Crains New York - July 29, 2013 - (Page 11)
LIANA DOWNEY AND MEGAN GOLDEN
Next mayor must be
an adept manager
H
ave you ever seen garbage bags left behind on
your curb and called 311? Did someone answer
promptly and help fix the problem?
Are the parks in your neighborhood clean?
Are city employment programs reducing
poverty in your neighborhood?
While the answers to such questions have much to do with
funding decisions, the management of city services plays an im-
portant, often unrecognized role.
Mayoral candidates can make
lofty promises, but unless they have
a well-thought-out management
plan, tools to make sure city workers
are efficient and a deep understanding of how to use data, their rhetoric
is moot.
We live in amazing times. The
amount of information we have on
social-service programs, employee
efficiency and specific populations in
our city is unprecedented. The next
mayor must understand how to use it,
continuing Michael Bloomberg’s
legacy of data-driven government.
Mr. Bloomberg hung a big screen
above his top aides’ heads, displaying
performance measures. He also gets
a biweekly report with green, yellow
and red flags rating the efficiency of
every sector of his administration.
And these information-management tools aren’t only used internally. The city’s “geek squad” has analyzed data to target poverty hot spots
for social services, used complex
maps to speed up tree removal after
Superstorm Sandy and even caught
restaurants illegally dumping grease
into sewers by looking at how much
grease companies were carting away
in each neighborhood.
But the city needs to go even further. The next mayor will have to
tackle some management issues that
this one ignored.
Most important, the city must fo-
Detroit’s lessons
for New York City
D
etroit’s bankruptcy filing calls to mind New
York’s narrow brush with insolvency in the mid1970s.Can Detroit learn from our history? And
what’s the takeaway for today’s New York?
Big job losses in both cities set the stage for
budgetary and social problems. Despite the stresses, New York
did not suffer the catastrophic population losses that Detroit
has—losses so extensive that people are actually farming depop-
ulated areas of the city. There are
many reasons for the differential impact, but one was the recognition by
city leaders here that public safety is a
foundation to everything else. Crime
rates rose for a time, but never to
Detroit’s levels. I doubt our leaders
would have tolerated the agonizingly
long waits for police and ambulances
to respond to emergency calls. Once
this vital area of public service breaks
down,the public loses faith in its government. Fixing it must be a priority.
New York has had its share of
corruption, but in modern times
never as deeply rooted as in Detroit.
Its local government has been overrun by grafters—from the former
mayor who is now in federal prison
to many others inside and outside
government who stole whatever
they could. Who knows how much
money is wasted through kickbacks,
no-bid contracts, contracts for work
never done, no-show jobs and the
ALAIR TOWNSEND
like? But it’s probably a lot.
As Detroit tries to right itself,
one of the best investments it could
make would be to hire or get on loan
a small army of auditors and inspectors general to assure the public that
precious dollars aren’t being looted.
Like Detroit, New York tried to
paper over its problems for years,
cus even more on outcomes. It is not
particularly useful to know,for example, that the city spent $80 million on
literacy efforts, that a family experiencing domestic violence was visited
10 times in a year or that 70% of
women 50 and older had a mammogram if we don’t know whether those
efforts improved literacy, changed
family behavior or increased the survival rate of women.Mr.Bloomberg’s
successor should report outcomes by
neighborhood in such areas as poverty, employment and health.
The next mayor must also have
personnel and policies that encourage the use of data and hold commissioners accountable if they miss
goals. He or she must know what’s
happening in our neighborhoods so
that local problems aren’t hidden by
a good citywide average, and ensure
that agencies collaborate and share
information and results, both good
and bad.
When we choose our next mayor, we are choosing the manager of a
$70 billion organization. It will take
superior management skills to get
the most from that money. We must
make sure the candidates are up to
the task.
Liana Downey is executive director of Liana
Downey & Associates, a strategic advisory
firm for governments and nonprofits. Megan
Golden is a fellow at the NYU Wagner
Graduate School of Public Service.
borrowing fruitlessly against the future. Detroit waited so long that its
infrastructure is crumbling, and
there are few services it can cut to
economize. Bankruptcy seemed to
be the best option, since a large
bailout from the state or federal government wasn’t going to happen.
New York’s municipal labor
unions worked to stave off bankruptcy because they didn’t want their
contracts nullified. At the time,
some argued that bankruptcy would
give New York a fresh start on pension and health insurance provisions
for its workers and contracts that ensured a full day’s work for a full day’s
pay. Contractual provisions that
constrain productivity and benefits
that are too generous still characterize New York today. Detroit can
wipe the slate clean with its filing.
Like New York at the time, Detroit needs decisive leadership. Decisions are now being made unilaterally by an emergency manager
appointed by the state. While many
howl at the loss of democracy, politics as usual has failed. Until the corner is turned, people shouldn’t waste
energy objecting.
New Yorkers shouldn’t take our
recovery for granted. We need to be
concerned about measures that
would hamstring the police. We
need to worry about a culture of corruption that still infects too many
elected officials. And we must continue to push for enhanced productivity from our city workers and reform of benefits that outstrip what
the paying customers—taxpayers—
get from their own employers.
July 29, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 11
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/events-MTAchairman
http://www.mogil.com
http://www.mogil.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - July 29, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REPORT: FOOD BUSINESS
FOR THE RECORD
REAL ESTATE DEALS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE BREAKFAST
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS
Crains New York - July 29, 2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130729
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130722
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130715
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130624
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130617
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130610
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130603
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130527
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130520
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130513
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130429
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130422
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130415
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130408
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130401
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130325
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130318
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130225
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130218
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130128
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130121
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130114
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121224
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121217
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121203_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121126
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121119
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121029
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120924
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120917
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120910_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120827
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120820
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120813
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120806_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120730
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120723
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120716
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120625
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120618
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120611
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120604
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120528
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120521
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120514
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/nxtd
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com