The Chronicle had an editorial on Bonusgate for the Sunday edition. Perhaps I’m still waking up today, but it didn’t seem to say a whole lot that’s not obvious. Carol Alvarado should have exercised better oversight. Someone may have covered for them in payroll. The current security arrangements were breached.

Yawn.

Of course I have a kneejerk reaction to seeing the words “Employee Greed” in such large letters, but I can’t object too much when it’s true in this case. I would rather it have read “Employees’ Greed” since the lack of a possessive leaves the impression that all employees are greedy. Hey, I’m not greedy. I just want to win a big lottery and have a couple of sex-crazed supermodels at my beck and call. What’s greedy about that?

Here’s the paragraph I locked in on, though:

Many questions about the preposterously high bonuses remain, but it is not too soon to conclude that City Hall’s safeguards against theft and fraud have been breached. Whereas changes in pay regularly go through Human Resources, these bonus requests went straight to payroll, where willing hands were waiting to process them and vouch for their propriety.

The problem is, there’s no such thing as a perfect system. No human can devise a system that cannot be subverted by another human. But there are many examples of imperfect, poorly-functioning systems, and one variant is called “bureaucracy.” To be more precise, it’s when a bureaucracy has so many safeguards, it becomes impossible to accopmlish the simplest task. As I noted in the earlier article:

Our auditors get really hinky if people with improper authority levels start signing off on documents, especially if money is involved

Truth is, we have to go through a lot of extra steps and documentation because of the amount of revenue that flows through our Department. The smallest things require at least three signatures and may take five;each person is expected to have completely reviewed the document and checked the math. The citizens don’t care about that; they just think we’re sitting on our hands.

Making that level of paperwork (and it is all on paper, no computer shortcuts for joo!) just isn’t possible. One supervisor goes out sick for an extended period causes the work can stack up, backlogged for multiple weeks. (My being out brought several projects to a complete halt, and I’m not a supervisor.) In such an environment, people start taking shortcuts in self-defense. The work has to get done; productivity reports don’t have a check box where you can indicate “Unable to complete required work because we’re understaffed.” Everyone knows productivity reports are everything. (Damn bean counters love numbers, but they don’t give a rat’s ass about cause & effect.)

Yesterday, I said:

It is barely possible that some incurious soul in the payroll office just looked to see that the paperwork was in order and didn’t bother going any further. But if I had to bet, I’d go with the odds being slightly in favor of someone covering for them.

It’s these shortcuts that are the reason I’ll only offer slight odds in favor of Payroll covering for the Gang of Four when City Controller Annise Parker’s office inquired about some of the bonuses.

I have some friends who are ex-NASA contractors. One told me a story about a thorny supply problem the scientists had. They’d scratch-built an electronic device for testing purposes; the final “production model” would ride on the Shuttle, but this was just a rough “proof-of-concept” item. They needed knobs for the control panel. Nothing fancy, just a few little knobs to stick on the rheostats. The scientist in charge got with his secretary and started on the paperwork to order them. Since knobs aren’t found in the average Office Depot catalogue, they had to go through the requisition paperwork for special rush orders. Regulations required knobs that were OSHA-certified for safety, and NASA required certain packaging (eco-friendly?), etc. etc. And there was all this paperwork, literally man-hours of work, just pushing paper around to get a few plastic knobs. It didn’t take long for the scientist to get frustrated. Finally, he pulled out his wallet, threw several bills on the desk and ordered one of the techs to drive down to the nearest junkyard to get some off the cars’ radios. And not to tell anyone that they were violating the entire procurement process. (Obviously, he did anyway).

And that’s the danger to the City of Houston here. More safeguards = more bureaucracy. More bureaucracy = less getting done, but no one’s going to expect less to get done. (I know I damn well expect to get my paycheck on time, no matter how many safeguards are in the way). And that leads to “incurious employees” (and pressured managers) who take shortcuts or don’t have the time to look at things in depth.

In short, Mayor White and Controller Parker need to make very sure that their solution is not overly burdensome. Even adding a single extra signature can be an issue. The real problem is not that there was an inadequate system, it’s that the council offices operate under their own rules, with members giving their staffs bonuses anytime they feel like it. (I’ve even heard of $500 Christmas bonuses, but I can’t confirm that). Since they are a rule unto themselves, one safeguard is weakened because they’re expected to look irregular.

Edit: As reported in the Chronicle

Still, White has said the bonuses given to pro tem employees went far beyond any deference granted to council members.

The real problem is that the deference exists in the first place.

In the end though, I doubt the additional safeguards will involve more than lip service to the idea that council members treat their staffs no differently from other city employees.