Posted on: Sunday, November 10, 2002

EDITORIAL
We need more details on government reform

Governor-elect Linda Lingle's campaign promises include no layoffs of state workers. Apparently, she's going to rightsize the government through privatization and attrition.

But she's short on details, and so we're left filling in the blanks.

As governor, Lingle has the authority to shuffle around state government jobs. And she has suggested that an audit will help her put more resources in areas that need it, and subtract from areas that don't. That makes good sense.

Beyond that, however, we're not sure what kind of civil service reform Lingle is looking for.

As we all know, civil service reform means different things to different people. Under Gov. Ben Cayetano, many saw it as cutting wages and benefits. To public workers, it meant changes that would make it easier for them to do their jobs.

For all we know, Lingle, too, may be proposing cutting wages and benefits. Again, there were no details during her campaign.

But she did mention attrition, which is one of the least alarming ways for politicians and corporate heads to downsize. Even that doesn't come without a price.

Usually, attrition means that senior experienced civil servants retire and the person next in line is bumped up to that position, or the job is left empty. Vacancies also are created when young, highly motivated workers leave the public sector to make more money.

In the case of a position that must be filled, you hope someone is trained to take over. What you don't want is retired government workers returning to their jobs — and essentially double-dipping — because there's no one trained to take over their kuleana.

That's what happened in Honolulu this year. The city rehired 83 retired municipal workers, who returned to their old jobs on short-term contracts while continuing to collect a government pension.

Apparently, the city was having a hard time filling some highly technical administrative jobs and needed the retirees to train junior employees. And this from an administration that had pledged to cut costs through attrition.

We're eager to hear the details of how Lingle plans to rightsize the state government and work with the Legislature and public employee unions on some meaningful civil service reform that brings about true flexibility and 21st-century management options.