If Chris Johnson and Vicky Heller are both saying there are cost savings that could be made, and waste that could be cut out, then there is a good possibility one could surmise (by triangulation from such different perspectives) that indeed it could be and probably IS true!
Anyone who has driven by some of the City road crews is usually struck by the fact that a lot of people are standing or sitting watching a very few people work. As for Park workers, a few years ago a great joke made the rounds about a couple of Park Board workers standing leaning on shovels. Suddenly one worker yelled and hit a snail with his shovel. When asked about his action by the other worker the snail killer replies, " That damn thing has been following me around all day long." In all seriousness, we have fine Minneapolis City workers, but we seem to have damn poor management. We seem to have management people who seek to synthesis their management theory from beginning with Peter Principle and insisting it be directed according to Murphy's Laws. As a graduate student studying social organization I would have doubted the ability to synthesis such disparate theoretical systems into one incoherent management style, but in the observable real world Minneapolis has adequately demonstrated that such a synthesis is indeed possible. It is not that you do not have capable people coming into the system, it is that management has been dummied down for years. Our last twenty + years have been marked by either poor attention by a Mayor and City Council, then cronyism that felt threatened by capable people, and now micro management of many of the old cronies by those who have little or no management experience in the real world. (Maybe, they are actually doing better than one should have hoped for given those parameters!) Good general question for the readers. Before being elected, how much management experience did each of our Council Members and Mayor have, and at what management level? Since even mid-level management in the "real world" make higher salaries than either CM's or Minneapolis' Mayors, can we expect more from those who seek to make a career of such a position; rather than doing it part time or for a short period of time? Heck, even mid level City employees, of questionable talent, make more than our elected officials. It may be the reason we need committed and talented "amateurs" from the real world "donating" time and talent for a short period of elected life and then moving on to make room for other talented people to make the sacrifice, rather than becoming career politicians. Vicky complains about NRP, but that has made clear improvements in the City, and is what Federal CDBG funds are actually intended for. Compare the waste and mismanagement of those NRP funds to the waste of the true "Professionals", who we hire and elect, and it is sure to give one the impression that the "professionals" are truly "professional" at wasting money, and the "amateur" residents are indeed not nearly as proficient at wastage. Heck, they (NRP) are so bad at it that the real estate values have quadrupled in my neighborhood in the last four years because of NRP. No, all the petty bureaucracies of neighborhood NRP, and the thousands of residents who participate in it does not even hold a candle to what our professional Park and School Boards and the forty or fifty elected or hired professional for Minneapolis are able to accomplish at waste. That is probably the excuse for the City Leaders sometimes wanting to kill NRP. Our leaders can and have accurately surmised that NRP is not nearly as efficient at wasting tax payer dollars as they (the "Professionals") are at such wastage. Even politicians can do that math. Even as a Democrat, I can find very little else, (but the value of NRP) to argue with Vicky Heller about on her analysis of waste and inefficient spending of tax dollars in Minneapolis. We perhaps do need to look at the other side, however. Could some readers, who are arguing with Vicky and Chris, please point out to us all some of the very effective, efficient, and creative ideas of our esteemed leaders, which have saved tax payer dollars? (And before someone gets carried away, not mowing the darn City Parks was NOT one of them). Also, could we start a contest to give perhaps a $100 or even a $1000 prize to the person who posts the best suggestion to save tax payer dollars each week and each month? Maybe call it the "Karnac" prize! It would be cheap "Citizen Participation" of both residents and workers for the City of Minneapolis. Or better yet, how about five percent of the first year's savings generated by the idea? Now with the amount of monitoring that Chris has been doing for us with the Park Board, I can not believe he has not gained some very valuable insight into cost saving ideas there. Maybe we should have a "List" party somewhere and make it so that you had to contribute a "GOOD IDEA" into a bucket as an admission cost to the party. Saving tax dollars could become an annual event. Maybe schedule it the month after our property tax bills are sent out. Who says saving tax dollars can't be fun? ------------------------------------------------------- First suggestion: Wouldn't it be cheaper to apply a little pro-active police and inspections "EDUCATION" to Barb Lickness' shooting problem house than to allow it to keep going on? How many times does Barb have to write about that darn place before a City Council Member or Precinct Commander(Chris) gets the message? Let's leave "Quality of Life" and "Social Justice" issues out for a minute and just focus on immediate real dollar costs. What are the emergency room and hospital costs for some one who has been shot, social services, and criminal justice system afterwards? I bet a WHOLE lot more than just applying a little pro-active "education" before hand. Perhaps some "Thugs" are so ignorant of Minneapolis life that they have just not realized that such behavior is really not permissible, even if it is an "Impacted Neighborhood" and they are shooting at drug dealer and gang-member friends. It is just cheaper to not allow "Thugs" to live in and amongst our families with children, than to pay for our children to be treated at HCMC for gunshot trauma. Good business means quickly changing the "Thug's" ways and lifestyle with pro active "Education", or running them the hell out of town. (Hell is herein used as a colorful word or expression and is not intended as the inflammatory type that has heat) Smile and say "Hey" to your neighbors, it's a be'utiful day in the Neighborhood! Jim Graham, Ventura Village, Phillips Community Planning District, Third Precinct and the Sixth Ward of Minneapolis REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
