Jason suggests that city employee minions can actually sit across the desk from their director boss and have a conversation (I chuckled when he said that employees told him they were never allowed to share their ideas with the directors one on one in the past administration – wonder where that directive came from?)
He also says the city should use active data to make the city run more efficiently. I thought they did that already? Anytime they want to raise our taxes or fees they just hire a consultant to run those numbers and tell us they need to raise our taxes.
Jason also makes the goofy claim that the mayor is the CEO of our city. They just can’t get over the fact that government and business don’t run the same way. They need to take a gander at the charter, the Mayor is actually a employee manager. Policy is to be set by the legislative branch, the city council, not by the mayor or his Innovation Guru.
All this aside, Jason has some good ideas, data should drive decisions. When Bruce and I put together 4 winning campaigns our strategy was always based on data first. Messaging and fancy graphic design is secondary. We have to know if candidates can win, and the only way you figure that out is by running the numbers and telling those candidates what they have to do to achieve their goals. I have often been surprised that the city doesn’t have a full time data mining and analytical department running the numbers in all departments constantly. Maybe Jason will change that. Also, I have often been baffled we can’t fix our transit problem. You simply put a team on researching other markets as to what they do and what works. This isn’t rocket science kids. We have to admit it will cost money initially, just like a public ambulance service, but if you do it right to start with, you can make it efficient. Jason said it, it’s not going to be his ideas that fix problems but others. The most successful people in the world have never had original ideas, just fragments of other great ideas.
Governmental entities at all levels are suppose to be democratic. Corporations are not.
Government is often legitimately involved in things that do not turn a profit, while all corporations exist to only turn a profit.
A true democratic society works from the bottom to the top, while the corporate mentality is top to bottom.
So given all of this, why do politicians, their cronies, and technocrats continue to use phrases like CEO to describe political leaders, or embrace the idea of “running government like a business?”
#IncrementallyStealingOurDemocracy
The mayor is a CEO. A better term is Godfather. The city is democractic. Rather, they hide behind democracy when (realistically) they are a socialist network of a few insiders who own the mayor. Name any one time they’ve had a profitable scheme. It’s a slot machine that must pay once in awhile for infrastructure. Even then, it’s inflated rigged contracts amongst a few feudal lords.
Taco, corporations are by structure authoritarian. Our current political “leaders” refuse to understand how to actually listen because it’s easier to just tell us the happy talk they believe we want.
Corporate mentality is the selling of a marketing message to rule. There is a huge leap between ruling and governing. Ruling is dictates and commands. Governing is bringing people together for a common goals.
We do not have government local, state or federal based on governing, we have many ignorant rulers telling us what to do. If we don’t do what we are told, we are relegated to suffer the consequences, so say our rulers.
I think maybe the thought process behind the name CEO is to run government efficiently like a good business would. Too often (last administration) government employees are spending money like water and wasting tax dollars. Government has one advantage, it does not have turn a profit but, they sure know how to F&*$ it up and lose money on everything, this Water treatment 260M bill is an example. If city were a business and I am not advocating it is, it would find out, who are my customers. The customer is the tax payer, what benefits MOST of my customers the most? Would a new water treatment facility be top priority, a indoor pool, an events center, or a new govt building? Hmmmmm the answer is simple, the Water Treatment facility, not that other crap, it was all unnecessary
Any organization, public or private, should be run efficiently, but when you invoke the word “CEO,” then you are no longer a lower case democrat, rather you have become a full blown corporatist.
Corporations are run by a board and its CEO with a gathering of stockowners, who for the most part are merely a rubber stamp for the board. A cynical person would say it is like the old communist Soviet Union, its Politiburo, and its Supreme Soviet, but I will leave that thought to others to ponder, or attempt to justify….
I wonder how the GIS folks feel about having all of this new responsibility foisted on them? The functions that Jason mentions will be moving to the GIS department are outside of their skillset.
As someone who’s worked in IT for over 20 years the direction he’s taking stinks of decisions driven by hubris. He might think this all sounds great, but it’s obvious to me that he doesn’t have the in-depth experience required to successfully direct the IT and Central Services departments.