Who are we kidding?

Who are we kidding?
Thanks to The Economist for the unmodified portion of this cartoon.

It did not go unnoticed that it was the Unions, not the Democratic party, that endorsed incumbent Mayor, Jim Hahn. Democratic ideals have not been served under the last four years of this administration. No, the big advances of this administration have been made in union influence and control within the city.

In the January 2005 edition of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Surge Brian D’Arcy, IBEW Local 18 Business Manager, acknowledges Mayor Hahn for appointing a number of union officers to key city boards and commissions. Mayor Hahn has definitely been an ally of working people – that’s “polit-burro” speak for union stalwarts.

We know our city interests are not being served here. It makes us wince to pay higher taxes for hot air, waste, purposeful redirection and degradation of government services at citizen’s expense.

There is a very big investment being made by a relatively small but extremely powerful union oligarchy. Why you ask? The legitimate function of the union is to control the terms and conditions of employment through labor. In the old days, unions used to accomplish that task through old-fashioned hard bargaining, negotiation, and representation of their membership. But the newest innovation is to entrench union influence directly into politics the old-fashioned way – through the spoils system.

Union successes have been behind the scenes, but they are becoming quite apparent. They account for many of the illogical political decisions that work against the citizenry and result in higher overall costs and degraded services.

Take for instance Mayor James Hahn’s three-day work week policy for police officers in Los Angeles. How does a three-day work week for police officers benefit the citizens of Los Angeles?

Over the Labor Day weekend (2004), there were at least four murders in the city, one each in the Valley communities of North Hills and Winnetka, the East L.A. community of Boyle Heights and in South Los Angeles. Hahn Administration admitted that their promise of cutting homicides by 20% had been abandoned and that the homicide rate is up by 5%. In a press release on September 8, 2004, in response to the growing homicide rate in the City of Los Angeles, Councilman Bernard Parks said that on his first day as mayor, he would make the city safer by ending the three day work week for cops and put them back on the beat five days a week. Ex-Police Chief Bernard Parks recognizes the system problem. It has nothing to do with personnel and everything to do with mismanagement. “The rank and file who make up the LAPD are some of the best officers in the country and the vast majority joined the force for the same reason I did—because of a commitment to public service. They put themselves on the line everyday, standing in harm’s way and dealing with the toughest customers in society,” Parks said.

From a union-worker standpoint, the consolidation of 36 hours into three days is the ultimate in maximizing “quality of life” for police officers. What other citizens can claim a three-day work-week? And if the City needs more help, it’s overtime, baby. Yes!

So what is the benefit to the citizens of Los Angeles? And herein lies the rub. It is not a balanced win-win. Police work costs more because a substantial portion of the work must be covered at an overtime rate and/or more officers need to be added.

Whether it’s two 12 hour shifts or three eight hour shifts it is still a 24 hour, 7 day a week operation. From a performance stand point though, it is the same problem that truck drivers face when they drive too many hours. They get tired. They make mistakes, they lose their tempers. Some call it “road rage.” Transfer that emotion to police work. Add a gun, a badge, substantial back up, and a flashlight. Dealing with people is no easy task – especially after eight hours. In those last four hours of a twelve-hour shift, restraint might be the most difficult part of the job.

Do you think management should have considered a correlating increase in the deployment of unnecessary force, citizen complaints, or maybe the number of police related vehicular accidents before asking us for more money to support a twelve hour deployment schedule?

We all want the best for the LAPD. But logically we expect responsible city managers should have thoroughly considered these risks. If they didn’t, one should question leadership competency.

The same mismanagement problems exist at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Many DWP employees enjoy an alternate Monday or Friday off. On one hand they deserve it. One the other, management does not seem concerned with the costs. They simply raise the rates and blame it on the Mayor. Of course, the Mayor “legally” transferred DWP money to city coffers. Since the citizens pay both the taxes and the DWP bill, are we to think it balances?

In practice, it doesn’t stop there. Follow the alternate workday scenario to the citizens of Los Angeles. Some of the employees are off on Mondays and some are off on Fridays. Since so-and-so is missing there isn’t a supervisor or a complete crew on Mondays and Fridays so work doesn’t happen on those days. On Tuesday everybody is at work so they can decide what to do and order the equipment and materials for Wednesday. On Wednesday some of the equipment and materials doesn’t show up on the jobsite. Contracts are based upon a level five-day work-week and vendors can’t meet artificial Wednesday and Thursday peaks. Friday, half as many are waiting to go home. At 52 weeks a year, that amounts to 104 workdays at full capacity, less every conceivable holiday and the remaining days short some aspect of labor, equipment, or materials.

Again, it seems city management is so compromised by this joint union – city [mis]management connection that they completely disregard their duty to us, the citizens of Los Angeles. In a deregulated environment these high-level antics would have spawned a CEO firing and a corporate death spiral into bankruptcy.

Consequently, the mayor has advanced the cause of a few very powerful unions leaders at our expense. It becomes clear why unions have given up representing their constituency and entered politics. And it is perfectly clear why the Democratic Party did not endorse incumbent city management.