Back

The New Administrator in
The Land that Time Forgot

Published Saturday, January 8, 2000

We have a newly-appointed county administrator, and his credentials, as reported by The Union January 5th, suggest he could be a great asset to the county. He's the co-author of "Reinventing Government" and has been a city manager in numerous places.

The Union should call him "Ted Gaebler" instead of "Ted Gaibler." Either that, or his publisher, Plume Books, has put a major typographical error on the cover of his book.

Anyway, I wish Mr. Gaebler every success in a tough job. It reminds me of those "Land of the Lost" movies, where the helicopter crashes in an extinct volcano, and the crew finds itself in a jungle filled with dinosaurs. Gaebler will face worse challenges at the Rood Center, including more dinosaurs, computing done on abacus by candlelight, and a public that is sick of shoddy government.

I hope that his government experience and ideas from his book will make a positive contribution. Also, Gaebler appears to have a background in Information Technology, and that could be handy in a government that doesn't make the most of its computers.

Ted Gaebler's book ought to stir people up. Here's text from Amazon.com:

"A revolution is stirring in America. People are increasingly dissatisfied with the way the government works. This New York Times bestseller is both a call to arms against bureaucratic malaise and a guide for those who want to build something better. Using case studies from around the country, the authors lay out a road map for entrepreneurial government which applies results-oriented philosophies to public policy."

Right on.

"…they provide theory for political scientists to chew on and examples for government officials to consider--e.g., that of Visalia, which uses bonuses to reward groups of employees more often than individuals on the theory that individual rewards encourage people to hoard information and compete with one another, while group rewards encourage people to share information and work together.'"

Well, maybe group rewards worked in Visalia. However, while employees are "sharing" information and "working together," I want to see some damned service to the public.

The Union reports that Gaebler was recently a vice president at Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services. It doesn't say vice-president of what, but I hope he wasn't Vice President of Web Pages. The ACS web site is an elaborate, content-free puff piece. Consider these snippets:

"Who is ACS? We're consultants. We're motivators. We're educators. ACS. We're leaders. We're thinkers. We're inventors. We're doers. We exceed. We learn. We innovate. We do whatever it takes. We hustle."

Bull. They are an employment agency. Well, to be more accurate and fair: "We're Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), one of the world's largest information technology outsourcing companies offering a broad range of technology and business solutions."

Watch that word "outsourcing." If Gaebler proposes any outsourcing of government functions, the county employees and the citizens will chew him up promptly. I'd like to see him improve existing processes instead.

I'm sure Gaebler recognizes that the computer is the tool that makes all county departments work. If we don't use it, then the squawks about low budgets (from the departments) and bad service (from the public) will continue forever.

Let's solve these automation problems:

• The Assessor's office has been using the same incomprehensible business property tax input form for ten years. Why can't I fill it out over the web?



• I have to register a business by filling out a manual form, when I should be able to do it over the internet and send the money electronically.



• The county web pages are pathetically incomplete, when they could really serve us.



• The Data Processing department's idea of efficiency is to strong-arm programmers out of other departments for personal empire-building.



• It is immoral that I should to pay $3 for a photocopy of my own public records. The county is allowed by law to charge us for everything, including costly inspections. Just like K-Mart, except we don't pay taxes to K-Mart.



• As I recall, the county lets a San Diego company charge realtors significant money for Assessor's Parcel Number information on CD, when it's public information.

You know, compared to county government, even the US Post Office looks good. However, this could change. I look forward to the day when Ted Gaebler can raise the public's rating of county government from "Despised" to "Marginal."

Barry Schoenborn is a technical writer, and an 11-year resident of Nevada County. His column appears the second Saturday of the month. You can write to him at barry@wvswrite.com. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily those of The Union.

Back