My experience working in NYC, public policy, and government

Hi folks,

I thought I would post this here because it's personal experience that relates on a minor level to many topics discussed on ATS.

A little bit about my background. I was a social science researcher and educator for a number of years when younger. I did research on education outcomes, poverty, psychology, Native American populations. From there, I begin working as a K-12 teacher working with low income groups. As a result, I saw firsthand many of the problems with the education system, public finance, student support systems, and contributing factors to poor educational outcomes (poverty, broken homes, poor schools, etc).

I decided to go up the chain a bit so to speak and work on systemic change at a public policy level. I moved to NYC, attended graduate school in this field, and begin working in major NGOs and government both here in the US and abroad (Bangladesh, China, Dominican Republic). I did projects dealing with several African countries too, but from remote.

From there, due to family reasons I refocused my work on domestic policy and government work. I got a job working on a new initiative for Mayor Deblasio of NYC. This office focused on public outreach for any number of issues, health care access, homelessness prevention, and affordable housing. Now they work on voting issues too. That office was 95% recruited from the DC/US Democratic political campaign and political office world. Only 5% of us were practitioners who had experience working on actual community development programs. My hiring boss was a public outreach staff member of Obama's White House. So basically, this was a political office filled with politicos and the well connected from all over the country.

Let me describe some of the questionable elements that were observed by myself and others:

1) Abject cronyism and nepotism: It was one giant swamp of political appointments and jobs for those who had worked for the political system and various campaigns. The vast majority had zero experience working on actual community programs. It gets worse, early and mid something twenty something year olds who worked on one senate campaign at a high level were given high level manager jobs, over highly qualified and much more experienced people. It was one giant revolving door of politicos and the children/friends of such being given positions in the Mayor's Office.

2) It appeared that there were subtle quid pro quos going on. For example, mysteriously, a multimillion dollar "bundler" and donor to the DNC from Chicago would see his daughter with no work experience given a job in the office and fast track to advancement.

3) The senior leadership violated the law and tried to pressure staff to work on various political campaigns, ranging from Deblasio's reelection campaign to Hillary Clinton's 2016 run. I myself was invited to work on the former. At that point I was already disgusted with what was going on. On a separate note, I was also invited to work on the original AOC campaign.

This was all on the taxpayer's dollar, in violation of not just civil service and good government policies, but also likely of multiple laws.
I personally saw two formal letters from about 10 staff each complaining about some of these issues. So, to be fair, at least 20 people or so did not stand for it, to their credit. Everyone else mumbled under their breath at happy hours, or even worse applauded it and played the game to get ahead.

Prior to my seeing all this, I was good friends with a number of these people. I also was working really hard and getting results. I begin to get invited to senior leadership hangouts, including by Deblasio's campaign manager. I'd drink with the Obama White House staffer. Rock climb with this other Obama campaigner. I got pulled aside one time in the hallway and was told "you are being groomed for higher things."

There's a little problem, I actually care about anti corruption, justice, good governance, supporting the civil service, etc. I wasn't okay with any of this. I made the mistake of thinking I could talk to them about these issues privately, due to our time together. No, they turned on me like vipers. I was no longer invited to all these meetings. The civil service rules in NYC have a mandated reporting requirement for corruption or "gross mismanagement." I ultimately filed a formal complaint to the investigatory agency. www1.nyc.gov...

As a result of all this, I got railroaded and put in a corner with low end work. I moved on.

This is only a sliver of my experience in these worlds. I've seen more, and researched more, as many have on here. Deblasio by the way fired the Commissioner of DOI later for refusing to drop corruption investigations. There is a "swamp" so to speak, of a corrupt powerful DC/NYC and other major city power structure, which also includes corporations, political leaders, and others. Let be clear, I also am certain this can be found in Republican politics too.

Very interesting, thanks for posting! The political parties seem to play 'good cop, bad cop' while having the same agenda. As long as they can remain in power, they're willing to look the other way on most issues.
The disagreements between branches seems to be more for show than anything else. Each party has enough proof of corruption on the other party that they can't expose them without risk of exposing themselves. It's a revolving door of thieves.

a reply to: Madviking

I appreciate your honesty in this post.

My question is this:

It would appear that you are left leaning, and truly felt a passion and tried to put your convictions into action. I appreciate that quality in someone, living true to yourself. This being said, have your convictions changed? Have you started to become a disbeliever in the message that is being presented by those you used to clink glasses with? And I agree, the same could be said/asked of one leaning to the right.

I've come to agree, especially higher up the ladder. Most rank and file not necessarily. But I think there is a corrupt establishment that includes leadership from both parties. a reply to: nugget1

a reply to: theatreboy

Thanks for the reply.

You know, this experience and others actually moved me away from the left. I also having worked in so many progressive organizations saw first-hand identity politics and "social justice" go off the rails long before it metastized into a very national, obvious issue. However, seeing first hand corruption and the "swamp," led by many claiming to be progressives or liberal, definitely was eye opening. As many have seen too private study shows how misleading so many politicians are, and media. The other part that made me question the hard left was historic study showed me the economic policies simply don't work, and often lead to horrific outcomes. The left too has changed a bit regarding free speech and censorship, something that to me isn't liberal.

I'm also not a right winger really either, although I also have come to believe that due to human propensity to abuse power, it's important to have strong checks on power and not centralize it too much.

Interestingly, I still work on a different initiative for figures that would be known here. I'm looking for a final and hard exit and career change as I'm really burned out on the political and government world.

a reply to: Madviking

You, as a seemingly intelligent person, forgetting party affiliation, leave me with but one question...

And you're surprised by all this...WHY????

SMH!!

(sorry)

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
And you're surprised by all this...WHY????

SMH!!

Bad time to be affiliated with the left's policy team.

If DC is overthrown ... the reckoning won't just stop there.

There's a reason for the fence around the Capitol. There's a reason a wall is going up around the White House. They're scared. They're showing it. It's possible and becoming more possible by the day. Wait'll people can't find food. If they act before foraging becomes a full-time endeavor ... a lot of people are gonna get skinned.

I'm not surprised persay. Prior to doing this work, I did a lot of historical research for years. My original interest was in becoming an anthropologist or archaeologist. Hence, I was aware of many historical issues including political corruption.

It was very different to experience it first hand, for me. Also, this is kinda like the "but the lower levels are good people" discussion with FBI or CIA. This experience showed me that the rot has spread farther down the chain and is more endemic than simply top leaders and their staff let's say in DC or a governor's office.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Madviking

You, as a seemingly intelligent person, forgetting party affiliation, leave me with but one question...

And you're surprised by all this...WHY????

SMH!!

(sorry)

a reply to: Madviking

This happens at every layer of government in nearly every municipality. Our mayor's brother, who has a carting service, got a no bid contract. There was a fishy deal with a utility provider. Rezoning of a valuable piece of property with offices into an 'economic redevelopment zone' despite not being in an area requiring that use. The local private school permitted to expand and clear cut an area with residents having serious concerns about drainage (later bourn out when a landslide occurred and left an apartment complex condemned).

The list goes on.

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originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Madviking

This happens at every layer of government in nearly every municipality. Our mayor's brother, who has a carting service, got a no bid contract. There was a fishy deal with a utility provider. Rezoning of a valuable piece of property with offices into an 'economic redevelopment zone' despite not being in an area requiring that use. The local private school permitted to expand and clear cut an area with residents having serious concerns about drainage (later bourn out when a landslide occurred and left an apartment complex condemned).

The list goes on.

No doubt, it's hard to know how to address endemic corruption, cronyism, and nepotism. We already have laws on the books addressing much of it. However, so many private and public sector stakeholders are involved.

Many will use this as an argument against government, which I understand. But, these issues involve private companies and individuals too. We could severely reduce government, which in some cases and fields could be helpful, and still have corruption and poor human behaviors.

I do think though that I've come to believe the limited government, libertarian, or anarchist view that the abuse of power is normative across history, and this is why we can't grant too much to the statists because of this propensity.

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