Whoa — so, I’ve known for some time that, fairly often, things in the City of San Francisco don’t work right. Streets are freqeuntly left cratered and dirty; many parks languish un-maintained. Having to do ANYTHING associated with the City “Services” usually causes people to roll their eyes and make the kinds of faces usually associated with the news “you’re going to need a root canal.”

But, man — I didn’t know it went to THIS level. Check this out, from Mike DeNunzio’s piece in the San Francisco Sentinel “The Need for Civil Service Reform” :

The civil service rules that govern San Franciscos City workers were established over a century ago. As San Francisco grew, the number of City employees also grew, and so did the rules. Mayor Newsom has said, “the system is Byzantine, and to defend it is beyond common sense.” The mayor is right! City government has become an overly centralized bureaucracy. It is excessive, inefficient, and unsustainable in its costs, including salaries, benefits and pensions.

San Francisco now has 50 different contract agreements, with rigid definitions for 1,100 job classifications, they include 46 secretarial positions. The Job classifications also cover employees who work for the SFUSD, the community college, and the local courts. Despite recent cutbacks, San Francisco has 26,400 employees, one for every 29 residents, and their salary and benefit package exceeds the private sector.

(Follow the link & scroll down to read the entire thing.)

1,100 separate civil service classifications? 46 different grades of secretaries? That’s just plain ludicrous. A cynic might say that such bloat only exists to force the city to hire far more workers than necessary. In any event, it certainly seems needlessly complex and inefficient. One City employee for every 29 residents would seem to be far too many. And yet, ironically, much of the time, so much seems to go undone — or gets done late or poorly.

It’s time to make a change. There is a “Civil Service Reform” movement gathering steam in San Francisco. Big Labor and the status quo politicians are the 800 pound gorilla in this town, and it will be interesting to see how the reform movement takes shape.

DiNunzio offers some specific, sensible proposals as to what should be done:

Surely the unions must represent the interests of the employees, and likewise the administration must represent the taxpayers; but it is the voters who must approve any administrative changes, ordinances and charter amendments. Some new rules and reforms should include:

Job classifications should be reduced from 1100.

Eligibility time for health benefits should be lengthened.

“Bumping” rights during layoffs should be restricted.

Performance reviews should be increased.

Discharge of employees during probation should be facilitated.

Managers should have greater say in promotions and layoffs.

Where appropriate certain services should be privatized.

And, just last Sunday, the Chronicle gave its own overview of the current situation and the Civil Service Reform movement.

Looks like a a dustup may be on the horizon. The question as to how our City works (or doesn’t) likely hinges on the outcome.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Jason adds: 1 City employee for every 29 residents?! You must be fucking kidding me. Let’s make that an 8,000,000 pound gorilla.

April 13th, 2005 | Economics, SF Politics & Culture

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