WHEN Gov. Ben Cayetano took the podium to tell us his plans for Hawaii in his fifth State of the State address, he wanted everyone to know that the rules of government were going to change. Reforming Hawaii’s
civil service systemIf government in Hawaii is to work, it must allow the civil service to be "innovative and hard working," Cayetano said.
Cayetano appointed his one-time campaign co-chairman and former state Sen. Mike McCartney to get the job done, by scrapping the 60-year-old civil service system, encouraging innovation and empowering change.
"For years, we have all known what has to be done," Cayetano said.
Later that day when asked for specifics, Cayetano retreated, saying he didn't have any, but that civil service reform was like pornography. I'll know it when I see it, he said.
That vision, however, may be like the emperor's new clothes.
Cayetano's designated hitter, McCartney, is on the surface an odd choice. He's closely aligned with the Democratic Party, having worked his way up through the ranks of the politically potent Hawaii State Teachers Association and then served as clerk to Charles Toguchi when he was a senator. McCartney ran for and won Toguchi's Senate seat when Toguchi became superintendent of education.
Later he and several partners formed the successful "Hawaii Stars Presents" television karaoke shows, but his experience and thinking are political, not business.
At the Legislature, McCartney was jokingly known as "Senator Win-Win" for his approach to political problems. Last year's Legislative Action Yellow Pages describes McCartney as "extremely smooth...manages to bounce back all of the time."
Asked if he had any better idea than his boss about specifically what he wanted to change in civil service, McCartney said he would like to make it more flexible, so that workers would be able to form teams to accomplish projects.
But when asked for specifics McCartney lapsed into New Age cliches, saying he wanted to move "the co-creation process with the stakeholders."
"We have to co-create that together. Some of it is more feelings and attitude. The attitude will translate into results," McCartney said. "How do you measure flexibility?"
With goals such as these, it is relatively easy to declare that your civil service has been reformed, innovation encouraged and flexibility made the number one trait of our public worker stakeholders.
A Honolulu Star-Bulletin series last year pointed out many of the real problems: State and county workers get paid according to seniority, not job performance; the counties are forced to agree to state-dictated wage packages and few managers are demanding that computers be used to increase productivity.
FOR the past four years Cayetano's former director of human resources, Jimmy Takushi, tried unsuccessfully to get the heavily pro-union Legislature to reform the civil service laws.
Now McCartney wants to get the unions, counties and state managers to agree to changes that will be presented to the Legislature next year. Wise union lobbyists, of course, would just keep quiet, agree to this year's proposals and then have their favorite legislators gut them next year.
Then, with no definable goals and no way to measure success, everyone but the taxpayers will be able to declare it a "win-win" exercise.
Richard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com