The crisis continues

The Employment Development Department has been mired in crisis for more than a year now. The massive backlog in unemployment claim processing hasn’t really budged, millions of daily calls go unanswered, fraud is rampant – estimated at $11 to $31 billion – and appeals can take over three months; the failure list is long.

There’s plenty of blame to go around too. Former Governor Jerry Brown ignored a 2011 audit that pointed out EDD’s shortcomings, and new directives from the Governor have proven to be inadequate and ineffective. So, what can be done to fix this mess?

I recently met with newly ap...