You have heard me talk about Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his 14 points and how I plan on implementing these 14 points as mayor of Los Angeles. Well there recent $13 million dollars that the City of Los Angeles will be paying out over the lawsuits against LAPD during the MacArthur Park debacle a couple years ago reminded me of points 6 and 13 and how if the city and police department were operating under this 14 point management philosophy, the incident and multi-million dollar payout could have been avoided.
6. Institute training on the job.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
Government officials are VERY busy. They don't have time for these kinds of details. Managers view training as an expense because they view employees as a commodity -- not an asset. When new employees show up for work on the first day, how many times does a coworker show them what to do? Management wants the job done right. They institute the rules, regulations and procedures. Each time one employee teaches the next, more is lost in the translation. Mistakes are passes down the line. What gets left out? One person should be responsible for teaching everyone the same skill.
Point 6 deals with training regarding "the skill and knowledge necessary to do the job." Point 13 addresses the need to encourage and provide resources so that people may develop. Just as we reinvest in other sources, we must reinvest in a company's most important asset -- it's people. Management must make clear, in the beginning, their commitment to this concept. They must take time and make an effort to institute the continuous improvement concept into the system.
When this happened, Zuma Dogg was saying how the police department needs to do more in the way of training and re-educating officers. I have said it over previous issues and repeated it again when this happened.
When I first started going to city hall to attend the council meetings, I had all types of conflicts with the police in what they were telling me, compared to what I new was the actual law. (Things like not having to provide ID to attend the council meetings; and the fact that you are allowed to record the meetings, when the police were first telling me, "no cameras."
I realized that these were not bad cops, just people who were never properly trained and educated as to the law regarding the things we were conflicting over. Eventually, the head of the city hall police department had an adobe presentation covering all of the stuff we were having problems over, and it's been great ever since.
So regarding MacArthur Park, here is why I am saying had we been operating under the 14 points, this hopefully would have been prevented, instead of dealing with it after the fact.
You see, the police report by Bratton said that the police made mistakes. After the debacle, Bratton had a training session with police and went over everything in preparation for next year's event.
I understand, that due to the fact that the cops had the training and were now better prepared as a unit as a result, it shows how if they had had this training in the first place, the chances for the all hell breaks loose scenario that occurred may have been handled differently.
I know, I know...no one wants to have a discussion about "emergency preparedness" until an earthquake hits. I know, I know, no one wants to train the cops on all the new laws and ordinances and procedures until after everything goes haywire and you are writing out $13 million in lawsuit settlements. (And Villaraigosa wants to pay off additional lawsuits filed that are not included in that amount.)
CITY OFFICIALS DO NOT VALUE TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF CITY WORKERS BECAUSE YOU CANNOT MEASURE THE BENEFIT. WHAT DEMING'S MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY WILL HAVE YOU REALIZE IS THAT IT IS THE WASTE AND INEFFICIENCIES THAT CANNOT BE MEASURED THAT MUST BE CONTROLLED.
Zuma Dogg
Candidate For Mayor
March 3, 2009 L.A. City general election
213-785-7272
See Zuma Dogg ON FOX-11's "GOOD DAY L.A." Friday February 13, 2009 in the 7am and 9am hours.
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