To read Dottie Titus' description of the MPRB building and grounds, I am not
certain I really visited the place last June; the view is nice and the
facilities are more than adequate, but I can't share the other good feelings
knowing
what it cost in light of today's shortfalls.
Shawne FitzGerald's call for business plans and budget narratives is good,
but to me the Park Board must face a struggle to define leadership roles at
MPRB. My views on leadership are rooted in times and localities where no
political ideologies are recognized. Leadership by a single dominant male is
pretty
common in great apes, but if you're an ape being led, the quality of that
leadership makes quite a difference, i.e., the benevolent dictator vs. the
alliance
builder. Have we really moved beyond this? I may be wrong, but the Board is
supposed to be in the leadership role and staff, including that great ape Jon
Gurban, implements policy established by the Board; I don't think this has
happened for a long, long time and things must change now--I gotta think
something
is wrong when only five folks can agree on most important issues before the
board.
I find that most leadership roles in government can be superfluous, even
irrelevant, to the running of it; government and human organizations run from a
momentum of habit, except when a leader or a group of leaders can harness folks
in another direction. If your habits are good, then things are fine; if they
are bad, then you are in trouble. MPRB is in trouble. Walt Dziedzic may have
saved some free lunches ("no free lunch?" a little ironic when using economic
arguments like FitzGerald's), but he and the other members of the present cabal
of five have dropped the ball in not demanding the sort of information that
FitzGerald suggests is necessary to running MPRB. He, Jon Gurban, and the rest
of this cabal can take a rest and think about the issues somewhere besides the
MPRB headquarters if we all vote to send them home with our "Thanks, but no
thanks."
Bill Kahn
dragging his aching body to work in Prospect Park
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