Too many chiefs and not enough Indians

By law, state has too many supervisors

Work force reductions from budget cuts and an early retirement package have edged Iowa state government only slightly closer to meeting a new law that by next year requires a ratio of one supervisor for every 15 nonsupervisory employees.

To comply with the law, at least 544 supervisors would have to be eliminated from the executive branch, which had about 18,400 employees as of July 1, according to data obtained by The Des Moines Register.

Eliminating that many supervisors could violate some national standards and endanger public safety, according to some state and national management experts.

The president of a public employee union that long pushed for the law strongly disagrees.

"If a schoolteacher can supervise 25 6-year-olds, then I would think a state supervisor could supervise an equivalent number of employees," said Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 61.

I can't improve on that comment.