Another Pennsylvania political corruption case, ho hum. Two interesting angles, the convicted defendant’s sister is a Pennsylvania Supreme Court judge and the initial whistleblower was an intern. Fresh-eyed, with college-age naivete, the intern noted as a bad thing that co-workers were doing poltical campaign work on taxpayer time. The horror. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_788426.html
Category Archives: Governmental Triage
Pennsylvania–Land of Giants
John Perzel, one of Pennsylvania most powerful Republican legislators as House Speaker in the early 2000s is soon off to jail, where he joins Vince Fumo, long the legislature’s most powerful Democrat. Each was found to have diverted millions in state funds to personal and/or partisan purposes. Steve Lopez, a political columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer before moving to the LA Times, used to end pieces on such milestones with “Pennsylvania, Land of Giants,” wry sarcasm hard to improve on. http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/politics-state/former-speaker-of-the-pa-house-sentenced-in-corruption-case-627304/. The timeline of the “Computergate” case that ensnared the former House Speaker is here. http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209366-454.stm
Blasting crime the ‘Fuzz’ way
So, a tweeting Philly detective, actually a healthy sign, which of course means he has to stop while the chiefs make rules about it. Hope the practice emerges from “rule-making” looking as healthy as when it went in. UPDATE! After a remarkably short time looking at the issue, the PPD let the detective continue his tweeting. Blasting crime the ‘Fuzz’ way.
Police Advisory Commission must cut through backlog of complaints
Philadelphia–where unions are muscular and civil service mechanisms, including state-level arbitration, extend and dilute just about any discipline meted out to errant officers. So independent civilian complaint review comes last, can’t force action, suffers budget cuts and faces calls for its extinction. Anybody want a job? Police Advisory Commission must cut through backlog of complaints.
Profitable Non-Profits
More and more politicians are ending up closely involved, sometimes as a founder, with local non-profit organizations that receive major government grants. The potential for abuse is evident and, as is alleged here, may come to pass. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/nyregion/trial-begins-for-pedro-espada-accused-of-looting-health-care-network.html
Cops in Cars Crash II
Will be interesting to see what happens when cops showing up at other cops’ accidents act less like concerned buddies and more like Internal Affairs accident investigators. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0314-lapd-collision-story-20120313,0,3330845.story
Cashing Out on the Turnpike
As this story notes, cashing in accumulated vacation and sick leave at retirement is common in public agencies. So, given the inertial nature of organizations, and the employees’ sense of entitlement to such benefits where they exist, agencies that end “cash-out” policies will likely experience plague-level sick leaves that put the CDC on high alert. Ohio Turnpike’s director thinks pay policies are too generous at toll road | cleveland.com.
Institutionalized Family Court
An organization whose actions are largely governed by its members’ perceptions of what ought to be done, notwithstanding what laws, rules, stakeholders or even markets require, is suffering from a grave condition–institutionalization. Now New York’s Family Court won’t die from it, but Kodak might, Olympus will be in the ICU for a while, and IBM almost succumbed to the condition in the 1990s. In varying degrees at varying times this affliction takes hold of the FBI, and the FAA; and most urban public school systems are just emerging from prolonged institutionalization comas. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/nyregion/at-new-york-family-courts-rule-for-public-access-isnt-heeded.html
Brighton Beach Bamboozling
More Medicare fraud allegations, with a Russian flavor. The scams citizens use to extract services from Russia’s soviet-style bureaucracies are apparently good training for those few immigrants who decide to specialize in U.S. white collar crime. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/nyregion/dozens-said-to-be-arrested-in-health-care-fraud-scheme.html
Fish or fowl? ‘In-between’ organizations
Living large at a quasi-public/quasi-private insurer of workers comp in Missouri. Such corporate style high-life draws outrage no matter how slim the government connection, witness Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executive compensation. However, these executive salaries, perks, sports boxes and conferences at posh resorts are routine at private firms that issue insurance and finance mortages. STLToday.com: Missouri audit blasts state-sponsored insurer.