Qaulified, talented civil servants deserve our respect

Lewiston and Auburn are losing some of their ablest civil servants to retirement.

At the end of this month, Lewiston Library Director Richard Speer will be retiring, followed at the end of June by Lewiston Deputy City Administrator Phil Nadeau. Both were preceded by Auburn Development Director Roland Miller, who stepped down in November 2015.

Speer’s been on the job for 33 years, Nadeau, for 18 and Miller for 35. All have been exemplary public employees – skilled, hard-working and forward-looking, not to mention being men of integrity, affability and humility.

Among many accomplishments, Speer oversaw computerization of the library’s catalogue, a renovation/expansion building project that more than tripled the library’s size, and creation of the Marsden Hartley Cultural Center, which included historical archives, a computer lab and a meeting space for cultural programs and lectures. He also helped make the library more accessible to new immigrants and fought to keep controversial books on its shelves.

As deputy administrator, Nadeau has handled a variety of challenging assignments for the city, including immigrant relations, labor negotiations, transportation, water quality and freedom of information issues.

Miller, who was a planner and development specialist for the City of Auburn, played key roles in such important initiatives as the building and tenanting of Auburn’ first industrial parks, revitalization of the downtown riverfront, development of the Mall District, preservation of historic buildings on Main Street, and creation of the Intermodal Railroad Facility. His departure (together with the City Council’s decision to withdraw from the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council) has all but brought new commercial development in Auburn to a standstill.

This trio makes you wonder why we don’t celebrate the administrative professionals who keep Maine’s (and the rest of the country’s) cities and towns functioning smoothly in the same way we routinely honor the men and women in our armed forces.

True, the former don’t have to dodge bullets or bombs. But they do perform ever-expanding duties with fewer and fewer resources and grapple with constantly evolving complex social, economic and technological problems while stoically enduring carping criticism aimed at them by irascible citizens and self-impressed elected officials.

Yet, to borrow a phrase from comedian Rodney Dangerfield, civil servants “just don’t get no respect.” They’re invisible, except when something goes wrong, at which time they’re thrust into the forefront of public attention and portrayed in a negative light.

This attitude is perhaps best summed up by the term “bureaucrat,” derived from an 18th century French word, which has come to connote a slow-moving, narrow-minded, hair-splitting functionary. The word itself summons up images of Dickensian figures with green eyeshades, spending their days hunched over desks rubber-stamping official documents of no consequence.

It’s no coincidence that one of President Trump’s first acts on taking office was to place a hiring freeze on federal workers, except for those in military, law enforcement and national security. The unstated assumption was that the federal government already had too many unproductive bureaucrats.

Public administration is vitally important. Without it, the complex modern state could not exist. Consider, for instance, the roadways, bridges, airports and seaports that facilitate travel and commerce and the water, sewage and trash removal services that prevent epidemic disease – all maintained courtesy of civil servants.

Public administration in Western civilization literally began in the bedchambers of kings, where functionaries responsible for safeguarding the monarch’s wardrobe, larder, gold and royal seal eventually became the head of separate administrative departments with names like chamberlain, treasurer and chancellor. Initially these posts went mainly to noblemen or clergymen (who, unlike most people in the Middle Ages, could read, write and keep accounts), but they ultimately became political plums to be obtained through patronage or purchase.

In 18th century Europe, the increase in the size of standing armies and the sheer geographic scope of territories ruled by dynastic monarchs led to a dramatic expansion in bureaucracy. By the late 19th century, the need for more qualified administrators led many Western countries, including Great Britain, to introduce a civil service based upon the Mandarin system of ancient China, which required hiring on merit as measured by written tests.

In the United States, the small size and scope of the federal government kept the federal bureaucracy relatively small until the New Deal and World War II. Such positions as were available, like postmaster or collector of customs in port cities, were distributed as political payback to members of the party machines that helped elect the presidential candidate. The U.S. first adopted a merit-based federal civil service system with the Pendleton Act of 1883, its scope being subsequently expanded to include a much greater percentage of all public employees. Most states and municipalities followed suit in the early 20th century.

To be sure, a civil service system has its drawbacks. It’s notoriously difficult to fire incompetent, insubordinate or lazy federal employees, since it’s necessary to go through due process procedures and show just cause for termination. Supervisors often have to resort to job re-assignments to keep unproductive employees from gumming up the works.

Still, civil servants throughout the U.S. continue to play a vital role in the in the operation of public services and, unlike their counterparts in many parts of the developing world, rarely exploit their positions to enrich themselves through corruption.

Speer, Nadeau and Miller represent the visible face of our dedicated, hard-working career public employees at the local level. So let’s show them some respect!

Elliott Epstein is a trial lawyer with Andrucki & King in Lewiston. His Rearview Mirror column, which has appeared in the Sun Journal for 10 years, analyzes current events in an historical context. He is also the author of “Lucifer’s Child,” a book about the notorious 1984 child murder of Angela Palmer.