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* Adlai Stevenson III has penned an op-ed about reforming Illinois. Most of the usual stuff was in there, revamping the remap process, cutting the number of local governments, consolidating school districts, shortening the campaign season, etc. But this one was a surprise…
The Illinois personnel code might be re-examined. It goes against the grain of conventional wisdom, but when I was state treasurer, I could hire and fire at will. It was a good old fashioned patronage office - and I was able to quadruple the return on the investment of state funds while cutting the budget every year.
That was also before state collective bargaining laws. Back then, you could join a union, but there was no contract.
Thoughts?
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 10:56 am
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That was fine and dandy unitl RUTAN. That changed EVERYTHING. During the BLAGO years, the state kept going because of the work of the career state worker INSPITE of the administration. We saw the quality of staff that was brought in, I cant imagine how ugly things would have got if he would have been able to fire and hire who he wanted. But you know his Campaign funds would have been big!!!
Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:02 am
I’m a Republican but the whining over remap is absurd. Democrats won, they made the map, it’s up to the gop to win elections. No more please.
If you want to debate other models looking at Iowa, California, that’s interesting if stays civil, but the remap isn’t the issue here.
Comment by shore Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:05 am
Uh, that worked for you Adlai. But you were different.
Rutan and Shakman aren’t there to protect us from the Adlais and Dawns of the world. But the States of Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago need the protection against patronage abuses.
Comment by Anonymour Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:08 am
Ah, a return to the Blago years.
Comment by Leave a Light on George Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:08 am
When you are Treasurer, you can personally hire and fire. When you run a 50K+ employee operation, you have lots of people hiring and firing. You need personnel rules
Comment by I don't want to live in Teabagistan Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:13 am
A good set of practical ideas to consider.
A lot of reform ideas make us feel better, while doing little but making government even more inefficient and bureaucratic.
Reform groups in Illinois (e.g. ICPR, BGA, Quinn’s special commission) are sometimes very good at outlining problems, but misunderstand root causes of those problems, and are often terrible at recommending solutions that actually would work. They need more reform-minded political insiders involved, and not to assume they don’t exist.
Comment by walkinfool Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:21 am
How can govt be more efficient when the legislature keeps adding regulations? It takes workers to manage the government they keep expanding. Last time I looked the number of state workers is down. Seems to me he is scapegoating instead of managing.
Comment by Liberty_First Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:30 am
AD3 was also able to lunch at a male only club..then the ice melted, people landed on the moon and we all have smart phones. AS3 should call it and ask it intervene BEFORE he pens the next Op Ed.
BTW Gotta love days like today when Oxy Rush gets silenced by STL baseball broadcasts in some markets
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:35 am
Adlai says re-examine, not scrap. The current Personnel Code is over 50 years old. It’s been patched more times than a pre-Y2K computer program. I agree that it’s time for a new one to reflect changes in public personnel management.
Comment by Original Rambler Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:37 am
I have come to suspect that the rise of the Military-Industrial Complex and the weakening of urban patronage went hand-in-hand.
If you view the federal government as a big pot of money, the rise of the Military-Industrial Complex runs in parallel with the demise of urban political power.
Partly urban political power declined as people moved to the suburbs (”White” American communities) from cities (more often ethnic enclaves).
But partly goo-goo reformers succeeded in professionalizing government services in urban areas.
This meant that urban political machines had less clout with members of Congress.
So, when the Military-Industrial Complex demanded more of the pie, it came out of spending on cities.
I’m skeptical whether this process can be reversed.
I’m also skeptical that elections are a good way to evaluate the quality of services government provides.
As has been noted, the average (middle-class) person in Cook County has almost no contact with Cook County services.
Maybe we should limit voting for Cook County Sheriff to those who either work for the Sheriff or have a member of the family who has spent time in Cook County jail.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:50 am
Isn’t Reboot Illinois funded by people who are ideologically hostile to government employees?
Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:52 am
Senator Stevenson is right. Rutan and the cases that preceeded it tried to take politics out of government. That theory goes against the way politics and government has been done since the Romans and has left us with: (a) politics with campaigns over the airwaves and not in the neigborhoods and (b) a more bureaucratic, ineffective and less accountable government.
The real legacies of Rutan, Shakman and patronage reforms are a political system more removed from the people and less able political bodies. Thanks for nothing.
Comment by Anon Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 12:00 pm
I no longer have the information to know the answer to this, but I wonder if the civil service system has been moving toward the old 80-20 syndrome As more and more positions have become unionized where promotions and transfers are pretty rigidly controlled by union contracts, is the civil service system really of importance only with top level union exempt positions and entry level union positions that have no one below them to bid on?
Between union contracts and Rutan, the civil service system may be of little applicability to 90% of the workforce. Am I missing something?
Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 12:12 pm
I’m beginning to think we’re run by a bunch of DINO’s(Dems in name only! Pension reform proposals that screw workers and retires. Less State employees who can join a union! And now this BS! What is going on here? Wake up legislators….get more revenue and pay what the State owes…NOW!
Comment by Nickypiii Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 12:35 pm
@schnorf: I think you might be on to something.
Comment by Colossus Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 1:29 pm
Patronage has problems but the current system under Titan has problems too. For virtually all positions in State government supervisors don’t really hire staff. They don’t even conduct interviews. They don’t set compensation. The contract governs all. But supervisors remain responsible for the work with few tools left to reward/punish staff.
Comment by Sir Reel Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 1:36 pm
Oops. My phone keeps inserting Titan instead of R u t a n.
Comment by Sir Reel Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 1:39 pm
That’s a blast from the past. When was the last time Adlai chimed in?
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 1:47 pm
==I could hire and fire at will.==
That leaves hiring and firing up to the whim of the boss, and a result, the potential exists for actions based on prejudice and discrimination and other activities that are not only illegal, but just plain not fair. If I had a boss like that, I would be forming a union.
Comment by Joe M Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 1:58 pm
Back in the early 70’s, when I started at the state, there was nothing more inspiring to a rank and file employee than seeing some higher up putting his girlfriend on the payroll at triple the salary and doing a third of a normal work load. Or substitute political hack’s kid for girlfriend and you get the same picture. The state is already a bureaucratic monster why make it bigger?
Comment by Mouthy Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 2:11 pm
I agree with Anon
Comment by Anon2 Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 2:24 pm
Adlai III is right on target!
Comment by NW Illinois Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 2:28 pm
Never thought i would ever say this, but, Adlai is right.
Comment by Publius Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 3:39 pm
Making it easier to fire incompetents would be fine…at will? No, the work product would suffer
Comment by titan Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 4:55 pm
==That leaves hiring and firing up to the whim of the boss==
You mean like what happens in private companies? I personally think the personnel system needs a complete overhaul. There has got to be a way to strike a balance between ensuring rampant patronage does not prevail while making it easier to hire people from the outside.
Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 5:22 pm
Most key insight is that although, sure, they HAD Unions in the good ‘ol days of the former U.S. Senator, “Back then…there was no contract” and the cavalcade of laws surrOUNDing those contracts and bargaining, etc. Sure, the Code can be reviewed and perhaps tinkered with, but it’s highly doubtful that in THIS day and age, with the massive # of Unionized Illinois Govt. employees, that any sort of substantial change could ever take place…
Must be nice, though, for the old, wealthy Senator with that great name in the annals of Illinois History to live life looking back as an “Elder Statesman” now, retired, and of former great importance–and to ponder still/be hopeful about old, previously weather-worn-over-time suggested improvements to Governance (that, incidentally, hardly EVer seem to actually GET reformed as the years file by and fall by the wayside again and again!) as well as pass along other thoughts for change which sadly just won’t wash in the realities of 2013…nonetheless, thank you for your fine service to our beloved Illinois, Senator Steveson. And keep pondering, as you look out over all of that homeland territory of yours around Galena, ‘cuz, well, ya never just do know; MAYbe SOMEday they’ll see the light…!
Comment by Just The Way It Is One Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 6:03 pm
The last major overhaul of the personnel system eliminated all the specialty titles and resulted in a whole bunch of job titles being consolidated into just the PSA and SPSA titles.
That had several results. It led to people outside the system believing every PSA and SPSA is interchangeable; without intimate knowledge you can’t tell if person A and person B have the same training / qualification levels or if they are doing the same job. Most people don’t even realize there is a sub-classification system inside those titles that reflects the specialties represented by the old titles. And the title consolidation set the stage for the later abuses under the Blago administration. So I guess I would want to know more about any possible changes; the devil is going to be in the details.
As far as Schnorf’s observation about the 80:20 rule, I thought we were there back in the late 90’s. If we weren’t, Blago took us there in the early 00’s when all the PSAs joined the union. But the current Personnel Code does have a purpose; there are still a few people floating around the State with SPSA titles but they’ve been exempted by executive order from the Vinson term appointment rules and their only rules / protection from vindictive politicians are the actual Personnel Code. So I would say consider reforming it, but don’t eliminate it.
Comment by RNUG Wednesday, Apr 24, 13 @ 11:39 pm
I’m not a fan of the patronage system at all; but I do acknowledge that the present system has some major problems. It needs revamped to ensure positions are based upon qualifications and merit instead of seniority, political affiliation, or any other non-qualification/merit based standard.
Comment by Logic not emotion Monday, Apr 29, 13 @ 9:51 am