dtsc missionstorage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-18559965/do… · web view2015/10/10 ·...

Draft DTSC Preliminary Observations 8/3/2015 (rev. 10-10-2015)Scott Warren

Preliminary Observation Outline 8/3/2015 (rev. 1, 10-9-2015)

ContentsDTSC Mission...............................................................................................................................................2

Director Lee’s Mandate...............................................................................................................................2

Critical Operational Flaws............................................................................................................................2

(1) Protecting California’s People and Environment.........................................................................2

(2) Restoring Contaminated Resources.............................................................................................3

a. Restoring Contaminated Lands....................................................................................................3

b. Restoring Contaminated Drinking Water.....................................................................................4

(3) Enforcing Hazardous Waste Laws (Permitting)............................................................................4

(4) Reducing Hazardous Waste Generation and Chemically Safer Products.....................................4

Organizational Functionality........................................................................................................................4

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis (SWOT).........................................................5

Strengths (internal)..................................................................................................................................5

Weaknesses (Internal).............................................................................................................................5

Opportunities (External)..........................................................................................................................6

Threats (External)....................................................................................................................................7

Informational Needs....................................................................................................................................7

Gap Analysis............................................................................................................................................8

SWOT and PRAA..........................................................................................................................................8

Useful Graphs and Figures.........................................................................................................................10

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DTSC Mission

The mission of DTSC is to (1) protect California’s people and environment from harmful effects of toxic substances by (2) restoring contaminated resources, (3) enforcing hazardous waste laws, (4) reducing hazardous waste generation, and encouraging the manufacture of (4) chemically safer products.

Director Lee’s MandateSenate Pro-tem Kevin De-Leon made it very clear in the hearings that the Senate has the power of the budget and that DTSC will be gutted unless change occurs and accountability improves.

The following section introduces critical operational flaws noted by Senate pro-tem Kevin de-Leon or another member of the Senate Rules Committee during Directors Lee’s confirmation hearing (7/15/2015) or personal observations. They are broken down according to pertinent Mission statements, for example the Mission states “The mission of DTSC is to Protect California’s people and environment”, therefore item number one (1) below includes issues that have been raised related to “Protecting California’s People and Environment”. The issues listed below include issues raised during Director Lee’s confirmation hearing or other observations. This Preliminary Observation Outline provides a starting point for further discussion.

Critical Operational Flaws(1) Protecting California’s People and Environment

Even if we write great permits and control existing pollution sources, we will not prevent exposure to heritage aerially distributed contamination.

Air pollution permitting does not factor in cumulative contamination. Protecting Human Health is at the intersection of emotions and

science; there will always be conflict but we need to develop an understanding between fact (the basis of science) and perception (the basis of emotions).

Environmental Justice Groups have merged and synchronized to become Environmental Justice Networks, with ties to national, state



and local political leaders. Communities do not feel (emotion) protected (from BL Senate Hearing) and have joined forces with each other and with environmental justice media organizations (such as Consumer Watchdog) to publicize their distrust and dissatisfaction. Our community outreach strategy is ill-prepared to deal with the new conditions. o DTSC had data about Exide but did not share the data (from BL

Senate Hearing).o Our outreach is reactive rather than proactive.

Cases are not being sent to the DA for prosecution (from BL Senate Hearing).

The lead around Exide is part of a larger problem (which may involve way more than Exide). Are we talking about the possible scope of the issue with stakeholders? o The Senate? The community? AQMD? The County?o DTSC management is viewed as being weak and avoiding

unpleasant issues. There appears to be a lack of clarity and consistency in applying the

Standards (Kevin De-Leon, from BL Senate Hearing). Staff does not seem to understand and embrace the Mission of

DTSC (Kevin De-Leon, from BL Senate Hearing). This (meaning the problems the Department is experiencing) is a

leadership issue (Kevin De-Leon, from BL Senate Hearing). You and your leadership team must do something to change and to increase accountability.

Management has a tendency to focus on technical tasks rather than focusing on management and/or tracking tasks.o This is at least in part because technical staff gets promoted and

is more comfortable dealing with technical issues (that’s what got them promoted) than management issues, so they tend to avoid management issues and over-manage technical issues.

o Managers tend to support and promote behavior/views that mimic theirs, including their tendency to avoid unpleasant tasks.

(2) Restoring Contaminated Resources

a. Restoring Contaminated Lands Land restoration is based on land desirability (someone is interested

in the property) rather than the threat a site poses or the costs that could be avoided. This inevitably favors advantaged communities



(where there is a greater desire to invest) over disadvantaged communities. The cost recovery system is working against us in EJ communities.

Disadvantaged communities with cheaper real estate will increasingly come in contact with industry, which will bring increased frustration and friction. We do not appear to have a plan to meet this Threat. This is at least in part a land us issue.

b. Restoring Contaminated Drinking Water Water will be the limiting factor for California’s economy. Even if we cleanup all known sites, we will not stop the

contamination of our drinking water. People will have to pay more for clean water. We need to be part of a proactive strategy to 1) protect, 2) clean and then recover 3) costs if available.

(3) Enforcing Hazardous Waste Laws (Permitting) Permits are as much as 20 years behind and DTSC has not

rescinded or denied a permit for 15 years (from BL Senate Hearing). When cases are settled, the cases are settled too easily and the

fines are too low (from BL Senate Hearing). There does not appear to be a defined strategy for approving or

denying permits. The regulated community and the community at large are confused (from BL Senate Hearing).

The permits appear to be more process based and less performance based. We need to focus more on performance so resources can be focused more on poor performers.

(4) Reducing Hazardous Waste Generation and Chemically Safer Products DTSC publically committed to a 50% reduction in waste generation

by 2020. Is there a plan? Green chemistry is floundering in the public’s eye.

Organizational Functionality DTSC suffers from a lack of vision and guidance (Leadership) on

many levels and a lack of accountability (from BL Senate Hearing). DTSC resources are not aligned with organizational needs.

o Most staff in N. Cal; most high visibility sites and EJ communities in S. Cal.

High Visibility sites:



Exide Santa Susana, Riverside Ag., Montrose, Phibrotech, Carlton Forge, Wildomar, Pomona (from BL Senate Hearing), Kettlemen (from BL Senate Hearing), San Fernando Valley, Topoc,

o Wyle had potential for explosive situation, why did Wyle work well?

DTSC staffing is incongruent with functional needs.o Most Staff in HQ and/or Sacramento most challenging work in S.

Cal.o All Execs in Sacramento, isolated from most visible challengeso More staff in support roles than in technical roles.o DTSC has 4x as many staff on one project that the Water Board

does. DTSC is structured as a top down hierarchy, and information is

tightly controlled going up and down which limits problem solving.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis (SWOT)What do we do well??????

Strengths (internal) Strength/Weakness: Staff technically strong but their focus is

generally narrow,

Weaknesses (Internal) Weakness/Threat: Community outreach – poor or very poor, virtually

absent. DTSC has become target number one for the watchdog agencies.

Weakness/Threat: Issuing permits – poor, slow, and a public and CA Senate perception our permitting process is antiquated and ambivalent.



Weakness/Threat: Enforcing permits – poor, and a public and Senate perception our enforcement mechanism is poor to non-existent.

Weakness: E-technology limited and lacking a strategy for 2020 e technology practices.

Weakness/Threat: DTSC project charges >> the Water Board due to having a PM, a Geologist, an Engineer, A toxicologist, PPS, an attorney and possibly even a CEQA specialist on most projects. We need to consider the Water Board model.

Weakness/Threat: DTSC resources are not aligned and/or not co-located with work today and will not be aligned tomorrow.

Weakness/opportunity: Short sighted no real strategic alignment and no real strategic planning.

Weakness: Structural backfilling (backfilling to maintain a structure rather than to meet a functional need).

Severe Weakness: Changing Directors destroys progress and morale. Management and all staff know they will outlast the Director, so they control (withhold) information and placate the Director.

Severe Weakness: We are focused on perfecting the process rather than solving the problem.

Severe Weakness: We are based on cost recovery so we prioritize based on ability to pay rather than threat and potential loss.

Severe Weakness: The cost recovery model is not designed to and is capable of solving the large scale problems and financial liabilities the State faces over the next two decades.

Weakness: In the information age, DTSC management still uses information control to gain leverage.

Weakness: Managers and Executives inject themselves into technical work and then don’t have time to track, manage and lead.

Weakness: The DTSC hiring system weeds out leadership talent and perpetuates control oriented and punitive management.

Weakness: Most of our resources are miss-applied. We accept substandard work instead of rejecting it which only promulgates more substandard work. We lack a mechanism to reward good performers and we do not punish bad performers. These actions continually lower the bar and increase our workload.

Weakness: Our overhead loading is astronomical and is based largely on structural backfilling.

Weakness: The role DTSC PMs fulfill is unclear. Management has effectively become an enabler. PMs have learned not to take any



action because of fear that management will over-rule them. It’s safer to do nothing.

Weakness: The thinking and thinkers that got us into this mess are not able to get us out of this mess. The environmental conditions are fundamentally different than they were when DTSC and CalEPA were formed. The needs have changed but our structure has not. We are fundamentally out-of-step with the needs of the communities we are supposed to serve.

Opportunities (External) Opportunity/Threat: Eyes of CA Senate and EJ communities on us. Opportunity/Threat: We have strong toxicology, geological and PPs

capabilities but we don’t have a strategy to maximize the benefit that can be obtained.

Opportunity/Threat: DTSC has some state of the art GIS tools but no GIS strategy.

Huge Opportunity: Prop 1 and SB445 Grants offer a great opportunity to work with Water Managers and the Water Board to change/broaden the water protection paradigm to meet high water demand needs of the future.

Opportunity: The Water Board has a training site and program. We should consolidate our training with theirs and then augment shortfall.

Threats (External) Threat: Large environmental problems coming to light, completely

different than we are designed to handle. Threat: Number of sites with unlimited funding (provided by viable

Responsible Parties) is shrinking; DTSC and the Water Board will be forced to deal with more and more unfunded or underfunded projects (the low hanging fruit is about gone). We don’t have a strategy, structure, or funding mechanism to respond to the environmental needs we face. We absolutely cannot solve this mis-alignment without political changes to our role and funding.

Threat: Large and growing list of unfunded liabilities (not prioritized according to the threat they pose). Costs, threats and public discontent grow while we ignore the real problems.

Threat: the Cost Recovery Model we are built on allows plumes to spread and costs to skyrocket while DTSC works through a laborious and litigious process. It may cost us more than it saves us.



Threat/Opportunity: Pending Boomer retirement which also means a fundamental culture shift. Complacent managers will fight and delay a transformation.

Threat: Prioritization is based on ability to pay and political interest rather than the risk and/or threat the site presents. (if you think of triage, we triage based on who has insurance rather than the severity of the injury).

Threat: few meaningful strategic partnerships.

Informational NeedsHave managers bring data:

A. Collata; staff distribution, work load, roles, positions, % technical, staff to supervisor ratios, unit to branch ratios, productivity, charge recoverability, fund sources, total and Regional number of technical positions vs overhead positions.

a. 1003 Staff (retrieved from our phone directory 8/3/2015)i. R1=222, ii. R2=105, iii. R3=114, iv. R4=124, v. HQ=331, and vi. 69 in satellite and ECL offices.

Ray Leclerc and Elizabeth Rothschild; site distribution, site

distribution per Region, resource distribution, resource loading per Region, resources in each Region, travel statistics by Branch and Region and planned changes

Others…Green chemistry, PPS, DTSC project types, trends of project types over time by Region and

programmatically, projected retirements, projected unfunded liabilities, political stakeholders, xx

Gap AnalysisWater Board resource loading per project, management structure, role,

distributionManagement support ratios for consulting firms



Bottom up evaluation project, unit, branch, division for functionality and productivity

SWOT and PRAAStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)SWOTs allow organizations to identify pertinent opportunities (new and emerging conditions in the market), anticipated threats (closing markets), strengths (what the organization does well) and weaknesses (areas where improvement is needed) so an organization can better understand where and how invest its resources.

SWOTs aren’t perfect, but they do provide a good start if performed properly. SWOTs typically focus on organizationally perceived strengths and abilities from an internal perspective. But internal assessments are always biased and often quite narrow especially in a segmented organization. Complacent bureaucracies tend to avoid unsavoury issues and understate weaknesses while at the same time overstating strengths. This tendency to overstate strengths and overlook opportunities can reduce the potential benefit of doing a SWOT, but even well run SWOTs need a complementary tool.

Process, Resource, Alignment - Limitations Analysis (PRA-LA)Once an organization gains an understanding of its Strengths and Weaknesses and the Threats and Opportunities available, the organization needs to perform a constraints analysis. A PRA-LA is a new tool I’m introducing to help us identify bottlenecks (usually process related), examine resource availability and alignment (are they in the right places) and the limitations that will shape our ability to prepare for the future.

Linking the outputs from these efforts with the Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles provides the basic tenants of the Strategic Plan and ensures our efforts are being applied efficiently. They also provide a great opportunity to examine core functions, critical linkages, resource availability, limitations and alignment.

I would be happy to facilitate a series of organizational planning sessions to help us move beyond the fixing-the-foundation and move into preparing for the future.



Useful Graphs and Figures


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