Job Evaluation

J. Paul Brownridge said Thursday he will resign as Los Angeles city treasurer, four weeks after his salary was cut following a job evaluation that faulted him for lack of leadership and vision. Brownridge, one of the last of former Mayor Tom Bradley's managers, alleged in turn that a lack of direction and leadership by Mayor Richard Riordan has made it difficult for managers in the city. He also called his departure and that of several other top African American managers "disturbing."

The Los Angeles County Probation Department has not fulfilled seven federally ordered reforms at its youth camps. A report released late last week by federal monitors found that the agency still needs to improve staffing levels at some of its 14 camps, improve how it identifies youths who have mental problems and do a better job of evaluating and treating youths with medical problems, among other issues. The probation department, which houses and works to rehabilitate about 2,200 of the area's most troubled youths, has been under federal oversight for almost a decade.

The highest-paid state employee in California last year, a prison surgeon who took home $777,423, has a history of mental illness, was fired once for alleged incompetence and has not been allowed to treat an inmate for six years because medical supervisors don't trust his clinical skills. Since July 2005, Dr. Jeffrey Rohlfing has mostly been locked out of his job -- on paid leave or fired or fighting his termination -- at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, state records show.

The highest-paid state employee in California last year, a prison surgeon who took home $777,423, has a history of mental illness, was fired once for alleged incompetence and has not been allowed to treat an inmate for six years because medical supervisors don't trust his clinical skills. Since July 2005, Dr. Jeffrey Rohlfing has mostly been locked out of his job -- on paid leave or fired or fighting his termination -- at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, state records show.

Altair Maine said he was so little supervised in his first few years of teaching at North Hollywood High School that he could "easily have shown a movie in class every day and earned tenure nonetheless." Before second-grade teacher Kimberly Patterson received tenure and the ironclad job protections it provides, she said, "my principal never set foot in my classroom while I was teaching." And when Virgil Middle School teacher Roberto Gonzalez came up for tenure, he discovered there was no evaluation for him on file.

Reason tells us there has been comparable worth discrimination in some jobs employing women ("Comparable Worth: Worthy Bid for Fairness," John F. Lawrence, May 19). That same reason tells us that traditional methods of job evaluation are not a sound basis for getting at the problem--if we understand how those methods work. Our problem, I believe, is: Those who make law and policy, and those who observe on the problem, simply will not get into the guts of those methods and understand their flaws in their new role.

The son watched his father, vowing not to repeat his mistakes. The weekend before George W. Bush defeated Texas Gov. Ann Richards in 1994, he stood in the backyard of his Dallas home hitting tennis balls into the swimming pool for his dog to fetch and ruminating about the future with his media strategist, Don Sipple.

The annual job review is a fact of life, whether welcome or not. But you could get more out of it than you might expect. A study from human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates found that performance-related bonuses are expected to average more than 12% in 2008 -- a record high -- compared with 3.8% for base salary bumps. And studies show that many firms are in a pitched battle to hold on to their best employees. In its 2008 job forecast, CareerBuilder.

If it seems arbitrary -- even unfair -- to take the measure of a new president after just 100 days in office, you can blame Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933, with the nation in a financial meltdown, Roosevelt came to the White House and, with an enthusiastic Democratic Congress at his command, enacted a whirlwind of emergency legislation.

Ray Jones, former director of the National Center on Deafness at California State University, Northridge, on Wednesday lost a court bid to get his job back. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving A. Shimer denied a request by Jones for a preliminary injunction that would have reinstated him in his former post while he pursues a $12-million age-discrimination lawsuit against the university.

Altair Maine said he was so little supervised in his first few years of teaching at North Hollywood High School that he could "easily have shown a movie in class every day and earned tenure nonetheless." Before second-grade teacher Kimberly Patterson received tenure and the ironclad job protections it provides, she said, "my principal never set foot in my classroom while I was teaching." And when Virgil Middle School teacher Roberto Gonzalez came up for tenure, he discovered there was no evaluation for him on file.

After listening to the debate at last week's Los Angeles school board meeting, business leader Carol Schatz said she was appalled. She had attended to support a resolution to speed the firing of teachers accused of serious crimes. But even this proposal -- tiptoeing on the margins of improving teacher quality -- generated heated objections from the teachers union and its supporters. With some last-minute amendments and sniping among board members, the resolution passed by a single vote.

If it seems arbitrary -- even unfair -- to take the measure of a new president after just 100 days in office, you can blame Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933, with the nation in a financial meltdown, Roosevelt came to the White House and, with an enthusiastic Democratic Congress at his command, enacted a whirlwind of emergency legislation.

The son watched his father, vowing not to repeat his mistakes. The weekend before George W. Bush defeated Texas Gov. Ann Richards in 1994, he stood in the backyard of his Dallas home hitting tennis balls into the swimming pool for his dog to fetch and ruminating about the future with his media strategist, Don Sipple.

Almost half of Mexican police officers examined this year have failed background and security tests, a figure that rises to nearly nine of 10 officers in the border state of Baja California, the government reported. Nationwide, 49% of officers scored "not recommendable" on the tests, compared with 42% that rated "recommendable." In Baja California, which includes Tijuana, a city riven by drug violence, about 89% failed, and only 4% were judged "recommendable." The tests -- which involved lie detectors, drug tests, psychological profiling and tests of personal wealth -- were intended to root out corrupt, incompetent and unfit officers.

The annual job review is a fact of life, whether welcome or not. But you could get more out of it than you might expect. A study from human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates found that performance-related bonuses are expected to average more than 12% in 2008 -- a record high -- compared with 3.8% for base salary bumps. And studies show that many firms are in a pitched battle to hold on to their best employees. In its 2008 job forecast, CareerBuilder.

Ratcheting up the potential for a confrontation with city and schools officials, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias on Monday said he may seek to stay in the post five more years instead of the maximum two allowed under his current contract. He also did not rule out the possibility of negotiating with the Los Angeles Board of Education to have his next job evaluation conducted in public.

The "company man" hired and fired by the Bush administration as U.S. attorney in San Francisco was a loyal Republican the administration wanted to keep on -- until it appeared he could become a public relations liability. Unlike seven other fired federal prosecutors who may have run afoul of the administration for political reasons, San Francisco U.S. Atty. Kevin Ryan was a team player for Bush and had influential Republican support.

Re "Job performance evaluations: The president," editorial, Dec. 31 Why would The Times, in its performance evaluation of President Bush, give him an "exceeds expectations" for financial management when he squandered a budget surplus from the previous administration, gave a lopsided tax cut to the wealthy, refused to pay for the war, sent the federal deficit to new heights and wants to take credit for the economy when the turnaround was the result...