Hd — Czar Troubles
When Hugh Jones announced his surprise resignation last week as business czar of the Los Angeles Unified School District, he became an instant poster boy for the LAUSD’s critics who understandably rile against the district’s bloated and inefficient ways.
We appreciate the annointment. There certainly is enough wrong with the LAUSD and the people who manage it to conclude that this solid corporate citizen got a raw deal in the rough-and-tumble public sector. It’s also easy to cite Jones’ departure, after only two months on the job, as evidence that the L.A. district is beyond reform.
But the circumstances behind Jones’ departure are far from clear. Aside from a statement citing “personal reasons” for his resignation, he wasn’t talking last week (curious behavior for a government official making upwards of $150,000 a year).
Certainly, his two months on the job were not smooth. Most notable was the bungling of a lucrative contract to air condition 300 schools, in which Jones chose an Orange County firm even though staff had recommended using businesses that were currently working with the district. The day after the announcement, the Orange County group unexpectedly dropped out, clearly an embarrassment for Jones.
In retrospect, it’s questionable whether Jones, who had spent many years as a senior executive with Kaiser Permanente, was prepared to whip the district’s business affairs into shape. (In hindsight, someone with a more entrepreneurial background would have made more sense.)
Jones’ mandate was to overhaul the district’s leaden bureaucracy, making it operate more like a business. But as Mayor Richard Riordan discovered early in his own administration, mandates are one thing; implementation is something else.
There are two basic problems with trying to change the LAUSD. The most basic is that the district bureaucracy that is, the thousands of employees who make good livings no matter how well or poorly they do their jobs is not much interested. Many of them, if anything, will do their best to obstruct reform efforts. After all, why spoil a good thing?
Such intransigence, which has been holding up district reform for years, can only be overcome with a “take no prisoners” commitment from both the school board and the superintendent to upend the system the way a new CEO might do with a fat and sassy company. In this case, Superintendent Ruben Zacarias talks a good game, but a number of board members, along with the district’s top-line managers, show little interest in a major overhaul. Lacking a commitment from them, a business czar’s influence can only go so far.
Also critical is the character of the czar himself. Soon after Jones announced his resignation, Riordan said it would take someone with “a saintly purpose” to take the job. Our job description would be a bit different: What’s needed is a tough-as-nails SOB who is not afraid to ruffle feathers (where is “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap when we need him?), while at the same time understanding the political hazards of stirring up reform in this most political of bureaucracies.
How do you find such a person at $146,000? Good question, although as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is discovering with the selection of interim chief Julian Burke, there are good people out there. The key is giving them the means for change.
