20-02-2025
Tough question: How do we bypass the slogans and make government more effective?
"We trained hard — but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we were reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."
― Attributed to Gen. Frank Merrill, who headed "Merrill's Mauraders" during World War II
Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to target federal agencies for elimination, reduce the number of federal employees and reshape the federal government. And he promised a fast start.
'We're going to give them the best first day, the biggest first week and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history,' Trump said on the day before he was sworn in for a second term.
Still, few expected him to name billionaire businessman Elon Musk to lead a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and launch the initiative with an assault some compared to the "shock and awe" invasion of Iraq by American forces in 1991.
Here in Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt also played the reform and reorganization card. He announced at the opening of this year's legislative session a plan to create a state version of DOGE "to keep the focus on flat budgets and limited government."
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Stitt's Elon Musk is Norman attorney Mark Nuttle. The governor's office declined a request to interview Nuttle, but he is someone with long and varied history in Oklahoma politics, if not a background that suggests a particular expertise in organizational efficiency.
Nuttle managed Stitt's transition team after his election as governor in 2018. Much earlier, he headed the 2001 "Yes" campaign to make Oklahoma a "Right to Work" state, one in which union membership is optional and workers are protected by the union's collective bargaining agreement even if they don't pay dues. The success of that campaign marked a significant milestone in Oklahoma's transition from Democratic to Republican.
A few years later, Nuttle was managing partner of an investment firm that announced plans to build an assembly plant in Ardmore for MG automobiles in partnership with Nanjing Automobile Group, a Chinese firm. The effort fizzled out.
Nuttle's own website notes that he "specializes in international trade, international foreign policy, and international political affairs."
Unlike Trump, who encouraged Musk to start cutting government payrolls "on Day 1," Stitt said Nuttle had been given until March 31 "to submit a report outlining agency budget findings, recommendations for fiscal reforms and strategies for efficiencies."
And unlike Trump, who did not particularly stress government efficiency in his first term, Stitt called in 2020 for consolidation of state agencies and had the Office of Management and Enterprise Services hire a consulting firm for $1.1 million to make recommendations on how state government could be reorganized to increase efficiency. The Washington, D.C., consulting firm, Guidehouse, later submitted a reorganization "blueprint" that focused primarily on the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. It's unclear how many of the recommendations were implemented.
Former state Sen. Kay Floyd, of Oklahoma City, the Democratic Senate leader at the time, said "I've been here seven years, and I think governors come in and they want to streamline government, which I think is a noble cause," but she said the state needs to be careful about making changes, especially in agencies dealing with complicated health care issues.
And former Republican Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, of Oklahoma City, said, "state leaders go back and forth nearly every decade on whether to consolidate agencies or undo agency consolidation. The pendulum swings back and forth, and it's hard to get the balance just right."
What is the "right" balance?
At the federal level, Trump and Musk have suggested elimination of entire agencies, including the Department of Education and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and job cuts have been fast and furious.
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Cuts in the Federal Aviation Agency even reached Oklahoma, where an uncertain number of FAA employees got emails last week saying they'd lost their jobs.
The FAA is responsible for ensuring the safety of air travel, and given the number of recent airplane crashes and a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, some have questioned whether job cuts are the right way to increase the agency's effectiveness.
Effectiveness is the key word. Taxpayers want to see value in the government they pay for, just as they do in the automobiles and other consumer goods they purchase.
State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters pushed a number of employees out the door at the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Did that help the agency become more effective in helping school districts improve math and reading scores?
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is struggling. What needs to be done first to fix its many interrelated problems? Will cuts to the department help?
Nuttle's challenge is huge in making his reorganization plan more than just "an illusion of progress."
Gov. Stitt has said that his goal is to leave state government "smaller" and "leaner" that it was when he was first elected. Let's hope his effort involves more than head count. Let's hope his success is in making state agencies more successful ― more effective in delivering worthwhile services to the people at a reasonable cost.
William C. Wertz is deputy Viewpoints editor. You can reach him with comments and story ideas at wwertz@
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Reorganization — often it's just sound and fury | Opinion
