Thursday, July 29, 2010

Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind

EDITOR'S NOTE: I had the pleasure of meeting the late Doyle Roberts once, but we clicked immediately, so it gives me great pleasure to post this prescient speech on the blog. It describes the tendency of bureaucrats to create complex organizations [or lack thereof], promote mediocrity, and avoid accountability, because that is what they do. Reading it gives you an insight as to why the state of California is on the verge of bankruptcy.

On the Occasion of My Retirement
by Doyle L. Roberts (delivered in Westminster, CA on March 5, 1981)

The Youth Authority has had over 25 years to make up its mind about Doyle Roberts. So what I say in a single speech is unlikely to change anybody’s mind.

I am retiring early rather than continue to implement policies I consider ethically repugnant. The Youth Authority is more than a big P.T.A. social, it is a necessary public agency. It is California’s best tool for fighting delinquency. I worked for and merited my job. So…

I don’t have to knuckle under. I can pick up my retirement pay and hang a “go-to-hell” sign on my door. I will no longer assist the “team” in turning the Youth Authority into political garbage.

Every year since 1975, when I took the CEA assignment, I have had to close my eyes and compromise my conscience on the way to the bank. The psychological blows have been numerous. It is like being nibbled to death by ducks.

In hindsight, it would have been better to shut my mouth. I criticized Sacramento and the bizarre policies often and in writing. That was not the wisest procedure. I put my CEA job on the line. I knew what could happen. I believe that management has the right to select and reject subordinates – hell, that was a primary principle. But they demote efficient and promote defective employees. My ethical breaking point was not the director’s loss of confidence. The plain facts are that I had little confidence in the invincible woman as director and no confidence in the executive team: the leg hangers and the wonder wimps.

My heroes have always been cowboys. My models were Heman [Herman?] Star, R.G. Harvey, Lyle Egan and Vic Kirk. Administrators who spoke with a straight tongue, who did what they had to do, took action and were responsible for their decisions. Power does not come in a can to be picked up and passed around. Authority must be earned. Managers of principle do not kowtow to politics but speak out on public issues. The Youth Authority must not be allowed to shift priorities and resources away from its public protective role.

When I transferred to the clinic I got to know another side of YA. The kind of people that make a dangerously overcrowded and under budgeted institution function safely for staff and wards. In the history of corrections SRCC shines like a “good deed in a naughty world.” I am proud to have been part of that work.

Three things must be kept in mind to understand my leaving.

One factor is that the Y.A. of today is very complex. The old Y.A. had three divisions, the new Y.A. is a hydra-headed department with a duplication of service and a multiplication of irresponsible decision-makers. I do not know who is running the Youth Authority. I do know that the Director is not. I was forbidden, in writing, to talk business with her. But is the Chief Deputy in charge or is one of the others? The Y.A. has not issued an organizational chart since 1975. There are so many chiefs at such high levels the traditional pyramid would be inverted on a chart. With all the “bookkeepers” in charge the “Executive Team” knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The symbol is no longer a torch but a green eyeshade.

A second factor is the lack of communication. There are many levels of command but there is not a clear voice from the top. Just a vast horde of superordinates generating enormous amounts of paper to justify their level of classification. People who need continual interchange to do their job are separated by branch organization and people who need to talk cannot and those who should not, do. The politically responsible people are isolated from the realities of the department. Sacramento head office is incapable of the level of leadership necessary to revitalize the system.

The third point is the myth. The public and the Legislature no longer view the Y.A. as important. Our image is so loose and vague that what we are supposed to be doing has become lost. For example: while Los Angeles is working to put police supervisors out of the office and into the streets, the Y.A. is forcing their parole forces out of the streets by taking away their transportation. Doesn’t Sacramento know that young offenders do not volunteer? The delinquent does not come into the office asking for treatment. If you are going to fight street crime you have to go out and do your thing “eyeball to eyeball” in the criminal’s natural habitat.

I consider myself an expert on the Youth Authority. I believe that my service gives me a perspective for valid criticism. I refuse to be a “closet” protestor. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the heart of the issue. Stay and be nibbled to death or walk away with human dignity. I have never feasted on toad, either in Upland or Sacramento. I am not dead, I feel fine. I have to retire because I no longer have hope that the department can reform itself. Let me recite a poem I scribbled for the occasion:

Oh where are the shouters and gripers?
They are vanished before they grow old
The silent ones now are your leaders
And the reason is – Silence is Gold.

The Youth Authority is too valuable a social tool to be left to third-rate hacks.

I am sure that the administration will try to muddy the waters. Already plausible rumors are moving. The smallest of small potatoes will be unearthed to discredit my actions. SRCC has been overpopulated. The SRCC employees work excessive overtime. Wards’ rights and volunteer programs are not “free.” Permit me to relate an experience from the year last past. A Task Force swooped down on the clinic looking for something wrong. The resulting report was so hokey that you did not know whether to laugh yourself into hysteria, or attempt to track down the lout who wrote it and flog him with old copies of clinic studies. We pointed out that all the so-called “discrepancies” were the exclusive responsibilities of the SRCC “mole” and I would be pleased to take assertive action. Not surprisingly, the report was deep-sixed.

I resigned in protest but am taking my peace officer retirement (I earned it) by leaving. I may put an additional burden on you but the battle is not over. I have recommended a new director and a new organization to restore public confidence. I was going to say to turn the organization around, but it’s been turned around so often I forget which direction it’s headed. I will do everything I can publicly and politically to see that you get the support you need and that those responsible for bad management are held accountable.

Well, since I didn’t ask anybody’s permission to retire early, I can now follow my own advice. Forgive me.

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