Morning Read: Former DEC chief fired “for telling the truth”
How lucky is former Conservation commissioner Pete Grannis? In the waning days of Governor David Paterson’s administration he was fired for what the administration described as insubordination and poor performance.
But the result is that he’s been thrown clear of the general disaster that is state government at present and is now seen as “a hero” by all sides — from greeny enviromentalist to pro-property rights local government leaders in the Adirondacks.
During testimony yesterday before an Assembly panel, Grannis blasted his former boss. This from the Albany Times-Union:
Grannis, a former state assemblyman who was picked to head DEC by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, took aim at Paterson’s layoffs at DEC, calling them a “shell game” that would save relatively little money because three-quarters of the agency’s budget comes from outside the state general fund.
Citing the warnings in his memo, Grannis said the cuts would put the state in danger of “environmental backsliding.” He said the governor’s budget office demanded job cuts but not expense cuts, and was not interested in the consequences.
For example, earlier reductions at DEC have left conservation officers and forest rangers with too little gasoline for their vehicles to conduct patrols, Grannis said. “At times, we had people who had to sit at home,” he said.
Tags: environment, politics
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Brian,
I know you have praised Patterson as the only one to stand up and face the state’s budget problems squarely but in my estimation he’s a bureaucrat who’s in over his head and he’s flailing about wildly on the assumption that doing anything, the first thing he can think of, is better than doing nothing. Occasionally that may work but the budget situation is complicated and more often than not you can to do more harm than good that way.
Example: At one point he threatened to lay off workers in OTDA who are doing SS Disability claims. Those positions are funded with federal dollars which he’d have to give back to the feds if he laid them off. To make matters worse the laid off workers would be eligible for unemployment insurance payments which are paid from state dollars. That same funding pattern is true of many DOL employees and probably other agencies too, so a layoff of state workers can lead not only to a loss of services but in many cases a loss of federal dollars coupled with an increase in unemployment benefit costs, a lose, lose, lose situation.
Fortunately someone managed after weeks of wrangling to get him to see the light on that one but the point is that the situation is too complex to just ‘shoot from the hip’ which is what he seems to have done with Pete Grannis and seems to be his general inclination. I don’t envy Andrew Cuomo. He’s got a tough job ahead of him but I hope that, like his father, he is a very rational man and will think things through better than Patterson has been doing.
Lets hope The Young Prince thinks things through better than Old King did.
Grannis was a political appointee. He served at the pleasure of the Governor. Bite the hand that feeds you and you might lose your meal ticket. Tough. That’s the price you pay. IMO Patterson should have fired the people that gave him the faulty information mentioned in Mr Bullards post too.
This is what bugs me. I support the efforts by Gov. Paterson to try to balance the budget even if it means making unpopular decisions. He’s always patted himself on the back for telling the public the truth even when it was unpopular and I’ve generally supported him in that regard as well, long after it was chic to do so. I think cuts to DEC are wholly disproportionate as compared to the agency’s overall share of the budget (something like 15% of the next round of job cuts, I think). But if these cuts are necessary, Paterson’s office should come out and defend it. If deep cuts to essential services are needed, then the governor has an obligation to the public to explain why rather than firing those who insist upon transparency.
wait till the “young prince” leaves the state flat to run for obama’s job in ’12
But I thought we decided Paterson was a brave truth-teller and Paladino was really interesting.
Rather than cutting Rangers and the money for them to do their job, the cuts should be made down at the DEC in Albany.
Same for all the overpaid staff for all departments and agencies in Albany. Anyone getting more that $100,000 should go. This includes everyone at SED.
We are always being told, “You get what you pay for.” I guess we have been paying to be screwed by our betters.
I don’t think any of us really know what the DEC does, including Patterson and that is probably the problem.
I always think of guys enforcing game laws, stocking fish, and protecting the health of the environment.
What percentage of the staff do those critical field operations and what percentage of the DEC does other things, whatever those are?
The same goes for many of these other large state agencies. Cuts are needed but hopefully they are being done logically with an eye toward what the mission is of these agencies.
In my experience with State gov’t I found that the biggest increase in inefficiency comes when a bean counter position is created somewhere. Reams of paperwork are sure to follow. You would have thought computerization would reduce the amount of paperwork, but it seemed to increase it- make sure you forward the electronic document, make at least 2 hard copies and store it on a disc (flashdrive these days).
The problem is bureaucrats need numbers, paper and a constant flow of both to justify and quantify their positions and to create the numbers and paperwork for their superiors. I don’t know how you reduce it, and the jobs associated with it’s flow.
Reduce the brass??? Comon’!!! You should all know that “All Chiefs and no indians” is the norm.
Well we know at least some of them sit around thinking of ways to regulate outside wood boilers.