78-13-A3

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Prop. 13 Fallout

Transcript Recently an article appeared in California about a "White paper" issued by Civil Service Commissioner of San Francisco, Darrell Solomon. It seems no one in the San Francisco City Hall seems to be serious about cutting waste. Mr. Solomon opens by stating, "there are 50 janitors in the City Hall. Each janitor is supervised by an assistant supervisor (who receives complaints and sees to it that schedules are met.) Each assistant supervisor is supervised by Custodial Supervisor I (who receives complaints and sees to it that schedules are met.) Each Custodial Supervisor I is supervised by a janitorial service assistant supervisor (who receives complaints and sees to it that schedules are met), who in turn is supervised by a janitorial services supervisor who also receives complaints and sees to it that schedules are met." Then Mr. Solomon points out that a private janitorial service company which provides service for many of San Francisco's commercial buildings, has said it would contract to do the City Hall with one third of the labor now being expended. At San Francisco General Hospital the same number of meals are served each day as are served at the private Presbyterian Hospital. But it takes 113 employees to prepare those meals at San Francisco General and only 42 at Presbyterian. There are 16 steamfitters and plumbers at the 22 acre San Francisco International Airport. At the 300 acre Los Angeles International, there are only seven. Moving on to the Department of Social Services in San Francisco, Mr. Solomon says a social worker at $15,000 is supervised by a unit supervisor ($19,000) who in turn is supervised by a division supervisor ($26,000) who in turn is supervised by one of two assistant directors ($28,000) who in turn is supervised by one of two directors ($32,000) who in turn is supervised by the general manager of the Social Security's Department ($43,500). The San Francisco Civil Service Department by the city charter is the personnel department for the city--but several departments have set up their own. The Public Utilities Commission has a personnel officer supervising 17 employees (and here we go again). He is supervised by a senior departmental personnel officer ($29,000) who in turn is supervised by the director of the Bureau of Personnel of the Public Utilities Commission ($31,800). The Civil Service Commission, before there was a Prop. 13, did away with $200,000 worth of excess supervising layers and earmarked the savings for an outside survey of city employee practices. The proposal was killed in the Mayor's office. San Francisco, incidentally, has responded to Prop. 13 not with economies, but by adopting new taxes to substitute for the reduction in property tax. I don't think that's what the voters had in mind. Mr. Solomon says, "0ur government is not a social action institution. Its prime function is not to employ people. The object is to efficiently provide the services requested and paid for by the taxpayer." Amen. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-13-A3 Production Date 09/19/1978 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
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