Tuesday, September 25, 2007

What bureaucracy?

Kulongoski gives hefty raise to state directors
Gov. Ted Kulongoski is giving out pay raises to state agency directors that are at least three times what rank and file state workers will get.

About 60 department heads will get pay raises of 21 to 24 percent over the next two years, Kulongoski told top agency brass on Monday. Nearly 4,800 state managers will see their salaries rise a smaller 11 to 16 percent.

That's a nice raise.

There are currently 421 State Job Announcements Posted

61 are under the category MANAGEMENT, ADMINISTRATIVE, and SUPERVISORY. This category is topped only by the Office girls, sorry "office specialists," which has 66. (Does each specialist need her own manager? That is special.

And for those of you paying attention, especially you "let's increase taxes for healthy kids" folks, they are still hiring for Music, Art or Recreational Therapist. $2,903 - $4,229 MONTHLY

To really put things in perspective so you realize how top heavy government is the DHS folks (I think that DHS is a Spanish acronym meaning "free stuff") have only 36 openings.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

YOU REALLY,REALLY NEED A HOBBY........

RINO WATCH said...

Hey beakeer,

Do you believe that Lorna Youngs deserves a 15-21% raise?

These obscene pay raises also increase the amount of PERS retirement for these schlubs.

I've got a hobby, it's called RinoWatch...What's yours big strapper?

Bob said...

Screw liberty! I'm going to work for the gubberment!

Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

State management positions are grossly underpaid in comparison with the private sector. What private sector CEO managing an agency with 4000 plus employees and a multibillion dollar budget makes little more than $100,000 per year? The answer is there aren't any.

I don't have any problem with paying state managers more money as long as they are qualified for the job. I do agree that management is definitely top heavy.

What really ticks me off about state management is that most of the top level management are all political cronies. Many of the agency directors are former members of the legislature (Dept of Corrections, Lottery, Consumer and Business Services, Land Conservation and Development to name a few). When a governor appoints someone to direct an agency based on formerly having served with that person in the legislature or some other kind of political payback, instead of on basing the decision on that person having years of executive level management experience running a large company or agency with a multi-million dollar budget, then it is no wonder government is so inefficient. You look at the backgrounds of many of the directors and the experience just isn't there. Having a law degree does not give an individual the requisite experience needed to manage a large budget and to direct the efficient operations of a large government agency. To be a good manager, one must have experience actually managing. Wow, what a concept!! You can't just get a law degree and practice for a few years, serve as a legislator and then manage a state agency effectively. Of course this is nothing new, it has worked this way for decades. A person gets a law degree, does a crappy job as a lawyer, gets elected to the legislature (because they can't make much money practicing law because they suck at it), makes the right political connections, then gets the big payoff in the end when they get appointed to direct a state agency. Or they take option 2 and quit the legislature and become a lobbyist. Either way they come out on top. I guess you can say they are incompetent, but you can't say they are stupid.

Anonymous said...

Please believe me when I say this, Government of any size is absolutely filled to the gills with people in management who, if they were employed by a similar type of private sector organization, doing the same type of work.....certainly would not be competant or qualified for a management position.

Paying them more isn't going to make them more competant, nor is it going to somehow make them more responsible with he taxpayers dollar. A higher pay scale may attract more competant people to State jobs in the future, but given time, they will either get tired of the beaurocracy and quit, or they will become part of the problem.

R Huse said...

Good point Delucca

The comparison between what these people would make in the private sector is so tiresome.

The fact is people go into government work not because they said all through high school that they wanted to run the DMV. No, they are there for one reason alone, job security in a non performance based environment.

The private sector is performance based with far less security.

At the end of the day public sector management employees have less accountability than their private sector counterparts. They also have far more job security and better pensions. Its a trade off. If they didn't know that when they got their appointment, well, then maybe they should hold their high school civics teachers accountable. If only they weren't, most likely, public sector employees.

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks for the job openings list. I think I'll apply for a few of these jobs!

Anonymous said...

Beakeer is a douche nozzle.

I'm sorry, but it had to be said.

Douche.

Nozzle.

(that ought to get things started)

Daniel said...

The term "public service" makes me giggle like a beakeer.

Anonymous said...

Why does everyone accept the comparison of government with private sector pay? Private sector has to EARN the money they use to pay their employees, whereas Government is GIVEN a PILE of MONEY that was TAKEN from the private sector!!!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!