Practically Speaking w/Julie Rubenstein
Julie Rubenstein
Reinventing County Government
Learning to live with or overcome starvation-level revenues is a critical problem for Josephine County government, and for the people it serves. None of the various strategies considered, proposed or deployed to date –restructuring of county departments, hiring freezes, waiting to see what dribbles out of Congress or the State Legislature, suing to take back our timberlands for lumber production — have much prospect of success. Even if something does work, taken alone or together none of these solutions will achieve the most-desired result — a high-functioning local government. Such coping strategies are only biting around the edges; they don’t address the inadequacies of an antiquated system that can no longer run in the same old grooves, fueled by an unstoppable supply of big timber.
It’s not necessary to re-invent the wheel. Reinventing government is a notion that’s been kicking around this country for over 15 years, thanks to a book of the same name by authors Ted Gaebler and David Osborne. Maybe it’s time our County’s elected leaders took a thoughtful look at some of its principles:
1. Government does not have to be a bureaucracy geared to delivering all public services at every level. Elected officials should focus on “steering” rather than “rowing.” “Steering,” say Gaebler and Osborne, “requires people who see the entire universe of issues and possibilities and can balance competing demands for resources. Rowing requires people who focus intently on one mission and perform it well.” Bureaucracies are full of rowers, and they’re led by rowers.
Our County Commissioners take up the oars every day, so focused are they on details of county administration (since they have no manager for this function) and so disconnected are they from one another that there is no chance they can even approach a good policy discussion, much less keep a steady hand on the helm or a keen eye on the horizon.
2. Tap into the power of the entrepreneurial process, free market forces and the committed communities that already exist to get the best bang for the buck. Public employees themselves can be incentivized to save money by allowing their departments to keep any cost savings they find within their own budgets, and apply it to other purposes instead of giving it back to the general fund. Freeing policy managers to shop around for the most effective and efficient service providers allows competition to drive up quality and accountability. As for committed communities, just take a look around at Josephine County: we have an unusually high concentration of volunteer-based nonprofits in the service delivery business, most of whom can operate leaner and meaner than any counterpart within the civil service system. Mental health services grew without any additional cost to county government when Options took it over. Gospel Rescue Mission is another agency that comes to mind, capable of providing a bed when our county jail cannot.
3. You can cut taxes, cut costs and improve services all at the same time by transforming from a rule-driven to a mission-driven organization.
Yes, this sounds a little like a product that guarantees you can lose weight without sacrificing any food, but it’s true. Our county, if it ever had a mission, seems to have long since forgotten it. To the average citizen looking at it from the outside, Josephine County’s mission appears simply to be a savage struggle for survival. Petty fights over who’s breaking rules or personality disputes dominate the headlines, and all the while we wonder when is anyone going to take on the challenge of how we fund our essential services five, ten or twenty years down the road? Our Sheriff tries to get a little entrepreneurial about relocating his headquarters - he’d save money and improve efficiency - but his good idea gets frustrated by rules made at a time when funding was steady and reliable. Yet I don’t see any policy makers working to make such rules more flexible or responsive to today’s needs - you get back to that rowing problem again.
There are more principles covered in Reinventing Government, including chapters on “Results-Oriented Government: Funding Outcomes, Not Inputs,” and “Customer-Driven Government: Meeting the Needs of the Customer, Not the Bureaucracy.” The book’s ideas are radical, visionary and transformative in the hands of the right reader - someone who actually holds the power to initiate change.
“Change” has now become the buzzword of the 2008 Presidential contest - and it wouldn’t be a bad thing to start looking for changes in County government as well. Maybe a good time to start such a dialogue will be in the run-up to the May primary, as two Commissioner seats go up for grabs. Let’s have a little talk with the candidates about steering versus rowing, maybe even ask them what they think the County’s mission is, or ought to be.
