The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: A Heck of a Guy

The Rules of Bureaucracy

Rule #O: "The Rules of Bureaucracy are mutable, non-canonical, non-ordinal, and contradictory, except in the cases where they are not."
Rule #1: "Document everything you do; if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen."
Rule #2 [The Sixty Minutes Rule]: "Never do anything that would cause Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Steve Croft, Leslie Stahl, or even Andy Rooney to persue you down a hallway with a camera crew."
Rule #3: "Nothing Simple is Ever Easy"
Rule #4: "It's about the money; follow the money."
Rule #5: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Rule #6: "Politics is the enemy of good government."
Rule #7: "The biggest detriment to public service is the public."
Rule #8: "The second biggest detriment to public service is the service."
Rule #9: "There's a reason; there's ALWAYS a reason."
Rule #10: "The Law is a harsh mistress: The rigorous and exacting application of which can benefit of society when used correctly to advance good policy and block bad, and be the bane of society when used incorrectly to advance bad policy and block good."
Rule #11: "Public service often involves waking up in the morning, opening up the newspaper, and discovering that someone, somewhere out there thinks that you're a dickhead."
Rule #12: "No one really knows what you do."
Rule #13 [Luke's Rule]: "No one ever acts like the bastard they really are."
Rule #14: "Bureaucracy endures."
Rule #15: "The longer you work in bureaucracy, the more Catch-22 resembles non-fiction."
Rule #16: "Politicians are not smarter than you."
Rule #18: "Money is not created equal."
Rule #19: "Mediocrity is normalcy."
Rule #17: "Within any bureaucratic structure, resources (e.g. people, money, knowledge, etc.) are not distributed uniformly."
Rule #20: "Don't assume a fiduciary liability without a committed resource allocation."
Rule #21: "If you do your job and obey the law, they can't reasonably fire you."
Rule #22: "The Budget will always be wrong."
Rule #23: "Always sign in blue."
Rule #24: "A Bureaucrat must be able to explain and justify his/her actions to laymen without resorting to the phrase 'because the Rules say so.'"
Rule #25: "Never voluntarily relinquish control of an original document."
Rule #26: "Sometimes you just have to say 'Screw the rules'"
Rule #27: "Change sucks."
Rule #28: "Sometimes the answer is 'No.'"
Rule #29: "It is very easy to make difficult decisions when no one has a clue what's going on."
Rule #30: "If you hang around long enough, eventually you will become an expert in something."
Rule #31: "Data, technology, and automatic processes can never completely supplant human interaction."
Rule #32: "Cover thine own ass."
Rule #33: "It's not real until it has its own acronym."
Rule #34:There is nothing more dangerous than an elected, resourceful idiot.
Rule #35: It will always take longer than expected.
Rule #36: Coming Soon...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Heck of a Guy

I've been mulling over the sudden resignation of Publics Work Director Guy Costa over the last week.

Let me step back for a minute though. A couple months ago on NPR a high ranking Federal Official (I can't recall which) offhandedly remarked that there are two reasons why a High Ranking Public Official would resign, outside of personal emergencies or a better job. The first is a major organizational defeat for the official; the second is a string of minor defeats for the official.

My sense is that Guy resigned for the second reason. With council pressure, a declining budget, Act 47 oversight, and the demands of the 3-1-1 line, Guy was spread pretty thin. The very public reprimand and suspension because of the actions of some underlings was pretty embarassing and was probably the final nail in the coffin.

I can imagine Guy waking up one morning thinking, "What the fuck am I doing?"

With the number of friends (and relatives) that he has in high places, Guy doesn't really have to worry about landing on his feet. Maybe he'll sleep better too.

10 comments:

MH said...: I prefer to think he found the perfect pothole and decided to leave on a high note.; 12:15 AM
Anonymous said...: There was no way for Guy to win here. He became a casualty of the current politics. The current administration believes it is proper to trash well respected people all over the media, attempting to destroy peoples name and careers, while deflecting any responsibility for the situations at hand. Difficult to do a perfect job in imperfect circumstances.

Because of his connections you would have thought he (Guy) did not have to work that much, but that was not the case with him. Guy was very hands on, and I personally wish him well.

I am sure he will be better off not dealing with the current situation, luckily for him, other options are probably available.; 1:52 AM
MH said...: Costa must have actually paved Anon's street. Mine hasn't seen so much as a patch since Murphy took the city down the tube.; 10:39 AM
Anonymous said...: MH - Costa was not in charge of political paving. Those decision came from on High.

Which was probably another reason for him to quit - rather than being allowed to fix the problems, he had to fix things that weren't really broken in order to deliver votes that weren't really needed.; 10:41 AM
MH said...: Two choices:

1. Luke appointed one non-political, capable bureaucrat and it was just coincidental that half his family appears of the ballot somewhere.

2. Costa is just another machine hack.; 11:44 AM
Anonymous said...: MH,
1st. Costa never paved anon's street. I assume he was never ordered to do so because no politicians live on my street.

2nd. Hack maybe, but he did the job that he was ordered to do and then some. He was in the street all of the time, when camera's were not on, maybe, because you didn't see him at every political snapshot opportunity, is why you feel the way you do.

I only wish that were the case with many other political hires. Faces on the news, and nothing of substance behind the face.; 4:36 PM
MH said...: That's not it as I don't watch the TV news and have no idea who is at the political photo ops. I assume everyone is who isn't public opposed to Luke is corrupt.; 5:37 PM
Mark Rauterkus said...: Or, blame the brain cancer.

Guy has been around the block. He served three mayors, at least. Moving on is fine.; 8:17 PM
O said...: Yeah, everyone I've talked to and every time I've worked with him (both personally and professionally) he really seems to care about his job. My guess is that having some real connections meant that he didn't have to deal with all the political bullshit.

Which brings up a good question: who told Luke to smack around a Costa? Captain McClosky? The Turk? Tataglia?; 9:47 PM
MH said...: Maybe I am a bit too suspicious at times.; 10:07 PM

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Heck of a Guy

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