Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: If you bumble, it doesn’t matter if you’re right
Next Post: Rezko’s world
Posted in:
* As I told you yesterday afternoon, this Department of Corrections e-mail was sent to employees…
This is sent on behalf of Director Roger E. Walker Jr.
As many of you already know, the CMS Garage has implemented an interim policy that requires IDOC Central Office approval on ALL vehicle repairs and maintenance issues. This new policy is due to IDOC’s overall lack of payment to CMS Garage for services rendered over the past few years. Given this, we need to curtail the amount of vehicles we are sending through the CMS garages for repairs. Please only have vehicles repaired if it is an emergency situation. This may mean “sidelining” a few vehicles from your fleet for the remainder of the fiscal year if necessary.
* More…
The e-mail was sent under the heading “CMS State Garages will not work on IDOC vehicles.”
Despite the memo’s title, Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said later, “CMS is not turning away work.”
“We are taking a tighter look at what we are spending. We want to prioritize spending. We’re going to keep repairing and maintaining our vehicles.” […]
Corrections this year budgeted $6.8 million for automotive fuel and maintenance. Schnapp said Corrections owes about $2 million to CMS for work done on Corrections vehicles, some of it held over from previous budgets.
“It’s all money coming out of the same pocket,” said Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. “It makes no sense at all. This is similar to what we are seeing out at the fairgrounds. It’s the governor’s office cutting everyone back so much they can’t run their offices.”
Bomke is right on target. These are chargebacks that mean little except to provide a way to squeeze money out of agencies.
* Apparently, a failure to budget for high gas prices is partly to blame…
Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp blamed high gas prices and higher maintenance costs for creating the debt. In addition, Schnapp said the agency hasn’t purchased any new vehicles in recent years.
‘’We are working with CMS to resolve this issue,'’ said Schnapp.
Prison officials contend the situation will not affect the operation of the department.
If it won’t effect operations, why bother with the memo?
* Also, let’s take a trip down memory lane…
The state is paying more than $1 million over two years for 235 parking spaces in private garages around the Thompson Center.
It’s a questionable expense, especially when the state is so strapped for cash, says Ed Bedore, a member of the state’s Procurement Policy Board, a little-known watchdog agency. He points to the wealth of public transportation options that are available. […]
The $1.1 million parking tab includes $47,400 that the state prisons are paying InterPark, Inc. for 10 spots near the Thompson Center. All of those are for top prison officials, according to an Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman and a spokeswoman for Gov. Blagojevich — though a Blagojevich administration memo, written in June and obtained by the Sun-Times, says some “parking spaces serve the governor’s office staff.”
$47,400 is a drop in the bucket, but when your prison department can’t fix its fleet, every little bit helps.
Discuss.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 9:53 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: If you bumble, it doesn’t matter if you’re right
Next Post: Rezko’s world
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
Considering all the El lines converge at Thompson Center, 235 parking slots is way high.
Rod, here’s a ready made p.r. stunt for you — ride the Brown line to work and announce you’re slashing the parking slots in half. But remember that follow-thru — everyone’s watching now.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:07 am
The problems are even worse at IDOT. Only thing is we are too scared to get caught telling someone about how ridiculous things have become. The intimidation is as bad as the spending restrictions. Employees are spending money out of their own pockets just so we can get things done. The vehicles are becoming worthless. Blago’s incompetence is becoming more and more evident in the destruction of every department’s ability to provide a service. In fact we don’t even care about service anymore. We are just trying to keep our heads above water. These effects will be felt for years and years. I am convince IDOT will never again be the fine organization it once was.
Comment by IDOT peon Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:11 am
Any state worker who has used state vehicles has probably discovered, when they need maintenance, that CMS garages charge other state agencies twice as much for parts and labor than what they would pay a private sector mechanic.
Comment by nick danger Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:11 am
Follow-up on what “IDOT peon” said: This administration has pretty much completed their task at IDOT of transforming what used to be a premiere engineering/technical agency at the national level, into a third-rate management bureau.
Comment by nick danger Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:15 am
CMS over charging is well know fact in most agencies. With the various consolidations CMS took a lot of IS functions from various agencies. Took mainframes and started charging for computer processing. This was touted as a cost saving measure.
But at our agency, if CMS implements their standard pricing formula, we will pay 3 times what it used to cost us.
Yep, were saving money alright!
Comment by anon Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:20 am
nick danger: “Any state worker who has used state vehicles has probably discovered, when they need maintenance, that CMS garages charge other state agencies twice as much for parts and labor than what they would pay a private sector mechanic.”
I have heard the same from several state employees.
This suggests that cost and performance audits are long overdue for many state agencies and functions. Why does the state continue to perform some services that the private sector could do much more efficiently at less cost? Why is CMS allowed to prey upon other agencies and who benefits from this bureaucratization and centralization? Is this not an internal form of corruption/patronization?
Comment by Vole Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:29 am
Don’t forget about the infamous ‘water fund’ memo that was circulated by CMS several months ago.
I’m no longer with the state, but it’d be nice to feature some of the more bizarre memos to come out of CMS. I’ve seen quite a few during my time — but they seem to have taken a turn for the especially strange lately.
(Other examples: CMS deciding to charge agencies a hefty per-employee, per-month use for e-mail services — when those very same agencies used to run their own email servers. CMS ordered agencies to stop running their own essential services as part of the consolidation. What most everybody in state IT knows is that this was a pure moneygrab — since most agencies could provide their own services for *far* less than what CMS charged agencies. Don’t get me started.)
Comment by Macbeth Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:30 am
Well, here is another story that came out yesterday that is sort of related. Some state union employees were scheduled to get step increases at the first of the year and these were to appear on their February paychecks. The raises did not show up. When the personnel officer at my spouse’s agency checked with CMS as to the cause of the problem, she was told that CMS had not filed the necessary paperwork on time because it had run out of paper. This is a silly and ultimately inconsequential matter but it is a good example of how state agencies are functioning under this incompetent administration. Imagine running a business like that?
Comment by Skirmisher Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:43 am
As I have commented in the past this administration has made CMS and money sucking behemoth. Agencies are told they do not own the vehicles they use. The vehicles are owned by CMS. The agencies HAVE to take the vehicles to a CMS facility for repair. The agencies are charged a user charge for being able to use the CMS facility, even when the facility outsources the work to a private repair service. Then a percentage is added on to the bill for “administration” costs. On top of that the hourly rate at a CMS facility for labor is $90.00+ but the hourly wage for those mechanics is probably a third of that at best. So something that might have cost $300.00 to repair at a local garage might cost $700.00 to $900.00 at a CMS facility. All of our trucks also have to be inspected at least once and sometimes twice a year. If a truck goes in to the CMS facility to be inspected and they determine that certain work has to be done, we don’t have a choice. We either have to let them keep the truck until we can afford to fix it, which means we are out a vehicle that we need, or we have to come up with the money to pay them for what they determined needed fixing. Agencies are not allowed to do any work on the vehicles other than oil changes and filter changes.
This is also the case in other areas. Each agency used to have their own computer repair people, now they are all under CMS and Agencies have to pay to have those people fix problems on their computers. We have to get CMS approval to purchase from vendors. If an item is on a bid contract we have to buy it through that contract. So instead of buying a tool at a local hardware store we have to order it from CMS. It isn’t necessarily cheaper though the contract. The contracts are listed on the State Purchasing Website. There is a long index of contracts listed by who can buy off the contract, and by the first letter of the item you want to buy. They are also indexed by the contract number. Before we buy something we have to hunt through the contracts to see if the itme is on a contract, most of the contracts are approximately 15 - 20 pages some are much longer. Some are duplicated so we might look at four contracts each with a different number to find out they are all the same. It might take an hour to figure out if you can go buy a shovel at the local hardware store or not. This is not cost saving nor is it more efficient.
We used to take our scrap, outdated, computers, scanners, printers etc. to the state surplus warehouse and drop them off, no cost. They were bundled up on pallets and sold at auction to whoever wanted to bid on them. Now CMS has a contract with a company that we have to pay $32.00 per item to take these and we have to deliver them to the company. Cost savings??? Wonder who knows who here.
Comment by Irish Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:47 am
Similar fleet woes elsewhere:
The ISP at one time was paying CMS $49.95 for an oil change we could get done at a Chevy garage for $19.00. Minor repairs at a CMS state garage? Take the car out of service and leave it for several days to get the work done when the local dealership could do it cheaper in a few hours.
When Blago took over, one of his “costcutting” ideas was to reduce the size of the ISP fleet. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? The fleet was portrayed as being too large, with more cars than employees.
Well, here is how it works: The ISP fleet has been in a constant state of overly high mileage since the mid ’80’s. When the ISP gets new cars, some of the “better” high mileage squad cars, (Usually at least 180,000 miles),are put at the back of the lot. They are worn out, not of any value for resale but still have emergency lights and radios in them. When an officer has to have service done on his squad, or hits a deer, or is rear-ended or whatever, he moves his equipment from his car to one of these “spare” cars. The officer can still do his job even when his car goes down. While those cars are of no value for resale, they are of huge value to the ISP and the officer needing a squad. Those cars were removed from the fleet as an “extravagance” that the agency could not afford. Most were sold for a few hundred bucks- they were worth nearly nothing to anyone but the ISP.
These “spare” cars also came into play when the ISP recieves new officers into the field. These beat up old cars get assigned to the new officers. Nowadays, even though the ISP is at it’s lowest staffing ever, they have trouble finding cars for the new troopers. And when new troopers take up all the “spare” cars, guess what happens when an officers car needs work?
The ISP fleet is one of the top 5 challenges the agency faces. The fleet is aging, high miles and when a car that gets worked as hard as a squad car gets to be high in mileage, the repair bills skyrocket. When you pay repairs on a car with 180,000 miles plus, you pay for that car two and three times. It is not unusual to be doing major repairs on cars with 200,000 plus miles. That doesn’t make sense to me.
A few years ago, a bill was passed to place a surcharge on tickets that the violator paid and got court supervision to create a funding stream to replace squad cars. Nobody knows where that money went but it isn’t being spent on the ISP fleet.
Comment by Freezeup Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:51 am
Rich, you’re right on target. These CMS charges, fees, etc. are simply a way to raid agencies’ budgets to pay for a bloated, inefficient CMS. Why not be open and honest and just take the money upfront and let the agencies figure out how to make do with less? I’m sure they’d be much more creative and efficient. This over-control of each and every State function, in the name of cost-cutting, is way beyond ridiculous, and is costing taxpayers money and service.
Comment by Sir Reel Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 11:05 am
Grownups in action:
“They did it!”
“NO WE DIDN’T!!”
“Well, yeah, you’re right, but who cares? BTW, if we don’t have taxpayer-financed vehicles to drive, I guess we don’t have to go to…work. Yeah, that’s the word, work.”
The Baloneyvitch administration mantra:
The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. Somebody find me a disaster I can exploit. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. Put on a different Elvis record. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. Close the damn door to the balcony. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. The buck stops elsewhere. What the hell does Emil want now?
Comment by They Feed on Each Other Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 11:17 am
Irish is absolutely right about the cost gouging for surplus computer equipment. Agencies get *charged* for surplussing their own equipment — and the charge is OUTRAGEOUS. Used to be we’d call up CMS, and a bunch of gruff, angry guys would come grumbling up to the office with a big roll of saran-wrap and wrap everything onto wood palates.
The charge — in theory — has to do with wiping the drives clean on computers. I’m all for the drive wipe. There’s a lot of state of illinois hard drives that have found their way to ebay — but the charge is waaay to high. Besides, if it’s CMS’s property in the first place — they should pay to have the drives wipes, not the agencies.
Comment by Macbeth Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 11:23 am
Here is a suggestion for Governor No more business as usual - do away with CMS. Any state employee who has been around even the slightest amount of time can tell you CMS practices lead to inefficiency and less service to the public.
The one exception though is that they are very effcient at avoiding their own rules to put unqualified folks in jobs.
Comment by Leave a light on George Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 11:28 am
They Feed on Each Other - taxpayer financed vehicles
Do you drive your own vehicle in the performance of your job? I’ll bet if you were in an accident you would be happy to see one of those taxpayer financed vehicles pull up to assist you. How bout when you are going down the interstate in a snowstorm, aren’t you happy to see one of those big orange taxpayer financed vehicles in front of you cleaning off the pavement? How do you suppose the engineers, etc. get to those spots on the highways to assess areas that need repairs so you can drive safely in your non taxpayer financed vehicle? Out in a park and need a picnic table or want the garbage picked up do you want those folks to walk and carry you your table? You call DCFS for a situation in your neighborhood how do they get there? State employees are service people. They provide services to the public and a lot of them do not work in offices. Should we all stay at our reporting site and not provide the service? People who complain about state workers not working probably could not handle what state workers have to go through to do their job. When you have walked ten miles in my shoes you can talk to me about who works. The folks in the trenches are the ones keeping this State operating so don’t lump us with the higher ups.
Comment by Irish Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 12:31 pm
All I can say is that I agree with Macbeth. “Don’t get ME started”!!!!
Comment by cardsmama Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 12:41 pm
Ahhh, Irish. I’ll just run along side you today and yell ‘ditto’.
Comment by Princeville Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 12:46 pm
All of these fleet-problem stories are very disturbing. Fleet management maintenance schedules are pretty simple. Neglecting them is not only fiscally irresponsible, but raises safety risks to drivers, and in the case of public safety vehicles, the public at large.
It’s sad, but we’ve been so tied up with corruption and political fighting for so many years that the administration is probably getting a pass on basic management oversight.
My question to the state employees relating these stories: Are there no department heads or union reps willing to raise cain?
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 12:47 pm
The State Garage Revolving Fund, Communications Revolving Fund, Statistical Services Revolving Fund - all CMS controlling mechanisms over agencies Fleets, Telecom, and Data Processing. These funds are appropriated Expenditure Authority but no actual funding. They are “funded” by billing agencies (users) for the services they receive. This also allows for economies of scale savings and standardization of equipment purchases - vehicles, phone and data systems, and data processing systems. Maybe not the best way of doing business but better than the costly results of agencies “doing their own thing” on a small scale high price basis. The key here is for agencies not to be deadbeats! Corrections is not the Chosen One. Pay up and shutup!
Comment by A Citizen Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 12:48 pm
Wordslinger - Department heads are Gov. appointees.
Read A Citizen to get standard answer to employees when they inquire or “raise cain” Unions ??????? I think they focus on things they might be able to do and not stir things up to make it harder at contract time. I remember sitting at Wrigley Field just behind the skyboxes many years ago when the main state union was at the table negotiating with our Department. I looked up in time to see the President of the union came out of the back of the skybox with the director of our Department.
Comment by Irish Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 1:06 pm
Irish, I haven’t walked a mile in your shoes, thank goodness, but I had driven @250,000 miles in taxpayer financed vehicles over many years. I know all about “maintenance free” vehicles: 50k miles between oil changes, what’s a tuneup? One time they gave me a car with two tires so worn you could see metal. I objected, they had no other cars, I then took my own car and was not reimbursed because there was a car available to drive. Safety? They don’t need no stinking safety.
It’s the taxpayer financed vehicles that are parked at restuarants, the mall, being driven with the kids in the back seat, or my favorite, being driven on I294 on Easter Sunday with the entire family in tow. Maybe, just maybe, there would be more money available for routine maintenance if so much wasn’t being thrown away so somebody could look self-important.
Comment by They Feed on Each Other Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 1:15 pm
They Feed on Each Other - agreed, it’s a few that make all look bad. The problem is we are out in the public eye with emblems on our vehicles, we all need to realize this and keep the public trust.
Comment by Irish Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 1:24 pm
Is it my imagination, or has Steve Schnorf been noticeably absent from this discussion?
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 3:52 pm
Wordslinger- It seems to be an impossible battle with severe political consequences for even bringing it up. There seems to be an “off with his head!” response to contradicting the official line.
A Citizen- Sorry, I have not experienced an economy of effort or expense when dealing with CMS.
Secondly, if it is so much cheaper to buy through CMS, why can I make one internet search and find a local retailer or provider to buy what I need cheaper than CMS can provide it?
About a year ago, we could not get digital tape recorders or digital cameras without patronizing CMS. After six months went by, we got them. The digital recorders were O.K., but the cameras were 5 year old technology that used some goofy one use only disc as storage medium. I went to Best-Buy and bought a $125 Canon and a CF card out of my own pocket and called it close enough.
Bet CMS charged us more than $125 for unusable junk. Bet if I actually used that junk I would be buying the storage discs out of my own pocket eventually.
Comment by Freezeup Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 3:54 pm
that is nothing - the state is causing contractors to go out of business because we don’t have bond funds to pay them for construction work done last year - good firms that have been in business for decades are going under because the state can’t or won’t push a bond sale and pay them what they are due. And this is good government. NOT! We are and will continue to add to the unemployment line until Illinois begins to pay for services they have rec’d. You want a capital bill - we can’t even cover the contracts that are currently on the street or help these firms in any way. It is all beyond the control of the avg state employee.
Comment by central illinois Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 3:58 pm
- Freezeup -
I can’t believe that only a couple of folks took exception with my CMS Party Line statement. While the post is true the reality under management is not so favorable. Check the price of a gallon of gas at a CMS gas station with a public gas station within a mile or so. The economies of scale theory only works when CMS isn’t adding a huge profit margin on to pay hacks and enjoy their high standard of governing. Break up CMS and DHS and see how the actual service delivery improves! CMS is really about providing a central control authority for the governor’s office and policy folks to control the other agencies.
Comment by A Citizen Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 4:11 pm
Having dealt with CMS employees and practices for the last 5 or 6 years, there is another term we use to equate CMS. Starts with “Can’t and ends with one of those words Rich doesn’t like in the blog.
When it takes months to get a simple hall water fountain fixed, let alone computers, cars, etc, then the term is appropriate.
Comment by shermans' ghost Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 7:34 pm
It’s very well documented in this thread, and as someone said, anyone who has any association with the state knows what’s going on. CMS charges exorbitant fees for services that can be done elsewhere for half the price. CMS walks in the agencies and walks out with their computers (that the agencies paid for out of their budgets and received no reimbursement) and begins to charge agencies for using their own equipment. Then they force you to upgrade the hardware and software when it’s not needed, and of course charge you again.
Add another: We were told we could not go to training classes in St. Louis, we would have to go to Chicago even though it would cost twice as much and the travel distance would be twice as far. If it’s all about keeping our business in IL, then why does the state contract services outside the state?
As Citizen wrote: CMS is really about providing a central control authority for the governor’s office and policy folks to control the other agencies.
With Gov. Blago-no-ethics, it’s all about total and complete control of everything and CMS is his vehicle. Damn the cost, it’s all about the control.
Closing, you’d had to be blind to not see what’s going on in state government. My question is why isn’t this being investigated? Either it’s legal or someone is being paid off. Oops, that doesn’t happen in Illinois!
Comment by Fed Up State Employee Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 8:29 pm
It wasnt that long ago that AFSCME and uninformed IDOC employees made an issue about how nice the IDOC staff cars where. In fact it was a campaign issue. apparently times have changed. Now the cars arent nice enough? The fancy crown vicks and all the other fancy cars sucked then when they had 150,000 thousand miles on them (which was never reported acuratly) and they suck now that the same cars have 250,000 thousand miles on them.
Perhaps IDOC should sell there fleet of cars and get back into the airplane business.
Comment by Pete Mitchell Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 9:11 pm
CMS is a joke. They over charge other agencies for their services, it’s just another front to hide money and political appointees. And in relation to CMS and their schemes, someone should look into the Correctional Industries. Direction has been given to the Wardens that they are to order products and food from Correction Industries even though they are 40 to 50% higher than you can buy the product off the streets.
Example, meat products, the local IGA beats prison industries by 40% on the prices, yet the Wardens can’t buy meat except from industries. The list goes on and on, from food to furniture to uniforms for the inmates. Every item that the Wardens are forced to buy from industries could be purchased off the streets with at least a 30% savings. Why is the question. Why have a industry program that cost the taxpayers money. It’s always been this way, just like CMS. It’s not Rod’s fault, but it’s more business as usual.
It’s another front to hide money and political appointments. Prisons are being ran with dangerously low level of staffing. Vehicles that are unsafe to transport inmates in, buildings that are falling down around staff… I could go on and on, but what’s the point. No one cares, but it does feel good to vent.
Comment by Daxx Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 9:36 pm
As a bit of history - The state used to have a Dept. of Finance with a “professional oriented) Management Information Division (MID Finance, precursor to part of the Dept. of Administrative Services). The Division of Vehicles was part of the Secretary of State (patronage oriented/political). Then there was the Dept. of Personnel, the Merit System/Civil Service. These all were brought into and became CMS and had added The Office of Procurement (Purchasing, econ. of scale) The Bureau of Property Management - Property leases for state offices throughout the state plus contracts, maintenance agreements etc. Then the icing on the cake was the CMS Police, for security at the SOIC, now the Thompson Center. A number of the Rezko trial folks were part of this. Imagine the power and control/influence that can be wielded by an organization like that!
Comment by A Citizen Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 9:45 pm
Oh! And Michael Rumman was the Director of CMS for a while - Rezko recommended him to blago. And Jon Bowman used to head up the Bureau of Property Management, and was “connected” with Wm. Cellini. And Gov. Thompson placed a Dep. Dir. in CMS that was the first guy in charge of keeping track of campaign contributions when he was first running for guv. Seems the music just keeps playing the same old tune, regardless of the Feds. And some of them worked in CMS and not undercover. Illinois is definitely a leader in states.
Comment by A Citizen Friday, Mar 7, 08 @ 10:10 pm
A Citizen- I suspected as much! You put the CMS party line out there so well that I bit!
Comment by Freezeup Saturday, Mar 8, 08 @ 10:58 am
A million bucks for parking (plus government vehicle and gas expenses) would go a long way to incentivize state workers to take mass transit or telecommute.
If enough state workers telecommuted, we could sell state buildings and eliminate a lot of maintenance and operating expenses, while helping reduce congestion on the roads.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 10, 08 @ 7:23 pm