Stardate 20011210.1739 (On Screen): San Francisco is the bastion of democracy, the nexus of clear thought -- and apparently cannot run a non-fraudulent election. At what point is an organization so useless and incompetent that it cannot be saved?
I've seen it done in private industry. I used to work at Tektronix, and the section of it responsible for assisting in the hiring of professionals was so inept that managers company wide routinely bypassed it and worked on their own. At one point I wanted to find another job, and my boss helped me out. There was a better position in another group, and my boss knew the manager who had the position to fill. So he told me I should apply through channels, but also call the guy on the phone. I did; we arranged an interview, and he hired me. I transferred over, and three weeks after starting my new job I received a form letter through interplant which told me that I was not being considered for my new position because I didn't satisfy the minimum job requirements. (It was listed as requiring a bachelor's degree; I never graduated from college.) My new boss and I both got a chuckle out of that. That kind of idiocy happened all the time, and it got so bad that the corporation literally terminated every single person in the department, every blessed soul, and started from scratch to create a new one.
San Francisco's elections have been so marred by voting irregularities that the people of the city have selected a seven-person commission to oversee the process. But how can seven people really monitor an election in a city with over a million inhabitants? Perhaps San Francisco should recognize that its current election department is beyond saving, fire the lot of them, and start from scratch? (Probably can't; they'd probably be tied up with lawsuits for years if they did. So if they can't do that, then how about some prosecutions?) (discuss)
