Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

nim_opet t1_jac43at wrote

It’s actually not the consultants gone wild. It’s that society hates the public sector and makes it impossible to operate normally - instead of building expertise with civil servants people treat any sort of governance (and knowledge) with hostility.

137

Karrick t1_jacddq8 wrote

Thank you. People don't understand what losing a significant part of your civil service actually means. Then they turn around and ask why the city takes so long to do shit.

61

nim_opet t1_jacdqr3 wrote

There was a time when America was proud of its city halls and its governments; about the same time it was building infrastructure. But then certain political party….

31

Louis_Farizee t1_jacn1kh wrote

The last time New York was proud of its government was the early Sixties. Things started going to hell under John Lindsay.

9

Karrick t1_jacejrt wrote

Bloomberg was a disaster for the very concept of civil service in this city.

3

Financial-Current289 t1_jacpqt0 wrote

Yes, the famously powerful republican party of new york city is consistently defunding the civil service, thank you for speaking about this.

−2

nim_opet t1_jacq34a wrote

Note I wrote about American society at large. New York is in America. I know reading is hard.

16

Unlucky_Lawfulness51 t1_jacrbl4 wrote

It's a double edge sword. People in the agencies abuse their position and create inefficient bureaucracies. Being on the consultant side for public projects, they start and restart a hundred times over. A normal project that should take a year to build out last for 5 years. For this reason you have to bake in triple your fee because you are going to need to support a project for a signicantly long duration. Not seeing work completed can be draining.

4

PKMKII t1_jacr3vp wrote

And the gigantic irony is, where do you think the consulting firms get their consultants? What kind of planners, engineers, designers in the tri-state region are going to have expert knowledge on building and maintaining large-scale subway and light rail systems? MTA employees! So many of these consulting firms are just hiring ex-MTA employees who end up doing the exact same thing they were doing last year except now it costs the MTA three times as much as it used to.

26

bsanchey t1_jaci54b wrote

Too many people drank the Reagan juice of believing the worst saying in America is I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

14

George4Mayor86 t1_jadl8gp wrote

….which in turn forces cities to rely on expensive consultants rather than in-house expertise. So it is the consultants, but it’s also the hostility to bureaucracy. Chicken and egg.

6

nim_opet t1_jadm0zm wrote

I mean, the consultants are filling the need. They didn’t create it .

2

Aiorr t1_jaenfjr wrote

if lobbying to the point where congress cut agencies' leg and arm to be dysfunctional then pretty much forcing to use contractor isn't creating the problem, idk what is.

IT service is pretty much obliterated from government agencies, and are forced to use contract bidding. And I dont think anyone need an insight on how god-awful IT in govt is. And guess how much the bid was for these "consultants" :) most likely multitude of just having a solid in-house IT team.

2

George4Mayor86 t1_jadmd4r wrote

That’s true, and I don’t blame the consultants for going where they money is.

1