Horror Stories Not Believed

It would be easy to write off the “devolution theory” of author Bentley Little (“Working for a Local Bureaucracy for Eight Years: A Horror Story,” Jan. 5 Orange County Voices) as the disgruntled voice of a former employee.

However, his eight year “gulag” experience and factual assertions might incline readers to support his “centralization of all government authority at the national level” theory. It’s a “scary story” all right where Little confuses his former day job with the city of Costa Mesa and his career as a horror novelist. Fortunately for taxpayers, his is not a case where fiction mirrors reality.

The reductions Little references began in 1991 with the economic downturn and revenue “take-aways” by state government.

Costa Mesa’s response: a voluntary 25% salary reduction by the City Council and elimination of conference, training and discretionary expenditures. Management employees asked the City Council in 1993 that they not be considered for any compensation increases (subsequently emulated by all city employees) due to tough financial conditions.

A total of 55 full-time positions have been eliminated from the city’s work force of 623 employees. Of the positions that were eliminated, 15.6% were management positions and 8.3% were nonmanagement.

A total of 22 positions were eliminated by layoffs in 1992 as a result of the city’s privatization of its two public golf courses, a decision that resulted in the city generating a net $1.3-million revenue benefit.

In 1993, another 48 positions were eliminated--all but four of these positions by an early retirement incentive offer by the city. Today, the ratio of management to nonmanagement employees is 1 to 14, with the majority of the employees in 24-hour-a-day safety operations.

While Little’s theory of devolution may be short on substance, he makes a very valid statement about the current and future state of employment in local government--hopefully, for all of government.

In city government today we cannot afford to employ those simply looking “for a day job to tide them over” or “for that winning lottery ticket.” Simply showing up from 8 to 5 and punching a clock on break to “cover your rear” as your accomplishment for the day will likely find you unemployed.

For those in government who may have become accustomed to a “lifestyle” where the “employer” exists for the benefit of the “employed,” I would strongly urge retirement.

Despite Little’s characterization of local government administrators and elected officials as “arrogant,” it is in fact their responsiveness to a public grown weary of wasted tax dollars and excuses that is fundamental to his distorted view of city government.

ALLAN L. ROEDER

City Manager

Costa Mesa

* I was unimpressed with Bentley Little’s thesis that local government is just as unaccountable as the federal government (Orange County Voices, Jan. 5).

Little’s examples of bloat and petty dictates at the management level in Costa Mesa’s City Hall rang false to me. Of course there are maddening personalities and procedures in any organization, but Little’s attitude was never one of “How can I be part of a solution?”

Instead, he went into his job with gritted teeth to work as a technical writer for eight years. With an attitude like that from the beginning, eight years is a long time to hate your job, to magnify perceived slights and to plan your written revenge as shown in this piece.

I can only wonder what the other side of Little’s job performance was and why, if he was as blameless as he claims, he didn’t try other avenues for improvement rather than whining at meetings. For his sake, I hope his horror novels are more compelling than his logic regarding the accountability of local government.

MARY FEWEL

Costa Mesa