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PSC 207: Public Administration | PSC 306: Public Organizations

• 1: Martin, "Blast in Centralia No. 5: Mine Disaster No One Stopped."  [7e]
• 2: George Lardner, Jr., "How Kristin Died" [7e]
• 3: Norma Ricucci, "Dr. Helene Gayle and the AIDS Epidemic"
• 4: Casamayou’s “The Columbia Accident”
• 5: Susan Rosegrant, "Wichita Confronts Contamination"  [7e]
• 6: William Langewiesche, "American Ground: Unbuilding World Trade Center." [SPS notes]
• 7: James P. Pfiffner, “The Decision to Go to War with Iraq”
• 8: Nagel, "MOVE Disaster."  [7e]
• 9: Susan Rosegrant, "Shootings at Columbine High School: Law Enforcement Response."  [7e]
• 10: Langewiesche, "Lessons of ValuJet 592."
• 11: Deborah Sontag, "Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down?"
• 12: James K. Conant, “Wisconsin’s Budget Deficit”
• 13: Michael Elliott, "They Had a Plan."  [notes needed]
• 14: Laura Sims, "Reinventing School Lunch."   [SPS notes]
• 15: W. Henry Lambright, “The Human Genome Project”
• 16: Montjoy & Slaton, The Case of the Butterfly Ballot

1: Martin, "Blast in Centralia No. 5: Mine Disaster No One Stopped."  [7e]

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2: George Lardner, Jr., "How Kristin Died" [7e]

- reframing the issue—common misperception at one time that only gay white community was infected, yet it has the greatest impact on populations of color.
- creating partnerships—she has communicated with many organizations in order to help the movement survive and grow stronger
- building relationships—stresses the importance on collaboration between federal government, different communities and global partners
- politics of public health—interpersonal skills and technical expertise have proven essential, as a “technocrat” she assists with formation of public policy
- setting goals and targeting strategies—a shared vision is pivotal, then you can take steps on reaching the goal, also engendering a community among staff is critical
- bureaucratic challenges—prioritizing funds, being and black woman as a director
- leadership—trust and confidence needs to be built
- managing the bureaucracy—has a large staff (1400) all are important members,  open communication and creativity, supports open and shared leadership
- lessons learned of effective management

o developing integrative targeted strategy
o developing broad coalitions
o possessing/demonstrating interpersonal skills
o exercising political skills
o possessing and exercising technical expertise
o setting a shared vision
o fostering pragmatic instrumentalism
o committing to values
o empowering staff
o taking risks
o exercising management and leadership

? The problem for NASA was actually not so much one of being pulled in different direction by rival masters, but one of how to adapt to new external constraints imposed upon in by both White House and Congress, that generated new launch pressures.

o After the Challenger accident, certain reforms had been implemented, but following the Columbia accident it was revealed that these reforms had all but disappeared.

? In 1992, Daniel S. Goldin became NASA’s Administrator

o Promoted long-term exploration of Mars and the building of the Intl’ Space station
o Motto: faster, better, cheaper
o Facing budget cuts, NASA avoided personnel downsizing at the space center and instead targeted the Space Shuttle budget for cuts that included jobs that dealt with safety inspections of the preflight reviews.

? During the period of drastic personnel reductions along with unchanged, ever expanding program responsibilities, and unrelenting internal pressures pushed NASA to meets its launch date of Node 2 of the space station section, Feb. 19, 2003. This is when the damage first began.
? The future of NASA’s human space flight was on the line.

o NASA was on probation due to being overbudget and behind schedule.
o This explains why shuttle managers ignored the seriousness of the foam shedding because the shuttle kept coming back safely.

? Filming covering Columbia’s liftoff recorded the foam strike.

o Senior managers did not see serious risks from the damage. They were more concerned with meeting the flight schedules.
o NASA, contractor engineers, and photo lab engineers saw serious risks

? They were prevented from further accessing the damage before the shuttle returned home.

? In retrospect, this accident could have been avoided. Early warnings of safety problem that ultimately caused the accident were repeatedly ignored.
? The big question: whether or not NASA can learn from this accident to prevent a third accident of this magnitude?

o There must be a long-term commitment and dedication of political forces outside of NASA to human space exploration
o NASA needs to realistically adjust its launch schedules according to available resources.
o Effective leadership that nurtures a risk-averse culture through every level of the organization is essential.
o NASA needs an independent robust safety organization.
o Create better communication and control over field offices and reduce the rivalry among intercenter rivalry.

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Stillman Chap. 5: Intergovernmental Relations.

5: Susan Rosegrant, "Wichita Confronts Contamination"  [7e]

Stillman Chap. 6: Internal Dynamics & informal Group.
6: William Langewiesche, "American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center." [notes needed]

“Invading Iraq was coming under considerable criticism from a group of public figures and defense intellectuals known as neoconservatives.”

 “In 1998 the organization wrote an open letter to President Clinton arguing that Saddam’s Iraq was a major threat to the United States as well as a destabilizing force in the Middle East.”

“After what happened on September 11, 2001 President Bush and part of his administration began considering it immediately.”

“Also George Bush assembled a broad international coalition to confront Saddam and throw his troops out of Kuwait.”

 “On September 17, 2001 President Bush signed a top-secret plan for the war in Afghanistan that also directed the Defense Department to plan for a war with Iraq.

President Bush signaled his decision to pursue war with Iraq in the State of the Union message on January 29, 2002.”

“As the various last-minute peace attempts failed, President Bush decided to attack. At 8 p.m., March 17, the president declared that “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq in 48 hours” or the United States would commence military action against them. Two days later, 130,000 U.S. and British troops began a land invasion of Iraq and a rush to Baghdad.”

“Prior to the president’s campaign to convince Congress to grant him authority to attack Iraq, the White House asked the CIA to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq which was about the potential threat from Iraq that they posed to the United States.”

“The evidence connecting Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda was never solid. Neither the FBI nor the CIA was able to establish that 9/ll terrorist Mohammad Atta had been in Prague to meet with an Iraqi official, as the Bush administration had asserted.”

“Another explanation for the administration’s inaccurate claims about Iraq’s WMD was that the intellectual professionals of the government were pressured to suit their analyses to the policy goals of the administration.”

“Disagreements in the international community and within the American public about the wisdom of war with Iraq were mirrored in divisions within the U.S.”

Basically on why the United States went to war with Iraq was because of false pretense of the mass destruction of weapons that Saddam was said to have in his possession for the purpose of warfare against the United States.
 

Stillman Chap. 8: Decisionmaking & Incremental Choice.
8: Nagel, "MOVE Disaster."  [7e]
 
 

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Stillman Chap. 9: Communication.
9: Susan Rosegrant, "Shootings at Columbine High School: Law Enforcement Response."  [7e]

o Procedural- obvious mistakes with simple solutions
o Engineered- material failures that were overseen
o Systems- (The ValueJet type) most elusive. These types of accidents are science’s illegitimate children, a bastard born out of confusion that lies within the complex organizations with which we manage our dangerous technologies.

o ValuJet pilots were not unionized had to pay for their own training. They had low pay.
o ValuJet also used a lot of temp employees and contractors
o Captain Candalyn Kubeck and Copilot Richard Hazen were flying ValuJet 592 and had contacted controller Jesse Fisher about needing an emergency landing due to smoke in the cockpit. Hazen was directed to take the aircraft not to the closest possible airport but back to Miami where a better qualified emergency crew would be present.

o Known from start that fire was the culprit
o National Transportation Safety Board’s job is to examine important accidents and to issue nonbinding safety recommendations to industry and government and because the investigators have no regulatory authority and must rely on persuasion to influence events, it suffers from “linguistic stiffness”
o The press is NTSB’s effective voice. However, after the crash there is a tension between the 2 because the press was rushing for a story and NSTB was being cautious
o Several factors were discovered during the course of recovery that led to the flights doom

? The jet was old and had a series of electrical failures that had resisted the attention of a mechanic and mysteriously fixed itself
? The jet was loaded with potentially dangerous cargo- chemical oxygen containers

o The airplanes own emergency oxygen system was different than normal. They had been refurbishing old jets thru outside contracting to update the crafts. Most of the work was done by temps.
o Recovery of the black boxes showed that the passengers died in agony.

o It came out that certain inspectors with the FAA had been worried about ValuJet for some time- it was expanding too fast  and did not have the necessary manpower to accommodate to this factor
o The FAA only assigned 3 inspectors to the airline due to other factors including threats of terrorism. It appeared that the FAA had neglected its duties.
o A shakeup occurred for the airlines, Sabretech (outside contracted company), and the FAA

o According to Charles Perrow, if the system is large the possible combinations of failures are practically infinite.

o In order to keep such catastrophes from happening in the future we might need to consider the possibility of reregulation- a return to the old system of limited competition, union work forces, higher salaries, and expensive tickets
o Another approach is operational oversight in which the government would have detailed oversight of all the technical aspects of flight
o FAA- need to stop be so buddy-buddy with allies in the airline industry and need to try to enforce current regulations and even create new regulations by listening to lower level employees.
o It is necessary for the truth to be told and paperwork done right.

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Stillman Chap. 11: Personnel Motivation & Culture.

Deborah Sontag, Case 11: Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down?
Jonathan Lyons, Spring 2007

 -Dr. Bernadine Healy, 57, former President of the Red Cross, a former cardiologist and aspiring politician. A former Harvard medical school graduate and mother of two

 -The Red Cross, founded by Clara Barton in 1881, generates 3 billion in revenues a year as a quasi-government bureaucracy.  Though successful, it is a difficult institution to lead. The leader must be a strong bureaucratic manager and also strive to be a people-oriented leader. The leader must also answer to the President and a 50+ strong board of governors (officials), seven of which are senior government officials.

 -Since 1989 there have been three leaders and four interim leaders, including Elizabeth Dole, who Healy succeeded.  Healy faced serious pressure over a slow response to the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the dismissal of two women who operated the Disaster Operations Center (DOC), the Virginia-based command center for disasters.

 -Healy’s hard-charging style was effective yet made many Red Cross governors uncomfortable.  When Healy uncovered significant fraud in one of her Jersey City, N.J. chapters, she turned it over to the local prosecutor’s office, which indicted the director and bookkeeper of the chapter on charges of stealing 1,000,000 in funds from the Red Cross. Instead of praising Healy, several board members criticized her for being “too tough” in Jersey City.

 -The Red Cross provides 45% of the national blood supply. Healy hired several high-profile executives to oversee the process of upgrading blood collection, testing and processing, which had come under fire by the F.D.A. prior to her hire

 -Healy saw 9/11 as an extraordinary disaster in a class of its own, so she set up a Liberty Fund, with a team of 800 outside auditors.  This did not sit well with the board of directors, who believed the Red Cross’s commitment to equity for all victims was violated by creating the fund. Though the governors endorsed the Liberty Fund, they would not forget the fact she created it

 -Healy also stumbled with her attempt to include Israel’s Red Shield of David, called Magen David Adom (M.D.A.) in the international federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent societies.  Two months after assuming command in September 1999, she made a speech to international officials chastising them for the inequity of the exclusion of M.D.A. and how the American Red Cross will “make inclusion happen now”. When her vision started to lose steam, the American Red Cross board was persuaded to withhold $4.5 million in annual dues to the international federation, 25% of the federation headquarters’ budget.

 -Many board members disliked Healy’s strong political stance, as another of the Red Cross credos was neutrality. After a governor’s vote on the confidence in Healy’s leadership went 6 in favor of Healy and 27 against her on October 23rd, Healy publicly announced her resignation three days later
 

Stillman Chap. 12: Public Budgeting.
Stillman Case 12: James K. Conant, “Wisconsin’s Budget Deficit”
By Brandon Shrout, Spring 2007

• -In the wake of the dot-com industry’s collapse, the steep stock market drop, the rise of the dollar against foreign currencies, increased unemployment, and other economic factors, March 2001 officially began a nationwide recession that triggered budget problems in at least forty-five states.
• -The 2001 recession was the fourth recession in 30 years.  After past recessions budget experts recommended establishing a “rainy-day fund” (saving funds during boom times in order to cushion the shocks of economic busts).  Wisconsin established the fund but never put money into it.
• -During the 1990-1991 recession Wisconsin’s fiscal stress was ranked the lowest among the 50 states.  During the 2001 recession Wisconsin was among the states that were experiencing the highest levels of fiscal stress.
• -This stress was due to both structural and cyclical causes.

-Wisconsin’s biennial budget is passed in odd-numbered years.

-During even-numbered years the legislature holds a “budget review” or “budget adjustment” to make adjustments if necessary.

-Wisconsin’s General Fund budget must be balanced each year.  This requirement is contained in state statutes, rather than in the state’s constitution.

-Wisconsin’s constitution allows the state to run a deficit in a given year, as long as a tax is levied “for the ensuing year, sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency as well as the estimated expenses of the ensuing year.”

• -In formulating the 2001-2003 budget legislators had to deal with a budget gap that had both cyclical and structural causes.
• -Governor McCallum was against income and sales tax increases to address the state’s budget problems, and legislators didn’t question this.
• -The size of the budget problem continued to grow despite remedies that were attempted.
• -The Rainy Day fund existed in name only (there was no money in it).
• -Because Republicans controlled the governorship and the Assembly and Democrats controlled the Senate, partisan differences contributed to the conflict.
• -In order to cope with the deficit they borrowed heavily from the state’s future Tobacco fund revenues.

• -Seven months after Act 16, the Budget Reform Act, Act 109, was signed into law on July 26, 2002.  The bill was designed to address a $1.1 billion deficit, rather than the $1.3 billion figure that Governor McCallum reported in his “Budget Reform Summary”.
• -Even the most optimistic forecasts in July of 2002 showed an estimated deficit for FY 2003-2005 of at least $1.3 billion, unless taxes were raised or additional cuts in spending were made.

• -Republican governor Tommy Thompson and the state legislators increased spending and cut taxes.
• -Statutory provisions included in the 1994 budget adjustment bill (Act 437) required that state support to K-12 be increased from 48.4 percent to 66.6 percent by fiscal year 1996-1997.  State aid to K-12 schools was already the state’s largest expenditure of General Purpose Revenue, costing approximately $2.2 billion.
• -In 1994 Democrats proposed cutting the costs of K-12 schools from property tax.  Thompson in his reelection campaign promised to dramatically increase state aid for K-12 schools without raising state general taxes.

• -In FY 1999-2000 the main source of the lost tax revenue was a sales tax rebate of $654.6 million.
• -There were differences of opinion about the appropriate size of a one-time tax rebate, along with debates about whether the rebate should be paid as an income or sales tax rebate.  There was no opposition that was reported to the tax cuts.
• -Main reason for these thoughts stemmed from “Fiscal Brinkmanship” (revenue should be cut during good times and expenditures cut during recessions.

• -Wisconsin’s economy has traditionally been based on the sale of machinery and electrical equipment overseas.  European and some of the Far East economies were growing slowly or were in a recession before the U.S.

• -During a deficit lawmakers have four options.
• -They can raise taxes, cut spending, employ a combination of both, or employ a method of “creative bookkeeping”.
• -The required spending cuts might have been reduced if the lawmakers could have drawn from a Rainy Day Fund.
• -The other option was to tap into the tobacco settlement money that the state was supposed to get over a 30 year period, the lawmakers decided to draw heavily from this fund.

• -Act 16, the 2001-2003 biennial budget bill was passed in August of 2001 contained five major initiatives.
•  -5 percent cuts to state agency budgets
•  -delays in staffing new prisons
•  -use the proceeds from the sale of tobacco settlement agreement revenue bonds
•  -reallocation of federal transfer revenues to support state medical assistance
•  funding
•  -“extraordinary accounting devices…employed to ensure a positive budget
•  balance
• -“High-priority programs” were exempt from budget reductions (these included assistance to the poor, disabled, and the elderly, funding of K-12 schools, medical assistance, the court system, and public defenders).
• -Three largest elements that remained to tax were the University of Wisconsin System, Shared Revenue Fund, and corrections.

• -Groups that were helped by these tax breaks were anti-tax elements of the business community and upper-income individuals.  Tax increases would have most likely come at this group’s expense.
• -Also helped were members of the educational community (local school board members, administrators, and teachers), because K-12 schools didn’t lose funding.
• -Negative consequences, include the University of Wisconsin announced a halt on undergraduate admissions.
• -There were problems among state and local relations.
• -The state received $1.3 billion out of the $5.4 billion that they would have received if they had waited over the 30 year period.
• -There was a significant drop in the state’s bond rating which would raise the cost of state borrowing.
• -There was also a feeling of shock, disbelief, and even betrayal from some of the state citizens, because the state was trying to return the surplus back to the taxpayers and only a few months later the state was in a financial crisis.

Stillman Chap. 13: Implementation.
Case 13: Michael Elliott, "They Had a Plan."  [notes needed]
 

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Stillman Chap. 14: Politics & Admin -- Issue Networks.
Case 14: Laura Sims, "Reinventing School Lunch."   [notes needed]

• (It was taken as a challenge to the government and the bio-science establishment.)
• Two years later a draw was announced by both projects, because both had found the genome could be sequenced in a preliminary way.

• The HGP was conceptualized between the years of ‘80-‘86 when the project was coming together with scientists wanting to sequence the genome.
• The NIH had to weigh its options as to see if funding a project would be in its interests, because it was more like data gathering than research experimentation.

• The Department of Energy allocated $5.3million to initiate a human genome initiative. –long term look at the effects of radiation spurred it—
• Formulating a Plan (87)—the DOE established three genome research centers (in its national labs) one was in the National Research Council (NRC) which came out with a report in ‘88 that endorsed the HGP—they developed an incremental plan that would take 10 to 15 years to complete
• Getting a Director: The director of NIH took the NRC report and ran with it, establishing a new Office of H.G. Research which reported to him—he appointed James Watson director, the most famous biologist in the world, which brought immediate legitimacy to the program

• Watson developed a strategic plan spanning 15 years (rare for the NIH) and an initial plan of 5 years. He declared that the HGP would start officially in 1990—dismissing the 4 years of DOE effort and the previous work of NIH.
• Administrative Strategy: Watson adopted a “center” strategy where he allowed universities to do much work in their labs under the goals of HGP. He broadened research to other countries.
• Conflict at NIH:
• A feud with Venter and due to new management in NIH eventually led to Watson’s resignation in disgust (1992)

• A new leader, Francis Collins took Watson’s place, Collins took stock of the company and refused to take the “shotgun alternative” which would speed up the sequencing of the Genome, but he felt it would lead to gaps and errors in the “book of life” as the project was called, still Collins was worried about the slow pace of the project.
• There were efforts and talks to speed up the sequencing, eventually Venter challenged the HGP.
• Clinton eventually encouraged the groups to get along and they both had a truce until 2001 which was broken over plans to jointly publish.

• Key points in the project were goals, organization, political support, the competition which spurred a sense of urgency, and leadership.

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Stillman Chap. 16: Competing Ethical Obligations.

• Many voters said they accidentally voted for Buchanan instead of Gore. (statistics proved high voting averages for Buchanan)
• LePore was an elected Democrat but over 25 lawsuits were filed against her for they felt she cost Gore the election by her design of ballot.
• She was the target of protests and harassment despite sample ballots sent out prior to the election.

• The ballot was designed with appropriate goals such as making it legible for all voters.
• Ethics does not require omniscience.
• What led to voting errors?—the ballot design (user testing?), voting equipment ($), polling place operations (# of stations, length of line, poll workers, instructions), voter information and responsibility (rely on newspapers, direct mailing, instructions in polling places)

• Objective responsibility relies on two assumptions—certainty and hierarchical control
• Need for continuous dialogue—no quick fix or simple answer to complex ethics. All participants of government need to be in constant dialogue, not just officials but also voters, interest groups, parties, etc. This dialogue can lead to changes in formal rules and procedures through the sense of purpose and obligation it brings to the electoral process.
• The US election system is complex and few recognize or understand the multiple actors and responsibilities in the multilayered, independent system.
• Subjective responsibility requires individuals to go beyond formal job definitions and narrow self interest.
• This essay calls for sustained reflection and dialogue on the public interest in the electoral process and roles of interdependencies of the various players in it (few incentives but clear ethical obligation).

• She had Gore located on the left side second and if you wanted to vote for Gore you had to punch out the third hole which caused a huge amount of confusion.

• She was the target of protests and harassments despite the sample ballots she had sent out in the mail prior to the election.
• This ballot was designed because it would be easier for the voters to understand in the filling out of the ballot.

• The voting process is a big task in today’s world and any change in the process can cause a big problem.
• The U.S. election system is complex and few recognize and understand the responsibilities in the system.
• The government and officials always need to be in contact with the people with the changes of the rules and procedures for the purpose of knowing what is going on with the voting process. Also is to keep down the confusion in the voting process.
• The ballots in the world today can be strenuous to the voters and any change in the ballot can cause anger and confusion with the voters because they want to use the same ballot all the time.

• One way is that you keep the same ballot.
• Another way is to inform the voters of any change in the ballot.