In recent months, grave questions have been asked about the size, scope and limits of government. How much do we want the government looking for terrorists, when it means looking at our email? A fair question. How much should municipal workers be compensated in an era of rarely precedented unemployment? A fair question. How do we cut government spending without cutting on fast-growing areas like military retirements? A legitimate question. Can government support healthcare for all? (No, as we are finding out, but it's a nice question).
But, despite these deep debates in our society, and the exponentially growing distrust of government, many government employees just don't get it. Both in their official capacities and in their union representation, they continue to act like bullies.
The DWP is under scrutiny in LA, so the head of the DWP workers union refuses to disclose how they spend $40 million of taxpayers' money.
The LA School district is overcrowded and delivering stunningly poor results. Their reason is always money. Taxpayers just don't fork over enough. Their answer? To give away iPads. After the fact, there is thought of accounting for them. A billion dollars handed out to kids with their pants below their boxers, and there's no thought to making sure a nickel of that money is returned.
And then, there's the Gold Line.
The Gold Line construction is going to disrupt Myrtle Avenue, the primary southern entrance to the city, cutting off many businesses and residents. FOR FIVE MONTHS! And the staff of the Metro decides to inform those affected barely a month before hand. By letters. Sent during Christmas week.
Christmas week.
There is a word for this: Hubris.
As a marketing and PR professional, who actually can be fired by my clients, I would expect to be out of work if I came up with a plan like that. It is a giant "Eff You" to the people of Monrovia. "We've got the power so let us tell you how it's going to be," is the obvious subtext.
Stunningly, the Monrovia City council pleads ignorance. After being completely slathered in Gold Line adulation for years, with nitty gritty details about decorative schemes in the Gold Line station being given high praise, it is stunning that they claim to know nothing about this horrendously offensive plan. But, given the hubris of the Christmas notification, it is entirely plausible that the bureaucrats of the County's MTA decided that the leaders of little Monrovia aren't worthy of the truth. You can almost hear their conference in their nice, fancy downtown office tower that we taxpayers bought them "The San Gabriel Valley is lucky we're even giving them a train (even though they paid for it), they can just be thankful we'll put the street back together."
It has been bad enough that residents on Mayflower and California have been greatly inconvenienced (and flooded) by this project. There does have to be some price for progress, unfortunately. But to essentially cut one of the most heavily traveled arteries into the city with little notice is just plain offensive.
But, it is not at all surprising.
The erosion of trust in government has been a death of a million cuts of hubris.
In this case, paper cuts on Christmas week.
