George Rebane
Last week’s release of Clerk-Recorder Greg Diaz’s deposition in the AtPac lawsuit case (please see ‘AtPac Lawsuit – the Greg Diaz Deposition’ and its comment stream) was at the same time corroborating and revealing. But in reading the deposition, I did find several surprises. Let me say right away that I found Mr Diaz’s resume troubling back in 2008 when I supported Barry Pruett in that November’s election. With the overwhelming support of our Board of Supervisors and the Rood Center establishment, Mr Diaz won in a walk.
So here’s my take on our Clerk-Recorder from the written deposition and attendant video sequences. My remarks are unequivocally biased by my almost half-century in technology development and experience as an executive in high tech enterprises.
To start, I found Mr Diaz’s knowledge about the basic aspects of the systems that support his elected profession to be astoundingly shallow. This was abetted by the fact that he had spent part of his career as a software salesman. What added to this perception was that he demonstrated little interest to further educate himself about the fundamentals of the tools whose use he supervised daily.
His apparent awareness of the goings on in Nevada County administration that impacted his job were minimal, and stated without any hint of contrition. The man seemed to be expert at minimizing the scope of his responsibilities at every turn.
From the provided description of how the Clerk-Recorder’s department was run, we find that he lacked the basic personnel management skills that would have allowed him to enforce the rules and staff discipline that always seemed to be to the county’s detriment and out of his grasp. For example, the need for making notes and laying a useful paper trail of communications, that any manager would instinctively do, was apparently completely beyond his ken. Instead we were treated to a stream of risible recollections and Monday-morning assessments that such procedures were either beyond his interest or unnecessary.
Perhaps most remarkable was his demonstrated level of knowledge of the procurement process and the disposition of related intellectual property, a business practice that was central to his tenure as a salesman of software handling protected data. Instead of immersing himself in every aspect of his own initiated system procurement and changeover that would enable and improve his department’s functions, he became a distant observer. And this continued after the AtPac lawsuit was filed. In my experience, I have never witnessed such detachment in a career professional.
In my numerous roles as hiring manager, and as consultant to corporations hiring senior management level people, I can unequivocally say that Mr Diaz would never have survived any private sector interview process with which I am familiar.
One could lengthen this account to match the 359 page count of Mr Diaz’s deposition, but it would serve no purpose. In the end we see a professional bureaucrat who has arrived at the pinnacle of his career through doors that have been carefully yet firmly closed behind him. And as Nevada County voters and taxpayers, our interest in this case, especially now that is has been disastrously settled, does not really revolve around the elected Mr Diaz. More important concerns have been raised in these pages and elsewhere, and these are worth reviewing.
The first obvious question is, who in hell hired Mr Diaz in the first place to fill in the vacant Clerk-Recorder position. What kind of vetting, interviewing, and approval procedures are in place and operating in the Rood Center to welcome a man of Mr Diaz’s qualifications and attitude? What kind of oversight in county administration is in place that did not subsequently discover, during his unelected probation in the job, that the man has no apparent long suit to play? And based on what assessments made by whom did Mr Diaz garner the broad and uniform support of the county’s top elected officials, in-house counsel that reported to it, and the county’s administrative executives?
We do understand that government is often the employer of last resort, but in local and more intimate government units such as the county, such largesse does not have to extend to levels where serious financial damage and functional shortcomings may result. We expect people with those kinds of deficits to be hired and elected to regional and state level offices (California is America’s current poster child in this regard). Was the whistle that needed blowing hidden under some ‘go along to get along’ bullcrap?
These are the important problems (not ‘issues’) to resolve and solve to get our house in order as we head into a deepening recession under a state government that operates on a yet to be determined side of the lunatic fringe.
rebanesruminations.com 
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