The U.S. economy may be sluggish, but as we noted, bureaucracy is booming. University of California bosses cry out for more taxpayer cash even as they bulk up on “diversity” bureaucrats. Universities nationwide are now cranking out administrators to fill these useless posts, but diversity bloat is hardly confined to education.

For example, new Sacramento city manager Howard Chan will try to “increase diversity” at city hall, and fill the recently created position of “diversity manager.” That pledge came in response to an “audit” showing that city management does not reflect the ethnic proportions of the population at large. If representation is not proportionate, according to diversity dogma, discrimination is always a problem and the only remedy is hiring on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender. Such “reverse discrimination” is actually illegal under Proposition 209, which Californians passed on November 5, 1996, but city officials elevate political correctness over the rule of law.

The new mayor of Sacramento is former state Senate boss Darrell Steinberg, on whose watch three Senators were busted on corruption charges. The Senate has been a hive of nepotism. Sergeant-at-arms Gerardo Lopez was involved in a gun battle that left one person dead, but he duly remained on the state payroll. Lopez’s wife worked for Steinberg in his policy unit, and Lopez’s mother was a big wheel in the Senate’s human resources department. What a cozy world.

Steinberg authored 2004’s Proposition 63, which hiked taxes to fund mental health services. The measure raised $8 billion by 2013, but according to news reports, mental health services had declined. The state auditor could not account for how the money was spent, and even the Sacramento Bee wondered if the money had been “shoved down a rat hole.”

Four years ago in 2012, voters faced four ballot measures on taxes and spending. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee held hearings on the measures, and the California Channel gave voters statewide a chance to gain insights from the testimony. Unfortunately, Senate boss Darrell Steinberg blocked citizens’ access by pulling the plug on the live broadcast. He then offered a lame apology in which he proclaimed, “I pride myself on being open and transparent.”

For Steinberg and his Sacramento cronies, “diversity” means the proportionality dogma, which is not state law. Since hiring by racial, ethnic and gender preferences is in fact illegal, the “diversity manager” position is pure waste. On the other hand, taxpayers can find true diversity in the mixture of waste, secrecy, corruption and nepotism now so common in government at all levels.