Can managers manage to clean up city?
Published Tuesday December 2nd, 2008
Last week, a Telegraph-Journal news team visited one of Saint John's 121 empty buildings. They found a shell of a residence, wrecked by vandals and littered with glass, its only occupant a dead rat.
City hall's failure to prevent this decline is emblematic of a larger problem. City staffers aren't managing their departments for better public service. In response to council's requests for change, managers are just as likely to shrug and say, "There's nothing we can do." The expectations are habitually low, and so is the level of performance.
That attitude hasn't impressed a new generation of councillors, particularly Donnie Snook. He recently panned a staff report on vacant buildings that was little more than a list of excuses. Councillors rejected the report and ordered staff to come back with effective solutions.
This is the first step toward bringing some accountability to city hall, and it's being taken by councillors who know Saint John can do better. The city can police dilapidated and unsightly properties, provided staff start pulling their weight in policy development and bylaw enforcement.
Cities such as Winnipeg and Edmonton have forced owners to clean up derelict properties by writing more effective bylaws. Council is relying on managers to learn from the best practices in Canada and apply similar solutions in Saint John. Derelict building owners are in violation of community standards, and should be billed for any cost the city incurs while policing their properties. The city's enforcement program must be designed to pay for itself.
Managers behave as though this is an impossible challenge, but other municipalities have managed it. It's a question of willpower and applying the city's resources wisely.
When the city manager and staff want an increase in their wages, they seem to be able to find the resources. When they want better benefits, they seem to be able to pull together third-party recommendations. Managers and councillors need to start dealing as proactively with matters that affect taxpayers.
In this case, council has set clear direction and established that the status quo is not an option. The ball is in management's court.
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All around us are people working very hard in cooperation with each other to find better ways to do things and to make our city better and all we are asking is for City Hall to join in and do their part.
Criticism and critique should never go away, it is healthy. But there is an anger building toward City Hall that is legitimate and informed and it must be addressed with leadership and action and not platitudes and PR.