[at-l] gummint waste Re: Foot Bridge

[Jim Bullard]

It is management mentality Toe. I saw the same thing in DOL. My wife works
at a university and has spent part of her career there in each of the
schools (now Asst. to the Provost). She was surprised by the difference in
attitude towards budgets and spending when she worked in the business school
(MBA program). While every other 'school' was trying to hold down spending
the MBA program seemed to look for ways to spend money. Maybe it is in the
management genes.

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 4:26 PM, Sloetoe <sloetoe at yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- Doug Mathews <mathews at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > I was an employee of state government for 30 years
> > and it never ceased to amaze me how freely people
> were willing to spend the taxpayer dollar. ...
> > Mainframe
>
> ### I was "in" for 15, in an agency charged by statute
> with representing the utility ratepayers before the
> state commission, "or other courts of competent
> jurisdiction." (SEC, FERC, Appeals, etc.) The "tech
> staff" (those of us who'd actually take the stand and
> advocate through testimony for ratepayer interests)
> was a ferocious David against the utility Goliath,
> out-muscled, out-gunned, out-resourced, and we didn't
> care -- we'd carry the fight "to the enemy" and
> occasionally we'd actually WIN one. We'd fight
> tooth-n-nail for every thousand, million, or billion,
> just on principle. The "admin" staff, on the other
> hand, would glibly spend, let's say, a quarter mil on
> some computers/software, before the end of the fiscal
> year, in order to "justify" next year's budget. This
> is in spite of the fact that we didn't NEED the
> computers, we didn't WANT the computers, and every
> time they made the switch de'jour, all of our macros,
> multi-dimensional spreadsheets, data bases, SCADS of
> previous work that DIDN'T need to be re-invented,
> would all be rendered obsolete, lost, or "dropped out"
> of any transfers. Can I have a "Holy Sheet!" Waste
> multiplied to Waste-squared.
>
> I have no idea how to tell the "public servant" from
> the pig at the public trough, but I suspect it has to
> do with knowledge admin procedure -- and a strong
> positive correlation.
>
> techtoe
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-- 
Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/
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