Massive Reform of California Government Focus
of Comprehensive Institute Forum
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Massive Reform of California Government Focus of Comprehensive
Institute Forum
SACRAMENTO - Four-hundred managers from California
state government attended a Performance Institute-sponsored
forum May 20 to hear updates on reform initiatives underway
in the Schwarzenegger Administration.
While a final plan to restructure the state’s
muddled bureaucracy has not been finalized, the forum,
sponsored by the Performance Institute, served as a
preview of the proposed reorganization that will streamline
services, consolidate departments and provide desperately
needed efficiencies to California government. Donna
Arduin, Governor Schwarzenegger’s appointed Finance
Director and Chon Guttierez, Executive Director of the
California Performance Review—a consortium of
265 state employees tasked with reforming the state’s
bureaucracy—delivered opening remarks and echoed
the sentiments of many in California government: while
tremendous progress has been made, continued improvements
are absolutely necessary.
“This was the first truly comprehensive look
at what’s being done — and what else can
be done — to overcome California’s budget
and organizational challenges,” Performance Institute
President Carl DeMaio said. “It also served as
the first wide-scale opportunity for government managers
to comment publicly on the Governor’s management
initiatives.”
The California Performance Review will submit recommendations
to the Governor on June 30 and although no specific
plans were confirmed, it is expected that the bureaucratic
overhaul will contain recommendations to eliminate or
consolidate some state boards, commissions and agencies,
implement new technologies and processes and reduce
the state work force mainly through attrition.
"Every governor I've known has said there are
too many boards and commissions -- let's get rid of
them," Gutierrez said. But because "people
are very comfortable with the status quo, it will be
very difficult to change things."
DeMaio spoke about the California Citizens’ Budget,
which was published last summer and has played a substantial
role in guiding management reform in California’s
state government. The mock budget proposed a set of
reforms that, if implemented, would close California’s
$38 billion without major cuts in services employing
performance-based management reforms. More importantly,
the reforms recommended within the Citizen’s Budget
can be applied to state governments nationwide.
“What we have to do (now) is look to other states
and figure out how they're doing their services and
benchmarks, but over a long period of time, I could
see California being the model for how to do large-scale
government change," said DeMaio. "This would
essentially be the textbook for how to do it."
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