THE CEA PORK BARREL

Hey you state worker folks out there.

C'mere a minute. I've got something to ask ya.

What the fuck is a CEA?

Never mind. I already know the answer. According to the California State Personnel Board's statutory definition:

"Government Code Section 18547 defines Career Executive Assignment "as an appointment to a high administrative and policy influencing position within the state civil service in which the incumbent's primary responsibility is the managing of a function or the rendering of management advice to lop level administrative authority". Such a position can be established only in the top managerial levels of state service and is typified by broad responsibility for policy implementation and extensive participation in policy evolvement."

OK, so your job is to boss people around. And advise on a whole bunch of undefined shit.

No surprise there, that this type of gig would exist in a bureaucracy. But now that we have oriented ourselves somewhat with this CEA position, answer this question for me.

Why the fuck does the Department of Motor Vehicles need 35 of these CEAs?

At between $84,120 and $129,948.00 a year?

From the looks of it, if you cut 4 of those CEA positions loose, you could hire about a dozen key data operators who could help process registration and license renewals so that the state's drivers don't have to wait 2 months for a response to what they had to apply for!

And I guess that the DMV isn't the only department where this decent CEA setup can be acquired. Parks and Recreation has 19, Board of Equalization 31, Franchise Tax Board, 44! And on and on! By the time I discovered that the Department of Transportation had 88 of these rocket scientists, I got tired of checking.

Bravo to the Sacramento Bee for making the state pay database easily accessible. And as for the state workers who were protesting at 21st and Q Streets like they had "Missing The Point" stamped across their foreheads, perhaps you could go to all of these state agencies guilty of CEA abuse and demand to give back some jobs that do some real work. But then again they probably couldn't possibly have time to cover all of the locations necessary in one decade.


Check out the Bee's state pay database. to borrow a slogan from the California State Fair (who apparently only has one CEA- for now,) it's Big Fun! Click Here, Pilgrim