Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, 6th Edition

CHAPTER SEVENFORMULATING AND ACHIEVING PURPOSE: POWER, DECISION MAKING, AND STRATEGY

During the administration of President George H. Bush, major newspapers carried reports about a controversial aide to the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), who had gained power in the department. The reports claimed that the aide had little background in housing policy and had received her appointment because she came from a prominent family. According to the reports, the secretary of HUD had inattentively allowed her to make heavy use of his autopen – an apparatus that automatically signs the secretary's name – to influence major decisions on funding and agency policies. She garnered support from members of Congress by channeling projects and grants to their constituencies. She also allegedly used the authority of the secretary to move trusted associates into key positions in the agency, where they could give her early information about the unit heads' plans so she could devise ways to overrule them and channel their projects toward her supporters. In spite of her maneuvering, however, when she was nominated for the position of assistant secretary of HUD, Congress would not confirm her appointment because of her lack of credentials and qualifications. Ultimately, her influence on spending decisions in a housing rehabilitation program received intense scrutiny from federal auditors and news reporters and brought a deluge of bad publicity and legal problems ...