State spending on outside service contracts still rises

Somewhat interesting commentary in the January 19 2015 Press Gazette column by Bill Lueders.

Each year state law requires the Wisconsin Department of Administration to track outsourced tasks spending by state funded agencies.   Municipal workers have long argued that they could be doing many of these jobs for less.

The latest report shows spending on outside services is up for the fourth straight year. This has happened despite the Act 10 benefit changes under Gov. Scott Walker that arguably make state workers more cost-effective, compared to the private sector.

Bill Franks points out “During a time of alleged austerity, the administration continues to spend taxpayers’ money like an inebriated sailor.” 

It should have been obvious all along that the Administration is the ones making the the dumb decisions.  But of course rather than deal confront the people responsible for the actions made, Walker and everyone these days seems to opt for the blanket approach.

I see this very scenario all the time, where virtually everything gets farmed out.  I have a very hard time with this.   Sometimes I try and think there are rational reasons like liability insurance concerns or something.  Other times I think it is a posh De Pere thing.

I am a big Do It Yourself (DIY) type.  It is likely due to how I was raised, with not a lot of money. 

So may I suggest if you want to save money, when you go go to screen candidates for administrative employment potions, ask if they are hands on.  Ask if they cut their own lawn.  Ask if they know how to check their oil.  If they are thrifty in their personal life, they are probably going to be able to save your company money.

Or you can continue to hire a guy in a suite who probably hasn't the first clue how to save money.

Teachers union boss loses 40,000 members, gets a raise

Partial excerpt from: https://web.archive.org/web/20170404033629/http://watchdog.org/184668/nea-lose-members/

National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel received a huge pay raise this year while the teachers union lost more than 40,000 members.

Van Roekel, who retired this summer, was paid $541,632 during NEA’s fiscal year ending Aug. 31 — a $130,000 increase from last year, driven by a gross salary hike from $306,286 to $429,509. NEA membership dropped from 3,003,885 last August to 2,963,121 this August.

NEA, the nation’s largest labor union, has lost 272,014 members since 2009. The union paid Van Roekel $2.2 million from 2010-2014.....

I suggest you read the whole thing so that you can have that taste of puke in the back of your throat.

Sick isn't it?  When Act 10 was on the table, I though for a second this might just be the wake up call WEAC/NEA needs.

Now realize I was wrong.  That would assume people in high positions are responsible, ethical people, who realize that their actions do trickle down.   Most have superiority complex that feel enables them to special treatment.

For a second I forgot Amerkia, no longer means land of the free, where all people are equal.

Seriously stop and think about the superiority complex problem.  What about the recent police issues (ie. Ferguson, Missouri, etc)?  And now Bill Cosby, and going back the famous O.J. Simpson case.

Sorry, I haven't made many blog entries since that our local union went away.  It was a big source of uselessness and created more turmoil than it solved.  But when I saw this article, I had to point it out.

Now the biggest source of uselessness and turmoil left is administration.  So you'll likely see me pointing that out here.

Expecting some sort of  blind obedience is not right.  A job title means nothing, and you are insane if you expect some sort of behavior that your own personal integrity does not instill.


I have blogged on the dilemma before.  Citing the do as I say, not as I do problem and pointing out there is a problem with people being in charge but not being responsible.

Supporting authority while completely disregarding the morality of that authority is a disconnection from reality.  That dilemma and epidemic in today's America is the underlying basis of this blog.. And if you want to get right to the point, is likely the most critical problem facing the education of our youth.

Support staff the inferior class of people?

It's bad enough that our raises do not compound with years of service.  Rather they are applied to the start/base wage.

But never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that we consistently do not receive the same percentage increase, despite it being applied differently.

Step one; Goto the DPI website and download the Administrative Salary reports for a number of years back.

Step two: Open each file and look for your school district.  Calculate the percent increase from the last years salary.

Step three: Go through your old contracts and notes to compare what was awarded to support staff.

Step four:  Be angry. but keep your cool and sing the "Master has got me working song" at work.

Over a seven year period support staff in De Pere has consistently received an average of 1/2 percent less per year.

Why?

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Income inequality is a term used a lot in politics the last few years.  While there is likely some exaggeration to help bring attention to the issue, there is also a lot of truth. 

From: "Pay without Performance- The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation."

In 1991, the average large-company CEO received approximately 140 times the pay of an average worker; in 2003, the ratio was about 500:1

Ref: Janice Revell, “Mo’ Money, Fewer Problems; Is It a Good Idea to Get Rid of the $1 Million CEO Pay Ceiling?” Fortune, March 31, 2003, 34.

In the school system, sadly isn't not much different.

Ref: School Administrator Raises Outpace Teachers - August 17, 2013 Green Bay Press Gazette 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_income_inequality_in_the_United_States

Locally I have show that percentage based raise increase do over time widen the gap from the top to bottom paying positions (expected).

Animosity created

Some time back I wrote a letter of recommendation for a fellow co-worker, a long term substitute worker.

He had applied a number of times for a permanent position, but always was passed up.  Instead they would hire someone off the street that they had no first hand experience with.


This guy was/is quite flexible and I suspected and I suspected they didn't want to lose him as a substitute.

The problem is the permanent person that they awarded the position to, always turned out to be less deserving.  I.e. they sucked, as deemed by all the other workers.

So I wrote something along these lines:

Dear HR, and Immediate Supervisor,

I have know XXX for 7 years, and have worked with him in and out of the district.  He has a great work ethic, is flexible, and easy to get along with.

The only possible reason that I have been able to come up with why XXX hasn't already been offered a permanent position, is because management likes controversy and problems as it somehow helps them justify their own jobs.

And from what I have seen, this is totally illogical, as they aren't very good at resolving conflict among workers, which goes back to why would management not hire someone that they have first hand direct work experience of.

Sincerely, some guy who has seen to much stupid stuff...

As you can imagine this was not well received.  One supervisor who I purposely did not express my feelings to on this for good reason, got a hold of my (what should have been treated as confidential) message and came down to tell me he was offended by the message (that I didn't send to him.)

I thought supervisors were supposed to have experience with  dealing with upset people, and well, were used to getting screamed at from all angles.  I guess he doesn't get out of his office and interfaced with people often.  And what was really disgusting was that he made this about him, and his "feelings." 

Unfortunately, I don't specialize in tact.  I try to specialize in trying to get my point across and to stick.

This happens often with professional staff too.  A long term substitute teacher won't even get an interview, but they'll hire someone from an adjacent district.   Now you tell me, who should be "offended."

Is management is totally blind to the animosity created by how they award positions?  In every building there is someone who dislikes someone else because they feel they should have been awarded the position they other guy got. 

Perhaps if there was a more spelled out procedure on how they award positions, then this would be less prevalent? At least then a level headed person can't rightfully say "it should have been mine", they then know how the procedure works.

Another thing that would help (and has been suggested) is if there wasn't such a large pay difference between positions.  People have asked time and time again what the difference is between a level II and level III person, and the answer is never the same and always has a very blurry line.

Guy is spot on.

HOWARD — The scandal at the VA is yet another symptom of the “bonus culture” that has infiltrated management of all our institutions. When the measures used to evaluate success of the organization become the target by which executive pay is determined, corruption and criminality follow.

This was the case when bankers falsified mortgage applications and financial products almost destroying our economy in the financial meltdown. It happens when chief executives rig company earnings to give themselves fat checks and it happened again at VA hospitals. At the VA (unlike the banks) someone may even go to jail.

However all these are examples of how thievery has become the acceptable norm among those who profess to lead our largest corporations.

Frank Ingram

In charge and not responsible

Doesn't it irk you when important people like your boss, CEO's/ administrators aren't taking their job seriously.  Well why should they, other people in similar positions aren't held responsible?  That ethic of responsibility apparently went away 25 years ago.

Look at the 2008 market collapse and how the bailout worked.   No one important in the banking, wall-street or other stepped down, big business were propped up and able to keep with the same people in charge.

Compare that to how Lee Iacocca turned around Chrysler in the early 1980s. He reduced his own salary to $1 a year, calling it “equality of sacrifice.” Other executive salaries were cut up to 10% as part of approaching Congress for the Loan Guarantee Act that helped enable the company to survive.

And the recent government shutdown of 2013 stemming from two chambers of Congress failing to agree to an appropriations continuing resolution.  Once again, people in important positions (lawmakers) who are not doing their job well, cause a whole slue of negative effects to everyone downstream while they still continue to draw a paycheck and retain their positions afterwards.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, that same mentality has trickled down into the school systems.  As evident by the August 2013 Press Gazette article, titled "School Administrators Raises Outpace Teachers."





It's just plain disgusting.

CFR Carpet Machines

The key selling points from the first meeting seemed to be:

It use a continuous-flow technology. With this system, cleaning solution is recycled and filtered so it can be used repeatedly. This will save time, less time/trips to empty and fill with water. It will also save money as there will be less chemical used, as you will change the water less.

Toted 90 some percent water recovery. This collects as much as 50 percent more moisture than many conventional wands and extractors. The results: more thorough cleaning and rapid drying times.

Real life discoveries:

The toted 500 PSI, is exactly the pressure listed on our older equipment. You need to change the water when it's dirty, so you really don't save any time or trips to change the water.

There is no recovery tank like the conventional extractors, so where do you think the dirty water goes?

The float sticks, and the engage switch tends not to make contact. Nozzles misalign.

Tests performed: Standard room extracted with the CFR, and then done once more with the conventional machine. The water recovered in the second extraction was still very dirty, that what you's see in a first time extraction.

The water sprayed onto the carpet from the CFR at this point was dirty.

Excuses: There is a lot of dirt left in the carpet from the older machines techniques that will take years to rectify.