But from ESP’s perspective, Michael has run the program into the ground and then some.  I still communicate with numerous ESP employees and managers.  They hate him.  I mean they HATE him.

I can only go by my personal experience with him.  A few years back I met with Michael for close to two hours in hopes of burying the hatchet.  The only place the hatchet got buried was in the middle of my back.

What I remember more than anything else from that conversation was Michael telling me about his trip to Hanford.  He was surprised to find out I knew exactly where Hanford is located and that is because I used to go up that way often.  I love the area.

Anyway, he was telling me about the presentations he was making around the state about “best practices.”  The “best practices” he was talking about was a pilot program in this county where we were giving away a variety of items to welfare recipients if they got a job, including gift cards to Target and Stater Bros.

Generally, for something to be a “best practice,” it has been tried and tested.  In this case he was presenting it to other counties as a “best practice” except in our own county it had not even been tried yet because there was an issue purchasing all of those gift cards and the other giveaways we were presenting to welfare clients.  In other words he was totally lying about this “best practice” and its results.  Those who worked in the system can tell you that we did eventually try it and it was a complete disaster.  There were not that many welfare clients who were willing to find a job in order to get a $25 Target gift card.  And those that did, found a new job every week.

And of course, we were not allowed to do an employment verification, because we didn’t really want to know if they had found a job or not.  The truth might have made our stats look ever worse than they already looked.

This was one of the many boondoggles and waste of money that is TAD.  But what else is new?

I, for one, don’t believe tigers change their stripes.  I did, however, tell one of Michael’s supporters to tell him he can always call me and discuss this.  It’s not like there is anything he can do to me now.  But of course he did not.  Like I said.  Tigers don’t change their stripes.

Anyway, the winner of the Linda Haugen brown-nosing contest this time around is no other than Diana Alexander.  ESP employees know her as the PERC manager or by her moniker “teeth.”  She is known best for her ass kissing abilities and her phony sickenly sweet disposition.  She was also a favorite of Mark Uffer, which says a lot.  I’m told Diana started her career as an Eligibility Worker for TAD, so I guess we should have seen this coming.

Now, I will say there are those in the know that claim CAO Greg Devereaux knows he has a big problem with HSS, but so far there is nothing to prove it.  Although the fact that Lamberto was a part of the Alexander promotion could be a sign.  Either way, it is too little, too late.

The Board of Supervisors received the first of their long-awaited presents this past week.  They shall pay for the sins of all of the department heads and managers they refused to do anything about.  And rightfully so.

]]> http://iepolitics.net/2011/07/31/iepolitics-if-it-means-anything-at-all-it-is-still-too-little-too-late/feed/ 0 http://iepolitics.net/2011/07/23/iepolitics-here-is-my-question-for-the-piu/ http://iepolitics.net/2011/07/23/iepolitics-here-is-my-question-for-the-piu/#comments Sat, 23 Jul 2011 09:14:42 +0000 Administrator http://iepolitics.com/?p=9924 Continue reading →]]> California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 10850(a) reads:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, all applications and records concerning any individual made or kept by any public officer or agency in connection with the administration of any provision of this code relating to any form of public social services for which grants-in-aid are received by this state from the United States government shall be confidential, and shall not be open to examination for any purpose not directly connected with the administration of that program, or any investigation, prosecution, or criminal or civil proceeding conducted in connection with the administration of any such program. The disclosure of any information that identifies by name or address any applicant for or recipient of these grants-in-aid to any committee or legislative body is prohibited, except as provided in subdivision (b).

California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 10850(d) reads:

Any person, including every public officer and employee, who knowingly secures or possesses, other than in the course of official duty, an official list or a list compiled from official sources, published or disclosed in violation of this section, of persons who have applied for or who have been granted any form of public social services for which state or federal funds are made available to the counties is guilty of a misdemeanor.

So when the county of San Bernardino, aka Linda Haugen, Michael de la Rosa and Nancy Swanson, enacted a program where every employee would be checked against the welfare data base to determine if they or anyone in their household was connected with a welfare case anywhere, why were they not prosecuted?  It would seem those involved with cross-referencing employees and the welfare data base would be guilty of maybe 1000 misdemeanor counts or more.

Are one, two or all three sleeping with Mikey?  What is the story here?  This seems like a clear-cut case of selective prosecution not to mention civil rights violations and more.  These are real crimes and should be prosecuted as such.  What gives?

Well, the answer according to him, is that he has “dirt” on TAD Deputy Director Michael De la Rosa.  Michael, of course, would have been involved in the second demotion.  As a matter of fact, when said manager attempted to promote, the Equal Employment Opportunity complaint magically disappeared.  And the Human Resources Officer “forgot” to do a background investigation.  Amazing how that sort of thing happens.

We know Michael has had some issues.  The embezzlement from the San Bernardino Public Employees Assocation is the most well known.  I’d be interested in knowing what the other “dirt” is.  Bet that is one Human Resources investigation that never gets done.

Peter Drucker

Interesting changes are being made in San Bernardino County’s Transitional Assistance Department’s (TAD) management structure.  Unless Assistant Administrative Officer Linda Haugen and TAD Director Nancy Swanson are even more stupid than we already know, they have to be very nervous about the new head honcho in town, County Administrative Officer (CAO) Greg Devereaux.  Linda Haugen was able to . . . um “charm” . . . her way out of trouble with former CAO Mark Uffer but those who have worked with Devereaux say he cannot be “persuaded” by the same means.  We know that neither Linda nor Nancy are capable of producing anything resembling a well-thought-out and intelligent work product, so they have a lot to worry about.

Before being devoured by TAD, the Jobs and Employment Services Department (JESD) was considered one of the best departments to work for in the county.  Employment Services Specialist positions were highly sought after.  The department was known for treating its employees and the public very well.  It had a positive work environment for employees and did an awesome job of helping the less fortunate in our community.

When JESD became a division of TAD, known as the Employment Services Program (ESP), it became the department to leave.  Line staff, supervisors and managers alike couldn’t get away from TAD’s despot management style fast enough.  Morale plummeted.  Hostile work environment became the name of the game.  Racial and sexual harassment became commonplace.

Jackie James, a regional manager for JESD, became the Deputy Director for ESP.  But she didn’t last long.  Another Deputy Director, Michael De la Rosa, known more for his embezzlement from the San Bernardino Public Employees Association than for any valuable contribution to TAD, quickly targeted Jackie.  He helped to have her demoted so that he could take that position for himself.

Jackie was the first in a long-line of JESD African-American employees who were targeted by De la Rosa.  Since his hostile takeover of ESP, he has systematically eliminated almost all former JESD African-Americans in leadership rolls within ESP.  Under his dictatorship numerous Equal Employment Opportunity complaints have been filed, with Human Resources staff usually covering for De la Rosa’s racist and sexist actions.

So we find it very interesting that now that we have a “professional” CAO, who is said to be a bit of a stickler for the law, De la Rosa has been reassigned to “special projects” and Jackie James has been re-instated to her rightful position.  We have never been a Jackie fan, but at least she understands the clientele we serve and the purpose of the program.  Unfortunately, as with any prisoner of war, after three years of torture, brainwashing, and beating down, it is likely she has become one of them.  Time will tell if this change will offer any relief for the beleaguered masses.

Unlike Michael (or Nancy or Linda), Jackie is well educated and intelligent and can project a professional image for the department.  Michael, on the other hand, who is poorly educated, terribly simple-minded, and mean-spirited as hell, is said to be going to spend much of his time in Sacramento trying to save Welfare to Work.  That is rather humorous since he single-handedly ran the program into the ground here in San Bernardino County.  Before Michael we had Work Performance Rates exceeding 50 percent.  They are now down in single digits even with all the falsified record-keeping TAD management is so good at.

Knowing what an embarrassing fool Michael presents himself as, we have to think that the Sacramento gig is simply a way to keep him under Devereaux’s radar.  No one who sees him in action would think he deserves his $100,000 a year salary and it will provide a way to keep him from embarrassing Haugen and Swanson.  I feel sorry for the poor legislators who have to deal with this incompetent simpleton.  On second thought, maybe they deserve one another.

“Cautiously optimistic” and “nervous” are two of the phrases I have heard repeatedly about San Bernardino County’s new head honcho, County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux.  Even before assuming office, Devereaux has ended a decades-long policy of 9-80s for county management, a move that makes line staff very nervous as many depend on “flex time” to survive in these hard economic times.  But it is also a sign that Devereaux is not going to be afraid to lead.

After six years of despot leadership by former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer and his band of thugs, it is easy to understand why line staff are wary of our new leader.  I’ve been asked my opinion repeatedly by everyone from the lowest level employee to managers to newspaper reporters.  Here is my standard response:

Seeing Devereaux’s close, personal relationship with the Fourth District makes me nervous on a personal level, especially when considering what the Fourth District recently did to me.  That being said, I have two friends who are long-term city of Ontario employees who have nothing but respect for Devereaux.  They are rank-and-file and are allowed to work 9-80s.  Ontario employees, most of whom are represented by San Bernardino County Public Employees Association, have the best contracts of any governmental agency in San Bernardino County.

From what I hear from those that know Devereaux, he is tough but also fair.  I also hear he will not take the crap from county managers that Uffer not only tolerated, but encouraged.   He will not play the games Uffer played and will not tolerate bad managers.  Unlike Uffer, he is consistently described as a ‘professional.’

Line staff will figure out Devereaux in his first 60 days.  We have been tormented by some of the worse possible managers for the past six years.  This is the time of the year when they can all be forced into retirement.  His actions will tell us if he is another Uffer or if he is a real County Administrative Officer.  Those that he leaves in management positions will say everything we need to know about him.  We can all only hope that the change that has been made is a change for the best that will finally turn this county around.

Here’s our list of those that need to go:

1. Ruth Stringer
2. Dean Arabatzis
3. Steve Hall
4. Kari Verjil
5. Doreen Boxer
6. Virginia Lugo
7. Nancy Swanson
8. Michael de la Rosa
9. Jim Lindley
10. Dr. Dev
11. Andrew Lamberto
12. Deanna Thompson
13. Keith Lee
14. Sandy Harmsen
15. LINDA HAUGEN

Who do you pick as “Managers that need to be booted”?