If Fresno’s staff’s so smart, why hire consultants to do their jobs?

So Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin has one key employee who “kicked people’s butts on behalf of the city,” and another one she puts on issues “that are very detailed and very messed up,” but still needs to hire an outside consulting firm to find out about the water problems in northeast Fresno?

She implies that people who know the complex working of the city utilities, among other things, are vital and we are just so darn lucky they stick around. But nearly every complex issue that has come up during her tenure as mayor have been met head on by an “outside consulting firm” of some stripe.

The reason the ladies didn’t leave is because they are going to get a nice little retirement stipend based on their brief tenure as “public servants” based on the highest salary earned. The system has not changed. For awhile it is a “good ol’ boy” network, and then a “good ol’ girl” style of nest feathering.

Swearengin, like most California politicians, thinks she is smarter than everyone. If Louis Doggett (letter Aug. 25) wants an example of a “statist,” he need look no further than Fresno City Hall.

This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 12:30 PM with the headline "If Fresno’s staff’s so smart, why hire consultants to do their jobs?."