Schooled On the Job

A familiar refrain from both liberals and conservatives alike is “government bloat.” No matter how “small” a bureaucracy gets, there are always people who believe it can be reduced even further.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg once fired a city employee for playing solitaire on his work computer. Under his successor, Bill deBlasio, NY’s city agencies grew to an unprecedented 337,000 workers, the largest in its history.

As part of austerity measures to reduce the number of people on City payroll, Mayor Eric Adams recently signed an executive order to consolidate all technology agencies and streamline operations. He also brought on a smaller slate of deputies, who traditionally draw higher salaries than lower-level workers. Adams also hired Melanie LaRocca to be chief efficiency officer. Ironically, she spent five years as vice president of the City’s School Construction Agency (SCA).

The Board of Education created the SCA in 1988 to replace the Division of School Facilities (DFS), which completely failed in its mission of building high-quality schools efficiently and fixing them when they needed repair. I gained some firsthand insight into the process of slimming down a government agency, when my college friend Benny was hired by the SCA.

Much of the existing staff from the DFS migrated over to the SCA at its inception…