Where is Vicky Bradshaw's memo on Jose Millan?

It seems that every time that the Jose's (now Vicky's) EEEC task force breaks wind, there's a press release about it. Whenever a protected bureaucrat gets a promotion, Vicky shoots off a memo. Now that Jose is gone (what happened to her memo on this), is Vicky accepting applications for the LWDA Deputy Secretary, or will this be another vacancy that will remain unfilled until the next governor election? She was so quick to award Bobby Jones the dual title of Acting Labor Commish and Chief Counsel, so where is that same bureaucratic efficiency on obtaining a new Deputy Secretary? Will she ring in the New Year with some other crony, suck-up that will bog down her agency further? Isn't there anyone who's semi-qualified, meaning that they are not under indictment, not individually named in current DLSE litigation, and not giving two different statements in separate sworn depositions (is that considered perjury)?

Trying to teach a pig to sing

If you try to teach a pig to sing, the teacher's upset that the pig won't sing, and the pig's upset that the teacher's wasting time with the impossibility. There are some things that just won't work, just like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Time and time again, our bureaucratic leaders try to jam that square peg in the round hole, and then act bewildered when it won't fit. In one of the few times the DLSE got it right was when they promoted Guadalupe Almaraz to the position of Deputy Chief. What's more important was who did not get the promotion to Deputy Chief, and that was Greg Rupp and Nance Steffen. Those Assistant Chiefs will likely remain as Assistant Chiefs until they put in their retirement papers. When it comes to servicing Californians, it would be better for those two to retire sooner. Imagine working for some corpulent bureaucrat whose sole function is to watch the clock until it ticks away to the retirement date. I say trim the dead wood, make room for better qualified people who want to help Californians. Shoo them into a corner and out of the way of those that want to earn their paychecks. Labor Standards could be doing so much more for the people of California if they only had the right managers in play. The right managers would place the right person into the right job; that's what a manager does. The managers here are too busy protecting their collective posteriors to provide any tangible benefit to Californians.

Jose Millan: now exiting, stage left

From the Governator's website [go to press room/press releases/appointments 12/22/05]:
"Jose Millan, 50, of Placerville, has been appointed vice chancellor for California Community Colleges. He has served as the deputy secretary for enforcement with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency since 2004. Previously, Millan was the equal employment opportunity program manager for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and assistant director for human resources at Cabrillo College. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $108,864. Millan is a Republican."
If anyone can imagine, Vicky Bradshaw & her crew didn't rush to their keyboards to bang out this press release. In fact, Vicky's last blanket email to her minions was to brag about Bobby Jones' new appointment. How come she didn't add another paragraph to explain Jose's quiet departure from her circle? Why is she so quiet on this topic? If she's wondering how her entire agency found out, it's because good news travels fast.
It seems that history has a way of repeating itself. The last time he stepped in it, he was banished to some 1st-line supervisor post in Fresno! This time, he's been sent to Junior College. Maybe he can institute a new ethics program while he's there. Maybe he'll last longer than the year-plus that he was with Vicky. What will happen to his TIPP task force that's been re-heated into the EEEC task force? Who will protect EEEC manager David Dorame, now that Jose is gone? Will Vicky come up with another task force? What will be its name? What's she going to do, and who's she going to appoint for her next hurrah? Will her next decision/appointment also be plagued with litigation?

Keeping Score: DLSE Women (-3), DLSE Men (+1)

Well, well, well. It seems that the previous rumor about Bobby Jones proved correct, as Vicky Bradshaw jammed the Department once again by naming Robert Jones as the Acting Labor Commissioner. Score one for the guys; where else can this happen in today's society but DLSE! As for the women, they have not fared so well. DLSE lawyers Anne S. and Anne H. were advised to move aside and step down (to possibly make room for Bobby's new crew?), and we all know what happened to Donna Dell. I guess someone could make a persuasive gender argument, but then again, this is Labor Standards. I would certainly want someone to make the case if DLSE installed another man as Chief Counsel after having cast down their three women. While mum's the word on Anthony Mischel, no one would be really surprised if Vicky or one of her puppets maintained their regime by naming him as Chief Counsel.

Dept. of Industrial Retaliation strikes again!

From what I gather, the flunkies in Vicky Bradshaw's fiefdom issued a "NO SPEAK" rule to division attorneys. This, in addition to violating the 1st Ammendment, also violates the Dills Act. The flunkies enacted this mandate without setting up a meet & confer with the attorneys' union, as this mandate changes workplace conditions. Because this mandate changed the workplace, Vicky's flunkies should have had a meet & confer with the union before carving it into stone. Better yet, they should have made nice-nice and removed it altogether once the union sent their letter of intent. Instead, Vicky's flunkies plow forward, thinking they can do-no-wrong.
PERB brings together the representatives of the flunkies and the attorney's union on January 31st in Oakland, CA. This is a mandatory settlement conference. If they cannot settle, then it goes to hearing. I don't see how it's in the union's interest not to push this all the way to a formal hearing & written decision. Now, I'll explain why some of Vicky's people are labeled "flunkies," and why some of those flunkies are also "idiots." Flunkies are those that are doomed to repeat the past because they can't learn from it. Her staff is besieged by lawsuits, grievances, unfair labor practices, and other miscellaneous complaints. Those that prepare Vicky's administration for impending, losing litigation are never disciplined; my guess is that they need them to prepare for the next losing battle. It's not slanderous/libelous to call someone out as an idiot when they're an idiot; besides, I never really mentioned any idiot by name. But if I did, I would love the opportunity to critically examine each idiot's contribution to state service during the time they collected a state paycheck.
For example, I would love to ask Jose Millan a whole buncha questions about past instances of supervisors getting busted for drunk driving, managers approving the peace officer application/backgound checks of those convicted of drunk driving, & whether or not it was in a state vehicle. Then I'd probably move to Howard Hernandez, and ask which managers were sleeping on the job during the time that he was shaking down the public, and what checks & balances have been made a part of DLSE's daily operations since then. Geez, I haven't even gotten to the current topic of pay-to-play rest/meal periods!

12/05 newsletter from California Assemblyman Paul Koretz, CHAIR-Labor and Employment Committee

After the recall election, the Governator hires Vicky Bradshaw, a former department store employee & republican contributor, to head the Labor Workforce Development Agency. What does Vicky do? She revives the careerist corpse of Jose Millan, whose last position at DLSE was at a demoted supervisor outpost in Fresno...now he's back as her Number Two, the Deputy Secretary. Talk about re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic! What does he do? He graciously bends over for the Restaurant lobby, authorizes illegal & taxpayer paid infomercials, and tries to drive one of the few hard working labor lawyers (Miles Locker) out of state service. Of course, he doesn't actually do his own dirty work; he has Bob Jones and Tony Mischel for that. To make a long story short, his Labor Commissioner Donna Dell is now gone, his meal/rest period policies are a joke, and his own minions can't enforce current laws on the books (ask about the car wash licensing & regulations!). Every sweep of Millan's, courtesy of his TIPP task force re-painted as EEEC (headed by close friend David Dorame) is a narcissistic press release. If the DLSE ever had an award for, "Most Likely to Embarrass our Division but still connected to Vicky Bradshaw," then Jose Millan could win it for 2005!
Even when former Labor Commissioner Art Lujan (and DLSE Regional Manager Susan Nakagama confidant) was busy racking up the sun & the moon on his taxpayer-paid expense reports, the bosses above him did nothing, and in fact were quite hostile at those who dared to mention such questionable DLSE practices. Even after the horse had left the barn, the pretards at DLSE kept Lujan on full payroll until Davis' recall.
If you click the title above, you can read Assemblyman Koretz's current newsletter that discusses how bankrupt the DLSE's operational efficiency really is. His newsletter also mentions how sweatshops operate with virtual impunity and how the state's labor agency, the DLSE, is conducting its own witch-hunt against one of their employees, Miles Locker. The DLSE refuses to communicate anything to the state's CHAIR on the Labor & Employment Committee! Is it any surprise that the DLSE is allowed to behave in this way; moreover, the only way to truly disinfect this agency is if someone actually reaches out to grab Susan Kennedy (the Governator's new Chief of Staff) and gives her the real story on the DLSE. From what I hear, she didn't like any agency that embarrassed Davis when he was governor, and I'm assuming that she'll still take a equally dim view on any agency that embarrasses the current Governator. Unfortunately, DLSE executives aren't smart enough to clean up their own mess, so it appears that someone higher up must break out the baby wipes.

Labor Commissioner gone: 3rd-string quarterback needed

Donna Dell's whining about her frustration and hinting about being made a victim is quite ironic. In the sub-text, you can clearly read the ineffective excuse-making of a Labor Commissioner who's leaving the department worse than how she received it. I wonder if that will go on her resume? As long as John Rea, Vicky Bradshaw, and Jose Millan collect their state paychecks, the DLSE will continue to operate at a very high level of dysfunctionalism. This only translates to equal or worse service to the public. Can you see our future now?

Pencil-pushing desk jockeys know only one thing: their voracious appetite for clawing their way up the career ladder while simultaneously refusing to accomplish the job for which they are paid to do. Their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are somewhat limited because state civil service exams cannot exatly measure how much sucking up an applicant has done with their bosses. Things like current education, recent training, and specialized experience have no place here, as any one of their resumes will read like a bureaucratic train wreck. Initiatives taken, policies codified, procedures enacted, and quantifyable service levels to the public will not be discussed at our promotion boards.

Musical chairs with DLSE Asst. Chief, Chief Counsel positions!

Anonymous sources tell me that Jose Millan, Bob Jones, and other DLSE wizards were in Los Angeles to interview for the Assistant Chief Counsel position. Word on the street also has Anthony (Tony) Mischel being groomed for the Chief Counsel position, with Friday being Donna Dell's last day and Bob Jones possibly being moved into the position of Labor Commissioner. I also heard that Bob Jones and Tony Mischel are double-teaming a DLSE employee regarding their lame investigation including trumped up & unsubstantiated allegations. Don't worry, ML: it's nothing but a witch-hunt and novice intimidation tactics. Why is it that Tony Mischel and Bob Jones are taking such a high-priority interest with a typical, DLSE slipshod-operated investigation? What those two collectively know about interviewing & interrogation can fit on the head of a pin. Those two are lawyers, not investigators. Then again, there are some investigators that think that they're lawyers, so go figure.
The DLSE's Chief Counsel/Assistant Chief Counsel SNAFU (Situation Normal, All F**ked Up) began with Anne Hipshman indirectly being ordered to step down, as the DLSE wanted to move the Asst. Chief Counsel position to Southern California (Anne Hipshman worked in Nor Cal). LWDA-DIR cronies (Vicky Bradshaw, John Rea, and Jose Millan) wanted to move (at the time) newly-acquired Bob Jones into the Chief Counsel position. This meant that Anne Stevason (previous Chief Counsel in So Cal) had to vacate her position, which she gladly did (why would she want her fingerprints on this train wreck?).
Presently, Tony Mischel works in Los Angeles and Bobby Jones works in San Francisco (HQ)...so if these rumors are true then why would those wizards revert the Chief Counsel & Asst. Chief Counsel positions back to their previous locations? Because the wizards wanted to get rid of Anne Stevason and Anne Hipshman, install their own puppets, and have their fiefdom exactly the way they want it. You see, this is the joke of Civil Service. Top management acts like this is their own corporation, moving state personnel as they like with no accountability to anyone. Jose Millan's taxpayer-paid propaganda videos were recently ruled illegal, and do you think anything is going to happen to him? The $21,000 donation to Arnold that coincidentally knee-jerked Jose Millan's pay-to-play policy change in the meal/rest periods resulted in what? That's right, nothing. Jose still gets to play his little reindeer games.
If I was Anne Hipshman, I would cut paper as soon as those wizards formally announced that Tony Mischel is the new Chief Counsel in LA and that Blah Blah is the new Asst. Chief Counsel in SF. If the wizards retreated the counsel positions back to the old regions, then why didn't they re-install the previous posts to the people that held those positions? Why aren't they going to reinstate Anne Hipshman to her previous position? Understandably, Anne Stevason doesn't want it.

Taxpayer-paid, state fake news videos ruled illegal (what a surprise)

No less than four news agencies covered LWDA's travesty. The LA Times, the Sacramento Bee, the SF Chronicle, and the Associated Press all hit the ink with the judges rulling. What's so funny is Jehan Flagg, mouthpiece for the LWDA, said they might consider an appeal. What a joke. Why would they want to receive another courtroom beat-down? Unfortunately, she cannot speak of the true context of LWDA's situation, which is they got caught doing something bad, and they have no remorse stemming from their actions because they don't think they did anything wrong (since they're considering an appeal). What sucks is that the same people who thought the fake videos were a bright idea are the same geniuses still controlling the LWDA, the DIR, and the DLSE.