Centralia Mine No. 5 exploded on March 25, 1947
111 men were killed as a result of coal dust explosion
World War II was going on during the time of inspections and explosion. There was a shortage of man power. The average age of coal miner was 59.
Driscoll Scanlan was hired as an Illinois Mine Inspector, he was a former miner.
Scanlan inspected the mine every 3 months. Each time he reported the severity of the coal dust buildup in the mine.
Scanlan considered Centralia the most dangerous of all the mines that he inspected.
Scanlan’s reports were mailed to the Department of Mines and Minerals, which were always treated as routine. Those reports were then mailed back to them mines asking the mine to “please comply.”
Coal mine operators could not afford to
stop production for maintenance for two main reasons:
1) A shortage of manpower due to WWII
2) Coal was needed for the war
Coal mines had heavy ties into politics. Mine operators would send thousands of dollars to political candidate’s campaigns.
1946 Government seized mine operations. Truman sent CMA to handle and inspect mines. Most members of the CMA were Navy personnel without any coal experience.
Union created a letter known as “save our lives” letter, asking Government and Unions to take actions regarding the conditions of the mines
After explosion, six separate investigations followed the blast. Two to determine what happened and four to determine why.
Grand Jury indicted Centralia Coal Co., as a corporation. They were charged with 2 counts of “willing neglect” to comply with mining law, failing to rock dust and working with 100 men on a single split of air- and it also indicted Medill and Weir for palpable omission of duty.
The mine was fined a maximum of $300 for each count, a total near ($1,000 or less than $10 per miners life lost).
Discussion Notes, by Dr. Lewis:
In addition to the above, look at public administration issues:
Bureaucracy denotes the general, formal, and structural elements of a type of human organization, particularly a governmental organization, which has good and bad qualities.
It is the core of modern government according to Carl Friedrich..
Max Weber - German social scientist 1864-1920.
Concept of bureaucracy
Discussion Notes, by Dr. Lewis:
1. Characteristics of Bureaucracy
I. Principle of fixed and official jurisdictional areas.
2. The Position of the Official1. Fixed way of official duties.II. Hierarchy creates an ordered system
2. Authority is distributed and strictly delimited
3. Methodical provision.
III. Management of the modern office is based upon written documents.
IV. Thorough and expert training
V. Full working capacity
VI. General rules
I. Office holding is a vocation.6. Technical Advantages of Bureaucratic Organization
II. The Personal position of the official1. Social esteem2. AppointedStatus element 3. Tenure for life
- Elected official
- Unqualified official
4. Fixed salary
5. Hierarchical order
10. The Permanent Character of the Bureaucratic MachineBureaucratic organizations Honorific arrangements Collegiate bodies
11. Economic and Social Consequences of BureaucracyHardest to destroy Community action Societal action Professional bureaucrat The ruled Vital interest
12. The Power Position of BureaucracyCrypto-plutocratic distribution of power Interest of capitalism Formation of estates Democracy
Power position [always overtowering] [political master is merely a dilettante versus the expert bureaucrat] [true whether the master has initiative and referendum or whether aristocratic or democratic, etc]
Case 2: George Lardner, "How Kristin
Died"
Vernessa Williams, Fall 2007
This story was about a 21 year old woman by the name of Kristin Lardner who was the youngest child her parents.
These laws make certain behaviors a crime and set up the punishment for some offenses. Now almost half of the states have computerized statewide domestic-violence registry that judges are required to consult.
Jurisdictions were divided Communications between jurisdictions were limited privacy rights inhibited exchange of info mental health records not shared with criminal justice excess caseloads stovepiping criminal justice system overcrowded prisoner let out early (hydraulic system)
Discussion notes, by Dr. Lewis:
I. Public Administration
1.
The lifeblood of administration is power
a) Attainment of powerII. External Forces
b) Maintaining power
c) Increasing power
1. The failure of the American party to protect administrators from political pressure e.g., Congress, the White House, the aerospace industry and the American publicIII. Internal forces
1. Pressure to meet launch deadlinesIV. Two perceptions of risk of the foam strike
1. EngineersV. Déjà Vu All Over Again?
2. Mission Management Team
1. Columbia
2. Challenger
Discussion Notes, by Dr. Lewis:
US agencies do not operate under strict hierarchy e.g. FBI is largely autonomous under DOJ US system does not generate enough political power to operate as hierachy US officials need political skills to build a coalition of support in legislature, with cognate agencies, press, the public and the presidency Norton Long: the lifeblood of administration is power, parties cannot protect admin. from pressures
agencies could not meet deadlines management needed manned shuttle to fly engineers were warning but ignored contractors' warnings were ignored NASA's mission includes public education, so disasters are more public Technical project needs to be protected from political pressures Shuttle was designed for SDI (star wars) but could not deliver huge and frequent payloads. funding was based on deliveries to space
• Intergovernmental relations is the subject of how many and varied American governments deal with each other and what their relative roles, responsibilities, and levels of influence are and should be
Concept 5: Intergovernmental Relations (IGR):
The Concept of IGR as Interdependence, Complexity, and Bargaining
Outlined by: Dana Fowler, Fall 2007
1. Counties (3,000) that administer state services at the local level.The Legacy of the New Deal
2. Municipalities (19,000) serve explicitly the interests of the local community.
3. Townships (17,000) are subdivisions of the local counties
4. School districts (14,000) are separate governments established in many parts of the country to direct public school.
5. Special Districts (31,555) are limited purpose governments set up to handle one or perhaps a few public functions.
• The framers of the U.S. Constitution sought a way to combine the several states into a structure that would minimize “instability, injustice, and confusion.”
• Their own experience suggested problems with that arrangement and agreed on a formal arrangement that is now called the confederation.
• The states were loosely joined for certain purposes and their association fell short of a real nation.
• The states retained all the power and the United States couldn’t act on matters of importance.
• The “federalist” of that period proposed to organize a nation able to act in a unified and central manner for certain purposes.
• The construction of the new system ensured continuing controversy about the respective roles of the national and state governments.
• Due to unsolved questions about the respective roles, major changes took place in the American intergovernmental relations under the influence of various political, economic, and social forces, while the basic framework remained.
• In the earliest decades of the nation’s existence tension was evident among the idea of dual federalism.
• In the early 1800’s dual federalism influenced the decisions of the Supreme Court. And various presidents’ vetoed legislation that would have created a federal presence in policy fields such as public works construction, because the constitution did not permit such national involvement in areas reserved for the states.
• Throughout the 19th century the national government and the states often disagreed about the limits of their own authority. Therefore, the federal and state governments found it necessary to recognize their interdependence.
• Another mechanism for cooperation during the 19th century was the land grant.
• Other forms of intergovernmental cooperation were relatively common during the first century however it was not until the twentieth century that the dual federal perspective declined noticeably in importance and American intergovernmental relations developed into a system with high levels of interdependence and major complexity.
• Financial involvement in intergovernmental relations escalated.
• Reformers argued that the society and the economy could not tolerate laissez-faire (laissez-faire- an economic doctrine that opposes government regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws).
• In 1913 the U.S. Constitution was amended to permit the enactment of a federal income tax to support state governments.
• Most states and even local governments enacted income taxes of their own, with formulas tied in complicated ways to various provisions of the federal tax code.
• Grants in the early 1900s were limited and assisted other governments primarily in fields that commanded strong political support.Nixon’s New Federalism
• Federal assistance was directed almost entirely toward the states rather than local governments.
• During the Depression era it would have technically impossible to establish new national level programs t cope with the difficulties of the period, the more politically palatable method of the grant-in-aid was repeatedly used instead.
• Richard Nixon reacted to the tensions in the changing system by proposing reforms ostensibly aimed at increasing the influence of general purpose officials at all levels, shifting power away from Washington and toward federal field offices and state and local governments, reducing the control exercised by functional specialist, and trimming intergovernmental red tape.The Carter PeriodRevenue Sharing
Block Grants
Administrative initiatives
• Jimmy Carter was not the activist in intergovernmental matters that Nixon was or that his successor would be. He did not propose an overall plan for reform of the system, nor did he recommend any major changes in the pattern of intergovernmental aid.Reagan’s Attempted Revolution
• The first part of Ronald Ragan’s time as president saw perhaps the most systematic effort to remake the American intergovernmental system since the New Deal.Crosscurrents at Century’s End
• Regan’s major proposals, for which he adopted Nixon’s term, the new federalism, were as follows:
• An additional series of block grants
• A dramatic simplification of the system of intergovernmental aid
• A devolution of responsibilities for many policies from the national level to the states.
• Administrative simplification
• It is clear that the prime characteristics of the system, complexity, and interdependence, will continue to shape the details of intergovernmental bargaining and frustrate the efforts of reformers to impose or craft a clear and coherent design.• The Republican leadership in Congress offered a government future in which Washington would retreat from policy activism and leadership, taxes would be cut, and subnatioanl governments would be freed from the shackles of irksome and expensive unfunded mandates imposed by the center. Meaningful steps where takes to convert the Contract into reality. The Republicans in Congress sought to impose tight budgetary discipline, even to cut many programs dramatically, and passed an Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) during their first year in power.
Discussion notes, by Dr. Lewis:
C19th dual federalism (layer cake) New Deal ushered in creative federalism (marble cake) with categorical grants in aid Nixon & Reagan (new federalism) gave block grants with broader authority to states Clinton & Republicans in Congress: devolution of authority to the states
• Downtown depressed
o Urban renewal grant• Gilbert and Mosley
o Private funds
o Contamination discovered in cleanup process
• KDHE Report
• 1990 estimate $20 million and 20 years
• Usual options are too costly and too
time consuming
• Property owners in area assessed for
cost of cleanup
• Bonds issued
• Part of property tax from area used
to finance cleanup
large problem of downtown contamination federal superfund solution is costly, slow and scares off downtown investors fear of liability creates FUD factor public-private partnership to solve problem cheaper and quicker public provides limited liability (sovereign immunity) businesses have economic incentive to invest public can impose taxes (with consent) Public can borrow at lower rates Montgomery AL has a similar issue of the downtown aquifer, with similar partnership solution
Chapter 6
Introduction: Informal Groups
by Becky Bennett, Fall 2007
• Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger’s main research mainly focused on the study of business enterprises at the Harvard Business School.
• They had an impact on general administrative thoughts on human relations and industrial sociological school.• In 1927, Mayo and Roethlisberger went to the Western Electic’s Hawthorne Electric Plant in Cicero, Illinois.
• The school of thought emphasized understanding and improving the dynamics of the internal human group within complex organizations.
• They were studying the effect of changes in the external environment of worker’s output.
• They looked at lighting, shorter or longer lunch breaks, and increased or decreased work hours in the work week.
• They wanted to find the best way possible to motivate the workers.
• They also studied the social functions of the workers to see what affects they had.
• Despite all the work that went into these studies, none of the recommendations were ever put into place.
• Mayo’s main finding was “ human needs, values and concerns of the basic informal group play a primary role in successful management practices.”
Discussion Notes:
Time and motion studies in a factory, changing the lighting and working times send in interviewers to ask the workers which is better Mayo concludes actually it is not the organization of work that leads to productivity, but the humanist side: asking people for their views, and organizing them into a team, encourages productivity. this developed into the humanist school of management critics have argued that insecurity, not fulfillment, drove productivity Nonetheless, groups and teams do seem to be more common Larry's workforce, in teams, with some choice of own team leaders, often based on experience -- and wrote their own manual on how to do their own job.
Main Event: Tribal dispute between construction workers, firefighters, and police officer broke out on Nov. 2, 2001.
· New York mayor Giuliani decided that the firemen would have joint command with the police officers and the construction workers. This did not sit well with the firemen because they were still missing 250 workers.
·
The families of the lost firemen went after Giuliani and men over the DDC
(The department of Design and Control the group that was responsible for
the clean up at the site).
· There had been bad communication between the firemen and the police during the time of 9/11 because the police had helicopters circling the building so they were able to dispatch to the police officers in the building and tell them to get out but the firemen were not warned.
· The firemen felt that the deaths of there men were more important than the deaths of others.
· The medical examiner gave incorrect information to the families of the missing firemen. He said that the bodies were probably shattered or vaporized and there was no reason to continue to look for bodies but month’s later whole bodies were found.
Discussion Notes:
huge task of removing mound of WTC post 9/11/01 tribal loyalties of police, fire, construction workers need to get them to work to common goal of clean up Mayor Giuliani ordered joint command need to remove debris, despite Firemen's bodies still in rubble Fresh Kills landfill site for the rubble & human remains After South tower fell, police alerted to risk to North Tower firemen did not receive warning to exit N. Tower Radios were incompatible Many police escaped but more firemen died meeting of widows of firemen w/ medical examiner widows could not accept vaporizing of firemen eventually some cavities found with bodies
Intro. 7: by Richard Stillman, "Decision
Makers Inside Public Administration, "
by Melissa Honeycutt, Fall 2007
5 million people are employed by federal government, 15 million by state and local gov’t.
Inside a brcy there are 5 varieties of personnel, which influence its work content, policy directions and decision making.
Conflict is common since all are competing for influence and power. This in turn determines what work is and is not performed.
There are 5 varieties of personnel in modern bureaucracy
1. POLITICAL APPOINTEES
a. Top level political positions, not tenured2. PROFESSIONAL CAREERIST
b. Usually in position for set amount of time
c. Tends to move quickly on policy changes
d. Has become more varied and diverse
a. Experts in given field3. CIVIL SERVICE GENERALISTS
b. Long held positions
c. Essential to performance of agency function
d. Broke down into sub-categories of staff professionals, administrative professionals, line professionals, and paraprofessionals
a. Make up bulk of workforce4. UNION
b. Based on merit system, which are open competitive exams where individuals are evaluated and ranked according to job duties
c. Equal pay for equal work
d. Core of modern brcy
a. Mostly blue collar workers5. CONTRACT WORKERS
b. Grew in power in 1960’s
c. Exercise external control over bureaucratic performance
d. Negotiate terms and conditions of employment
a. Fastest growing section due to governments varied programs and shortened time framesAll classifications of workers may overlap. They are open, adaptive classifications. Can be influences by politics and human emotion.
b. Private sector experts brought for specific time periods
c. Less governmental oversight
Discussion Notes
• Charles E. Lindblom central thesis
is that there are two distinct varieties of decision making.
• One that he calls the rational comprehensive
or root method, and the second, the successive limited comparisons
or branch method.
• The first method is found in the classic texts on administration, and the last is the “real” way decisions are arrived at in government.• In the traditional rational comprehensive or root method an administrator confronts a given object, such as reducing poverty by a certain level.
• Lindblom arguments are:The objective is established, such as reducing poverty by a set amount, but in public discussions this objective becomes compromised. It may soon be mixed up with other goals such as education minority students or providing work relief for the jobless. Administrators tend to overlook many of the social values that could be derived from their program, concentrating on those they find are immediately relevant. When selecting the appropriate course of action the administrators outline a broad range of possibilities, but only a few incremental steps that experience tells them are feasible. Policy makers do not rationally select the optimal program that satisfies a clearly delineated list of values. Public administrators pragmatically select from among the immediate choices at hand the most suitable compromise that satisfies the groups and individuals concerned with the program.
1. The root method wrongly assumes that administrations making the decisions have unlimited amounts of time and resources available to them. “It assumes intellectual capacities and sources of information that simply do not exist and it is even more absurd as an approach to policy when the time and money that can be allocated to a policy problem is limited, as is always the case.”• Lindblom’s view of the reality of administrative decision making contains five characteristics:
2. The root method holds that there are always clear-cut values on which all interested parties agree.
3. The root method assumes that ends and means in policy choices are distinct, when in fact they are frequently intertwined.
4. The choice of a given course of action depends ultimately not on whether it maximizes the intended values, but whether it serves as a compromise acceptable to all parties concerned.
1. Incremental - for all steps are always taken to achieve objectives, not broad leaps and bounds.• Lindblom says there are two advantages to the branch method”
2. Non-comprehensive - because policy makers’ resources are always limited, they cannot take into consideration the full range of policy choices available to them at any given moment, nor can they possibly understand the full effects of their decisions all of the values derived from any alternative they select.
3. The branch technique of decision making involves successive comparisons because policy is never made once and for all, it is made and remade endlessly by small chains of comparisons between narrow choices.
4. Decision making suffices rather than maximizes form among the available options.
5. Lindblom’s picture of governmental decision making rest on a pluralist conception of the public sector, in which many contending interest groups compete for influence over policy issues, continually forcing the administrator, as the person in the middle, to secure agreement among the competing parties.
1. “If he proceeds through a succession of small incremental changes, the administrator therefore has the advantage of avoiding serious lasting mistakes” as well as permitting easy alterations should the wrong course be pursued.However, from the perspective of the “outside expert” or the academic problem solver, this approach seems “unscientific and unsystematic.”
2. Is that it fits “hand and glove” with the American political system, which operates chiefly by means of gradual changes, rather than dramatic shifts in public policies.
• The root method is the “best” way, but is in fact not workable for complex policy questions and administrators are forced to use the method of successive limited comparisons (Branch).
• The reason it is not favored for complex policy questions is because there is always disagreement between citizens, administrators, and congressmen.
Typical public administrator is a prisoner of a seemingly endless communications network that defines the problem at hand and the possible alternatives.
Administrators are normally pressed from many sides with informational and data sources flowing into their offices from their superiors, subordinates, other agencies, citizens, groups, and the general public.
Information arrives through routine formal channels, other times trickles down to administrator via unsolicited routes.
Public decision maker must selectively sort out this information and the dispense information to people within and outside organizational structure- normally by:
Public Administration (1950) by Herbert A. Simon, Donald Smithsburg, Victor Thompson
Decisions within a political setting can never be wholly rational but rather, are of a “bounded rational” nature.
The prime ends of a public administration effort are decisions that are not “maximizing” but “sufficing,” that have as their goals not efficiency but achieving agreement, compromise, and ultimately survival.
Major vehicles for achieving coordination and compromise, is the communication network, defined as: process whereby decisional premises are transmitted from one member of organization to another.” Communications network acts principally as an integrating device for bringing together frequently conflicting elements of an organization to secure cooperative group efforts.
# Steps in Communication Process:
1) someone must initiate the communicationInformation travels in 2 ways:
2) Command must be transmitted from its source to its destination
3) Communication must make its impact on the recipient.
1) Formal or planned channels such as memoranda, reports, and written communication.In most organizations, the greater part of the information that is used in decision-making is informally transmitted.
2) Unplanned or informal ways such as face-to-face contacts, conferences, or phone calls to friends.
Central problem in communication are “blockages.” Blockages in the communication system constitute one of the most serious problems in public administration.
Blockages occur in any one of the three steps in communication process:
Those who have information may fail
to tell those who need the information as a basis of action, those who
receive info. may be unwilling or unable to assimilate.
7 Types of common blockages:
1) Barriers of language- These 7 raise question of “where a particular decision can best be made.”
2) Frames of reference
3) Status distance
4) Geographical distance
5) Self protection
6) Pressures of work
7) Censorship
I. Law enforcement’s Issues
a. Lack of training in rapid emergency deployment (R.E.D)II. Medical response Issuesi. School resource officer should have been trained in R.E.D.b. Communications failures
ii. First responders not trained in R.E.D.
iii. SWAT not equipped, and had to go to station
iv. SWAT Members had not worked together beforei. Radios not compatibility/need a statewide channel
ii. Incident Command was not executed well
iii. Incident objectives were not communicated to subordinates
iv. Maps and logistical information was wrong or missing
v. Incoming reports inaccurate and chaotic
a. Medical responders communicationsIII. School Administrators and teachers Issuesi. Radios not compatible with policeb. Lack of training for larger scale incidents
ii. Mixed signals from police as to where to set up
iii. Responders were self-dispatchedi. Slow to set up triage sites
ii. SWAT members were not EMT qualified
iii. Personnel had not worked with other departments before
a. Planning and logisticali. Maps were old and incorrectb. Prevention programs
ii. Evacuation process should have been practiced
iii. Police liaison established and backupsi. Program to identify problem student that could possibly be violent
ii. Programs to help students understand that even indirect violence should be reported to authorities.
iii. Needed to have an anonymous phone line to call to report possible threatsiv. Look for warning signs
Three kinds of airplane accidents:Case 10: William Langewiesche, "Lessons of ValueJet 592"
by Cecilia Cook, Fall 2007
System includes airlines, contractors that service airlines, and government organizations that oversee operations
People involved do not consciously trade safety for money or convenience, but the inevitably make a lot of bad little decisions.
Solutions, by adding to complexity and obscurity of business, may actually increase the risk of accidents
Most accidents have elements of all three types listed above
ValueJet farmed out much of its work to temporary workers and independent contractors in order to lower costs
FAA thought the airline was growing too fast and not keeping up with paperwork
Forms of linguistic stiffness, especially “engineerspeak”, proved to have been involved in the crash
NTSB plays the role of public defender
NTSB has no regulatory authority
Press provides NTSB with only effective voice, but tension exists just after accidents because press wants information to release to public as soon as possible
The plane itself had electrical problems earlier in the day in Atlanta
Cargo included 100 potentially dangerous chemical oxygen generators and tires loaded by ground crew sending back to Atlanta
ValueJet subbed repair work to SabreTech,
who in turned used contract shift labor to do work
Guidelines on handling canisters were
not followed
SabreTech did not have required caps for canisters
Mechanics, inspectors and supervisors signed off on plastic cap paperwork, also caps were not in place
Shipping clerk boxed canisters and marked that they were empty
Ramp agent accepted package although it was against federal regulations
Co-pilot helped load boxes
NTSB and press worked together to bring issues before congress to have FAA regulations strengthened
FAA’s administrator linked the agency’s reputation to that of ValueJet
Some FAA inspectors had worried about ValueJet and had described concerns in some of their reports
Airline had expanded too rapidly and did not have procedures nor people to maintain standards of safety
FAA had neglected its regulatory duties
Question: In what ways may ethics rules trip up even dedicated public servants?
• The American Red Cross has two arms
• Disaster relief• Bernadine Healey is appointed president of The American Red Cross about two yeas before September 11,2001.
• Blood bank system which handles over 1/3 of the nations blood supply
• Red Cross operated for a year without a president. The board of directors made all of the decisions.• In the wake of September 11, the Red Cross had some glaring decisions make front-page news similar to FEMA and their response to Hurricane Katrina.
• Bernadine Healey was chosen because of her reputation of getting things done.
• The Red Cross was under court order because of lack of quality control in certain areas of the blood distribution.• The personnel associated with the disaster relief arm are people who have come up through the ranks of the Red Cross and are “lifers”
• Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist, knows blood.
• The object of this side is to meet the needs of someone devastated by a disaster.• The blood distribution arm is run like a business.
• She was instrumental in the firing of several employees who were not doing their jobs properly.
• The general consensus was she was trying to usurp too much power.
• Bernadine Healey felt she was made the scapegoat for everything that was wrong at The American Red Cross.
• The Liberty Fund that was set up after September 11 was highly criticized.
Stillman Chapter 14: Issue Networks.
• National School Lunch Program is the largest and oldest of all child nutrition and food assistance programs. Created in 1946 by Congress through the National School Lunch Act which is designed to provide nutritious lunches to school children as well as providing help for American farmers by using their agricultural resources.Case 14: Laura Sims, “Reinventing School Lunch”
By April Ellis Fall 2007
• Administered at the federal level by the US Department of Agriculture, then at the State level by the State department of Education, and at the local level by the school district administration. All public schools are eligible, 99% participate and it is voluntary to private schools, 83% participate. Overall 56% of students actually participate of the eligible students.Policy Issues at work in the National School Lunch Program
• Based of the children’s poverty level the children may receive meals for free or reduced prices.
• 1992 the government spent $4.1 billion in order to provide participating schools with federal cash subsidies and donated agricultural commodities.
• The 1946 legislature for School Lunches also set standards for the kinds of foods that would be offered to the children in the program. The lunches included ½ pint milk, 2 oz protein, ¾ cup of vegetables/fruit, and 8 servings of bread/pasta/grain per week. The Dietary Guidelines provide the children of low income family to receive 1/3 to ½ of the recommended dietary allowance.
• When the Dietary Guidelines for school lunches were established the concern was about nutrient deficiencies and making sure that the children received enough food to be well nourished. Just the opposite is the concern for today’s children; obesity is at an all time high, which means that school lunches were failing to meet the criterion.Advocacy Coalitions at Work in the National School Lunch Program
• The new dietary guidelines takes in consideration the about of fat in a child’s diet, which is no more than 30% of calories are from fat.
• WIC and new Supplemental Nutrition Program for women, infants and children have shown great success in the health benefits from participants.
• The question of should the government continue their relationship with American farmers is answer by showing that the estimated value of the surplus foods given to the lunch program in 1987 was $880 million. The opposition states that the majority of the foods donated are high in fat such as cheese, peanuts, and processed meats. The USDA recognized this issue and made cut backs on dietary fat commodities.
• Alternative low fat meats have been introduced to the program such as low fat beef and salmon but it has been found that the children will not eat foods that are unfamiliar to them.
•
1. Implications and feasibility of the projectThe Human Genome Project
by Larry Fischer, Fall 2007
a. Thought to be the key to delivering medication2. Government funded research at its best.
b. Many thought it was too large to achieve
c. Too expensive.
a. Multiple government agencies coordinating towards a goal3. Bureaucrats involved in the projecti. Department of Energy (DOE)b. Unwavering political support and funding
ii. National institute of Health (NIH)-lead role
c. Strong project leadership through out the project
d. Adaptive to change when faced with private sector challenge
a. James Watson, co-discoverer of double helical structure of DNA4. Human Genome projects organization and methodologyi. His fame brought political support and fundsb. Francis Collins, established scientist and already involved in genome research
ii. His ego and personality fostered internal conflicti. Inherits the project and maintains project with little change at firstc. J. Craig Venter, former NIH scientist that defected to private sector
ii. Rises to the challenge and changes the project to speed up the process and adds an interim goal (rough draft)
iii. Leads the project to co-victory in rough draft of human genomei. Starts a company to compete in Genome research called Celera
ii. 3 year, $300 million, completion challenge is made
iii. Leads the project to co-victory in rough draft of human genome
a. Initially the organizational structure was distributed; ”centers”i. Universities and research centers from all over participated1. Competition for center awardsii. International research
2. Mission oriented research
3. Pursuant to HGP goals1. NIH as the hub of the consortium of institutionsb. Speed! The response to Venter’s challenge changes HGP’s focus
2. Requirement of sharing research information, “GenBank”i. Structure change decentralize the efforts of HGP
ii. Interim goal of “Rough Draft”
iii. New state of the art equipment
iv. Change in research methodology to increase speed
v. Moving the bulk of the research to 5 key centers (G-5)
Case 16: The Case of the Butterfly Ballot
By Becky Bennett, Fall 2007• This is a case study regarding the 2000 Presidential Election and the problems encountered in Palm Beach County, Florida with the butterfly ballot system.
• According to Theresa LePore, the supervisor of elections for Palm Beach County, Florida, there was not a problem with the butterfly ballots.• Been used for many years with no issues• 655,000 sample ballots mailed to all registered voters, political parties and news media – though this fact was rarely mentioned.
• Some discussions regarding the layout of the ballot but with regard to the older population in Palm Beach County they decided to leave the design as it was.
• A few issues of concern were the residents having trouble reading the ballot if redesigned, which would result in a smaller point size and they were familiar with the layout since it had been used for several years.• There were specific instructions given with the mail out to inform the voters of how to read the ballot.• Overall there were several problems that led to the butterfly ballot/hanging chad issue in Palm Beach County. However they felt they were prepared the best they knew how with what they had to work with.
• Another issue was the poll workers. Most were older, retired residents willing to volunteer their time.
• Workers were sent to training workshops and also given training information.
• Also issues with the punch card equipment – Theresa LePore had been looking into new equipment - $14 million – unsure if the county commission would approve the new equipment needed.
Discussion Notes, week 5
by Jeremy Lewis, Fall 2007
scale, use of resources few competitors at this level of scale tensions among participants tension among public and private organizations as to motivation. previous examples Manhattan project, Moonshot, cancer, AIDS decentralization versus concentration transparency vs secrecy quality vs speed cost overruns, risk
US has more complex needs: more elections, more offices, referenda technology problem
- rapid counting
- data integrity
- data security
- secure transmission to central office from polling places
- short queues of voters
solutions: punchcard, touchscreen, optical scanner -- or old fashioned lever pulling machines. Montgomery County has the best-rated system: optical scanning with seals and a paper trail.