CMS command staff wants input, questions, etc. after 20 months of top-down design.

In the DLSE's latest twist, Deputy Chief Lupe Almaraz issued a memo where he solicits questions, suggestions, and input only 20 months after CMS' finalization. Of course he cares about the public; these are not shallow words carelessly placed in a memo! Our leader talks about input: let's see him boldly go where no bureaucrat has dared to go before: transforming raw input into positive action.

Q1: What will be the DLSE performance standard concerning the number of monthly conferences and hearings to be held while using CMS? What numbers would constitute sub-standard, standard, and above-standard performance? Will different standards apply to different DLSE offices, according to the volume of claims, entertainment work permits, investigations, etc. each DLSE office produces? Or should we use the Dan Cornet/Santa Barbara telephonic standard for each office????

Q2: Why can't the DLSE produce quantifyable statistics on the number of citation appeals held, citation appeals affirmed, and citation appeals rejected? Currently, the monthly reporting records the type of citations issued as well as the amount, but why no statistics on the results of the citation appeals? Why does the current reporting procedure shield Asst. Chief Rupp from such reporting standards? Which DLSE field agents, under Asst. Chief Greg Rupp's cone of responsibility, have been identified as losing a majority of their citation appeals?

Wage Claims/Regional Manager Abigael Calva infrequently questioned Hearing Officer Bruce Darby on the names of BoFE agents that had their citations appealed. Why a Wage Claims manager is asking about BoFE-related issues is anyone's guess, but it seems to be an interest (even) for those that have no business in BoFE citation appeals.

If Deputy Chief Lupe Almaraz can successfully answer those two questions, then maybe we can crawl out of the baby crib and move onto more complex stuff, like the average time the DLSE anticipates it will take to successfully process an Entertainment Work Permit and a Wage Claim on CMS (assuming he pondered such an effect upon public service). Maybe Lupe's underlings didn't bother to think of such things like the Bottom Line (i.e., public service wait time), but then again, a DLSE Deputy Chief of Lupe's proficiency probably "anticipated" extended public service delays without concrete "numbers" in the form of minutes, hours, and days.