WOW Steve and Jim you guys are top of things and concerned sportsmen… that's cool! But, I wouldn't expect much changes for the regulated public or sportsmen one way or another. And there will definitely not be more money (or less) for DNR side because of it.
There is NO consensus opinion on whether it is good or bad- even within each political side. My [smilie=2c.gif] is that either way it really doesn't affect day to day operations at all. Management wastes lots of time during reorganization transition periods, but then again they don't have much of anything to do anyway so there's not much harm there. BUT- at this point it is safe to say going back together is stupid because the agencies have spent about a year (time, effort, some $ but not terribly much) trying to put the pieces back together again, only to throw that all away. I am disappointed in that, but much of the major changes were held off because this move by new Gov was not a total surprise. Although the motivation for it is not entirely clear- yet. There were some $ savings that went with having 1 department, not much but still a penny saved is…
"WOW Steve and Jim you guys are top of things and concerned sportsmen… that's cool! But, I wouldn't expect much changes for the regulated public or sportsmen one way or another. And there will definitely not be more money (or less) for DNR side because of it."
I'm betting 70:40 that you are dead on if you are a regulated public, but the odds drop to 60:60 if you are a sportsmen. 😀
Hey Duke, I was at a speaking Q&A at a fishing meeting when a member of the audience asked me about the re-splitting of the DNRE. I gave the audience the full historical story of the way it was during the years before the corruption of the John Enger administration, Engler's hatred of the 'Public Trust' protection of state natural resources, and how Engler screwed over the DNR & DEQ while collecting campaign bribes from his polluter and developer pals. I then explain how Engler's puppet governor Snyder is only following instructions from his advisors on how to screw Michigan back to the old dark ages. The audience feedback loved hearing the truth and talking with DEQ and DNR staff, they are happy for any help getting the truth out to the public. Never pass up a chance to help the DNR when we can.
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Your babble is so laughable that I wish I could keep myself from responding. Had I been in that position, I would have given them the benefits of the change and how regardless of who is in the governors office the DNR employees are just that, employees. If they're good employees they are going to do their job regardless of who the state has elected governor. Please remember that Michigan is an at-will employment state, if anyone in the DNR hates their job or their employer as much as you would lead us to believe they should QUIT – today!
I know you won't take any of that to heart and the glass will always be half full for you and you'll be waiting for someone to fill it for you. Instead just read and think about the following quotes. Maybe you'll become part of the solution and offer useful advice and information to people instead of dwelling on the past…
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us.
You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.
I have memories – but only a fool stores his past in the future.
The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post.
"If they're good employees they are going to do their job regardless of who the state has elected governor."
I respectfully and totally disagree, Will, and here's why: even the best employees cannot perform well within organizations that are unable to provide those employees with the capacity to succeed. Likewise, the employee can't succeed if the organization fails to remove obsticals that prevent success.
The State is broke, so are the Feds, no new money is on the horizon from anywhere, many State Departments are already understaffed to crisis levels and the new Gov is talking about an executive order to freeze hiring any additional State employees as one of his first priorities. Environmental issues are going to receive little attention in that mess.
Ok, enough of my babble.
"Ranger" said:
"Golden Handcuffs" was the phrase used by my State employee friends who hated their jobs. It meant they wanted to quit but they couldn't walk away from the great pay and benefits.
I shouldn't even open this can of worms…but what a great reason for performance based pay!!! if you don't like your job, you don't do it well…you get fired! but wait, the state got itself stuck with employees that suck because it costs too dang much to get rid of them…ugh ill stop before i get wound up…
Good points, but would you take a performance-based pay job in an organization so disfunctional that it will likely prevent you from achieving high quality outcomes? No, if you are a star, you would get a job someplace where you can be confident you'll be rewarded for your achievements.
Performance-based pay won't work anytime soon in Michigan Govt for another reason. Govt workers don't produce goods, they provide services. It is VERY difficult (and expensive) to create valid systems to measure the quality of service process and outcomes. Here's an example – physicians involved in the State's Medicaid program are not paid for outcomes, they are paid for the number of people they serve. I know of mental health clinics where the docs are expected to see at least 4 patients per hour. The doc has 10 minutes to talk to the person and 5 minutes to update the patient's medical record. The docs' performance is measured by people coming thru the door, not improvement in the actual health of the patients.
Last, I was invited to help develop peformance measurement systems for one of the larger State Departments. I and others who have backgrounds in statistics repeatedly spotted huge problems in how the State wanted to manage data. The State responded by saying, "Thanks, but we have a deadline for this project we'll fix that problem when we can get back to it." It is 15 years later and NONE of those problems were fixxed, huge tax dollars are wasted collecting data that cannot be used for performance evaluation or futures planning.
man, I sure can ramble
Ranger, You are correct. I sat with Kelly Smith, fishery staff, and several other Lake Huron & Saginaw Bay basin advisors all day yesterday. We covered several topics including finance and fishery. It was gut-wrenching to watch a advisory person have difficulty speaking from holding tears describing his dire report. I noted couple staff at meeting that I knew could have retired. They made personal choice to stay on a while longer to help state get through during this tough period. Kelly mentioned there were 318 retirements about 50/50 DEQ/DNR. Fish division has 46 vacancies, may fill 10 (if they aren't diverted to another agency). That leaves us down about 35 positions of recent years. That's down 80 or more from previous years before that. Kelly, "Quality will go down, absolutely!" Kelly, "Boilerplate of full hatchery staff is now off. We may have to close a hatchery to keep field and research staff going." Most of the retirements came from field staff and technicians that are the core that keeps everything operational, mechanical and grunt work. Question, can Lansing staff be moved to field? Well, there are only 18 folks in Lansing, including the 6 or 7 that use Lansing as a field office. Yes, they all go out into the field to help out projects, including the secretaries! We are operating on 1996 budget, with 2011 rent and fuel increases ect., and more deeper cuts coming next year. Several states are sitting good with full staff and full DNR funding in spite of national downturn. Those states have 70+% public support to take a small portion % of their sales tax earmarked for natural resources of the state. So far the Michigan Republican legislators have always refused to consider the idea claiming that is a tax increase.
ranger, you too make valid points, maybe I should have specified that by performance, i mean productive…I would love a performance based job in a disfunctional situation though. i took one when i lived in detroit for the milwaukee power tool co. and managed the metro area. It was more of a disfunction in the location i was working, not with milwaukee, but I was able to be extremely successful making things happen.
However in this situation, I basically mean productive. My dad works for Ferris in the boiler plant, The other guys he works with accomplish nothing more than making sure something doesn't blow up, and making sure they get overtime. They scheme constanlty on how to get called in on weekends if they are on call. Basically, a miserable situation for my dad, because he is proactive, and productive, and eliminates those costs, not try to create them. Why do the other 2 have a job??? because their labor agreement makes it too hard to fire them!
Every state job I have worked with (colleges and local road commissions) have had an abundance of this, I can only imagine the rest of the state has the same issues…
I say all of this after hearing an interview with the Gov. of indiana yesterday, and a quote stuck in my mind. "you would be amazed how much government you don't miss". I bring this up, in that if it were better managed, these people were able to be held accountable, there would be less waste. less waste means more speing in the right direction — our resources
I wish my wife worked for a performance based ER though!!!
If Michigan took 1/4 of 1% of our present 6% sales tax like the other states did the natural resources would be funded and tourism industry jobs could grow. That would mean we finally got back something for our 6% sales tax. This goes back to the original reason the DEQ staff funding was cut and gutted during the three John Engler administrations, so there would be no staff to do field site investigations of the polluters, developers, and criminals that bought off the political corruption with bribes. Now we have history repeating with Governor Snyder reappointing the old Engler guard.
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