On the plus side, workers' compensation premiums, insurers' costs and the number of permanent partial disability (PPD) claims have decreased; medical costs have fallen sharply and abusive claims practices have been reduced. However, the system remains highly adversarial and litigious, is excessively complex and delivers modest benefits at high cost. Most significant, for workers with minor permanent disabilities--the vast majority of PPD claims--workers' compensation benefits made up for only a small fraction (12 to 14 percent) of their lost wages.
The ICJ study points the way to changes that would produce more efficient, appropriate and rational treatment of workers who have permanent disabilities. It suggests that the benefits of such changes might be shared among parties who, although adversaries in individual cases, share a common interest in a fairer and less costly system.
Meeting the Challenge of Charter Reform, Kevin F. McCarthy, Steven P. Erie, Robert E. Reichardt, RAND/MR-961-LABA, 1998, 118 pp., ISBN 0-8330-2529-9, $13.00. The Los Angeles city charter is a 600-page operations manual of rules and procedures that severely limits the ability of city officials to respond to changing circumstances. Two separate reform commissions have been created to recommend substantive changes to the charter, but reform advocates are pessimistic, believing that conflicting agendas among the various parties with a stake in the outcome will frustrate reform efforts.
The RAND study argues that the future will require a charter that gives elected and appointed officials flexibility to manage an increasingly diverse city in a period of fiscal stress and growing regional and global competition. Thus it recommends recasting the charter to embody a set of general governance and organizing principles while leaving the details to be filled in by ordinances.
Sponsored by the Los Angeles Business Advisors, a group of executives of major L.A.-based companies, the study offers a framework for refocusing the debate around several broad issues that may provide common ground for agreement.
The researchers identify and analyze problems with the city's policymaking process, the management of city operations and the provision of city services. Embedded in these issues, however, are questions of a highly political nature that only the charter reform commissions can resolve: Should the mayor's administrative powers be expanded? What should be the size and role of the city council? Should the charter be an enabling document embodying a set of broad governing principles or remain the restrictive document it is now?
To keep politics from derailing the reform efforts, the study suggests dividing the process into two phases. The first should produce recommendations for substantive reform. (How the two commissions coordinate their tasks and recommendations will be key to the success of this phase.) The second phase should educate voters about the need for charter reform as well as the substance of the reform package.
Financing and Managing Local Government Under Propositions 13, 62 and 218. This ongoing series of RAND conferences is aimed at helping local officials cope with the twin dragons of shrinking budgets and burgeoning demand for services. The one-day conferences afford participants the opportunity to compare experiences and to learn about successful strategies adopted by other communities. In addition, participants are invited to explore their communities' problems with conference speakers who represent a wide range of relevant expertise. These speakers include high-level state and local administrators, representatives of state and local governance associations, city managers, budgetary and legal experts, and RAND researchers specializing in the dynamics of organizational restructuring and innovation. To date, conferences have been held in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange Counties. They are organized and led by RAND senior fellow Ed Edelman. Edelman has had a long and distinguished career in local government, serving Los Angeles both as city councilman and county supervisor. Support for the conferences is provided by GTE.
Helping California Counties Implement Welfare Reform. With a planning grant from the James Irvine Foundation, a RAND team led by James Dertouzos and Debra Strong is providing analytic assistance to Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties as they seek to implement the new welfare reforms. Research tasks include tabulating welfare caseloads and assessing the needs of welfare recipients for subsidized child care and assistance in obtaining jobs. Researchers are focusing on two central issues surrounding the implementation of welfare reform: (1) barriers to work and the need for counties to develop more flexible, responsive and comprehensive services for welfare recipients; and (2) the need for effectively managed child care programs to support the transition to work and self-sufficiency for adults, and to provide safe, nurturing and developmentally stimulating environments for low-income children.
The research team is also exploring ways to foster collaboration in achieving these goals among government welfare agencies and diverse nonprofit and private charitable organizations.