Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Why We Can Barely Manage

Last column we wrote about the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats hidden deep inside the belly of the beast, where they actually run the City of Toledo. Protected by a firewall of civil service and union contract protections, they resist all attempts by upper management and the Mayor to rein them in.

But wait, you say. How can this be, you say. Wouldn’t a truly professional management team know how to corral and inspire the city workforce? Wouldn’t they understand the nuances of civil service and union rules and manage accordingly? Couldn’t they navigate the difficulties and lead with professional courage and vigor?

You betcha, Sparky. A truly professional management team could probly do all those things. We only gots one problem, though. The City is mostly run by crackpots, hackbots, and down-on-their-luck sad sacks. Competent managerial talent mostly stays in the private sector. The occasional bright light that comes into public employment usually runs back to private employment as fast as their little legs can carry them.

Solve the crisis of city management and we might just realize our unbounded potential. So what’s the problem?

Show us the money

First, there’s the money. Mayor HH is effectively the CEO of a corporation with a budget that exceeds six hundred mill, with revenue from numerous sources and expenditures just as varied. She must manage a diverse workforce of nearly three thousand, a physical plant that sprawls across the city, and a large fleet of vehicles. In the private sector, a similar CEO would receive millions in annual compensation. Their seconds in command would be compensated in the high six figures at least.

This isn’t the private sector, though. Paula gets a bit over one hundred grand per annum. Her top management gets even less, usually around ninety grand. Try luring top talent on that chicken scratch. 

Case in point. Former Mayor D. Mike Collins once pilfered Matt Sapara from the Port Authority to lead economic development efforts for the City by convincing Council to increase his salary over that of every other director. The salary was below that of a rising star in the private sector, but still a good wage. Sapara lasted less than a year before bolting to take a better paying gig with Mercy Health Partners.

Politics, and Carty

That brings us to problem numero dos. Sapara didn’t just leave for the money. He was also fed up with the political BS upper management must slop through in the public sector.

In the private sector, deals just get done. In the City, however, deals run into uninformed members of Council, curmudgeonly members of the citizenry, and the sarcastic barbs of media types like us. It can get frustrating having to explain simple math to the same numb-kin-poops over and over again.

Then there’s that little thing called transparency. The bane of effective negotiations, it is unheard of in the private sector, but nevertheless demanded by all of the above numb-kin-poops in the public sector.  Tired of political gamesmanship, Sapara ran screaming back to the non-transparent confines of private employment. Ditto Robin Whitney, who took a flying leap from city management to ProMedica.

Forget job security

Low wages and dip sticks nipping at your heels not enough to keep top talent away from public employment? Then here’s strike three. Absolute lack of anything resembling job security.

   Top management in the City is employed at the fickle whim of whomever is elected Mayor. Since there is a high turnover on twenty-two, the whimsy up there is enough to make you woozy. Who would want to bet their child’s college education on the whims of the likes of Carty and D. Mikey C.?

Top management in the City is subject to political favors and grudges rather than competence. Run afoul of the fool in charge, you’re out on yer ear. Why would the competent want to serve at the will of the merely loud?

They wouldn’t. And generally don’t. That’s the two-horned problem in city governance. We’re left with the incompetent leading the recalcitrant. 

That leaves one last bastion, the last chance to save the city. The elected class. The Mayor and Council can be the beacons of professional competence to lead us to the promised land. 

Right. Do you read this column regularly? ‘Nuff said.

Last column we wrote about the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats hidden deep inside the belly of the beast, where they actually run the City of Toledo. Protected by a firewall of civil service and union contract protections, they resist all attempts by upper management and the Mayor to rein them in.

But wait, you say. How can this be, you say. Wouldn’t a truly professional management team know how to corral and inspire the city workforce? Wouldn’t they understand the nuances of civil service and union rules and manage accordingly? Couldn’t they navigate the difficulties and lead with professional courage and vigor?

You betcha, Sparky. A truly professional management team could probly do all those things. We only gots one problem, though. The City is mostly run by crackpots, hackbots, and down-on-their-luck sad sacks. Competent managerial talent mostly stays in the private sector. The occasional bright light that comes into public employment usually runs back to private employment as fast as their little legs can carry them.

Solve the crisis of city management and we might just realize our unbounded potential. So what’s the problem?

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Show us the money

First, there’s the money. Mayor HH is effectively the CEO of a corporation with a budget that exceeds six hundred mill, with revenue from numerous sources and expenditures just as varied. She must manage a diverse workforce of nearly three thousand, a physical plant that sprawls across the city, and a large fleet of vehicles. In the private sector, a similar CEO would receive millions in annual compensation. Their seconds in command would be compensated in the high six figures at least.

This isn’t the private sector, though. Paula gets a bit over one hundred grand per annum. Her top management gets even less, usually around ninety grand. Try luring top talent on that chicken scratch. 

Case in point. Former Mayor D. Mike Collins once pilfered Matt Sapara from the Port Authority to lead economic development efforts for the City by convincing Council to increase his salary over that of every other director. The salary was below that of a rising star in the private sector, but still a good wage. Sapara lasted less than a year before bolting to take a better paying gig with Mercy Health Partners.

Politics, and Carty

That brings us to problem numero dos. Sapara didn’t just leave for the money. He was also fed up with the political BS upper management must slop through in the public sector.

In the private sector, deals just get done. In the City, however, deals run into uninformed members of Council, curmudgeonly members of the citizenry, and the sarcastic barbs of media types like us. It can get frustrating having to explain simple math to the same numb-kin-poops over and over again.

Then there’s that little thing called transparency. The bane of effective negotiations, it is unheard of in the private sector, but nevertheless demanded by all of the above numb-kin-poops in the public sector.  Tired of political gamesmanship, Sapara ran screaming back to the non-transparent confines of private employment. Ditto Robin Whitney, who took a flying leap from city management to ProMedica.

Forget job security

Low wages and dip sticks nipping at your heels not enough to keep top talent away from public employment? Then here’s strike three. Absolute lack of anything resembling job security.

   Top management in the City is employed at the fickle whim of whomever is elected Mayor. Since there is a high turnover on twenty-two, the whimsy up there is enough to make you woozy. Who would want to bet their child’s college education on the whims of the likes of Carty and D. Mikey C.?

Top management in the City is subject to political favors and grudges rather than competence. Run afoul of the fool in charge, you’re out on yer ear. Why would the competent want to serve at the will of the merely loud?

They wouldn’t. And generally don’t. That’s the two-horned problem in city governance. We’re left with the incompetent leading the recalcitrant. 

That leaves one last bastion, the last chance to save the city. The elected class. The Mayor and Council can be the beacons of professional competence to lead us to the promised land. 

Right. Do you read this column regularly? ‘Nuff said.

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