Rethink tank: ANR looks to conservative pro-privatization group for ideas
Source: By Kathryn Casa, Vermont Guardian, Posted May 12, 2006
In its ongoing quest to run more efficiently, the Agency of Natural Resources will send three key staffers to a Washington-area management conference at a conservative think tank founded by a strong advocate of government privatization. John Sayles, ANR’s director of policy and research planning, Brendan Cosgrove, executive assistant to the commissioner of Fish and Wildlife, and wetlands ecologist Shannon Morrison will attend a two-day “Lean Sigma Six” conference at The Performance Institute, whose president and founder, Carl DeMaio, is the keynote speaker. The trio learned of the think tank and its programs after visiting counterparts in Iowa who recently reorganized their environmental agency.
..... DeMaio founded The Performance Institute in 2001 with offices in Virginia and San Diego, where he was instrumental in helping to revamp that city’s government. According to one report, he supports “de-funding unions as part of the right’s long-term strategy to cement their long-term dominance.”