Buffalo Ideas

Boston Uses i Phone As A Tool For Citizens

Check out this interesting article from the Boston Globe. First how cool is it that the City of Boston has an employee with a job title of Senior Adviser For Emerging Technology. 

In any event the 36 year old Senior Adviser of Emerging Technology and another 28 year old assistant to the Mayor of Boston have created an i Phone application that allows people to file a complaint with City Hall by taking a photo with their i phone and sending it in. The application will be free to download from Apple.

While everyone does not have an i Phone it is a creative use of technology allowing citizens additional ways to communicate with City Hall in an instant and visual way. Would something like this make sense for Buffalo?

Why You Need To Fail

My friend Navpreet Jatna brought to my attention a great article published at www.harvardbusiness.org by Peter Bregman titled Why You Need to Fail.

According to Bregman "Everytime I ask a room of executives to list the top five moments their careers took a leap forward - not just a step, but a leap-failure is always on the list. For some it was a loss of a job. For others it was a project gone bad. And for others still it was the failure of a larger system, like an economic downturn, that required them to step up."

Most of us myself included do not take enough chances in life because we fear failure. Talent grows with persistence and effort and we should seek failure as an opportunity to improve. Bregman states that "People with a growth mindset feel smart when they're learning, not when they're flawless."

I love the segment of the article regarding Michael Jordan. I have seen some great footage of Jordan hitting the last shot to win a game several times. What we don't see are the many times Jordan missed the game winning shot:

"Michael Jordan, arguably the world's best basketball player, has a growth mindset. Most successful people do. In high school he was cut from the basketball team but that obviously didn't discourage him: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

In order to grow we all need to take more chances in life!

I Witnessed A Great Random Act Of Kindness

I am teaching two evening criminal justice classes at Bryant & Stratton College located on Main Street near Court in Downtown Buffalo. When I have a break between classes I hang outside on Main Street for a few minutes.

The other night when I went outside I noticed a street person who I have seen around sleeping on a bench. He was an older white guy with a grey scraggly beard. One of the Bryant & Stratton students a young African American male came out onto Main Street and as he was walking by he pulled a bottle of water out of his bag and placed it next to the sleeping street person. I thought wow that was nice.

As the young student walked away he came back and took a banana out of his bag and placed it next to the head of the sleeping street person and walked off. It was a great sight to watch as it unfolded. A great random act of kindness done in a quiet and anonymous way.

The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team

I just finished reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. The book which is written as a fable is a good read and makes the point that teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage because it is so powerful and so rare. Organizations fail to achieve teamwork because they unknowingly fall prey to five pitfalls.

The five dysfunctions of a team are:

1) Absence of trust (Invulnerability) - Great teams do not hold back with one another. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns and debate without fear of reprisal. Trusting teams mix it up a lot.

2) Fear of conflict (Artificial harmony) - If team members do not trust each other, then there will not be open, constructive, ideological conflict. A false sense of artificial harmony will exist.

3) Lack of commitment (Ambiguity) - A lack of healthy conflict is a problem. The failure to commit to a plan or decision. When people don't unload their opinions and feel like they've been listened to, they won't really get on board.

4) Avoidance of accountability (Low standards) - Once clarity and buy-in is achieved, we then have to hold each other accountable for high standards of performance. Most people hate to do it, especially when it comes to a peer's behavior, because they want to avoid interpersonal discomfort. People aren't going to hold each other accountable if they haven't clearly bought into the same plan.

5) Inattention to results (Status & ego) - The tendency of team members to seek out individual recognition and attention at the expense of team results.

Most of our government bodies such as the town board, city council, county legislature and state legislature unfortunately suffer from the dysfunctions listed above.

The opposite of a dysfunctional team is one where:

1) They trust one another
2) They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas
3) They commit to decisions and plans of action
4) They hold one another accountable for delivering those plans
5) They focus on the achievement of collective results

What do you think? Do the five dysfunctions make sense to you? Is your company or organization that you are a part of a dysfunctional team or are you one of the lucky ones working for a great team?

Eco-friendly Pizza Box

Re-posted this from www.danpink.com What do you think about this pizza box invention?

Idea of the day: Eco-friendly pizza box

Published June 19th, 2009

Watch this 45-second video. Then smack yourself on the forehead for not thinking of it first.

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Buffalo School Board Supports The Status Quo

When people achieve success in life by following a certain process or way of doing things, they become reluctant to change. They like "the existing state of affairs", which is the dictionary definition of status quo.

In a typical Buffalo school board election held in the month of May, 3 to 5 % of registered voters cast a vote. Councilmember Joe Golombek has advocated for moving school board elections to November, when other offices are on the ballot and significantly more voters participate. Sam Hoyt is sponsoring legislation along with Bill Stachowski in the State Legislature to move school board elections to November.

Only Chris Jacobs on the Buffalo School Board supports moving school elections to November. "This is currently a failed democratic experiment" stated Jacobs. I agree with Jacobs and support moving school elections to November.

People who successfully win an election with a 3 to 5% voter turn out, fear subjecting themselves to more voters. The like the system just the way it is as it has worked for them. We need leaders who are willing to take chances, who are open to new ways of educating children and new ways of running a school system. If you have a vision and a passion for education you should welcome the opportunity to communicate that message to even more people.

What do you think about moving school board elections from May to November?

One Way To End The Gridlock In The New York State Senate

 

New York State government is at a gridlock due to a leadership dispute that has the State Senate locked in a 31 to 31 tie as to which party is in control. In normal times the Lt. Governor would be the tie breaker, but given the lack of ethics in Albany which brought about the resignation of Governor Spitzer we do not have a Lt. Governor.

The town of Cave Creek in the Phoenix Arizona area recently had two candidates receive the same number of votes in an election. Apparently an obscure Arizona law dating to 1925 states that election ties should be broken "by lot". The tie in Cave creek was broken by cutting cards. One candidates king of hearts beat out the others six of hearts to decide the winner.

This is not the first time an election tie has been resolved in Arizona this way. Last year, two school board candidates rolled dice to decide a winner and in 1992 a game of poker resolved a primary election for a state legislative seat.

Perhaps we need to break out some cards to resolve our mess in New York State!

To Inspire A Group You Need Three Brave People!

I love the video below and the comments that I have copied from Seth Godin's site www.sethgodin.com

Check it out.

Guy #3

from Seth's Blog by Seth Godin

Paul just sent over this video of a dance tribe forming spontaneously at a music festival.

My favorite part happens just before the first minute mark. That's when guy #3 joins the group. Before him, it was just a crazy dancing guy and then maybe one other crazy guy. But it's guy #3 who made it a movement.

Initiators are rare indeed, but it's scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it's a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.

We need more guy #3s.

Positive Buffalo Area News!

• Two Buffalo companies made Inc. Magazine's Inner City 100 list, which recognizes the nation's fastest growing inner city businesses. Advanced Educational Products Inc.(AEP) was ranked No. 9 on the list, SLR Contracting & Service placed 15th on the list. AEP, sells books in large volume to institutional customers such as colleges. AEP has 30 employees and had revenues of $7.8 million last year. SLR has 30 employees and had revenues of $18.9 million through its construction work.

• Greatbatch Inc. based in Clarence, formally opened their new $10 million headquarters. Greatbatch which has 700 local employees, has added 60 new research and engineering jobs since 2006. 

• API Heat Transfer located in Cheektowaga, with 400 employees has expanded their manufacturing operation by adding 54,000 square feet to their plant. The company produces industrial strength heat transfer and exchange systems.

• Cleveland Biolabs, which relocated to Buffalo in 2007 has received a $15 million investment over three years, from a Russia based venture capital fund. The investment will fund the development of compounds for cancer applications.

Talented Teachers Have Options, Can Buffalo Compete With Suburban Schools?

Business First has released a report regarding school district salaries. Much to my surprise Buffalo teachers rank 70th out of 71 for starting salaries at $33,900, and 71st for peak salaries at $73,943.

Compared to Buffalo's salary of $33,900, starting salaries for suburban schools are:

2) Williamsville $42,059
8) Grand Island $40,068

Compared to Buffalo's peak salary of $73,943, peak salaries for suburban schools are:

1) Grand Island   $91,390
2) Sweet Home   $90,893
3) Depew            $89,170

I know that Buffalo schools have a lot of issues to address in regard to student performance, however I believe that progress is being made in Buffalo. Talented employees are a key part of the success of any organization. Talented teachers have options. Why would a talented teacher accept a job that requires them to live in the City of Buffalo, to deal with students suffering from poverty at a salary of $33,900 (70th out of 71) when 69 other choices will pay them more now and pay up to $18,000 more as a peak salary at the end of their career? I am not saying that Buffalo does not have talented and dedicated teachers. All I am saying is that attracting quality teachers is a competitive market and can Buffalo compete with suburban schools given residency requirements, student issues and the lower salary being provided?

What do you think?

Buffalo Puts Crime Data On-line

It took a while but what started as an idea first mentioned here turned into a resolution by Councilmember Joseph Golombek calling for the public to be able to access neighborhood crime data on line. Golombek's resolution was passed by the Common Council and just recently implemented by Mayor Byron Brown and the Buffalo Police Dept.

As reported in the Buffalo News by going to www.crimereports.com  residents can type in their address and view a map that displays where reported crimes have occurred in their neighborhood. Crime Reports is an interesting tool for providing crime information to the public.

290 Candidates In Detroit!

Wow, the City of Detroit, which is a mess in many ways has 290 candidates who have filed petitions to get their name on the ballot for an August 4th primary. 206 candidates have filed petitions for nine City Council spots and 9 candidates have filed for Mayor.

Running for office is not an easy thing to do and I respect anyone who is willing to step into the arena of public life. We need people who are willing to raise new ideas and advocate for change. Ideas for change typically come from pissed off people, who can't take it anymore and decide to do something about it.

I wish we had more people willing to vote and willing to seek public office. It will be interesting to see how 290 candidates plays out in Detroit. In Western New York we have far too many uncontested elections.

Big Thinking and Radical Dreaming For Schools

The New York Times recently asked Joel Klein the Chancellor of New York City Schools "What would he do if the sky really were the limit, if he were not just schools chancellor, but schools czar?"

Klein's response:

• Require every student to visit a college before finishing fifth grade. "It's a way of inculcating a culture in which a kid's circumstance, family background, poverty, don't influence the vision of what her options are."

• Reduce the number of teachers by 30 percent and increase their pay 30 percent slowly over time. "Through distance learning and other individualized teaching approaches, we may be able to reduce the need in the future for teachers' overall numbers and increase their pay." Mr. Klein is a fan of a book titled "Liberating Learning:Technology, Politics and the Future of Education, " by Terry Moe & John Chubb. Mr. Moe's vision is of a world where teachers are welcome assets but kids could "basically work it out on their own". In 20 or 30 years, Moe predicts that most schools will be a "hybrid model where there is a physical school, a place where they go and have clubs and sports activities and drama, but then for their academic course work, they might take most of it online."

• Klein cites as a model for the future of schools NYCischool. Check out the web link.

    What do you think of Klein's ideas?

Career Advice For Recent Graduates

During the months of May and June many people will be graduating from High School and college. Commencement speakers will offer all kinds of advice for making it in the world. Author Dan Pink www.danpink.com  has written a great book that I highly recommend for anyone graduating from school titled The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need.

In addition to a great message Pink's book is written utilizing a comic book format, which makes it interesting and easy to read. The book makes 6 points, which I quote from below.

1) There Is No Plan - You can't at age 18, 21, or even later in life map it all out. The world changes fast. Ten years from now your job might be in India. Your industry might not even exist. Instead of a plan you need to make smart choices. Take a job or join a company because it will let you do interesting work in a cool place, even if you don't know exactly where it will lead. Study Art History instead of accounting if that's what really turns you on, even if you don't know where that will lead.

2) Think Strengths Not Weaknesses - Successful people don't try too hard to improve what they're bad at, they capitalize on what they're good at. What are your strengths? What do you do consistently well? What gives you energy rather than drains it? You won't accomplish anything until you stop worrying about your weaknesses and start using your strengths.

3) It's Not About You - It's about your customer, your client. The most successful people improve their own lives by improving the lives of others. They help their customer solve its problem. They give their client something it didn't know was missing. That's where they focus their energy, talent and brainpower.

4) Persistence Trumps Talent - The people who achieve the most are often the ones who stick with it when others don't. The world is littered with talented people who didn't persist, who didn't put in the hours who gave up too early, who thought they could ride on talent alone.

5) Make Excellent Mistakes - Too many people spend their time avoiding mistakes and they never try anything, which means they never do anything. Their focus is on avoiding failure. The most successful people make spectacular mistakes, huge, honking screwups, because they are trying to do something big. Each time they make a mistake, they get better and a little closer to excellence. I'm not talking about random, stupid, thoughtless blunders but mistakes that come from having high aspirations, from trying to do something nobody else has done.

6) Leave An Imprint - You're young now, but when you get older and look back at your life, you'll ask yourself whether you made a difference, did your being here matter. Many people get towards the end of their lives and don't like their answers and by then it's almost too late. I'm not asking you to end hunger, but I am asking you to think about your purpose and to recognize that you should use your limited time here to do something that matters.

What do you think of the advice stated above? Would you add or subtract anything?

Buffalo Control Board Votes Down BMHA Labor Contract

In a 5 to 3 vote the Buffalo Control Board voted down a BMHA labor contract submitted for their review. Several months ago the Control Board approved a 7 year City of Buffalo labor contract (2004-2011). Over a period of 7 years City employees received an average raise of about 3% per year. The City contract moved employees to a cheaper health insurance plan, reduced vacation and personal time for employees, increased the number of steps to reach the top pay level from 5 to 7.

We at the BMHA foolishly thought the Control Board in approving the City labor contract set out some parameters for us to follow. So we pretty much proposed the same exact wage and health insurance package as the City contract and ours got voted down. The logic truly escapes me. Believe it or not BMHA has eliminated over 100 jobs the past few years and through good budgeting practices has built up a healthy reserve, that we do not have to touch to pay for the proposed labor contract. If the City labor contract was good enough for the Control Board why is BMHA's contract treated differently?

BMHA is easy to beat up. Very few people support providing public housing for poor people and no one wants a public housing development in their neighborhood. County Executive Chris Collins stated that he does not like authorities because they have the ability to act without any checks or balances and pretty much do whatever they want. That is far from the truth for BMHA. The biggest problem BMHA has is that it cannot escape the death grip of city politics. BMHA does not have the freedom to make good and decent decisions. Every step it takes is compromised by the politics of whoever occupies the Mayor's office.

The Control Board compared BMHA truck driver salaries to the City of Buffalo and did not like the fact that the BMHA salaries were $4,000 higher. None of our employees are just truck drivers as they perform a variety of tasks. A valid comparison would be to compare BMHA salaries to other Housing Authorities that have to operate under the constraints of HUD regulations.

The BMHA labor contract contained some significant achievements that were not recognized by the Control Board:

• Imagine being the CEO of an organization and having no ability to change employee work or shift schedules. Where employees had to agree to change their work schedule. While far from the real world that is the case currently at BMHA. This labor contract corrected that.

• Having Housing Managers attend evening meetings would only occur if it was convenient for Managers to do so and only if over time was paid. Where in the real world can you tell your boss that date and time is not good for me. This labor contract corrected that and required Managers to flex their time to avoid over time costs.   

•  Imagine being a clerical worker and telling your boss completing the paper work involved with a one page form to purchase goods and supplies is not in my job description and then winning that point in a grievance hearing before an arbitrator. This labor contract corrected that by expanding job duties and responsibilities.

•  Imagine being a Housing Manager whose job is to act as a property manager for a housing development and telling your boss that it is not your responsibility to oversee maintenance employees or to manage a budget and express a general unwillingness to be held accountable for job performance. This labor contract corrected that by expanding job duties and responsibilities.

• Imagine having a lot of work to do in regard to managing 5,000 housing units and having to spend hours and hours conducting grievance hearings regarding the above issues and more. This labor contract went a long way in correcting that.

By fixating on comparing BMHA salaries to City salaries the Control Board missed a big                 opportunity to bring forth a new management model of expanded job duties and accountability. We will now return to the never ending fights of "that's not my job", which will cost us far more in the long run than the labor contract would of.

Providence Mayor Wants To Tax College Students

25,000 full-time students attend colleges and universities in the City of Providence, Rhode Island. Mayor David Cicilline wants to impose a $150 per semester tax on full-time students, which will generate between $6 million to $8 million a year for the City. The City is facing a $17 million deficit.

Cicilline's point is that colleges and universities are tax exempt and that students utilize city resources such as police, fire etc. and that everyone should be sharing in the cost of providing City services.

Read a news article about the proposed tax here. What do you think? Should college students contribute to the cost of City services or are the economic benefits provided by having students in a City sufficient to offset the cost of City services?

Positive Buffalo Area News!

Some positive news items that you might have missed.

• Life Technologies Inc. a company located on Grand Island that makes cell culture products for pharmaceutical and bio-tech research is undergoing a 10,000 square foot expansion costing $8 million. The expansion will continue the employment of the company's 500 workers and new jobs will hopefully be added in the future.

•  Developer Jake Schneider's plan to transform a vacant six story building on N. Division Street into a 90 unit apartment complex is moving forward. Construction on the $16.5 million project, which will be marketed to area college students including those attending ECC, will begin in June.

•  Developer Anthony LoRusso's plan to turn a vacant building located at 250 Virginia Street in Buffalo into 24 apartments is moving forward. Construction will start this summer on the $1.6 million project that will transform a century old building that has been vacant for more than seven years into 24 new apartments.

15 Unusual And Creative Bus Stops From Around The World

Check out these interesting Bus Stops from around the world.

Which ones do you like the best?

Addressing Poverty In Buffalo Requires Leadership

I have read Mayor Brown's Poverty Reduction Blueprint Plan, which cites a lot of accomplishments achieved by City departments and agencies in dealing with poverty related issues.

A couple of items jumped out at me in reading the report:

The City of Buffalo's Department of Community Services contracted with 100 community based organizations in the amount of $6.5 million between 2006-2009. Good God 100 organizations were contracted with for an average of $21,666 per agency per year! In typical Buffalo fashion where politics requires everyone to receive a piece of the pie, we have completely watered down the impact of millions of dollars by spreading it every where.

Page 51 of the Plan identifies challenges to be addressed in reducing poverty. The first item listed says it all: "The challenge of attacking such an overwhelming issue as poverty is to determine how best to focus limited area-wide resources and make maximum use of any new funding that becomes available."

The challenge of addressing poverty in Buffalo requires leadership. We don't need 100 mediocre organizations providing duplicative services across the City getting a piece of the pie. We need a targeted approach with established priorities, which means saying no to poorly performing agencies as far as providing City funding.

The City needs leaders who can establish policy goals and objectives that are measurable and hold departments, agencies and organizations receiving funding accountable for performance. It can't be done when groups that are not cutting it in terms of performance continue to get funded because the Mayor or the Council don't have the political will power to say no and feel the need to give everyone a piece of the pie.

Politicians are incapable of making the tough decisions necessary to focus limited resources in a thoughtful and intelligent way . Every year the debate between the Council and the Mayor over the $26 million Block Grant budget to address poverty is how much can Councilmembers get for member item money. There is never a debate about policies, procedures, what's working and what isn't working as far as addressing poverty.

Yet another reason in my opinion for supporting A City Manager form of government, where a professional with experience in management could help guide discussions and decisions on setting priorities without regard to politics, patronage and campaign contributions.

Promoting City Neighborhoods Online

Saw the post below on www.governing.com , which points out an interesting web site that Minneapolis and St. Paul have put together to promote living in city neighborhoods. What do you think of this marketing effort?

A HOME IN THE TWIN CITIES- To reduce vacancy rates and promote city living, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, partnering with home-ownership and community advocates, created an online home encouraging buyers to settle in the Twin Cities. The newly launched LiveMSP provides site visitors with Minneapolis/St. Paul neighborhood and home-financing information in one place. Each city neighborhood has its own page with interactive maps and photo slideshows, details about the area's history and housing styles, and links to community news and contacts. For visitors seriously considering buying a home, the Incentives channel provide information on neighborhood- and city-based financing programs that may make that process easier. LiveMSP's online presence also expands to social media. LiveMSP's Facebook page has resident testimonials about why they enjoy living in the Twin Cities. And the site's Twitter account (@livemsp) tweets links to upcoming homebuying and cultural events, along with observations of city life, such as "Temps in the 50s, sunny skies = Minnesotans in shorts with a raging case of spring fever."

City Councilmembers Call The Idea Of Two Year Terms “Ridiculous,“ “Unbelievable,” “Frivolous,”

“Ridiculous,“ “Unbelievable,” “Frivolous,” were the words used by Councilmember's Franczyk, Fontana and Rivera to describe Buffalo Councilmember Joe Golombek's proposal to bring back two year terms for Councilmembers, who currently serve four year terms. City Councilmembers acted fast to kill the resolution in a 5 to 4 vote to receive and file the item, instead of sending the item to committee where the merits of the idea could be discussed.

As I stated in an earlier post, I am not crazy about the idea of two year terms myself, as I believe that four year terms allow Councilmembers to focus more on governing instead of constant campaigning for re-election. However, I do think the idea of two year terms should have at least been referred to committee, where the proposal could have been discussed and debated. I bet that if asked most members of the public especially those active in Good Neighbor Planning Alliances or Block Clubs may support two year terms.

Carl Perla an old time machine politician from years ago used to say "The best race is no race" as far as elections were concerned. Whether there is merit to the idea of two year terms or not sitting Councilmembers were not going to take any chance of support growing for the idea. They acted as fast as they could to kill it. See the Buffalo News article here. What do you think about the idea of two year terms and do you think the idea should have at least been discussed in committee?

Should The Length Of City Council Terms Be Reduced?

North District Councilmember Joe Golombek has introduced a Resolution before the Buffalo Common Council seeking to reduce Council terms from 4 years to two years. For many years the length of Council terms were two years. When City voters approved downsizing the Council from 13 members to 9, in 2003 they also approved extending Council terms to 4 years.

Golombek has never liked two year terms and we have discussed it several times over the years. The justification for changing terms to 4 years was that it would allow Councilmembers to focus on governing instead of constantly posturing and campaigning for re-election. In Golombek's opinion 4 year terms are too long for an elected official to go without having to answer to voters and the Council is not any less political with 4 year terms than they were with 2 year terms.

From my experience as Chief of Staff of the Council for 4 years, I think the 3 years without an election did make the Council less political and more focused on governing. The election year did have a different vibe to it and it was not a positive one for the most part. I believe in elections but they make elected officials no matter how secure they are (and most of them are pretty secure) very anxious and paranoid, which consumes everything they do.

You can read the resolution here by going to page 140 of the Council meeting agenda. What do you think, should City Councilmembers serve 4 year terms or 2 year terms?

"The Longer American Children Are In School, The Worse They Perform"

Buffalo School board member Chris Jacobs made me aware of an interesting article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times titled "Swimming Without A Suit".

While we as a country focus on our financial crisis, we need to be equally concerned about our educational crisis. As Friedman points out in his article from the 1950s through the 1980s the U.S. dominated the world in K-12 education performance. Now we have fallen behind many other countries in terms of per capita high school graduates and their quality.

A 2006 study that measured the applied learning and problem solving skills of 15 year olds in 30 industrialized countries, ranked the U.s. 25th out of 30 in math and 24th in science. The U.s. average was on par with Portugal and the Slovak Republic.

A recent study by the McKinsey consulting firm determined that "the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers."

Today's economy requires high performing skills and many of our graduating high school students are simply not adequately prepared to make it. What do you think needs to be done to improve our educational system?

What Would You Do If You Won $3 Million On The Lottery?

Tim Clements won a $3.3 million lump sum on a lottery ticket  while camping in Florida in 2004. With his winnings Clements decided to open his dream business a nude dude ranch. The 10 acre ranch, has a bed and breakfast and is a clothing optional place. With one exception, that is. Visitors must wear pants and boots to ride the horses. Clements said in a Florida news article that was a no-brainer. "You don't want blisters on your (behind), do you?''.  

Well Mr. Clements neglected to obtain any permits for his ranch, which may as a result have to shut down. Winning $3 million on the lottery would be great, but a nude dude ranch would not be on my list of things to do, not that there is anything wrong with that, if that is what makes you happy!

You can read the full news article here.

Artists Vs. Blight, The Worst Things Get The More Creative You Have To Become

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about how some communities are actively turning to artists as buyers of vacant homes in an effort to revitalize neighborhoods. Do you think some of these ideas should be tried in Buffalo?

Some highlights from the article:

Artists have long been leaders of an urban vanguard that colonizes blighted areas. Now, the current housing crisis has created a new class of urban pioneer. Nationwide, home foreclosure proceedings increased 81% in 2008 from the previous year, rising to 2.3 million, according to California-based foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac. Homes in hard-hit cities such as Detroit and Cleveland are selling for as little as $1.

Drawn by available spaces and cheap rents, artists are filling in some of the neighborhoods being emptied by foreclosures. City officials and community groups seeking ways to stop the rash of vacancies are offering them incentives to move in, from low rents and mortgages to creative control over renovation projects.

"Artists have become the occupiers of last resort," said Robert McNulty, president of Partners for Livable Communities, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. "The worse things get, the more creative you have to become."

Over the next 18 months, Cleveland plans to spend $500,000 to fund 50 citizen-led pilot projects to reclaim vacant property. The Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, part of Kent State University's College of Architecture, launched an initiative called "Pop Up City" a year and a half ago, which brings performance artists into empty lots, vacant buildings and unused urban infrastructure. In Cleveland's Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, two theater companies have teamed with the local development organization on a $30 million drive to rebrand the former factory hub as an entertainment and arts district, with a new community theater and independent-film house.

"At first, the strategy was [placing artists in] old warehouses, now it's whole neighborhoods," says Bob Brown, director of the Cleveland City Planning Commission. "The next phase is capitalizing on the presence of artist and art-related businesses and using it as the lever for high-density development."

Cleveland's push is modeled in part on an arts-fueled revival in Paducah, Ky., Mr. Schorgl said. Paducah transformed a rundown, crime-ridden neighborhood into an arts district by offering artists from around the country a $2,500 reimbursement to buy cheap, vacant houses and fix them up. Some artists bought homes for $1 when the program launched in 2001. Since then, more than 50 artists have moved into the neighborhood, which is now dense with cafes, wine bars and art galleries.

Consolidating School Districts Makes Sense

Amherst Supervisor Satish Mohan introduced a Resolution at the Amherst Town Board meeting calling for the Town's three school districts to consolidate into one district. You can read the Resolution below.  Amazingly Erie County has 29 school districts, an average of one school district per 31,000 people.

I was not aware that reorganization of school districts also provides the new district with additional operating aid and building aid. The computed formula operating aid for districts which reorganize is increased by 40 percent for five years, then reduced by four percent each year until it is phased out, thus providing a total of 14 years of additional operating aid. Also, for newly reorganized districts, the computed state aid for building projects is increased by 30 percent, up to a maximum of 95 percent of the approved cost. In these difficult financial times the additional dollars that can be obtained through consolidating deserve a serious look.

There has been a lot of focus on merging and consolidating towns and villages, but consolidating school districts needs more debate and discussion as well. What do you think about consolidating school districts?

Here is a copy of the Resolution introduced by Mohan, which is a bit long. For some reason when I copied this bullet points came out as question marks.

Consolidating the Three Amherst School Districts

WHEREAS, the property taxes in the New York State are the highest in the nation-78% above the national average; and

WHEREAS, the school property taxes account for 61% of all property taxes that include town, county, and school taxes; and

WHEREAS, the State of New York with a population of 19,376,818 has 698 school districts averaging approximately 27,760 population per school district; and

WHEREAS, Erie County with a population of 910,354 has 29 school districts averaging one school district per 31,392 population; and

WHEREAS, a master plan for school reorganization was adopted by New York State in 1947, which was updated in 1958, and was renamed the “State Plan for School District Reorganization.” This plan has since been used for school reorganization or merging school districts; and

WHEREAS, between 1983 and 1998, fifty-six (56) school districts in New York State made the decision to reorganize or merge; and

WHEREAS, the following New York State Laws guide the school districts merger:
Education Law, Sections 1801-1804
Education Law, Sections 2510, 1518, 1505a, 1703, 2004, and 2105
Commission’s Decision No. 12019
Civil Service Law, Section 70

WHEREAS, according to a New York State Publication, “Guide to Reorganization of School Districts in New York State,” school districts reorganization for central school districts can be effectuated in two ways:
1. CENTRALIZATION or
2. ANNEXATION; and

WHEREAS, in the CENTRALIZATION method, a new central school district is established through the merger of the existing school districts which are contiguous into a new, larger school district. The Commissioner of Education lays out a central school district at any time he/she determines it educationally desirable to do so. In practice, this power is exercised only after extensive study, evidence of support in the respective districts, and upon recommendation of the respective boards of education and/or the district superintendent. The new central district begins operation only after the approval by the qualified voters in each school district; and

WHEREAS, the ANNEXATION method refers to the annexation of a contiguous school district to a central school district and begins with the issuance of an order by the Commissioner of Education after study of the proposed annexation, evidence of local support, and upon request of the affected boards of education and/or the district superintendent. The order is subject to permissive referendum in any of the affected districts; and

WHEREAS, the New York State publication, “Guide to the Reorganization of School Districts in New York State” lists the following benefits of reorganization of school districts in providing increased pupil and financial base:

1. Provide several sections of a subject area, each fitted to pupil needs and abilities;
2. Extend subject offerings to include, for example, multiple languages, specialized English courses, new special area social studies courses, advanced placement programs, and development of programs for the less able or the gifted;
3. Provide a broader choice of electives and co-curricular opportunities;
4. Increase the probability that teachers will serve only in their field of specialization;
5. Provide separate specially equipped classrooms for specific subjects;
6. Upgrade facilities and equipment to support program requirements; and
7. Provide competitive salaries to employees; and

WHEREAS, according to the above publication, reorganization also creates the potential for school districts to operate more efficiently and economically by:
1. Permitting a more cost-effective administrative organization;
2. Eliminate duplication by pooling facilities, equipment, supplies, materials, teaching and non-teaching staff;
3. Consolidating and coordinating the transportation system, i.e. providing for routing in a more efficient manner, using one centralized garage, and standardizing buses and parts; and
4. Additional New York State Aid. Reorganization of school districts also provides the new district with additional operating aid and building aid. The computed formula operating aid for districts which reorganize is increased by 40 percent for five years, then reduced by four percent each year until it is phased out, thus providing a total of 14 years of additional operating aid. Also, for newly reorganized districts, the computed state aid for building projects is increased by 30 percent, up to a maximum of 95 percent of the approved cost.

WHEREAS, the Department of Education, State of Maine, in their School Reorganization Law has legislated that beginning July 1, 2008, General Purpose Aid for schools that reorganize will be reduced as below; their action indicates the expected savings:
(i) The per-pupil rate for system administration by 50% for the 2005-2006 rates;
 (ii) The per-pupil rate for facilities and maintenance by 5%;
(iii) The essential programs and services allocation for special education by 5%; and
(iv) Transportation allocation by 5%; and

WHEREAS, in many states, school districts are managed at the county level. In Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, Indiana, and New Jersey, school district consolidation initiatives are underway; and

WHEREAS, the Montgomery County in Maryland, with a population of 930,813 and a size of 497 square miles, has one school district. The Montgomery County Public School District has the following characteristics:
The largest and most diverse school system in Maryland;
The 16th largest district in the nation;
Has 199 schools in the district:
o elementary schools: 130
o middle schools: 38
o high schools: 25
o career and technology center: 1
o special or alternative schools: 5
Teachers: 11,544
Total employees: 22,122
Buses: 1,272
Graduation rate: 90.37%
AP participation: 60%
National Merit Scholars: 61
Average SAT score: 1,616
Attendance >95.0%
Expenditure Distribution:
o Instruction: 80.0%
o School support: 14.7%
o System wide support: 2.6%
o Food service/other: 2.7%

WHEREAS, the April 2008 Report on the New York State Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness has published in their “School District Restructuring” chapter that One BOCES estimated that they could save 5% by coordinating transportation and letting a single contract; and

WHEREAS, a 2004 study on strengthening public education in the Broome-Tioga region found that operating costs could be annually reduced by $12 million to $16 million by applying management techniques found in large single districts; and

WHEREAS, according to the “U.S. Census Bureau News” dated May 24, 2007, the per student public school spending was as below:
National average in 2005: $ 8,701
State of New York: $14,119
State of New Jersey: $13,800
District of Columbia: $12,979
State of Vermont: $11,835
State of Connecticut: $11,572
State of Oklahoma: $ 6,613
State of Mississippi: $ 6,575
State of Idaho: $ 6,283
State of Arizona: $ 6,261
State of Utah: $ 5,257

WHEREAS, the above data shows that New York State, at $14,119, spends the most per pupil, while the expenditures can be as low as $5,257 as in Utah; there is a high potential of effecting economies in our school expenditures; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Amherst Town Board forward this resolution to the school boards and district superintendents of the following three school districts requesting them to write to the Commissioner of Education to initiate a referendum for merging the three school districts using the CENTRALIZATION method or the ANNEXATION method:
(i) Williamsville Central Schools District
(ii) Amherst Central School District
(iii) Sweet Home Central School District of Amherst and Tonawanda

Newcomers Are Needed To Voice Disagreement & Create Tension

Saw this post by Wendy Waters at www.creativeclass.com

Workplace teams with “socially distinct” newcomers perform at a higher level than those comprised of people who have been working together for a while, or of people of similar backgrounds. This comes from research by Katie Liljenquist, reported by Sarah Boesveld in the Globe and Mail a couple weeks ago (a similar report on her research is here if you can’t access the Globe).

Newcomers are often in a position to voice disagreement and create tension, she says, which tends to lead to looking at issues in new ways or renewing focus on the task rather than “chatting about the weekend.”

In her study done with two co-authors, they asked undergraduate volunteers from fraternities and sororities who knew each other to solve mysteries in teams, with or without an outsider. Those without the outsider reported strong group cohesion and having lots of “fun” but did not solve the mysteries as fast or as well as those with an outsider. Those with the outsiders reported that their group lacked “cohesion” yet they performed better.

Liljenquist believes these results are important for managers who put people into teams. Those teams who self-report good social cohesion and spirit should perhaps be re-evaluated for their effectiveness. And, managers may wish to attempt deliberately to make teams more diverse in order to improve efficiency.

Your thoughts? Has the best work you’ve contributed to come from teams of buddies or teams of people less familiar with each other, from different backgrounds?

In my opinion whether in elected office, your block club or at work we need newcomers who do not look at things in the same way that your comfortable group of friends do. The same people with the same thoughts results in the status quo. Newcomers can make people and organizations uncomfortable but becoming uncomfortable is an important step to making change happen.

A Lack Of Networking & Discovering New Ideas Hurts Buffalo

I am not troubled by the fact that the Buffalo School Board spent $90,000 on travel to conferences over an 18 month period as pointed out in the Buffalo News. With 9 board members that averages out to $6,666 per year per member. It also averages out to 4 trips per year at a cost of $1,666 per trip.

 As Chief of Staff to the Buffalo Common Council, I was surprised to learn that although just about every City and town in New York state belonged to the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials and the National League of Cities, Buffalo was not a member. Both organizations hold several conferences and seminars throughout the year that are attended by municipal officials from across the country interested in learning and educating themselves, but sadly you will not find government officials from Buffalo at these events.

As Chief of Staff I tried to encourage Council Members to attend interesting conferences to see how other communities were addressing problems similar to ours. Some Council Members were not interested in learning about new ideas (which was scary to me), those that were interested were deathly afraid of being criticized for going on a travel junket.

In a $700 million school budget, I see no problem spending $6,666 per school board member ($60,000 per year) for members to learn about new ideas, meet new contacts etc. School Superintendent James Williams stated in the Buffalo News "When I came here, people didn't go any place. That's a detriment for the city, this board needs to get out more and see what's happening in the world. Buffalo is behind on a lot of things, academically and professionally."

I agree with Superintendent Williams. In my opinion, being behind in what is happening in a rapidly changing world where all kinds of creative and interesting new ideas are being implemented costs us far more in the long run than the costs for attending educational conferences.

Focusing On Blackberrys In City Government Misses The Bigger Picture

Count me in the minority of folks who are not upset with the City using Block Grant budget funds to provide BlackBerrys to employees.

One of the biggest problems in government is not utilizing technology to perform work in a more efficient manner. The emphasis on paper work and not computer technology is insane.

In a recent Buffalo News article http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/640071.html, Commissioner Reilly states that the cost of purchasing a BlackBerry for City employees has been reduced to $100 and a monthly fee of $60. I don't get the hysteria over providing a communication tool, that many private sector organizations consider an essential worth while item.

Very few people seem to focus attention on poverty policy and procedures and whether the policies and procedures being utilized in Buffalo make sense. Instead we focus on trivial questions such as purchasing BlackBerrys.

I'm all for a debate on what policies and procedures make sense to fight poverty in Buffalo. Focusing on Blackberrys for 15 employees in a $22 million budget is missing the bigger picture in my opinion.

Collins Seeks More Control On Cultural boards

I am troubled by Erie County Executive Chris Collins seeking more control on the boards of cultural organizations. It seems odd to me that the county contributes millions of dollars per year to the Buffalo Bills but does not have representation on the Buffalo Bills Board of Directors. Erie County has committed to provide millions of dollars to the Bass Pro project but to my knowledge has not demanded representation on the Bass Pro Board of Directors. Nor would I want government officials meddling with private sector organizations, despite the increasing trend to do so at the national level.

But if you are an organization such as the African American Cultural Center receiving $139,000, the County Executive wants the right to appoint three board members. Cultural organizations are being asked to meet with county officials during the year to discuss current and long-term business plans and other matters including “managerial competence”.

I have no problem with government officials wanting accountability for taxpayer dollars but I think extending the reach of government and politics by appointing up to three board members for any organization is going too far.

A Collins appointee stated “Essentially this is about having a seat at the table that represents the county taxpayer.” I have seen first hand how politicians extend their influence through appointing board members and it is not a pretty picture that I would wish upon any organization.

What do you think about the County Executive wanting the ability to appoint board members to cultural organizations that receive county funds?

Here's To The Crazy Ones, The Misfits, The Rebels

I love this 1997 ad from Apple Computer:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in a square hole, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who’ll do it.”

Locally we have some people who see things differently, who are crazy enough to believe that they can change the world in ways big and small. Some people consider them to be crazy, misfits, rebels, troublemakers but we need them because they are strong advocates for change.

One of the people that would make my list of local rebels leading the way for change would be Kevin Gaughan. What person in their right mind would spend months at night going to City, Town and Village board meetings to talk about downsizing government? Gaughan has kept at it and has now achieved at least the holding of a referendum vote on downsizing in West Seneca. Gaughan is a troublemaker making a difference advocating for change. Who would be on your list of rebels?

"You Just Saw Something That Has Never Happened Before In Western New York"

"You just saw something that has never happened before in Western New York. "We’re going to have a magnificent debate. This is about citizens reclaiming government" stated Kevin Gaughan after the West Seneca Town Board voted to hold a referendum on whether the Town Board should downsize from five members to three.

I give Gaughan a lot of credit as he has spent a year working on this issue. He gathered a group of volunteers who obtained 4,000 signatures seeking  a referendum. A court battle resulted in the petition being tossed but Gaughan did not give up. He redrafted the petition and his committed group of volunteers went out and got 1,400 signatures, which resulted in the Town Board approving a referendum. The public will now have their say on an important issue, so let the debate begin.

One person with a good idea that spreads and inspires others can make a difference! We need more people who are trying to make a difference. What ever your issue is get a tribe of people to follow you and don't give up.

Open Source Redistricting?

Ohio is taking an interesting public approach to redrawing congressional and legislative districts. See the post below copied from www.governing.com. Perhaps some brave politicians and community organizations in New York could push for utilizing a similar process here?

PARTICIPATORY REDISTRICTING - Ohio politicians and good-government organizations want to show that it is possible to create fair and representative congressional and legislative districts, and they are encouraging online users to give it a try. The Ohio Redistricting Competition allows anyone—regardless of whether they are Ohio residents—to submit mock congressional district maps, using scoring factors that could be applied to redistricting for the legislature after the 2010 census. Registered participants will use an online system in which they will have access to 2000 census data and other resources to create the 18 districts. Submissions will be scored on a 75-point scale, with emphasis on keeping districts compact while allowing for competitive and fair elections. Each submitted plan will be posted online with its score, and visitors will be able to provide feedback on any of the proposals. While there is as yet no prize, "winning" plans may influence proposals the Ohio General Assembly may consider in creating fairer districts in 2011. Registration for the contest will continue through April 17

Not All State Legislatures Are Dysfunctional

Buffalo News reporter Jim Heaney put the post below on his web site which you can find here.

The New York Daily News has been running an interesting series on Albany, which you can read in the link below.

Not all state legislatures are dysfunctional

No near, yet so far.

Read this from the New York Daily News and weep.

Connecticut's state capital is just a two-hour drive from Albany, but its Legislature might as well be in a different world.

Democrats and Republicans work together to pass laws. Residents speak their minds in public hearings, and legislators listen. Bills are written and amended in the light of day. Everything gets posted online.

The story is part of a recent series called State of Shame, in which the Daily News focuses on our state government. (Links to stories can be found in the story I've linked to above).

One of my favs is a list of committee chairmen, their stipends and the number of times their committees met this legislative session, through March 31.

Suffice to say, there are a whole lot of stipends being paid for not many committee meetings, particularly in the Senate.

Take the Senate committees on Economic Development and Environment and Conservation, chaired respectively by Bill Stachowksi and Antoine Thompson. Each committee met twice, about par for most of the Senate's 33 standing committees. Stachowski and Thompson receive stipends of $12,500 each, which works out to more than $6,000 a meeting so far. Not bad work if you can get it.

The Assembly's 36 committees tend to meet more often, two or three times is the norm, as opposed to once or twice in the Senate.

Robin Schimminger, chairman of the Assembly Economic Development Committee, has held two meetings so far for his $18,000 stipend. Sam Hoyt, whose Local Government Committee is considering IDA reform, has met three times. Hoyt's stipend is $15,000.

These stipends are in addition to a legislator's annual salary of $79,500. And some of them get more than one stipend.

Which committee has met the least? As in never. In both chambers. Come on, guess!

Ethics.

The Sham Wow Guy Is Entertaining, Sham Meetings Are Not!

I like the Sham Wow commercials as they are entertaining but I don't like sham public meetings. Today I took time out of my evening to attend the 21st Century Commission's public meeting advertised on the Erie County Legislature's web page. The 21st Century Comission is studying whether the Erie County Legislature needs to be changed as far as number of legislator's, length of terms, term limits etc.

After paying for parking I made my way up to the meeting. The only other member of the public present at the meeting was my friend Craig Turner representing the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. While I support what Craig had to say, I was a bit annoyed that the Partnership did not have to limit their comments to three minutes. A few weeks ago I and other members of the public were limited to only three minutes, when addressing the commission, even though very few members of the public signed up to speak.

After Craig finished speaking he left, leaving me as the only member of the public to listen to the five members of the commission discuss their work. Martha Lamparelli, chair of the commission promptly announced that the body was going into executive session. When I asked for what purpose the commission was going into executive session, Lamparelli stated "to discuss what direction we are going to go". I indicated that the reason provided was not sufficient for going into executive session. When I explained that a body could go into executive session to discuss personnel matters or litigation, Lamparelli responded the executive session was regarding litigation. When I inquired as to whether the commission had been sued, Lamparelli replied that the purpose of the executive session was to avoid litigation.

One member of the public takes the time to show up and the commission ran scared. Interested
members of the public are entitled to hear commission members discuss what direction they are going to go as far as restructuring county government. I know it is not easy to express thoughts and opinions about reforming government in public, but that is the purpose of public bodies and public meetings.

The whole thing was rather discouraging. After speaking at the commissions public hearing a few weeks ago, I decided that I would stay on top of the commissions activities by taking the time to attend their public meetings. Apparently they really don't want the public to hear and see their deliberations. The Sham Wow guy is entertaining, sham public meetings are not.

The Economic Crisis Could Be The Chance Of A Lifetime To Reform Government

I like the ideas listed below. what do you think?

Crisis as Opportunity

March 12, 2009 By BEVERLY STEIN, DAVID OSBORNE and JIM CHRISINGER

The economic crisis could be the chance of a lifetime to reform government.

Our governments are in trouble. The numbers are staggering, and the depth of the problem is unprecedented. Budgets will be cut deeply, employees will be laid off, and taxes and fees will be raised. Our elected and appointed leaders face the challenge of their careers.

Amidst the carnage, how can we use this crisis as an opportunity to both save money and deliver better results? For those who have the courage and creativity, the next few years could be the greatest opportunity of their lifetimes to make government work better.

So what could you do to produce better results with less money?

1. Budget to project savings from smarter spending.

How about creating a "Smarter Spending" line item in the budget, as Iowa did during the last fiscal crisis? Gov. Tom Vilsack offered the legislature a deal: Put a line item called "Reinvention Savings" in the budget. Then, negotiate to find a series of reforms all can agree on that will save $88.5 million and subtract the $25 million needed to invest — in technology, innovation and training — to make the reforms happen.

The governor and legislature agreed on three reforms. The "Charter Agencies" reform offered a deal to agencies that accepted lower appropriations and greater accountability requirements. In return, the agencies received new flexibility for management of their budget, personnel, procurement and other areas. It was so successful — $92 million in savings in three years, while results improved dramatically — that the governor won a Harvard Kennedy School Innovations in American Government Award.

2. Budget for outcomes, not costs.

Build your budget around results, not last year's costs plus inflation. Start by deciding how much money you'll have to spend next year. Then work with citizens to define the five to 10 results most important to them: a better economy, better schools, better health, better safety, better mobility, a cleaner environment, and so on. Decide how much each of these outcomes is worth and divide your money among them.

For each finite pot of money, assign a team of strategic thinkers who understand the policy arena but do not have an ax to grind or a budget to protect. Ask them to figure out what factors most affect the outcome, and then what strategies to pursue. Ask your departments to tell you what programs they can deliver, at what cost, and with what measurable results.

Have your teams rank their offers from most to least cost-effective. Draw a line when the money runs out, disseminate the rankings, and ask for better offers. The final-offer rankings are sent to the executive, who will use them to put together the budget. Adjustments are always necessary, but most of the rankings will hold and, in the end, your budget will successfully fund what contributes the greatest results and will eliminate what contributes the least.

In 2002, frustrated with across the board cuts, then-Washington Gov. Gary Locke decided to use the outcomes-based approach described above to address a projected general fund cut of $2 billion for the biennium. In an editorial, the Seattle Times described the benefit of this approach: "The usual, political way to handle a projected deficit is to take last year's budget and cut. It is like taking last year's family car and reducing its weight with a blowtorch and shears. But cutting $2 billion from this vehicle does not make it a compact; it makes it a wreck. What is wanted is a budget designed from the ground up."

3. Use new partnerships to engage resources in your community.

In this recession, governments will face an unprecedented need to engage all the resources in their communities they can: not-for-profits, neighborhood organizations, businesses, unions and even other levels of government.

For example, government is not the only stakeholder that cares about better health. So do nonprofits, foundations, employers who want to pay less for health insurance, schools that know healthy kids learn better, and every person who wants to pay less for "sick care."

What if governments saw their money not as all the money available, but as initial matching funds on which to build much larger efforts to create value? What if government convened stakeholders and led an exploration of what could be done together to create better outcomes? Such a network could design a web of interconnected strategies to maximize impact.

In Oregon, the state, a private developer and a foundation joined together to create a Housing Acquisition Fund to assure that 7,000 affordable-housing apartment units would not revert to market rates. The collaborative effort increased the resources available for this purpose when a large national foundation invested $5 million in the effort, citing the strength of the collaboration. Now the collaboration is advocating for some of Oregon's stimulus funds.

4. Harness the power of competition.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and competition is a force that creates necessity. If public employees know their program has to compete to survive, they will embrace innovation as a way of life. This has been proven many times, whether through managed competition, competitive bidding in which public agencies bid against private vendors; enterprise management, in which internal support services like print and fleet maintenance shops become competitive enterprises, selling their services to their customers, who are free to go elsewhere; or new wrinkles, such as San Diego County's "Bid to Goal" approach, in which public agencies cut their costs to meet market prices without actually going through a bidding process.

5. Limit the cost of mistrust.

Our government bureaucracies were built on the assumption that most of us will lie, cheat and steal. Twenty percent of what you spend is probably designed to control the other 80 percent: to make sure nothing is stolen and nothing illegal is done. That's important, but it's expensive.

In today's world, many of these controls are outdated, or there are better and cheaper alternatives to enforcement. If you review your expenses based on mistrust, you'll find multiple opportunities to save. One of our clients found that seven signatures were required to approve a travel request. Since everyone who signed knew that six others would review the request, all seven just signed and passed it on. When they cut the number of signatures required to one, the number of approvals actually fell.

6. Empower your employees.

Most employees know how to save money. They see waste all around them. But they are rarely asked for their input, so they keep quiet. Many organizations have dramatically improved their productivity by training their employees in process improvement and empowering them to make changes.

We recently met with an impressive self-managed road marking crew in San Jose, Calif. The city trained the crew members to analyze the cost of everything they did, while also helping them develop the skills to work as a team. In a few short years, they tripled their productivity.

These are simplified explanations of just a few possible strategies. But you get the idea. Let's use this crisis to break the mold. Let's start rethinking how we run our public institutions. The gleam through the dark clouds is not more government or less government, but better government — government designed for the 21st century.

To read an expanded version of this article, click here.

Beverly Stein, president of the Public Strategies Group, is a former elected chair of Oregon's Multnomah County Board of Commissioners and chief executive of the county, a state representative, and a 1994 Governing Public Official of the Year. David Osborne is a senior partner at PSG and co-author of several books on innovation in government, including Reinventing Government, Banishing Bureaucracy, The Reinventor's Fieldbook, and The Price of Government. Jim Chrisinger is a senior managing partner at PSG and was a leader of the PSG partnership in Iowa for Gov. Tom Vilsack.

Are You A Recognizable Brand Or An Employee Going Through The Motions?

Tom Peter's book Brand You, 50 Ways To Transform Yourself From An "Employee" Into A Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, And Passion!, is an awesome book. Written in 1999, the book is very relevant to today's crazy economy. To survive today's economy you have to market and brand yourself by standing out from the many people who simply go through the motions at work every day. Which side of the columns listed below from Peter's book are you on?

      

"Brand You" World                                                 "Employee" World

Working on a memorable (WOW) project.                         Doing what's assigned.
If it's not WOW... I'll make it WOW...
or bust trying!

Committed to my craft.                                                   Working assiduously on in-box contents.
Intend to be incredibly good at
s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g.

Chose this project because it will add                              It's what the boss told me to do.
to my learning/because it will s-t-r-e-t-c-h                      (give me a break)    
me/because it allows me to hang with
cool people.

Don't waste a single lunch...                                            Lunch is my business!
networking is my mantra.

I am a Rolodex Maniac.                                                    I hate suck-ups.

Willing to take a "lowly" task if I can                                 Don't try to push bullshit off on me, bro.
turn it into something "cool".

Understand that Projects-Are-Me. Period.                        I show up. I don't make waves.
(This ain't funny: I am my project "portfolio")

Love the words: WOW... Beauty...Grace...                       Give me a f------ break!
Revolution...Impact

L-I-V-E for my clients!                                                        I do my job.

Purposefully hang out with freaks. (Cool people                    My pals are my pals. Lay off.
I can learn cool stuff from).

Think "fun" is cool!                                                            A day at work is a day at work. Don't try to
                                                                                        make a congressional case out of it.

Am anxious to get out of bed in the morning.                    Another day older and deeper in debt.

Piss some people off. (Because of my strong beliefs)        Don't rock the boat!

Am (frequently) angry at our slowness to change.            C'est. la vie.

Would love to have been with Washington at                   I am almost vested. Don't tread on me.
Valley Forge!

Love bright colors!                                                         Grey is beautiful. (invisibility rules).

Am action oriented to a fault.                                          I AM MEMO MAN!

Embrace life.                                                                  There's enough shit that comes your way
                                                                                      without asking for more.

Understand that "power" only comes to those                     I despise all corporate "politicians".
who grasp it. ("Pushy" = Good).

It's better to ask for forgiveness after the fact                  Don't expose your butt.
than permission before. (Always!)

Many people think that living your life on the right side of these columns is the safe way to go. Nothing could be further from the truth. People who play it safe are invisible and expendable. People who are taking chances and making things happen get noticed and are desperately needed every where.

                                                                                                         

Positive Buffalo Area News!

                       Did You Know?

Six Buffalo schools have been removed from the state's list of badly underperforming schools. Removing the schools from the list was based on improved English and math test scores.

Buffalo State College is planning to spend #350 million starting this summer on new science and math centers, a technology education center, a 4,000 seat sports stadium and new dorm buildings.

Buffalo MRI has undergone a $10.5 million expansion, growing from 4,200 square feet of space to $13,000 square feet. 12 new employees have been added with the expansion, bringing total employment to 50 people.

According to the National Science Foundation, UB in 2008 obtained a record $348 million in research dollars, a 7.7% increase from 2007. UB's research funding is responsible for more than 3,000 jobs!

Five Leadership Traits For The New Millennium

Penelope Trunk has another interesting post at www.blog.penelopetrunk.com, which I have copied below. What do you think about the five leadership traits identified by penelope?

Here are five traits of leadership in the new millennium — traits I try to practice myself:

1. Make yourself a source of information

The key trait in a leader is the bravery to put forth an opinion and maybe be wrong. Jeffrey Kluger, writing in Time magazine, reports research that we value leaders not because they are smarter or right more often, but merely because they speak up. We want to be lead by people who take a shot at the answer – right or wrong. So if you want to be perceived as a leader, speak up. Often.

This means you need opinions. Today news is commodified, which means (newspapers are dying and) the real information we can offer is a layer of opinion and synthesis on top of the news. So you need to take a risk and put out some opinions that matter in order to be seen as leading people. Your peers, rather than some special gatekeeper will determine if the opinions are right or wrong.

2. Expect your ideas to resonate due to merit not rank

Gary Hamel has a great post on his Wall St. Journal blog about the impact of Web 2.0 on the workplace. The first thing he points out is that in the Web 2.0 world, all ideas are on equal footing. Which is to say that your rank doesn’t matter as much as what you put forward.

He writes: “When you post a video to YouTube, no one asks you if you went to film school. When you write a blog, no one cares whether you have a journalism degree. Position, title, and academic degrees—none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online. On the Web, what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute.”

3. Get good at following

I’ve been thinking a lot about Barbara Kellerman’s book, Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders. Kellerman argues that in order to learn how to be a good leader, you need to also understand the art of good following. Her research shows that the best followers have historically paid more attention to their peers than those holding rank above them. So it makes sense that leaders in the new millennium will look to their peers to elevate them rather than doing it by climbing up some external ranking system.

4. Get good at selling from the inside out

You cannot force an idea down peoples’ throats. That top-down sort of leadership disappeared when the corporate ladder disappeared. This means that leadership is all about sales: selling a vision, and a common goal, and making meaningful connections. Leaders do this to convince people to keep going even though there is no promise of a safe future.

Today leaders sell by being part of the team. A great example of this is cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are infamous for being amazing salespeople and part of that is that they know how to work as part of a team instead of barking orders and insisting on being the leader.

5. Be authentic in situations where authenticity is most difficult

Authenticity is the new way of selling –rather than using the force of BS. And the leaders of the new millennium are judged by their ability to convey their true selves. Tony Hsieh, the CEO for Zappos is renowned for maintaining a popular Twitter feed that rings as authentic and fun. Mark Zuckerberg gets into the most trouble when his interviews seem stiff to the point of inauthentic.

One of the best ways develop your own leadership potential is through public speaking training. The best type of training for speakers isn’t to memorize speeches and make rote eye contact, but rather to learn to be your true self in front of people. First you learn to do it in front of a few people – no small feat – and then you learn to do it in front of a lot of people. (I learned this at TAI Resources.)

Of course, you may discover that you are not really a leader. But the best thing about deciding to become a leader is that you learn what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. And in the new millennium, the distinction between leader and follower is so fluid that the distinction between your strengths and weaknesses is probably more important, anyway.

Introducing Kids To The World Of Information Technology

Curtis Brown the Information Technology Director for the Boys and Girls Club has created a cool program to introduce kids to the world of information technology. A recent article in Buffalo's Business First is where I learned about the program called CITE (Careers In Technology and Engineering).

The 12 week program teaches kids in grades 6 through 12 how to build and repair old computers. One course was completed in January and a second one began soon after. Brown is looking to have the class tour area companies to see how computers are used or have guest speakers visit his group, which meets Wednesday afternoons at 4:00. The program needs donated computers for the class to work on. Ideally it would be great for the kids to bring the computer home that they worked on. Many non-profit organizations have old computers that they depend on everyday. The program may be able to assist non-profits with computer repairs for a small fee.

We live in a very different world now, where understanding technology is critical to obtaining employment. Programs like the one created by Curtis Brown are important.

You can obtain more information at www.projectcite.org or by contacting Curtis Brown at 716-906-1054.

County Executive Collins Is On Right Track With WIC Program

Change is never easy, particularly in government. With the severe budget crisis facing us, we need to explore other ways of providing services currently being provided by government. I applaud County Executive Chris Collins for exploring other ways to provide the federally funded Woman Infants and Children (WIC) nutritional program. The County has run the WIC program for thirty years but there are other alternatives to providing WIC services.

Catholic Charities is a good community organization which currently operates six WIC sites in Niagara and northern Erie County. Kaleida Health also operates a WIC program. The federal government underwrites all of the costs involved in running the WIC program, except for the pension and post retirement health care costs of the 46 county workers employed to run the program. I don't think the people receiving WIC services care whether the employees providing that service are County workers or Catholic Charities workers. Taxpayers however do care about reducing the pension and health care costs incurred by government employees. I say that as a government employee myself, whose pension and health care costs are being paid for by taxpayers.

By simply transferring the federal dollars received by the County to Catholic Charities or some other organization, we can reduce the County workforce by 46 people and reduce the pension and health care costs associated with those employees. As Catholic Charities is going to need experienced staff to run the WIC program, it would make sense for them to hire the County employees who know the program.

Of course there will be bumps in the road in making the transition from the County to another agency but nothing that cannot ultimately be worked out.

We have to change the way we operate government. We cannot afford the government we have, as such services that can be provided else where should be.

What do you think?

Eliminating County Government Makes Sense

Lynn Marinelli the Chair of the Erie County Legislature has formed a commission called the 21st Century Commission to investigate whether the Erie County Legislature should be reduced in size, term limits put into place, and the length of terms changed.

I spoke in favor of eliminating County government all together. In the alternative if the commission was not inclined to support eliminating County government a professional County Manager should be put into place to run the day to day operation of County government. Below is a copy of my remarks.

I applaud Chairwoman Lynn Marinelli for forming this Commission to study what the purpose, focus and structure of Erie County government should be.

The main point I want to make before you the members of the 21st Century Commission is that County government is a relic from the past that does not make sense in the 21st Century.

My understanding is that 88% of the Erie County budget is mandated by the state. We simply do not need 15 legislators, a County Executive and their staff to make decisions on the other 12 % of the budget.

When you look at the agenda for a County legislature meeting what you see is a large number of resolutions honoring and thanking individuals. While such resolutions are nice in my opinion they take up a significant amount of staff time and are simply not an appropriate use of legislative time. In 2008, 349 of these congratulatory resolutions were introduced compared to 5 local laws.

In addition to resolutions honoring individuals, what you will see on the County legislature’s agenda are what I call symbolic resolutions. Resolutions where the Legislature calls upon the federal government or state government to take action on an item that they have no power or say over. I don’t believe such actions are essential and nor would they be missed.

My request is that this Commission look beyond debating incremental changes such as reducing the size of the legislature, the length of terms and term limits. Reducing the size of the Legislature or changing the length of terms will not result in bold and meaningful change that makes a difference to our community.

The services provided by County government could easily be transferred to and absorbed by the state, Cities, towns and villages. County government was successfully eliminated in Connecticut in the 1960’s, and eliminated in Massachusetts in the 1990’s. The state of Rhode Island does not have county government. A movement of local citizens is growing in West Chester County, New York to eliminate County government.

Eliminating County government has been done else where and it can be done here if we think big and bold enough.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seeking support for state legislation that will provide the public with a way to petition and place on the ballot the ability to eliminate and consolidate forms of government. Kevin Gaughn has been leading the charge to down size government at the town and village level. Similar steps can and should occur at the County level as well.

In the 21st Century the world is rapidly changing with innovative products and companies leading the way. Yet in this environment of rapid change government stands still and operates under a structure created for a different world. The status quo has not worked for this community and tweaking the status quo is not going to be enough.

If you are not willing to support the elimination of County government I would like to also raise the idea of implementing a County manager form of government. Many cities and counties across the country utilize professional managers to run the day to day operation of their government. People elected through a political process tend to make decisions based on politics and not based on professional management experience.

A professional county manager that has the power to hire top department heads based on qualifications and not based on politics brings a whole different mentality to government. There are many different forms of county manager government. Some communities have a County Executive and some don’t.

Letting politicians run a billion dollar corporation who usually do not have the management skills and experience to do so results in bad government. Any organization is only as good as the talent hired to work for it. If people are being hired based on political contributions, political petitions, following political orders and not because of their qualifications, then what you get is a poor functioning organization.

As members of this Commission you have the power to recommend change. Use that power to recommend bold ideas not simply tweaking the status quo.

Eliminating County government is a bold idea that is not impossible, it has been done in other communities. Putting a professional manager in charge of the day to day operation of County government is a bold idea that is not impossible, it has been done in communities across the country.

I thank you for listening and eagerly await your recommendations.

How Economic Development Programs Have Failed To Revive Buffalo's Most Challenged Neighborhoods

The Partnership for the Public Good is a coalition of organizations and individuals promoting a community based revitalization of Buffalo. The Partnership for Public Good has a great web site containing detailed position papers and policy analysis. Their most recent report titled Missing the Target: How Economic Development Programs Have Failed To Revive Buffalo's Most Challenged Neighborhoods can be found at their web site.

A copy of the Executive Summary, which gives you an over view of the report is below.

Buffalo is the nation’s third most impoverished city. Buffalo’s East Side and West Side
neighborhoods are two of Buffalo’s most impoverished areas. If any two neighborhoods
are in need of economic development, it is these two. And yet, despite spending billions
of dollars on economic development programs each year, the State, County, and City
have largely ignored these neighborhoods and their increasingly desperate residents.
Programs, funds, and subsidies meant to help blighted neighborhoods have instead
subsidized sprawl, rewarded large, non-local companies, and, even within Buffalo, done
more for downtown law firms and upscale condos than for the East and West Side.
The East and West Side are very different in some ways, and very similar in others.
Racially, the East Side is among Buffalo’s most segregated neighborhoods (94.4%
African-American), while the West Side is perhaps the most integrated (41.9% white,
24.5% African-American, and 35.1% Hispanic). But economically, they are equally
impoverished, with a median household income of $22,014 in the East and $23,739 in the
West. Unemployment rates are high both places: 21.6% in the East and 16.3% in the
West. In both neighborhoods, most workers are low-wage service workers, with roughly
60% in service occupations and less than 10% in manufacturing jobs.

The West enjoys higher home values than the East, with a median of $73,859 compared
to $58,252 – perhaps because it is less segregated and closer to an area of high home
values (Richmond Avenue and the Elmwood Village). But both neighborhoods have
very old housing stock, with duplexes the most common form, and astonishingly high
vacancy rates: 28.7% in the East and 26.6% in the West. Both are studded with
abandoned homes and vacant lots, many of them owned by the City of Buffalo and
inadequately maintained.

The causes for this pervasive poverty and blight are manifold, but, in general, they reflect
the dramatic economic, geographic, and racial inequality in the nation, the state, and the
region. Put simply, our public policies have moved a huge percentage of our resources to
the very wealthy, the white, and the suburban.

Economic development policies have exacerbated these inequities and patterns of sprawl,
even when they have been intended precisely to revitalize distressed neighborhoods.
Large infrastructure projects, such as the Kensington Expressway and the Niagara
Thruway, have devastated the neighborhoods, and the proposed Peace Bridge truck plaza
offers a continuation of that trend. Other projects, such as the Buffalo Schools
Reconstruction Project, the Metro Rail, and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, have
been much more positive developments but have failed to leverage other resources and
spur neighborhood revitalization.

The state’s largest business subsidy programs, Industrial Development Agencies and
Empire Zones, have failed abysmally and morphed into the crudest and most wasteful
type of corporate welfare. Their net effect on the neighborhoods has been negative, as
they have reduced the tax base only to subsidize sprawl. The City and County continue
to waste precious tax dollars on splashy, big-ticket items like sports stadiums and the
Bass Pro project, while neglecting the neighborhoods.

While somewhat improved in recent years, Buffalo’s CDBG and HOME programs have
been plagued by excessively high overhead, duplicative service delivery, and a bias
toward market-rate housing, downtown development, and homeownership programs,
when what the neighborhoods need is the prevention and redress of housing abandonment
and the provision of quality, green, affordable rental housing.

Programs to aid small, locally owned, neighborhood-based businesses have been underfunded,
as the big subsidies have gone to large, non-local corporations. Almost no
efforts have been made to ensure that publicly funded projects result in living wage, not
poverty wage, jobs, or that publicly funded projects actually serve to advance the public
good.

While this litany of failures has not gone unnoticed, it has remained obscure to the
average citizen. Part of the obscurity stems from the very complexity of the programs
involved, which has reached nearly Enron-like proportions. Part of it comes from the fact
that nearly all of them are administered by independent authorities, operating outside of
normal legislative and executive channels: an alphabet soup of entities such as BERC,
BUDC, ECIDA, BURA, ECHDC, ESDC, etc. These authorities, which the State
Comptroller has labeled New York’s “secret government,” control vast resources but
operate largely outside of effective citizen involvement or democratic oversight. As a
result, a decision like that of the Amherst IDA to spend $79 million in Erie County tax
dollars to subsidize a data center for HSBC, one of the world’s largest subprime lenders,
receives remarkably little scrutiny, particularly when compared to the attention given to
much less expensive decisions made by City and County officials.

But while public policy and programs have missed the target when it comes to
revitalizing the East and West Sides, both neighborhoods have an array of assets to build
from, and, in recent years, some successful community economic development efforts
that can serve as models and anchors. Public investments in schools, parks, parkways,
health care facilities, and housing offer important starting points in both neighborhoods,
as do grassroots community efforts by churches and non-profits to rehabilitate houses,
plant community gardens and urban farms, redevelop commercials strips, and reclaim
areas from blight. If a more aware citizenry successfully demands that government turn
away from wasteful subsidies and follow the community’s lead, there is no reason we
cannot revitalize the East and West Sides – not by gentrifying them, but by improving
incomes, housing, transportation, and amenities for the current residents.

If You Want Economic Development Support Creative People And Let Them Loose

www.buffalorising.com printed a copy of the speech given by Artvoice publisher Jamie Moses at an Arts Council event, which I like very much.

Two favorite sections of the speech for me are:

"If you want economic development you need to support creative people and let them loose, because if you don't you will safely do the same thing year after year, which is nothing. Or you will safely do what our leaders have done here for the past fifty years, which is ignore the best interests of the community and endlessly chase money by mimicking what someone else, somewhere else did yesterday that got them a dollar. But that was yesterday and that dollar is gone and so we're always behind and operating on a formal policy of a day late and a dollar short."

This week's cover story in Artvoice is about a $74 million windfall in unrestricted federal money coming to the county. What are we going to do with that money? We can't let it fall into the same old hands of people pushing the same tired ideas of the past fifty years. We shouldn't squander it in a negligible tax reduction. I call on the county executive to find a way to support the arts with some of that money and to find fresh ways to use the rest. A fresh idea can happen in an instant and can change everything. When Governor DeWitt Clinton made up his mind to build the Erie Canal and in that one instant he changed the future of Buffalo. That's the power of an idea. Let's support the people with the ideas."

You can read the speech which is not that long here.

Nashville Takes A Grassroots Approach To Addressing Poverty

I saw the article below in one of the February weekly newspapers issued by the National League of Cities. What do you think about the approach being used in Nashville and would it be beneficial to utilize a similar approach in Buffalo?

Nashville Mayor Issues Poverty Challenge

by Phyllis Furdell
The City of Nashville, Tenn,. is taking a nontraditional approach to addressing poverty. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean challenged business, residents, government agencies and community groups to come up with a plan to reduce poverty in Davidson County by 50 percent by 2018. In response, more than 500 people attended the Nashville Poverty Symposium hosted by the city’s Metropolitan Action Commission and the Nashville Chamber Public Benefit Foundation.

The symposium, developed by a coalition of 13 local agencies and organizations that acts as the planning committee for this effort, was an opportunity to see what was being done in Nashville to address poverty, as well as the service gaps that prevented families from being able to sustain themselves.

“There isn’t one approach or one organization that can solve the issues of poverty; it takes all of us coming together,” said Howard Gentry, CEO of the Nashville Chamber Public Benefit Foundation.

At the symposium, 200 people volunteered to be part of one of seven action groups charged with developing a plan to submit to the planning committee, which will present it to the mayor by May. The areas of focus for the action groups include: health care; housing; child care; food; economic opportunity; neighborhoods; and workforce development. Each group meets monthly.

Prior to the fall symposium, a leadership team from Nashville participated in an NLC Building Equitable Communities Technical Assistance Roundtable in Charlotte, N.C. The roundtable focused on collaborative team building and strategic planning for addressing poverty and equity.

According to team participant Cynthia Croom, executive director of the Metropolitan Action Commission, Nashville’s leadership team found the NLC event to be essential to the success of their symposium. It enabled them to develop the framework for the planning process before and after the event. It put them in touch with other cities dealing with similar challenges, and helped them to appreciate and respond to the unique needs of Nashville.

After the symposium, the Nashville leadership team brought the NLC facilitators of the roundtable to Nashville to spend a day training the 200 people who volunteered to be part of the seven Action Groups.

Nashville Metropolitan Council Member Sandra Moore, who was part of the Nashville team attending the Charlotte roundtable, serves on the work force development action group that was formed at the symposium. As proud as she is of how the Nashville community is taking ownership of this issue, she cautions, “This work is a challenge and requires a commitment. You need to stay focused and you have to be committed to making progress. The problem of poverty is not going to go away.”

A complicating factor now, she notes, is that more and more people are seeking assistance.

A number of benefits are emerging from Nashville’s bringing all stakeholders and sectors of the community together to address poverty. The relationships necessary for true coordination to take place are developing, there is promise that limited resources will be used more efficiently and ownership of the solution is being distributed more broadly. According to Croom, “People left the symposium feeling that together something could be done.” 

Avi Poster, a retired school principal representing the Nashville Jewish Federation on the Planning Committee, believes this process will lead to more productive outcomes for low-income families, in spite of shrinking resources. “Out of this effort to sensitize the entire community and coordinate all the current programs that address poverty, we are generating widespread support for many efforts — from food banks to job training programs.”

Does Buffalo Need More Public & Private Partnerships?

An article in the Next American City talks about how Indianapolis has turned itself around through public and private partnerships.

The following is a portion of the article:

"Although you might not guess it today, Detroit and Indianapolis once had much in common. Thirty years ago, both cities suffered from decreased economic activity, severe unemployment, violence, white flight and racial tensions. But Indianapolis, the nation’s 13th most populous city, has since recovered from those challenges, which were spawned by deindustrialization and suburban job growth. In 2008, Forbes named Indianapolis as one of its “Ten Best Cities for Jobs,” and CNBC called Indiana the “most improved state for business.”

Detroit, by contrast, has continued its decline. It has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country; swaths of abandoned buildings illustrate the metaphor of a broken city. Although New Orleans and Camden, N.J., bumped Detroit from first place to third in a 2008 list of the most-dangerous cities in America, Detroit is still invoked as a preternatural example of urban blight. Median household income is a paltry $29,526, and a whopping 26.1 percent of the population lives in poverty. This month, its unemployment rate hit 10.6 percent, compared with Indianapolis’s 7.1 and the national average of 7.6.

What accounts for the drastic disparity in these two cities’ fortunes? Many politicians and members of the business community suggest that public-private partnerships — deals in which the government partners with the private sector to deliver a necessary service that it cannot afford, or which it wishes to provide more efficiently — have allowed Indianapolis to prosper. City governments can form PPPs to support small-scale projects, and may also lease the operation of their own assets, but if they want to forge a PPP to back a larger initiative, like a massive infrastructure project, they need legislative support from the state. Indiana law permits the formation of PPPs for infrastructure projects; Michigan law does not. 

Former Indianapolis mayor Bart Peterson agrees that these partnerships played a prominent role in his city’s revival. “If you go back 40 years to when I was a kid, Indianapolis didn’t have a heck of a lot going for it,” he says. “The city dug itself out of that mess … by recognizing that the government couldn’t do it alone and private business couldn’t do it alone. But if they shared a commitment to turning the city around, piece by piece, year by year, together they could get it done.”

I personally don't understand why City government owns parking ramps and lots that compete with the private sector. I don't understand why the City provides drug rehab services when many other agencies do. Government should in my opinion provide basic services such as police, fire and public works. Other services if necessary can be contracted out and performed more efficiently.

Do you think Buffalo needs more public and private partnerships? What City services do you think would be performed better with a public /private partnership?

Voting No Is Easy, Being A Reformer Requires Work

We elect people to serve as community leaders, we elect people to pursue ideas, we elect people to make a difference.

The Buffalo Common Council recently approved a $21.7 million Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) budget. The federal government provides cities across the country grant funding to address poverty, economic development and human services programs. A City as poor as Buffalo has a lot of poverty and economic development issues to address.

Councilmember Michael LoCurto who has a Masters degree in Urban Planning chaired the committee that reviewed the Block Grant budget. Councilmember Michael Kearns is gearing up to run for Mayor of Buffalo. Both LoCurto and Kearns according to the Buffalo News voted against the budget proposed by Mayor Brown, which was approved 7 to 2.

What troubles me is that it is easy to vote no and call for reform. If you are serious about reform then you have to at least put forth some effort to bring about change. LoCurto expressed concern about the amount of money being spent on salaries and attempted to get a list of all employees, salary lists and cell phone use. Despite his concerns LoCurto never made any attempt to cut jobs through a motion in committee or even through negotiation with the Mayor. With a Masters Degree in Urban Planning LoCurto focused on salaries and cell phones. What about the bigger policy issues of whether the proposed Block Grant budget was the best way to address poverty and economic development in Buffalo?

As Councilmember Kearns gears up to run for Mayor he expressed concern that the agencies who dole out Block Grant funds do so with little or no accountability, "I think we need better controls" said Kearns as part of explaining his no vote. Yet as a policy maker Kearns did not make any effort to propose or enact better controls.

Personally I like both LoCurto and Kearns and enjoyed working with them when I served as Chief of staff to the Common Council. I recently got with the times and joined FaceBook, where both Kearns and LoCurto are two of my FaceBook friends. I am not writing this as an unfair shot, I am writing this as constructive criticism in an effort to inspire more from them.

 Leaders get people to follow them. As Chair of a Council committee you need to try to get your fellow committee members to follow you. As a potential candidate for Mayor you need to try to get people to follow your change efforts.

We need leadership in government. Don't take the easy way out and simply vote no. Take the next step and try to bring about change!

Apparently Chickens Are Hip

When my father who lives in Florida told me that he was raising chickens on his property, I thought he was losing his mind. Well apparently raising chickens is growing in popularity. See the article below.

Vancouver approves backyard chicken coops

Vancouver city council delights aficionados by approving plan to allow urban hen houses, but ruffles feathers of poultry association

• JANE ARMSTRONG

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

March 11, 2009 at 12:50 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — They cluck and bob around backyards from New York to Victoria, providing endless hours of delight to their owners, along with a few freshly laid eggs every other day.

Backyard chickens have become the new “it” animal for urbanites striving for simple, sustainable living habits. Now, Vancouver is poised to join the North American wave of affection for all things chicken after city council approved a plan to allow city dwellers to keep the birds in their own backyards.

The plan has thrilled urban hen keepers who say the move will improve the quality of life for people and chickens alike.

“They are so pretty and so cute and they talk to you and follow you around,” gushed Heather Havens about her hens Zilla and Cheeks. Ms. Havens's four-year-old birds live in a coop in her backyard in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, which outlaws chickens in small yards like Ms. Haven's.

Ms. Havens has begun lobbying Surrey to make her birds legal.

Urbanites are increasingly drawn to chickens, she said, because they provide a link to simpler times when people knew – and could see – where their food came from. Retrieving an egg from a hen's roost appears to be just the tonic for people craving a closer connection to their natural environment.

While Vancouver is often on the vanguard of urban trends, this time it is following in the footsteps of a score of large U.S. cities that have embraced urban gardens and small livestock.

Portland, Ore., and Seattle have permitted backyard chickens for years. In Portland, there are “coop tours” similar to garden tours, where people can survey the neighbourhood hens and check out the newest chicken gear, including designer coops and hen houses. And Seattle has recently permitted residents to own miniature goats. Small cows might not be far behind.

But even long-time chicken aficionados say there's no precedent to the current chicken craze.

Seattle cancer researcher Paul Farley, who has kept chickens since he was a youngster growing up in the San Francisco area, teaches adult classes on how to care for urban chickens.

“If you had told me 20 years ago that I'd be teaching Poultry 101 to classrooms of 50 people, I wouldn't have believed it,” Mr. Farley said. “I was the weirdo for so many years. Now, everyone wants to hear what I have to say about chickens.”

Not everyone is enamoured of bringing chickens to city yards. Last year, Halifax banned the birds and they're outlawed in Toronto, too.

The B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which argued against the bylaw change at Vancouver city council last week, is worried that people will rush out and buy hens without knowing what to feed them, how to care for them if they get sick, and how to build secure chicken coops to protect them from raccoons and coyotes.

Spokesman Geoff Urton said the SPCA has a certification program for farmers who raise chickens according to a set of animal-welfare guidelines. People concerned about where their eggs come from can always purchase these products in stores, a far cheaper alternative to keeping backyard chickens, he said.

The British Columbia Poultry Association has also weighed in, urging Vancouver to reject backyard chickens. Association president Ray Nickel said city chickens could increase the threat of disease such as avian flu.

“There are distinct differences between planting an herb garden in your backyard, as opposed to keeping animals,” Mr. Nickel said.

“I don't see it as a very rational decision. [The city] is not consulting with agricultural organizations. They seem to consult with small interest groups.”

Indeed, West Coast politicians have been more sympathetic to chicken ownership. They are legal in Victoria and several Lower Mainland jurisdictions.

City Councillor Andrea Reimer, who proposed the chicken bylaw change, said the city's food policy council examined the pros and cons of keeping chickens. Anyone who has owned a dog or cat can learn how to care for a chicken, Ms. Reimer said.

Ms. Havens, meanwhile, said keeping chicken isn't about saving money.

“You find yourself making excuses to go out and be with them,” she said. “You bring them a treat, or check for eggs, but really, they are just nice to be around.”

"Every Business Needs A Good Manager"

"Every business needs a good manager" stated Darnell Earley at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. Mr. Earley the incoming President of the International City County Management Association and a City Manager in Michigan spoke in Buffalo about the Council Manager form of government.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, due to widespread corruption in U.S. cities, reformers sought a new way of operating government. The Council Manager form of government was created, which emphasized professional training and accountability. Under a "strong mayor" form of government it is easier for special interests to use money and political power to influence a single elected official. Prior to becoming Mayor the past three Buffalo Mayors served as City Councilmembers and then as a State Senator. The management experience of our past three Mayor's consisted of running an office of about seven people. This previous experience in no way properly prepares people to run a $500 million corporation. Political pressure then leads to filling key government positions based more on political qualifications such as contributions and obtaining petition signatures than on professional experience.

Under the Council Manager form of government the Council hires a professional City Manager to fill top positions and run the day to day operation of City government. The City Manager does not give a damn about political contributions (in fact under the City Manager code of ethics, City Managers are not even allowed to attend political fund raisers)or about political petitions. All the City Manager cares about is hiring quality professional people, because the City Manager is going to be evaluated and held accountable for job performance. If expectations are not being met a City Manager can be fired.

Currently more than 75 million people live in communities with a Council Manager form of government. Cities such as San Antonio, San Diego, Phoenix, Boulder and Dayton utilize a Council Manager form of government. 54% of municipalities with a population between 5,000 and 250,000 residents are governed under the Council Manager structure.

Not just anyone can effectively run a $500 million corporation, it takes special skills and training to be a good manager. Buffalo needs a new approach to governing. In my opinion a Council Manager form of government is worth exploring. Every organization is only as good as the talented people it has working for it. A flawed hiring process in which talent is secondary to politics results in bad performance and bad decisions that impact all of us.

Check out the post at www.buffalopundit.com and Brian Meyer's Buffalo News article. For more information on Mr. Earley's visit.

5 Things To Do When You're Unemployed. Hint: It's Not Job Hunting.

I saw this post on www.blog.penelopetrunk.com and thought it was interesting. As more people lose their jobs, this might help.

Posted to: Job hunt

March 6th, 2009

Let’s say you get fired, or laid off, or you quit because after two weeks you know you’re at the worst company on the planet. In all of those cases, you will face the interview question: What happened at your last job?

Here’s the answer you should always give: “I left to do x.” And you fill in for x.

Which brings me to what you should be really focusing on when you are unemployed: Learning and growing. Because this is what you are going to talk about in job interviews.

Most people require about six months to get another job. This is a big chunk of time that you can piss away sending resumes to Monster and wondering why no one responds. But you cannot job hunt for eight hours a day. Really. You’ll go nuts. (Wait. Here’s a time-saving job hunt tip from my mom.)

So spend the time creating projects for yourself and executing on them. This is good for you mentally – because you are doing something meaningful with your time and that will keep your spirits up.

But this is also good for you in your job hunt. Because when you talk about why you left the last company, you spin it in a positive light by talking about how you are excited about doing what you are doing. Your interview should include you telling a good story about focused personal growth, and no one will get stuck on why you left your last job. Here are five ways to set that story up:

1. Create a job for yourself. These projects can be wide ranging, but they have to show that you are driven, ambitious and focused. During one stint of unemployment, I worked for free for my boyfriend’s company for a couple of hours a day. That way I didn’t actually have a gap in my resume; a resume doesn’t show part-time or full-time and it doesn’t show pay or no pay. So volunteering at my boyfriend’s company for a couple of hours a day ended up looking like a full-time job on my resume.

2. Focus on ambition and execution and not so much on work per se. Another time I got laid off I spent my days learning to swing dance. I took one or two lessons a day and practiced at night, and after my six months of job hunting, I was good enough to teach dancing just off Broadway. I didn’t put that on my resume, but when people asked me why I left my job, I told them about how I gave myself time to fulfill lofty goals as a swing dancer.

3. Start a blog about the industry you want to go into. Blogging is a great way to keep up in your industry, network without looking desperate, and leverage the fact that you have more time on your hands that people who have jobs. Everyone who is unemployed should be blogging as a way to get their next job. Put your ideas out into the world and connect with people that way. This is why you want to be hired, right? For your ideas. So show them. The reason that people who blog have great careers is that bloggers are always thinking about issues in their industry. Show that side of yourself to people. Blogging takes a lot of time, sure. Bu you have a lot of time. So use it. Here’s my guide for how to start a blog.

4. Start a company. Do you have a company idea? Try it now. During unemployment. There’s nothing stopping you. You have time, and you can try ideas to see which one sticks. Also, whether or not your company does well, you’ll be able to talk about it in an interview as a huge learning moment that will deflect from any problems at your last job. The company that never got out of your parent’s basement can sit on your resume as professionally as a stint in the Fortune 500. It’s all about how you write the bullet points: talk about accomplishments and learning.

5. Practice talking about yourself with everyone. High performers practice for interviews. So now you know what you’re aiming for, but you need to talk about it with everyone – parties, at the gym, on the phone with friends. When they ask how you’re doing, talk about what you’re doing like you are in the job interview. And the good news is that the better you get at talking like that, the more you will actually believe your story, the story that being unemployed is lucky because you have learning opportunities.

What’s important to remember here is that no one can tell you what experience you can gain and what you can’t. You don’t need a job in order to learn cool stuff and be on cool projects. You control what you do with your time and you can make it useful. Talk about that. There is no reason to talk about why the last job didn’t work when you can talk about the great things that leaving opened up to you.