View Full Forums : Mismanagement of Pork by Homeland Security.


Fyyr Lu'Storm
10-28-2005, 02:33 AM
http://www.eid.org/doc_library/PDF_Files/pub_info/news/news_release_%20FEMA_reimburse20051021.pdf
Sorry, that it is a PDF file, but it is all I could find.
Main page here: http://www.eid.org/

A power station in El Dorado County, California, which was damaged in a flood in 1997 was just fixed using funds from Homeland Security grants. Your federal taxpayer dollars.

Sure it was only 9 million dollars. But who the hell thinks that a power station in Podunk Ca, has ANYthing to do with homeland security? And how many more of these micropork barrels are getting funded by something designed for something completely opposite of this kind of thing?

Thicket Tundrabog
10-28-2005, 08:40 AM
Regardless of which department the money came from, it was going to be taxpayer dollars that paid for the repairs. Perhaps it should have been paid by state or local taxpayers instead of national ... *shrug*. Unless I'm reading it wrong, the power station is government owned.

Arienne
10-28-2005, 09:42 AM
Well it looks to me as though it was "FEMA covered" from the beginning. What puzzles me, and probably always will, is why FEMA got pushed into Homeland Security in the first place.

"Layering" in a corporation is usually done for one of several reasons including: The chief exec doesn't have time to deal with that department answering directly to him, the guy whose department absorbs the other needs a raise and they have to have a valid reason for doing so, the department that absorbs the other needs more money and letting it absorb another department also lets it absorb that department's budget, the "big boss" doesn't like or won't deal with the "little boss".

On the other hand, layering also has many negative effects including: The next round of budgeting (as well as those in following years) takes into account that it should cost less to fund the department because it should be operating "more efficiently" without the need for as much management within that department (ie the next dept up would provide some of the oversight, the layered department becomes less efficient with more red tape approvals to cut through before making a move, budgets get hazy and moving funds from the layered company to the next one up frequently happens because the lines of "who does what" begin to blur.

Homeland Security was "invented" for national security reasons. FEMA has nothing to do with national security. Nothing until they start sending the military into flood ravaged areas...hmmmmm....

There are times when the government would benefit from being run more like a company, but I don't think the layering departments that need to be efficient and turn on a dime is a positive move.

Panamah
10-28-2005, 11:34 AM
I suspect the reason it was lumped under HS is because they figured FEMA would be a big part of cleaning up terrorist strikes.

Jinjre
10-29-2005, 01:05 PM
Every time I see the subject line of this thread, I have to ask "What is the proper management of pork?" I'm thinking frying pan.