Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9 percent
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From The Washington Post, headline is linked.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
"This place is completely out of control and spiraling into a ditch," Kirsanow said. The commission has no budget ledger, no budget director and no financial director and has been underpaying its employees' benefits package.
The bipartisan commission was established in the 1950s to investigate civil rights abuses, but during the Reagan administration it fell into wrangling between conservatives and liberals that continues to define it.
Wade Henderson, executive director of the liberal Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, suggested that the Republican Congress starved the commission of funds so it could not fulfill its mission and is now blaming it for fiscal irresponsibility.
"I'm really troubled to hear the commission is furloughing and dismissing staff," Henderson said. "It's subterfuge for dismantling the professional staff of the commission so that it can't complete its work."
But conservatives in Congress and on the commission blame former chairman Mary Frances Berry for financial mismanagement over 10 years.
During the meeting, commissioner Michael Yaki, a new member of the liberal wing, suggested the agency develop a three-year plan for balancing its budget and requesting more money from Congress.
"I do not believe that we need to go as far as we're going at this moment to maintain fiscal health," he said.
... more at linked article
EMPHASIS ADDED
What a mess.
First, the EMPHASIZED is a perfect example of irony. I might point that out to a certain COL who seemed to believe that Pres. Bush attending the funeral of Pope John Paul II was such an example. Remember, we're talking about the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and yet we have this note in the clipped article: did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it. That is irony. Hell, I know, many conservatives would point to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and call it a perfect oxymoron, but that's a different story.
The second EMPHASIZED section above points back to where I would say a good part of the blame lies -- former chairman Mary Frances Berry for financial mismanagement over 10 years. That would the be same former chairman who would not go quietly into that good nite, and who refused to give up her seat to the properly named replacement that had been nominated by Pres. Bush.
Regardless, the numbers that are being discussed are yet another drop in the bucket of funds that could (in my mind) be safely cut completely out of the U.S. budget without anyone really feeling any pain.
This commission has so badly lost it's way that giving them even one more dime would be a complete and total waste of the money. Take that money and spend it instead on a few more border guards, or perhaps spend in somewhere else in the department of homeland security.
To the fine people that work for the commission, get those resumes out there now. I don't recommend Walmart or K-Mart (see COL Gene's article about their current fortunes), but then again, some of these people might fit right into companies that don't really care about quality or customer service (which, by the way, might be a largely ignored reason why those companies have seen lagging sales, while places like Target and Kohls see higher sales -- since they do tend to be smarter about customer service, and do care more about the quality of the items they sell. While on this same self-started thread hi-jack, how about this recent article about Walmart for further proof of my theories here: Outsmarting Wal-Mart Price isn't everything. A new report names 5 retail Davids thriving against the Goliath. { from CNN Money, do a google for other recent articles on the same issue } ). Seriously, folks looking for work around Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Kasas City, Kan, Los Angeles and Washington, DC that are looking for work might be well advised to avoid the rush and get their resumes out there before the people working in these regional money wasting offices do.
Before I close out here, let me note that while I think there are still plenty of issues that might need the attention of a group like the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -- if they are following what I would think their stated charter should be -- or even like the N.A.A.C.P. during the height of the civil rights battles or following those battles in the early days of the passage of civil rights legislation, much of that need should be gone now, at least provided that these same groups aren't the ones that are abusing the civil rights of their employees (again, see the first emphasized section of the article above). I hope to god that someday civil rights isn't something we even have to argue over and worry about having these groups for, but in the meantime, if we are to have these groups, I would also hope to god that they not be mismanaged into the ground while behaving as a bunch of mostly partisan self-serving hacks.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
"This place is completely out of control and spiraling into a ditch," Kirsanow said. The commission has no budget ledger, no budget director and no financial director and has been underpaying its employees' benefits package.
The bipartisan commission was established in the 1950s to investigate civil rights abuses, but during the Reagan administration it fell into wrangling between conservatives and liberals that continues to define it.
Wade Henderson, executive director of the liberal Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, suggested that the Republican Congress starved the commission of funds so it could not fulfill its mission and is now blaming it for fiscal irresponsibility.
"I'm really troubled to hear the commission is furloughing and dismissing staff," Henderson said. "It's subterfuge for dismantling the professional staff of the commission so that it can't complete its work."
But conservatives in Congress and on the commission blame former chairman Mary Frances Berry for financial mismanagement over 10 years.
During the meeting, commissioner Michael Yaki, a new member of the liberal wing, suggested the agency develop a three-year plan for balancing its budget and requesting more money from Congress.
"I do not believe that we need to go as far as we're going at this moment to maintain fiscal health," he said.
... more at linked article
EMPHASIS ADDED
What a mess.
First, the EMPHASIZED is a perfect example of irony. I might point that out to a certain COL who seemed to believe that Pres. Bush attending the funeral of Pope John Paul II was such an example. Remember, we're talking about the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and yet we have this note in the clipped article: did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it. That is irony. Hell, I know, many conservatives would point to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and call it a perfect oxymoron, but that's a different story.
The second EMPHASIZED section above points back to where I would say a good part of the blame lies -- former chairman Mary Frances Berry for financial mismanagement over 10 years. That would the be same former chairman who would not go quietly into that good nite, and who refused to give up her seat to the properly named replacement that had been nominated by Pres. Bush.
Regardless, the numbers that are being discussed are yet another drop in the bucket of funds that could (in my mind) be safely cut completely out of the U.S. budget without anyone really feeling any pain.
This commission has so badly lost it's way that giving them even one more dime would be a complete and total waste of the money. Take that money and spend it instead on a few more border guards, or perhaps spend in somewhere else in the department of homeland security.
To the fine people that work for the commission, get those resumes out there now. I don't recommend Walmart or K-Mart (see COL Gene's article about their current fortunes), but then again, some of these people might fit right into companies that don't really care about quality or customer service (which, by the way, might be a largely ignored reason why those companies have seen lagging sales, while places like Target and Kohls see higher sales -- since they do tend to be smarter about customer service, and do care more about the quality of the items they sell. While on this same self-started thread hi-jack, how about this recent article about Walmart for further proof of my theories here: Outsmarting Wal-Mart Price isn't everything. A new report names 5 retail Davids thriving against the Goliath. { from CNN Money, do a google for other recent articles on the same issue } ). Seriously, folks looking for work around Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Kasas City, Kan, Los Angeles and Washington, DC that are looking for work might be well advised to avoid the rush and get their resumes out there before the people working in these regional money wasting offices do.
Before I close out here, let me note that while I think there are still plenty of issues that might need the attention of a group like the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -- if they are following what I would think their stated charter should be -- or even like the N.A.A.C.P. during the height of the civil rights battles or following those battles in the early days of the passage of civil rights legislation, much of that need should be gone now, at least provided that these same groups aren't the ones that are abusing the civil rights of their employees (again, see the first emphasized section of the article above). I hope to god that someday civil rights isn't something we even have to argue over and worry about having these groups for, but in the meantime, if we are to have these groups, I would also hope to god that they not be mismanaged into the ground while behaving as a bunch of mostly partisan self-serving hacks.