a terrible job all along the way, and when he finally ends our county's nightmare by resigning of his own accord, the Times editorial page mourned his loss and berated those who had driven him out.
Apparently, you need to be a man who comes over and butters up the editorial board frequently to merit any sort of consideration from them.
Absolute Hypocrites.
Posted by: Insider on August 23, 2006 11:42 AMWith Bill H, Garth Fell and others there, it is only a matter of time, until we see the 04 debacle in replay. It will worse the next time for KCRE, they have played every card they have and you can only hide the rotted decaying flesh so long. It will come to light sooner or later.
The longer it festers - the worse it will be.
However, both Fell and Huennekens have been completely through the discipline process and were not only barely disciplined, the timing and nature of their discipline was designed in such a way that they suffered the least possible financially, publicly, and in workplace esteem.
And, just like in criminal cases, under the King County personnel guidelines their discipline is done and decided. The county is barred from going back and terminating them for their 2004 actions. That train has left the station.
Given the brely negligible discipline meted out to them, it still would be fundamentally unfair for Way's termination to be upheld, and in light of that, the arbitrator ruled correctly.
Posted by: Insider on August 23, 2006 12:07 PMWhile I worked for the Teamsters, who represent plenty of public sector employees, I was aware of dozens of firings for incompetence and sundry other firing offenses.
In many of the these cases, the union went along because the evidence was so overwhelming. The union's only role was to ensure that the employee got a fair hearing, and that the terms of the collective bargaining agreement were followed.
Because most supervisory personnel are almost by nature the incompetent ones, and because many of them became supervisors only by sucking up to their "superiors," most of them do not know how to document an employee for termination.
When this is done properly, any decent union representative will recognize it. This is just as true in the private sector.
When management cleans its own house of its incompetents, which will never happen, then and only then should the finger be pointed at unions.
But Bechtle is paid to lie about unions, so I don't expect him to stop any time soon.
Posted by: ivan on August 23, 2006 01:02 PMLeaders like Ron Sims unleash their directors and supervisors with virtually all the authority and "political cover" they need to silence and punish anyone within the government that would step off the farm and reveal the county's secrets. No matter what someone in this cesspool has done, I'm prepared to forgive just about anything if they come clean and speak out against what goes on inside this Sims machine.
Here's an example below. The county has spent over a million dollars so far on private lawyers to keep this case bottled up and from impacting the agencies or individuals cited in the lawsuit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/231102_lawsuit02.html
BTW- the county approved the 800 home development mentioned in this article from 2005 last Monday without anyone involved in the alleged wrongdoing held accountable, and the examiner's recommendation to deny was completely ignored. That is the goverenment we have under Sims.
Posted by: MJC on August 23, 2006 01:07 PMhttp://www.34dems.org/Photos2006/Aug06-Weiss-Hannigan.jpg
Posted by: swassociates on August 23, 2006 02:07 PMAll the "supervisors" I know in state gov't aren't in the union. I'll leave my impression on their competence for another discussion.
Posted by: Jack Burton on August 23, 2006 02:13 PMDo unions ever lie?
Posted by: SouthernRoots on August 23, 2006 02:17 PMWhat good is a union if it protects outright incompetents from being removed?
Posted by: MES on August 23, 2006 03:09 PMThere are plenty of incompetent people in the private sector who are never fired. Of course the quantity of incompetent employees varies widely from company to company. The important distinction is that the salary of incompetent employees in private companies are not paid for by our tax dollars.
That said, my wife is a teacher in a school district that shall remain nameless, and from what I've heard you have to move heaven and earth to get someone fired for incompetence.
For some reason this story made me think about how disputed elections are resolved in other countries.
Posted by: Sstar on August 23, 2006 05:15 PMThat is seven trillion dollars.
Yes, the train has left the station.
Don't expect any justice from your government. It is too big. The beast runs that show now and he is very effective at positioning his pawns in the e-mote press to undermine those who seek traction against his instrument.
It is great that Stefan and the others have given us all this information. What has come of it? What has changed? Or are you more enslaved than when you first learned the truth of KCE?
Nothing on earth can save you now. Excelsior.
Posted by: Jericho on August 23, 2006 08:40 PMFor decades taxpayers whined about running our government like a business and it's finally become a priority. Unfortunately, in typically clueless government fashion, the powers-that-be determined that throwing money at the problem would be the solution and now government salaries are competitive with those in industry.
Too bad paying more for a position doesn't automatically mean the person hired to fill it is better qualified to do the job. Management is an art unto itself--take a look at all the MBA programs. In a healthy organization, managers are hired for their skills, they're mentored and trained and they're supported by other good managers. It isn't rocket science and it's done out in private industry all the time.
Until management positions in government are no longer filled by people as a reward for being good at something else, or 'knowing somebody' or just being a nice person, government agencies will continue to be wasteful and dysfunctional--and public-sector unions will have an important role to fill.
Take KCE for example. Everybody recognizes that people are the most important asset for most organizations. You want somebody in charge of your HR department who understands how to hire, train, support and reward that very important asset. If you want a clue about what's wrong in there, look at the manager they have in charge of their Human Relations department. He's a guy who was so good at finance and budgets that they promoted him to HR manager! It would be one thing if he was put there because he was a good bean-counter AND had great people skills, or if he was actually trained to do that part of his job, but that isn't the case. Instead, his inability to do that part of his job leads to neglected, frustrated and resentful employees forced to turn to their union when things go wrong--as they frequently do.
Top management decisions like that one are the reason dysfunctional management in County government is pervasive and embarrassingly notorious. And it's going to stay that way until we as taxpayers recognize that the buck stops with Mr. Sims and begin to hold him responsible AND accountable for a healthy and efficient work culture inside County departments.
(I love blogs--everybody has a soapbox!)
I wonder who ties ivan's shoes for him and bathes him?
Posted by: holycow on August 24, 2006 10:24 AM