Mocking Public Service

Just in time for the national Public Service Recognition Week, Saturday Night Live aired a biting satire: “The 2010 Public Employee of the Year Award.” In the skit, several finalists for the award strut their stuff. For example, a fictitious Markeesha Odom says she helped lead her DMV team to ensure no one received a drivers license over the course of a full day! And the fictitious ceremony was held in a filled hall in Harrah’s in Las Vegas (which Sen. Harry Reid would approve!).

An ongoing dialogue on GovLoop swings between bemusement and outrage over the skit, but the skit reached a national audience. Meanwhile, two weeks ago, the National Public Service Award was presented to five distinguished public servants. The presentation was made in San Jose at a small luncheon during the conference of the American Society for Public Administration. However, distinguished participants in the ceremony included both former Comptroller General David Walker and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Recipients include:

• the current head of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry;
• veteran city manager Ted Gaebler;
• GAO veteran Sallyanne Harper;
• a scientist at NIH, Kenneth Kraemer; and
• Bernard Melekian, a former police chief and current head of the Justice Department’s community policing program.

The award has been given since 1983 as a way of recognizing the heroes in public service. But it hasn’t received much media attention.

Nevertheless, the effort to recognize public service, however, is making progress. President Obama talks about “making public service cool again.” The Partnership for Public Service annually presents its Service to America Medals at a grand celebration each Fall in Washington to recognize accomplishments. And more recently, Senator Ted Kaufman has been recognizing “Great Feds” weekly in the Congressional Record, and the Washington Post has been weekly recognizing federal employees in its “Federal Players” column.

In addition, the IBM Center’s weekly radio show has showcased a different federal executive every week, for the past decade. So I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. But the timing of the SNL skit may have been a bit much for me!