The Art of the Watchdog , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - David R. Eichenthal , Daniel L. Feldman

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251 pages

English

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Does government fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption make your blood boil?

In The Art of the Watchdog, Daniel L. Feldman and David R. Eichenthal show how to fight back. Based on their own work in federal, state, and local government over the last forty years, they will arm you with the tools and techniques needed to put the spotlight on those who cheat and steal from the public or who squander valuable taxpayer dollars through waste and inefficiency. At the same time, Feldman and Eichenthal outline what they see as the good and the bad of current oversight efforts based on case studies from across the nation. Ultimately their goal is to ensure that the "art of the watchdog" does not become a lost one and to improve the quality and integrity of government and strengthen democracy.
Acknowledgments

1. The Watchdog

2. What is Oversight?

3. Tools of the Watchdog

4. Limitations on Oversight

5. Congressional Oversight

6. Government Accountability Office

7. The Federal Inspector General System at Thirty-Five

8. State Legislative Oversight

9. State Inspectors General

10. Other Elected and Appointed State Officials—Comptrollers, Auditors, and Attorneys General

11. Local Legislative Oversight

12. Local Auditors and Inspectors General

13. Other Elected and Appointed Local Officials

14. The Role of the Press

15. The Role of Public Interest and Other Non-Government Oversight Organizations

16. Conclusion

Sources
Name Index
Subject Index

Sujets

National

États-Unis

Central

United States of America

USA

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Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	01 janvier 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438449302
Langue	English

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The Art of the Watchdog
The Art of the Watchdog
Fighting Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Corruption in Government
Daniel L. Feldman
and
David R. Eichenthal
Cover photo © DNY59 / iStockphoto.com
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2013 Daniel L. Feldman and David R. Eichenthal
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feldman, Daniel L.
The art of the watchdog : fighting fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in government / Daniel L. Feldman and David R. Eichenthal.
pages cm. — (Excelsior editions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4929-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Political corruption—United States—Prevention. 2. Misconduct in office—United States—Prevention. 3. Waste in government spending—United States—Prevention. 4. Legislative oversight—United States. 5. Public interest groups—United States. I. Eichenthal, David R. II. Title. JF1081.F45 2014 364.1'323—dc23 2013002460
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 The Watchdog
Chapter 2 What is Oversight?
Chapter 3 Tools of the Watchdog
Chapter 4 Limitations on Oversight
Chapter 5 Congressional Oversight
Chapter 6 Government Accountability Office
Chapter 7 The Federal Inspector General System at Thirty-Five
Chapter 8 State Legislative Oversight
Chapter 9 State Inspectors General
Chapter 10 Other Elected and Appointed State Officials—Comptrollers, Auditors and Attorneys General
Chapter 11 Local Legislative Oversight
Chapter 12 Local Auditors and Inspectors General
Chapter 13 Other Elected and Appointed Local Officials
Chapter 14 The Role of the Press
Chapter 15 The Role of Public Interest and Other Non-Government Oversight Organizations
Chapter 16 Conclusion
Sources
Name Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgments
This book would not exist but for David Eichenthal. Even among the hundreds of fine public servants I have known, David stood out for his profound intelligence and integrity. For more than thirty years I have had the honor of calling him my dear friend. On the basis of his very kind estimation of a book I wrote not long after we first met, he thought an updated version would be warranted. I was smart enough to insist that he co-author it, and lucky enough to get him to agree. As a result, it reflects the vast experience and insight he acquired in those intervening decades. His contributions elevate it to an altogether higher league than that of its predecessor.
My academic home during the writing of this book has been John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, as I hope it will continue to be for many years to come, and a very fine home it is. For that I am deeply grateful to its president, Jeremy Travis, and to my Public Management Department chair, Ned Benton, each of whom has provided wonderful support and guidance. Fred Palm, recently retired as a member of our department, Jay Hamilton, chair of our Economics Department, and Frank Anechiarico, who visited as a professor with us from his permanent academic home at Hamilton College, each read through an earlier version of the manuscript and provided immensely valuable suggestions.
Some of our own experiences in fighting fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in government enrich this book, and enhance its value to fellow practitioners, scholars, and general readers. Some noteworthy figures to whom I remain grateful gave me the platforms that enabled me to do such work. First and foremost, as is clearly reflected in the pages of this book, is Elizabeth Holtzman. Other than to say that she remains the ultimate role model for oversight professionals, I won’t reiterate here the many debts we owe her: just check the index. A young member of the New York State Legislature hired me next to continue that kind of work, and whatever frictions may have colored our relationship thereafter, I must credit the current senior senator for the State of New York, Chuck Schumer, for that. The people of the 45th Assembly District of New York State gave me my next job, succeeding Mr. Schumer, and six years later the then-Speaker of that Assembly, Mel Miller, elevated me to chair of its Committee on Correction, significantly expanding and reinforcing my oversight powers for twelve more years. After the public in its wisdom chose Anthony Weiner over me to represent our district in Congress, then-Attorney General and now my friend Eliot Spitzer chose me to direct the Legal Policy and Program Development unit in New York’s Law Department, once again empowering me to pursue challenging, fascinating oversight targets for six years. After a two-year stint running a trade association representing a genre of attorneys who themselves engage in an important form of private-sector oversight, my friend Tom DiNapoli, the comptroller of the State of New York, appointed me as Special Counsel. From that vantage point I engaged in other kinds of oversight for three years, until I left for full-time academic work at John Jay.
I incorporate by reference the thanks I have given individually to family and friends in my other books. Please do not take this amiss; I do occasionally need to spare other readers.
My final and greatest acknowledgment is to the United States—in the words of Carl Schurz on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1872, “My country, right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
Dan Feldman
I often tell students, interns, and others starting out in a career in public service that it really helps to have good people to work with and for … and mentors … and friends … and, now, co-authors.
More than thirty years ago, I was introduced to a young legislative aide who was running for the New York State Assembly. His name was Dan Feldman. Dan won election to the legislature and eventually hired me, first as an intern and then as a staff member. He has been a great friend and colleague ever since. His 1981 book, Reforming Government , was an engaging and thoughtful take on the work of oversight that made me want to pursue it as a career. Thirty years later, after Dan’s book on his time in the New York legislature was published, I told him that he really should update Reforming Government . His challenge to me was, “I’ll do it, but only if you co-author it.” My greatest hope is that there will be someone who reads The Art of the Watchdog and feels the same way about the important work of oversight that I did after reading Reforming Government .
During my first year of law school, I walked into a seminar on the criminal justice system led by Professor Jim Jacobs. Jim has been a friend, mentor and prod ever since. His work—along with Frank Anechiarico’s—on The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity was incredibly thought provoking for me, both as a practitioner and—dare I say—now as a scholar. Jim was gracious enough to allow me to have an academic hook on which to hang my hat while writing this book as a senior fellow at the Center for Research in Crime and Justice. He also provided an appropriately tough critique of an early draft that I know made the final version immensely better.
After law school, I was fortunate to spend time at the Vera Institute of Justice, working at the Prosecuting Attorneys Research Council led by Dan Johnston. As discussed in the chapter on oversight of police misconduct, Dan greatly informed my thinking on that area. He was also the first person to tell me that sometimes “you can judge a person by their enemies”—important words to live by when you are in the oversight business.
Arnie Kriss also played an important role in my thinking on police oversight and oversight in general. I have known Arnie so long that I believe he is now the only person left who still refers to me as “kid.” There are a lot of reasons why I pursued the Public Advocate investigation of police misconduct, but Arnie’s influence may have been the most important.
I don’t tell any of my Liz Holtzman oversight stories in this book—and I have a lot of them. The courage and commitment that Liz showed in the fight to bring Nazi war criminals to justice was regularly matched on a dozen other issues that I worked on with her in the comptroller’s office. I learned so much from her and from others in that office—people like Tom Sanzillo, who was often my partner in oversight efforts and has remained a friend and great colleague to date, and Rhea Dignam, who helped me to think like a prosecutor without ever being one.
During my brief time at the School Construction Authority, I was lucky enough to get to work with people like Toby Thacher and Joe DeLuca—brilliant theorists and practitioners when it comes to the work of inspectors general.
Mark Green was a public advocate long before he was elected to the office. His willingness to take on the issue of police misconduct during the height of Rudy Giuliani’s popularity was one of the gutsier uses of political capital that I have ever seen. I learned a lot from Mark and from other wonderful collea