2) The manager to line staff ratio is completely misunderstood. Most of those who are in “management” classifications are professional staff, and do not “manage” any staff. And when services are outsourced (to save the taxpayer money) you still need someone who is going to manage the program.

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You got one thing wrong: the BOS DOES “micromanage.” Think about it.

Mangers are non-union and serve solely at the “pleasure” of the BOS. If a manager does anything the BOS doesn’t like, he/she are instantly gone.

So ANY staff report or recommendation from anywhere are edited by management only after consultation with some or all of the BOS. It’s called “walking the halls.”

“Open meeting” laws are a hideous joke. MANAGERS meet individually with the BOS, and edit all departmental recommendations based on the direction of the perceived BOS majority. Including major financial decisions affecting the public, current staff and retirees.

Critics, I can appreciate your opinions, and I’ve written about this before. Can you understand that this applies to ALL levels of government? NOT just the County.

Please see the real problem and fix it.

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If supervisor needs to travel on county business, let them pay for it out of their pocket and request reimbursement when the trip is completed.

I would bet you would see some cuts in expenditures and supervisors would be staying home to take care of county business. Why do they need to travel to Washington, South America, or Europe to attend conferences anyway? Why do we have Congressmen and Senators and a State Department?

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I will repeat, management protects themselves and their perks and the cost comes from the rank and file who provide SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC. The rank and file are there in the case of emergency, they are there in the case of a disaster, they are the meeters and greeters of the public when you need services. Fewer rank and file means fewer services to the public and the quality goes down. Want a permit? Ask the permit department how many managers they have, how many rank and file they used to have, and how many managers they now have? (Many rank and file were laid off in 2008 but not managers). Some departments have a low ratio 1 manager to 2 employees (1:2). The best department is Family Support which halved their managers and increased their rank and file which showed a significant increase of revenue.

Demand from the BOS more quality services. Demand a more reasonable rank and file to manager ratio. The unions can yell and scream MURDER, but without PUBLIC SUPPORT, nothing will ever change

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That the PD would invest reportorial time and printer’s ink on prospective credit card abuse by County officials would be entertaining if it weren’t so painful. You and your editors wave the banner of investigative reporting at trivia while studiously ignoring substance. The County of Sonoma is well managed at the middle staff and employee level while fraudulently governed by the Supervisors and agency heads. The County of Sonoma’s employees–heavily constituted of SEIU members–are in the main diligent, professional and productive. And nice! They’re not ripping off the public. They watch their bosses play havoc with County cash–payoffs via fake contracts, bogus capital programs like Sonoma County Energy Independence and Sonoma Clean Power–and worry about their own futures in a County steeped in a culture of white collar fraud at the senior decision level. THe Press Democrat’s complicity in this theatre of “see no evil” is breathtaking. If there were an un-Pulitzer Prize for deception in newspapering, the Press Democrat would win national acclaim. Instead of inventing “angels on a head of a pin” baloney investigations, try answering the question, “who do the Board of Supervisors, County Counsel, the Auditor Controller and the senior management of the Water Agency view as their real constituents–the people on whose good will their careers and livelihood depend?” If you can honestly answer that question, you may find the opportunities for investigative reporting in Sonoma COunty are an unbouded field of opportunity.

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And you suckers keep voting to give them more & more money to piss away.

In grammar school when they taught us the story of Alice in Wonderland they never warned us that we would be living there someday!

Oh well… at least they DID warn us that pollution was causing the next “Ice Age”.

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What have they been auditing, if not the single biggest potential for fraud, waste and abuse on the chart of accounts?

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