Can this Sea be Saved?

California, awash in red ink, may axe a Council that has never met in its 16-month existence.  Called the Salton Sea Restoration Council, it was to jump start restoration efforts at California’s largest lake and one of the world’s most storied bodies of water.

Following events at the Salton Sea is a little like reading an overblown paperback novel where the writer should have shown restraint and ended the story after the first chapter.  The lake itself, literally burst on the scene in 1905 when the Colorado River slammed through under-constructed irrigation canals and changed course. With nowhere else to go, water poured into the Salton Basin for nearly 18 months.  The river was finally stopped, after five tries and untold losses, in 1907. By then, the lake was about 40 miles long and 13 miles wide, covering over 400 square miles.

The colossal accident set in motion a completely new set of events.  Located in one of the lowest spots on earth, the area had been the site of historic flooding and seasonal marshes.  By 1906 observers were already reporting large concentrations of waterfowl, pelicans, and other birds in the area. Originally filled with fresh water, the Sea soon became a fishing Mecca and celebrities began frequenting what was called the inland Riviera.

With no new source of water, the lake should have evaporated away in 20 or 30 years, but in the 1920s President Coolidge designated it as an agricultural sump. Run-off and drainage from the Imperial and Coachella valleys, rich in the fertilizers, created a vibrant ecosystem at the Sea. Along with fish and other water wildlife, more than 400 species of birds – the second highest bird count in the country – have been spotted. Today millions of birds migrate along the Pacific Flyway.

Barely 50 feet at its deepest point, the same amount of water enters the lake as exits through evaporation. Annually, four million tons of dissolved salt, and tens of thousands of tons of fertilizers flow in but don’t leave. Salinity at the Sea is now 25 percent saltier than the ocean.

By the 1980’s grave problems had surfaced.  The fishery declined, periodic algal blooms occurred, and dramatic die-offs of fish and birds began. In the 1990’s high concentrations of selenium were found in the eggs of egrets and night heron and a paper detailed defects in fish embryos.

In 1993, California set up the Salton Sea Authority to work on maintaining beneficial uses of the lake. The Authority, which later actively opposed formation of the endangered Restoration Council, collected suggestions for remediation and formed action plans. In 1997-98, Congress established a Salton Sea Task Force and passed the Salton Sea Reclamation Act, requiring the Interior Department to report on the sea and propose a plan by January 1, 2000. Then, on August 4, 1999, an estimated 7.6 million fish died in one day, the largest die-off ever in the sea and hundreds of thousands of birds have died since.

While the Salton Sea has substituted for historic wetlands in the area, it is now a death sentence for some of its in habitants. Previous efforts to address the problems have faltered—usually due to lack of both money and public demand.

The Sea is now a ticking time bomb as large volumes of agricultural water that originally drained in the lake are planned to be diverted to support urban areas.  Legal agreements about who will get water kick in by 2017.  With less and less water, and without extreme intervention – the sea will likely keep evaporating and go dead.  Meanwhile, a potential hero of the story, the Restoration Council, is in peril.

Death of the sea will not be romantic, in addition to loss of wildlife habitat and the local agricultural economy, the evaporating lakebed will generate dust filled with pollutants.  This will add to statistics showing  20.2% of the region’s children are diagnosed with asthma, compared with the 13.7%.national average.  Imperial County, the location of the lake, consistently has the highest asthma hospitalization rate of all California counties.

The Salton Sea Authority has commitment but say funds and a scientific basis for solutions are lacking.  Critics, looking at rows of reports and millions of dollars spent on studies, call for action.  Still experts say no, numerous in-depth and extensive studies are needed to understand the complex issues affecting the Sea. Previous studies have been sporadic, narrow in scope, and not connected to a plan of action.

Meanwhile, most of the people working on the issue just hope complete ecological and economic disaster can somehow be averted. The last chapter in this story hasn’t been written.  Let’s hope for a happy ending

Teachings from a Bag of Potato Chips

While on a brief respite from our everyday world, my partner and I spent a couple of afternoons sitting outside a café drinking coffee, talking, writing, and enjoying the scenery. On the second day, I sipped strong coffee while watching an interesting scene unfold.

After throwing away her trash and gathering her belongings, a young woman left her unopened bag of potato chips on the table. I do not know if this was intentional or unintentional, but it started a pattern that was obviously purposeful. People began depositing their unopened bags of potato chips! Soon the table was nearly covered. I began to wonder if this was a local ritual of some sort, or if everyone knew something about those potato chips that I didn’t know.

As the lunch crowd thinned, I noticed an older man with a knapsack on his shoulder eyeing the bags of chips from several feet away. Slowly, with very careful steps, he approached the table and sat down. He leaned back in the chair, in a relaxed, “devil may care” position, and looked to his left and right.

Systematically, over the next 15 minutes, the chips vanished. Every time I looked up from my writing, there were fewer bags on the table. My curious eyes managed to actually see the final two bags disappear into the knapsack. With his bounty captured, the gentleman got up and brushed himself off, looked again from left to right, and continued his stroll.

Because this moving scene has stayed with me over the last few days, I have concluded that it has valuable lessons in leadership to offer:

• One individual, sharing his or her riches, initiates a call to action.
• When each person makes even the smallest gesture, a group can start a movement that positively impact someones life.
• Opportunities surround us.

And finally…

• When an unexpected opportunity presents itself proceed cautiously, but proceed.

Reforming Corporate Tax

Upon entering 2012, many Americans thought of a New Year’s resolution and being optimistic, they also hoped that Congress did so as well. After constantly kicking a bucket filled with failed attempts, for example the 2011 super-committee, it is time for Congress to put forth real effort in fixing the U.S. debt problem and promote economic growth in 2012.

Looking back on 2011, one truth that should be highlighted is the commonality between the top 1% and the remaining 99%. Regardless of the tax bracket they fall into, the American people are frustrated with how slowly our weak economy is recovering, and hope to see a major boost in 2012 especially in the area of job growth. Being that the 2012 presidential election is a mere nine months away, presidential candidates are now focused on discussing the issues that are of social and economic significance such as income-tax, health care, jobs, etc. One pertinent issue which has had bipartisan support since 2011 is reducing and restructuring the corporate tax code.

Currently, the U.S. federal corporate tax rate is 35%, which is the highest corporate tax rate among industrialized and developing nations, and has hindered the United States from competing globally. Moreover, with the numerous amounts of legal tax loopholes which corporations are taking advantage of, many companies are getting away with not paying the entirety of what they owe in taxes, and in some cases, pay almost nothing at all. A 2008 Congressional Report indicated that nearly two-thirds of U.S. companies and 68% of foreign corporations pay no federal income tax. They accomplish this by using techniques such as industry subsidies, stock option packages, and moving assets overseas in order to avoid corporate taxation on profits. In a recent analysis of 265 profitable U.S. Fortune 500 corporations done by Citizens for Tax Justice, these corporations avoided paying a total of $42.7 billion in state corporate income taxes between 2008 and 2010. In addition, 68 of these corporations avoided paying no state income tax in at least one of the years from 2008 through 2010. Some of these corporations include Dupont, Pepco Holdings and Rockwell Collins, etc.

In 2011, Americans grew tired of these unfair practices and the Occupy Wall Street Movement protested that the big corporations need to pay their fair shares of taxes, which is correct. However, in spite of this, the real problem lies within the institutions and the incentives corporations get for exploiting the system, which results in federal revenue being lost. Additionally, it should be understood that most corporations are made up of middle and lower class employees, and not millionaires; however, when people think of corporate taxes, there is little to no consideration of the negative effects that inadequate tax revenue has on middle class wages, consumer prices and employment. Hence, it is evident that our political leaders need to become more conscious of the fact that the U.S. corporate tax does not make a distinction between rich and poor; it takes from everyone of potential wealth.
In hindsight, Congress needs to have as their focal point the distribution of the economic pie. In turn, corporations can help with such distribution and the expansion of this pie. Therefore, there needs to be major talk of reform; a reform that provides a lower tax rate which will open the door to global competition and put an end to all corporate tax loopholes. The idea is to have a reform that is very substantial in raising revenue and constitute fairness. A reform of reduction and restructuring of the corporate tax rate which will allow all parties to benefit; from members of the 1% to those of the 99%. This stand is neutral, for the simple fact that it lowers the corporate tax rate while expanding the base, which will lead to an increase in revenue by increasing economic growth.

If our political leaders fail to reduce the high U.S. corporate tax rate, corporation’s ability to hire will continue to be extremely limited, which in turn leads to more outsourcing and low returns on investment. As a result, we can only expect unemployment to remain high and the US to be unable to compete with industrialized and developing countries in terms of attraction and the retentions of major corporations.

With millions of unemployed Americans looking for work and the Occupy Wall Street movement protesting, our leaders should be welcoming to the idea of reforming corporate tax. The reality of the issue is that the government is taking a considerable piece of the economic pie, which is not helping the economy. In hoping that Congress did make a New Year’s resolution and with the 2012 Presidential Election around the corner, lowering corporate tax rate and eliminating the loopholes will be a notable first step in establishing economic growth.

10 Ways on How NOT to Train Employees

Training has to happen in every organization. Even if it’s not intentional training, it still happens.

Here are some ways NOT to go about training your employees:

1. Leave it up to the Human Resource Staff. It’s not your job to teach them.
2. Give them all of the information at one time. If they get overwhelmed, how are you at fault?
3. Don’t ever make it hands-on training. Just tell them what to do and expect them to understand (and pick-up on it) right away.
4. Don’t actually follow the practices that you’re teaching them.
5. Don’t use new training videos. Make sure that the videos were done in black and white.
6. Be inconsistent with what you tell people in the same role.
7. Don’t be prepared when you train them. You won’t forget anything if you don’t plan.
8. Don’t tell them why they need to do something. Don’t give them the big picture or overall goal of what they’re working on.
9. Don’t update your training curriculum or material. Let the person figure out what is no longer applicable to them. It will help them think critically.
10. Don’t make it fun. It should be boring because people learn better that way.

So what’s the point?

Obviously most – if not all – of those statements are untrue and should not be followed. But it is amusing to imagine someone actually following those steps. Do you recognize any of those from your organization? What can you do about it? Use these as a spring-board to think about your training practices and how you can improve them.

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Disclaimer: I work for an IT company (CDS Group) that (among other things) specializes in products that assist with transparency, government, and technology (to include multi-camera digital video recording, hosting and web presentation of public and private content). The company works with the public and government sectors in multiple ways to provide Gov 2.0 and related technology solutions.

Is Effective Communication a Casualty of Today’s Contention?

By Elaine Orr

When a private sector organization wants to get a point across, organizational leaders consider what they want to say, how they want to say it, and what the most effective method is to get their message to the audience they want to reach.  It may be a complex set of tasks, but the path to accomplish them is fairly straight forward.

Not so in many segments of the public sector.  The concept of keeping the public informed is a given in U.S. society, and is made more certain through open meeting requirements and the Freedom of Information Act.  Things can get muddied in the public sector, where the message is important but considering how others will react to it is more prominent all the time.  A public servant can be publicly castigated for presenting material that is accurate but with which other decision makers disagree.

At the federal level, political appointees and senior managers must always ask “what would Congress do?” in reaction to any statement.  That’s appropriate; the concept of balance of power is in the constitution and it extends to all levels of government.  However, the combination of a more contentious environment in Congress (in which policy disagreement can put a public servant in a very unfriendly congressional hearing) and media that looks for any nuance so it can present something ‘new’ about a story means that sentences are dissected in a way not done in even the early 1990s.

Because ‘media’ now includes more than traditional airwaves and print, there is often no one reviewing an article for accuracy or fairness.  You could argue that these tasks were not always done consistently, but a scrupulous editor generally has different standards than a blogger or social networker — present company included.

The primary exceptions often deal with the weather.  The weather — how is that a public sector issue?  It is when people must be warned of impending storms, and even more so in their aftermath.  Even the most contentious rivals, at all levels of government, put their heads together to address emergencies and provide initial disaster assistance promptly.  (The early federal response following Katrina runs counter to this assertion, but that has been well covered elsewhere.)

Is it possible to create a ‘weather alert environment’ in other public sector fields, an environment in which the message is not only concise, comprehensive, and timely but also free of recrimination?  A cynic would say this runs counter to human nature, at least as it has developed in modern U.S. society.  A more hopeful response would be that executive and legislative branch members (from city councils to Congress) could test the idea of cooperative communication in less controversial areas and work their way up the ladder of contention to apply newly learned skills across government.

The idea of civility in government — as presented by former members of Congress, including Jim Leach, who now heads the National Endowment for Humanities — is a first step in creating an effective communication environment.  There is even a nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for Civility in Government.  Though geared to students, its teachings are good ones for anyone in the public sector.

My blog posts will generally deal with effective communication and the need for civility in government.  Reader input is welcome.

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Elaine Orr has worked in the public and private sectors and also writes fiction.  She worked for former Congressman Jim Leach and his successor, Dave Loebsack — yet another example of civility in Iowa.

College Students Denied Voting Rights

On March 23, 1971, Congress passed the 26^th Amendment. It was ratified and went into effect on July 1, 1971 and states, “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age”.

Although the 26^th Amendment clearly express that our young adult population has the right to vote, student-voting registration in particular has long been an issue. Furthermore, in recent years states have implemented voting laws that are more complex, confusing and restrictive; unfairly targeting college students since this group often has trouble establishing residency where they live and attend school.

Instead of policy makers encouraging college students to participate in America’s democratic voting process, they are making the practice of basic civil rights extremely difficult. Such is the case for the upcoming elections. Thousands of college student will be attempting to register to vote, but will be turned away because they either have an out-state driver’s license or told that their college ID is not valid to cast their vote, among other reasons. It has also become very evident that Republican state lawmakers are openly doing everything possible to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election simply because college students tend to be more liberal.

New Hampshire, among other Republican states, has already passed strict voting ID laws that will bar thousands of college students from voting in the community in which they live and attend school. New Hampshire Republican House Speaker, William O’Brien, in a recent speech to a Tea Party group stated, “They’re foolish, voting as liberals. That’s what kids do.” He also stated, “Students lack life experience and they just vote their feelings.”

It has become apparent that an objective of the Republican Party is to restrict the voting rights of certain demographic groups that tend to vote Democrat. One way of achieving this is stop college students from voting by claiming that stricter ID laws are necessary to prevent fraudulent voting. Unfortunately, with the severe federal penalties imposed on fraudulently voting there are hardly any cases to cite.

Opponents of the restrictive voting ID laws are citing Newberger v. Peterson, a 1972 Federal District Court case, stating that the state cannot bar college students from voting in New Hampshire on the basis that they intend to leave after graduation, and that such policies are a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. Moreover, in United States v. Symm, a 1979 Supreme Court case ruled that states must allow students to vote in the communities where they attend school. In a 5-4 decision, the Court stated that, “it cannot conceive of any reason why it should not be presumed that student applications for voter registration, like any other applicant, have made their application to register in good faith.” Furthermore the Court stated that “. . . there is no requirement that a student, in order to establish that he is a resident of the place where he wishes to vote, establish that he intends to remain there permanently or for any particular period of time”

However, despite precedence being set, states are still denying students their right to vote. Nevertheless, students do understand the importance of exercising their civic duty, their right to do so, and their role in shaping the future. In the 2008 presidential election approximately two million young adults voted. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) in the 2008 election youth voters’ turnout between the ages of 18-29 rose to 51%, which is an increase of 2% from the 2004 election. Furthermore, in the 2010 midterm election, CIRLCE reported that an estimated 24% of young people between the ages of 18-29 voted. Such an increase in youth voters can be attributed to the increase in awareness students now have about the importance of voting. Moreover, statistics show that younger votes tend to choose Democratic candidates over Republican by a margin of 57%-40%.

 It is clear that college student voters’ participation is on the rise and our political leaders should be celebrating and continues to encourage our educated young adults to participate in the country’s election. Instead, college students are witnessing a state-by-state effort in erecting new barriers and laws in a blatant attempt in making it harder and harder for college students to vote, which is clearly against their constitutional rights as citizens of the United States. Therefore, imposing these restrictions to win elections will only make a generation of college student cynical about their experience with the democratic election process.

Managing New Year’s Resolutions

This time of year is a time of reflection and rebirth. We look critically at the year we are leaving behind, and face the upcoming one with an abundance of hope and a pinch of trepidation. Some of us make resolutions, intending to change some aspect of who we are, what we do, or what we have in the year to come.

I haven’t made a resolution in 20 years. I grew tired of making promises I didn’t or couldn’t keep, and even more tired of feeling like a failure every December 31. I recognize this is not a unique phenomenon. In fact, I’ve never known anyone—not one person—to make, declare, and keep a resolution. This year, I asked a group of senior managers, “What will be your professional or organizational resolutions for the upcoming year?” In their answers were varying degrees of pessimism, resignation, and despondency. Many were afraid to commit to anything, in fear of being viewed a failure. As they shared stories of their disappointments, the truth dawned on me:  The problem isn’t that we haven’t kept our resolutions. The problem is we haven’t set goals or created viable plans.

Resolution is defined (www.dictionary.com) as the act of determining an action or course of action, a firmness of purpose; a determination. The moment we state our intention and share it with the universe we are successful. “I’m going to build a strong, cohesive team of staff members.” Done!

Having a strong cohesive team is a wonderful vision. Unfortunately, it is hard to define and even more difficult to measure. You could work diligently all year and not know when—or if!—you have succeeded. In order to have any chance of making your resolution come to life, it must be accompanied by a goal that is specific and measurable. It should also outline an action plan that helps you to stay the course. From the resolution “build a strong cohesive team”, we can develop any of several worthy goals. “The team will accomplish 90% of all assigned tasks on time.” “My team will demonstrate cooperative behavior 100% of the time.” “The team will develop at least 3 innovative ventures this year.” The action plan might include training, opportunities to build cohesion (like team meetings and lunches). Your options abound. The more detailed and realistic your action plan, the more likely you will be to achieve your goal.

So go ahead. Make those resolutions for your life and your work. The intention, in and of itself, is an achievement. Then take the time to set a goal and make a plan. By December 2012 you will be excited to wave goodbye to a fruitful year and greet the new one. Happy New Year!

Robyn-Jay Bage is the CEO of a nonprofit human service organization, and an Assistant Professor at a community college.