From time to time there is a public servant whose on-the-job performance so distinguishes him from the mediocre that I feel compelled to tell of his achievements. John Montgomery is such a man. John Montgomery is the Chief Executive Officer of the Marin County Courts. He was elevated to this post when the local courts consolidated on May 1, 1996. Before that he was the Clerk and Administrative Officer of the Marin County Municipal Court. John is NOT elected; he serves "at the pleasure" of the local judges. He is paid an annual salary of $97,490, plus generous benefits.
John has distinguished himself in many ways. For example, he has single-handedly spent more of your money on the operation of the Marin County Courts than any predecessor, and he seems determined to maintain this distinction by spending more of your money each year than he did the year before. John doesn't spend this extra money on people, like providing a better working environment to uplift morale in the hopes of retaining good, experienced, people whose self-protective departure will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs to replace them. Instead, John likes to spend your money on THINGS that benefit him directly. It seems like John was deprived of the toys he wanted when he was a tot, and now he is over-compensating, using your tax money and court filing fees to fund the fulfillment of his fantasies.
John's acquisitions include outfitting his new training room. Included are two white boards (newfangled black boards you write on with erasable markers) at the price of $759 each. There is no typo; the amount is SEVEN-HUNDRED, FIFTY-NINE DOLLARS EACH. Boards of the same size and function are available at Office Depot for $40 each. What is so special about the boards that John bought? Two cherrywood panels fold over each when not in use. That is important so that they match the solid cherrywood, 10-foot-long table in the same room for which John spent $2,274 taxpayers' dollars, plus sales tax and freight. The chairs located around it cost $391 each. The ceiling is adorned with a high-tech gizmo that projects video images. It cost $7,296, the price of a nice car. But it's the perfect hardware for projecting music videos. Just what John needs if there ever is a major party held at the courthouse. Acquisition of property at this high a level takes exceptional talent. When it comes to buying things, John approaches genius.
John has also distinguished himself in the area of civil rights, routinely doing little or nothing to safeguard the civil rights of the public. He routinely ignores federal and state laws and the advice and instructions of the Office of the County Counsel, which office represents him-using your tax dollars-when the courts are sued because of him.
John has the best record of any county employee for isolation from the public. He steadfastly refuses to meet with any member of the public who has legitimate concerns and questions about the operation of the court-OUR court-who would challenge him about anything he is doing.
In the area of alienating subordinates, John is, again, the Shining Star of the Civic Center. Where other department heads have an open-door policy, John keeps the door to his office tightly locked.
Actually, John is a door expert. He has moved more doors than any of his predecessors or any other department head in the history of the county. As he did it, he ordered the signs above the doors left in place, rather than be removed, covered, or replaced, for almost nine months. For those months, five days a week the work of counter clerks and other courthouse staff-all who work "under" John-were interrupted by confused members of the public asking for directions to commonly-visited places such as the Small Claims filing window. Eventually, the room numbers were changed and the signs removed. But it was several more months until the "You Are Here" maps of the building in the three lobbies were revised. During that period, people looking for non-existent rooms continued to bother the court counter clerks who didn't have an updated master directory and were, therefore, unable to give directions to many of the places they were asked about.
In keeping with the policies of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, John is an advocate of open space. But in his case it is all indoors. Aisleways and open areas adjacent to his office and the work area of the people who work directly with him are roomy, almost a vast wasteland. This, in comparison to the cramped quarters occupied by the counter and filing clerks and their supervisors of the court who work in relatively recently-imposed cramped partitioned areas with minimal spaces between them. The inherent obstacle to the line-of-sight visual communication that existed before the partitions were installed-eliminated by Mr. Montgomery-must also be acknowledged. Before, to determine if a needed supervisor was present and available, a casual glance from the civilian area or a worker's desk was all that was needed. Now, to answer the question, a counter clerk has to leave their cubby-hole and search many other work areas for the person, while interrupting others from their work to ask about their knowledge of the whereabouts of the needed person. What is the effect of this isolation, and other factors that affect employee attitude? The morale of the "troops in the trenches" is so low that many employees are considering quitting. Their union is preparing a questionnaire that addresses the issue of morale. It will be sent to court employees, to be answered anonymously. That situation earns John the Why Should I Care? Award.
Earning the Suck-up to Your Boss (in John's case, Judge Vernon Smith) Award is included in John's distinguished accomplishments. By doing it each work day in the cafeteria, John has managed to spend more time drinking coffee away from his desk than any other hired local government official, earning him the Courthouse Food Concession Support Award.
John has also earned the Back Burner Award. He spent almost four years shepherding new local rules into reality. (Local rules are a compendium of practices of a court that deviate from the normal procedures according to statute.) On May 1st, 1996, the local courts consolidated. One year later John still wasn't done with the task. And the need for new local rules was apparent two-and-a-half years before that, when the preparations began. Nice goin', John!
When it comes to equal opportunity, John's performance is supreme: For example, he employed an office equipment company whose workers arrived on-site to custom install office furniture but couldn't speak the language of the court staff: English. Duh! He also employed a construction company whose workers were so inept that after they carefully built a plywood wall to isolate noise and dust, they used gasoline-fueled power tools that emit poisonous exhaust that promptly caused the evacuation of several workers and nearly killed a few. Had the event not occurred during off-hours, the closely-located court staff might have breathed the fumes too. A bunch of wrongful-death lawsuits is just what this self-insured county needs. Kudos, John!
Another laudable characteristic: John is not a hoarder. On the contrary, he graciously shares money budgeted for his department. Not long ago he gladly "loaned" almost a million dollars of it-much provided by the state-to the county general fund so that the interest could be spent by the supes in any way they desired. (How humanitarian of him!)
It seems like no county employee will ever match John's record on disserving the disabled. For example, it took a record three and one-half years for him to put up signs telling the hearing-impaired public that assistive listening devices are available for their use. And only then because of a lawsuit. And yet he continues to ignore many of the mandates of federal law about accommodating the disabled. John even challenges the validity of a person's assertion of their physical disability. Indeed, it takes an especially gifted person to do that.
In the area of assuring that everyone has equal access to the processes of the courts, John has earned the very-hard-to-get I Don't Give a Damn Award. By not posting legally-required signs telling the members of the low-income public who can't afford to pay for court filing fees and other court costs that a waiver was available, he has discouraged many from filing lawsuits. Of course, the courts are less congested, earning John high points for keeping down the workload of our judicial officers.
At the same time, John has made a significant contribution to the health of children living in Marin by keeping food out of the mouths of the children of low-income parents who paid court fees they could not afford, John has greatly reduced the likelihood of them overeating. This will save the taxpayers the cost of their health care for medical problems associated with obesity.
I also grant the Visionary of the Year Award to John. A few months ago he purchased a bunch of very large computer monitors. He immediately used them to replace perfectly good, normal size, monitors of the court counter clerks. John envisions a day when all court records will be scanned and put on a file-server. That day is very far in the future, if ever it ever comes. The problem is that he is spending your tax dollars on equipment in the present, when the cost of the equipment is always going down. At the same time he is planning for the future, John is ignoring the present.
John has imposed a typewritten-only rule for the multi-part Small Claims complaint forms. Many citizens don't have a typewriter or a friend who has one. Kinko's doesn't have them anymore either. There used to be a typewriter for the public to use in the Small Claims lobby. But it broke and John said that there was no money to repair it. The frustration caused by this policy has brought many adults to tears.
In Berkeley, there is a system where you fill-out an informational form (as you also have to do in Marin) in pen. A counter clerk enters the info into the court's computer and a dot-matrix printer completes the multi-part form. Why don't we have a system like that here? Too low-tech for a visionary.
And of course, befitting a man of his stature, John has the fanciest office in the courthouse. His furniture includes $2,300 tables, $700 chairs, and $600 bookcases. Fifedom and empire are the words I often hear others using to describe John's triumphs in this area. Heads of state and other dignitaries will surely feel at home when they visit John at work. He also has the fanciest computer in the courthouse: delivered only a few weeks ago, it cost $4,110. Does he use it for developing multi-media products? No. Does he use it for 3-D architectural modeling? No. He uses it primarily for the mundane task of word-processing.
John is also a master of compromise. Rather than demand high-priced, one-of-a-kind, framed art for his public domain created by world-famous dead artists, he was willing to settle for common works created to be sold to Fortune 500 companies: limited-edition signed lithographs. John also holds the distinction of being the core cause of more lawsuits against the county, and potentially many more, than any other court-related person, including judges. The cumulative potential money judgments-to be paid by taxpayers-is an obscene multiple of his salary.
John is a powerful reorganizer. Coming soon are the results of his one-year long "study" that will reclassify many court workers, give them new titles and more responsibility with NO increase in pay. Together, these things amount to a demotion. John will apply a "Y-rating" to some that will freeze their salaries. How many employees will quit in response to the increased on-the-job pressure and financial deprivation? And what will it cost to recruit, interview, and train their replacements? Apparently John has given a great amount of thought to the process and sees it as a way of enlarging his budget and justifying his new training room. Way to go, John!
Lastly, I commend John for his ultra-groomed appearance and spotless office domain, so typical of anal-retentives. (For more on that, you'll have to contact a therapist who is familiar with the particulars of John's life.)
With distinguished service such as this, I'm considering creating a Lifetime Unachievement Award to give John because his unachievements in Marin County surpass that of any other employee of whom I am familiar.
I hope no reader of this column will argue with me about my choice for my 1997 Annual Distinguished Disservice Award. But if there is another county employee whom I have overlooked, please tell me. I will promptly introduce that person to John so that he can consult with them and fine-tune his legacy to the pinnacle of his ability.