CITYWATCH TODAY—Politicians are an arrogant bunch. I can understand why. Most have spent a fair amount of time convincing voters they can make good and beneficial decisions on the voter’s behalf without the experience or skills to make those decisions. Their skills are the ‘elect me’ con, not finance or law or management or communication or marketing. The things we elect them to manage and oversee and do.
Recent news reports got me thinking about this.
The Times posted a piece over the weekend saying that the Metropolitan Water District screwed up its Turf Rebate program. An audit claims that MWD overpaid a contractor and also paid for work that never got done. The turf program was “plagued by poor planning and oversight” the audit reported. (I might point out here that most of us could have told them that without the cost of a big time audit.) But, know this: somewhere along the line, arrogant elected officials, who presumed to be expert enough, approved this project … or approved the management who approved the project. Arrogance.
The recent killer fire in Oakland should have been no surprise. People in the city knew about the ‘death trap’ conditions long before the flames crawled up the walls and burned everything in the warehouse. Now an Oakland councilman wants an investigation. Looks like the dysfunctional management starts with the councilman. He asked for votes so he could take care of these things. The arrogance.
Metro underestimated by millions of dollars the cost of the ‘carmageddon’ 405 Freeway repairs. Experts say that Metro had no idea of what and how many things were running under the freeway. Weren’t prepared. Kept asking for changes in the original work plan. Heard a single politician accept any responsibility for Metro oversight? Of course not. The con is in. The arrogance.
Work has already begun on the City’s 2017-2018 Budget. In just a few months you will witness elected officials making important decisions about the best use of your money. You might ask them about their backgrounds in finance. Or, short of that, their willingness to approach the task with a bit of humility and allow some expertise into the mix. Not just as advisors, but as decision makers. All the open meetings and comment time for budget prep is useless if, in the end, the same arrogant folks are making the decisions about things out of their wheelhouse.
You know what they say about repeating the same action and expecting a different result. And, this applies to the votes as well … who keep electing these folks … and expect a different result.
Ken Draper-Editor, CityWatch
