Keep Shining

Carla Hills, 43, a California lawyer who since 1975 has been Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:

This job is no different from any in the private sector. The people who work in Government want to be stimulated. They want to know what's going to be accomplished by when, and whether anybody cares. You've got to be able to manage at HUD, not know how to build a house.

Bureaucracy means people to me --it's not a neuter monster. I've got people I don't deserve at both ends of the spectrum [meaning both good and bad]. That means the system moves slowly, but that's the democratic system. The trade off is one America is not willing to make.

Frequent changes at the top plus a slightly tarnished image have hurt HUD over the years, but I'll be handing over a shiny piece of machinery.

Some 85% of the work is mechanized. I can tell you how many hours an insurance form takes to process. We've tried to get local governments going on their goals-management systems. If my successor carries out a managerial approach, then HUD employees will be very responsive.

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