iePolitics: Is Greg Devereaux’s Impending Arrival Being Felt in TAD

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.

Peter Drucker

Interesting changes are being made in San Bernardino County’s Transitional Assistance Department’s (TAD) management structure.  Unless Assistant Administrative Officer Linda Haugen and TAD Director Nancy Swanson are even more stupid than we already know, they have to be very nervous about the new head honcho in town, County Administrative Officer (CAO) Greg Devereaux.  Linda Haugen was able to . . . um “charm” . . . her way out of trouble with former CAO Mark Uffer but those who have worked with Devereaux say he cannot be “persuaded” by the same means.  We know that neither Linda nor Nancy are capable of producing anything resembling a well-thought-out and intelligent work product, so they have a lot to worry about.

Before being devoured by TAD, the Jobs and Employment Services Department (JESD) was considered one of the best departments to work for in the county.  Employment Services Specialist positions were highly sought after.  The department was known for treating its employees and the public very well.  It had a positive work environment for employees and did an awesome job of helping the less fortunate in our community.

When JESD became a division of TAD, known as the Employment Services Program (ESP), it became the department to leave.  Line staff, supervisors and managers alike couldn’t get away from TAD’s despot management style fast enough.  Morale plummeted.  Hostile work environment became the name of the game.  Racial and sexual harassment became commonplace.

Jackie James, a regional manager for JESD, became the Deputy Director for ESP.  But she didn’t last long.  Another Deputy Director, Michael De la Rosa, known more for his embezzlement from the San Bernardino Public Employees Association than for any valuable contribution to TAD, quickly targeted Jackie.  He helped to have her demoted so that he could take that position for himself.

Jackie was the first in a long-line of JESD African-American employees who were targeted by De la Rosa.  Since his hostile takeover of ESP, he has systematically eliminated almost all former JESD African-Americans in leadership rolls within ESP.  Under his dictatorship numerous Equal Employment Opportunity complaints have been filed, with Human Resources staff usually covering for De la Rosa’s racist and sexist actions.

So we find it very interesting that now that we have a “professional” CAO, who is said to be a bit of a stickler for the law, De la Rosa has been reassigned to “special projects” and Jackie James has been re-instated to her rightful position.  We have never been a Jackie fan, but at least she understands the clientele we serve and the purpose of the program.  Unfortunately, as with any prisoner of war, after three years of torture, brainwashing, and beating down, it is likely she has become one of them.  Time will tell if this change will offer any relief for the beleaguered masses.

Unlike Michael (or Nancy or Linda), Jackie is well educated and intelligent and can project a professional image for the department.  Michael, on the other hand, who is poorly educated, terribly simple-minded, and mean-spirited as hell, is said to be going to spend much of his time in Sacramento trying to save Welfare to Work.  That is rather humorous since he single-handedly ran the program into the ground here in San Bernardino County.  Before Michael we had Work Performance Rates exceeding 50 percent.  They are now down in single digits even with all the falsified record-keeping TAD management is so good at.

Knowing what an embarrassing fool Michael presents himself as, we have to think that the Sacramento gig is simply a way to keep him under Devereaux’s radar.  No one who sees him in action would think he deserves his $100,000 a year salary and it will provide a way to keep him from embarrassing Haugen and Swanson.  I feel sorry for the poor legislators who have to deal with this incompetent simpleton.  On second thought, maybe they deserve one another.