All it takes is one question over and over and over again. And then the guts to act when they either act stupid or won’t answer:
Cal State Can’t Explain Why It Needs So Many Bureaucrats.
The California State University system has increased its hiring of managers at a steeper rate than its hiring of other employees over the past 10 years, according to a new state audit…in a report on the audit released on Thursday, the state auditor, Elaine M. Howle, wrote that the system could not sufficiently explain why it needed all the new managers, including deans, head coaches, and vice presidents, among other positions.
…The audit also found that the system’s 23 campuses did not have policies for periodically comparing their spending levels or reviewing their budget limits.
The Question:
what is your ratio of direct to indirect labor (both ways: head count and fully burdened costs).
When I was on my hamlet’s Budget Committee, I had to ask that for a few years and then, given the declining student enrollment but increasing costs (pretty much NOT “for the children” but “FOR THE UNION”), it became a question they could not ignore and overhead positions started to get cut. THey hemmed and hawed, trying every trick in the book to avoid it. They did, under increasing pressure, started to cut admin positions.
Given that a few years have passed by, I see that the question will now again be relevant. Being on the Budget Committee for the next 3 years, I also have the ability to “not waste a crisis” (see what I did there?). The only problem are the usual “enablers” in town that hate the poor people in town because they keep raising the cost of the school system. Selfish.
(H/T: Instapundit)
