Government should be run like real life Measure A brings private-sector accountability to county directors.

Byline: Don Knabe and Joel Fox

1986, the taxpayers of Los Angeles County approved a pay-for-performance system for all county department heads by passing a ballot measure to exempt them from our civil service system. It has resulted in greater accountability for departmental activities and heightened responsiveness to changing county policies by the senior-most managers of our county government agencies.

On March 7, county voters have the opportunity to finish the job they started. By approving Measure A on the countywide ballot, voters will enable county policymakers to reach further into our top management ranks at county departments to promote accountability and responsiveness by exempting chief deputies and their top management assistants from the civil service system.

In today's business world, senior executives and top managers at nearly every major corporation work within a distinct performance-based pay environment. The harder they work and the more successful they are at achieving the fast-changing goals of their competitive companies, the greater they're rewarded in job security and compensation.

There is a ``risk-and-reward'' nature to their work that has become an essential component in our hard-driving economy. The results notched by these top private sector executives, in recent years, have been stunning: unemployment at historic lows, productivity near all-time highs and new job creation so brisk that it is currently out-pacing our ability to find and employ highly skilled workers.

But our Los Angeles County government hasn't been able to match many of these private-sector successes. We continue to lack many of the management efficiencies that have helped scores of private businesses soar within our local economy. Our departments have often been slow to implement cost-cutting reforms that will save substantial taxpayer funds, while vastly streamlining and improving government operations.

In the private sector, high-level executives and their senior managers are held accountable to the corporation's board of directors and the company's shareholders. Lagging performance by senior corporate officials can often mean quick changes at the top.

But in county government, the opposite often holds true. In county service, senior managers are held in place by our civil service system, even when it may have become obvious to a department head or the Board of Supervisors that a need for change is desired or required. Top county managers can continue to work - whether they achieve results or not - performing as if they owned rights to their job, rather than working as if they were privileged to be paid to serve the needs of county residents.

Measure A on the county ballot would change all of that. Measure A would help prepare Los Angeles County government for the rapid changes ahead in the 21st century, by making our future high-paid, senior executives and top-level managers exempt from our civil service system.

Measure A would only affect those county executives earning $88,000 to $131,000 per year. Under Measure A, our county's top managers will still be protected under the same anti-discrimination laws as employees in the private sector.

All five members of the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved placing Measure A on the ballot last year, and they did so for very good reasons.

--Measure A will mean a new level of accountability in upper management at our county departments. It's something we have needed for too long.

--Measure A will strengthen operations at our county departments by making senior managers more responsive to changing policies and more responsible for achieving positive results in implementing those policies.

--Measure A will send the message to all of our top senior executives that stellar performance is their best job guarantee. It also sends the message that the delivery of services that benefit county residents will be a major basis of their employment evaluation.

--Measure A has the strong support of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association.

We urge every voter in Los Angeles County to vote yes on Measure A.

With your help, we can remind all of our county's senior executives and top managers that - just like in the private sector - they are accountable to shareholders, too. But, in case, Los Angeles county's shareholders are the taxpayers of the county of Los Angeles.