You can improve local government
It's not too late to make a New Year's resolution, and I've got a suggestion.
First, read this semi-recent column, and then go to your favorite city council, board of supervisors or other government board meeting.
At the meeting, sign up for unscheduled oral communications, and use your three minutes to ask them to state their goals for the year, identify funding sources and put together timelines. Also request that the board give regular updates about efforts to realize its goals.
Tell the board you'll use your allowed time at every meeting until it follows your suggestions. And because you're a thoughtful, caring person, you'll understand if they don't start governing in this manner until the start of the 2008/09 fiscal year in mid-summer.
If all of this is too much for them to comprehend, pass out copies of the column. Maybe then, they'll grasp the concepts of setting and realizing goals and maximizing tax dollars -- instead of governing crisis to crisis and sound-bite to sound-bite.
Believe it or not, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors is starting to adopt some of my suggestions about governing by objective. In a recent opinion piece in The Bee, board chairman Henry R. Perea outlined the board's goals for 2008 and provided a framework for achieving them.
I know my request for your action involves heavy lifting, but our boards and councils must change the way they govern and do business. If you take up the challenge, post your experiences on this blog or e-mail me at bmcewen@fresnobee.com.
Comments:
Bill is absolutely right. The more involvement from the community the more effective government is at working for the people.
Look for the Board of Supervisors to provide quarterly updates on the progress of the various projects that Bill referenced in my editorial piece.
Posted by: Henry Perea at January 16, 2008 1:49 PM
"Management by Objective" has its limitations. W Edwards Deming, The American who went to Japan after WWII and taught Toyota how to make cars, was against it. He favored, as might be expected, his own management style that has come to be known as "Total Quality Management" and is outlined in his book, "The New Economics--For Industry, Government, Education", 1994. Toyota, we may recall, taught the Big Three a thing or two, but, as we can see, they have learned their lessons poorly and I would not expect local government to do any better.
Sure Bill, I'll bite on your challenge with the following offerings, which might be applied singly or in combination:
1. Six month term limits. Six months is about the length of time it takes a fresh, ethical and enthusiastic official to come under the influence of the Local Elite who actively buy off officials with Sweet Deals, Junkets, Fancy Dinners or just about anything fresh official might desire.Re This would also select for Fast Learners in government, a quality very much in need.
2. Require all candidates to submit personal financial statements and require that they be within the 90th percentile in both net worth and income of the the people within the geographical area they serve. This eliminates the top 10 percent whose business interests would prevent them absolutely from objectively fulfilling their public responsibilities.
3. Require that they continue to submit statements for a few years after they leave office and agree to donate 90% of increases to the government agencies they served. We would allow them a cost of living adjustment, of course.
Posted by: John Warner at January 17, 2008 9:44 AM
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