Posted on 05/12/2002 10:58:46 AM PDT by randita
Dan Walters: Oracle debacle is emblematic of an administration in disarray
By Dan Walters -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Sunday, May 12, 2002
It was a pretty sorry spectacle: the heads of three state agencies appearing before a legislative committee, each telling lawmakers that he thought someone else had verified claims that a costly new computer software program would save oodles of tax money.
As it turns out, the orphan project -- since no one claims parentage, it must be an orphan -- not only could cost the state tens of millions of dollars to buy (from the Oracle Corp.) but, unless canceled, could cost many tens of millions more to use, according to a state audit. And few state workers apparently wanted the software in the first place.
It was not only the latest in a long and depressing string of very expensive computer debacles afflicting state government, dating back through several administrations, but emblematic of Gov. Gray Davis' managerial ambience. No regime in recent state history has had as many administrative screw-ups as Davis' 3-year-old governorship, a syndrome that reflects the governor's insistence on micromanaging and valuing politics over competence in appointments.
A case in point is Barry Keene, who signed the Oracle contract as General Services director and then fell on his sword when the contract blew up. Keene's two-decade-long legislative career was ample evidence that he would be an awful manager of a large state agency. Keene was a loner in the Capitol whose rages at his staff were legendary and who battled numerous personal demons. Despite that total lack of credentials, he was selected because -- as with most of Davis' appointees -- he could be trusted politically.
Political trustworthiness and/or political payoffs to those owed favors by the governor have been the hallmark of most high-level Davis appointments. And the result, when combined with an insistence on controlling matters from the Governor's Office and an overly developed politicization of everything that happens, has been a state government that functions poorly at best.
California newspapers have reported time after time on the cronyism and sheer incompetence that afflicts major agencies -- such as the dysfunctional California National Guard, the marginally operational Department of Motor Vehicles, a politics-driven Department of Transportation and the perennially disastrous Department of Veterans Affairs.
Auditors, consumer advocates, newspapers and other watchdogs are still trying to figure out what happened when the Department of Water Resources launched itself on a multibillion-dollar electricity power purchase program last year as the state's major utilities lost their financial ability to buy juice. Although Attorney General Bill Lockyer concluded last week that California's energy consultants did not technically violate criminal conflict-of-interest laws, it was apparent that a lot of the folks hired at the DWR to buy power also had financial interests in the companies from which they were making purchases.
Sometimes, as with Veterans Affairs, the shortcomings have become so embarrassingly public that Davis has been forced to dump his own appointees, although he often replaces them with equally dim bulbs. Veterans Affairs is now on its third chief, and he's likely to suffer the ignominious fate of the first two. Davis' first transportation director, an obscure politician from San Francisco, got another job from the governor after his foul-ups at the Department of Transportation became publicly evident.
The tendency to staff an administration with political hacks has its comic-opera aspects. One example: The chief deputy director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a one-time official of a union that endorsed Davis' election, used an emergency firefighting appropriation to acquire an expensive plane for his personal use.
More often, however, the result is a deterioration of vital services and blows to the morale of tens of thousands of civil servants who must contend with political antics -- a syndrome very evident in the Oracle affair. When someone acquires an aerial plaything, or redecorates his office at huge cost, or uses his position to pursue personal vendettas -- or when someone appears from the Governor's Office to redirect policy to help contributors -- honest workers wonder why they're busting their butts to do the public's business.
The Bee's Dan Walters can be reached at (916) 321-1195 or dwalters@sacbee.com .
The Sacramento Bee is a Democratic Paper. For at least 45 years the Bee has favored Democrats over Republicans.
Looks like 'Gray Out' Davis has torked off too many people. The corruption is just as bad as Clinton.
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I just wanted to highlight this statement!
Ernest, I while agree with your comment about the DWR mess, I also think that the Public Employees unions should re-think their lock-step relationship to the Democratic party. I doubt it will happen but unions have as much or more to fear from Democrats (like Davis) as they do from Republicans (like Simons)
A few days ago, Davis and his corrupt attorney general Lockyer geared up what was obviously intended to be a major propaganda campaign, blaming President Bush for the energy crisis by dragging Enron into the public eye again. NPR immediately picked up the ball and started running with it. But Davis can only get away with such shenannigans if the liberal press in California is willing to continue lying for him. This article, and some earlier ones these past few weeks in the SacBee and the LA Times, indicate that maybe even the liberal press has decided to cut their losses and dump Davis. I sure hope so, because if Simon gets in I believe he will be a strong and likeable governor who is likely to get reelected, and likely also to strengthen the whole party in California.
There you have it. A disatrous combination of micro-management without sufficient talent, spending priorities driven by purely political motives, and spending an inapropriate amount of time in campaign fundraising mode. Gray-out's proven formula for ruining one of the world's great economies.
Have you (all) written a check to Simon yet?
Sounds just like President Clintons.
Clinton still has his Defenders in High and Mighty positions!
Hopefully Davis is going to the ashbin of History!
"...The tendency to staff an administration with political hacks has its comic-opera aspects. One example: The chief deputy director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a one-time official of a union that endorsed Davis' election, used an emergency firefighting appropriation to acquire an expensive plane for his personal use..."From http://www.caltax.org/member/digest/nov2001/11.2001.AccountabilityFiles.01.htm:
FLYING FAST. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was raked through the coals in an August 31 Dan Walters column (Sacramento Bee).I notice a pattern here:
One element of Governor Gray Davis’ “‘fire action plan’ appears to be a boondoggle engineered by the second-ranking (department) official to obtain a very expensive, very fast, executive-style aircraft that he often flies personally and – according to those familiar with it – is unsuited to any serious firefighting role,” the columnist wrote.
The supercharged aircraft, with a top speed of more than 300 miles per hour, is known as “Woody’s plane” because it is often flown by Chief Deputy Director Elwood “Woody” Allshouse, Mr. Walters continued. Mr. Allshouse came to the Davis administration from the CDF firefighters’ union, of which he was president. The union was an early supporter of the governor’s election campaign.
Citing department sources, the column says the plane costs the state $600,000 a year in lease payments, plus maintenance and operational expenses. The 12-year lease alone could cost the state more than $7 million.Department Director Andrea Tuttle, a former environmental consultant, advocated the plane’s acquisition but, according to Mr. Walters, confessed ignorance about the technical details. She defended it as necessary for infrared imaging, although it was reported that this is available on other slower, more suitable aircraft and the technology itself is considered outdated. Checking the plane’s log, Mr. Walters noted that Mr. Allshouse was at the controls on eight of 12 flights since the state got the plane in mid-July, and only one of those flights, August 20 to the San Joaquin Valley, mentioned “fires” as the mission. (2001)
Department Director Andrea Tuttle, a former environmental consultant, advocated the plane’s acquisition but, according to Mr. Walters, confessed ignorance about the technical details...IGNORANCE of technology seems to be a job requirement for members of the Davis administration.
It's a favorite strategy of modern-age dim ones.
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