I think that people expect what they hear in “the news” to be true. Sadly, reporters also seem to think that what they hear from their sources is true. Bill Moyers in his NCMR2007 keynote said, “I can’t tell you again how many reporters have told me that it just never occurred to them that high officials would manipulate intelligence in order to go to war.”
Last week I posted a rumor that I was 95% positive was true. I was purposely ambiguous, cowardly one might say. I didn’t, and I still don’t, want to be impaled on a spike of the mindlessly thrashing tail of a dying stegosaurus.
Now it’s been reported that the CIO of the State of Wisconsin will be leaving his job to prospect for opportunities in the private sector. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that it is “Matt’s decision….” A month or so ago they were more candid in laying out facts about one of his more expensive failures.
The man had a four year run and relentlessly worked the National convention circuit to build a solid reputation among his peers while leaving chaos in his wake at home. Based on his performance it’s my opinion that he should have been released from state service long ago, but that wasn’t clear to his bosses until we were well into the last election cycle. At that point firing him would have called attention to the chaos, the cost overruns, the sweetheart arrangements with favored vendors, and the Governor could have been dragged down by the publicity. Now, the quiet arrangement of a management change in the Department of Administration is less compellingly newsworthy and his departure has been arranged to allow him to save face.
The credulous will hear the spin from the State Public Information press releases and believe he resigned, that he wasn’t fired. And this false impression won’t matter to anyone but the scores of people whose careers he damaged as he ran rough-shod over processes designed to assure success in the planning and implementation of large, complex systems. The state taxpayers will never have a clue how much of their money the man wasted.
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