EDITORIAL
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

RUSSELL GEORGE, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, instituted better lines of communication within the department in order to make things work more efficiently and to save taxpayer dollars.

He did this without any prodding from Gov. Bill Ritter. Rather, it started out with a request from workers to discuss a faulty new computer system installed during the previous administration.

Mr. George, a Republican, is a former speaker of the Colorado House and former executive director of natural resources. He’s got a pretty good handle on how government operates and how it ought to operate.

Earlier this month, Gov. Ritter issued an executive order that allows for “partnerships” with organized labor throughout state government. There are perils in this plan which we wish the governor had thought through beforehand.

While he hopes his partnership arrangements will lead to new efficiencies, just the opposite could result. Unions are notorious for demanding - and receiving - work rules that often run counter to efficient operations. In addition to high medical insurance costs, old-line industries such as steel and autos had work rules that made them less competitive than those plants which operate without unions.

The governor maintains that the restrictions on the state budget ensconced in TABOR would limit the amount the state could meet in future union pay demands. But there’s always the possibility that other state functions would have to be cut to meet such demands in the future. Since this executive order is not writ in stone like legislation passed by the General Assembly, there could be an evolution toward demands for higher pay, even though Colorado’s state employees are already among the highest paid in the nation.

Besides, any government worker protected by Civil Service should not need a union as well. It simply creates another layer of difficulty when it comes to firing an unproductive or disruptive employee.

We wish Gov. Ritter had simply ordered every member of his Cabinet to open lines of communications with their employees and order those supervisors under them to do the same. Now, by issuing this executive order, the governor has invited the law of unintended consequences into the room.

If and when those consequences occur, it will be difficult - nigh on impossible - to unring that bell.