December 16, 2003
Tom Potter Emphasizes Strategic Planning And Performance Measurements In Speech To Rotary
"Everywhere I go I am told that City government is out of touch with the people they serve," said Mayoral candidate Tom Potter, speaking before the Portland Industrial Rotary Club. "The message is always the same: City government isn't meeting the needs of its citizens."
Potter spoke this morning before a group of 25-30 Rotarians in the ballroom of the Multnomah Athletic Club.
After relating the tale of a local business owner's struggle with the City's service developement costs as she tried to expand (a story which sounded fairly similar to one told by City Council candidate Jason Newell in his candidacy announcement), Potter went on to list four principles he considers essential to good governance:
(1) listening to those I serve to better understand issues and problems; (2) including those delivering and receiving our services in developing relevant and cost-effective solutions to problems; (3) delivering services that strengthen people, businesses, and neighborhoods; and (4) continually measuring and reporting on the results of our service to the public.
Saying that his "first step will be to work with all citizens to develop a strategic plan to achieve our shared vision," Potter then went on to outline a three-part vision.
"My vision will take shape with leadership," he said, "which starts by setting clear expectations for citizen-focused solutions and services at all levels of City government."
I will get out from behind my desk and go out to talk with businesses, neighborhoods to find out for myself how we are doing. Bureau heads will be meeting with employees and citizens to determine how we can improve services. Every employee will begin each conversation with a citizen by asking, "How can I help you?"
"I will bring people together," Potter said, continuing on to the second part of his vision.
Describing what he called the 'silo effect' (whose symptons have been described as "lack of cooperation, internal competition and breakdown in communication," and described as addressing "departments that operate independently without any contact between other departments whose functions overlap with theirs"), he accused current City leaders and City bureaus of a "lack of agreement on the City's core mission."
"The silo effect," he said, "harms collaboration between bureaus, creates confusion, and sends mixed signals to citizens and businesses." Referring to last year's Managing for Results (pdf) report out of the Auditor's Office, which reported that the City Council's lack of commitment to a core mission "was identified by every Bureau management team as the most significant weakness in City government," Potter accused that this remains the case today, a year later.
"You will have a hard time finding a direct link between our currrent City budget and a relevant citywide mission or vision," he said. "Because there is none."
To eliminate these kinds of problems, the Mayor and Council must work together to make decisions that benefit the whole City, using our strategic plan and responsibility to citizens as our guideposts.
As Mayor, I assure that we're not going to have an outdated strategic plan that gathers dust on the shelf while the City makes arbitrary decisions. We are going to manage bureaus and measure results based on priorities created by our community.
"By understand how each bureau fits into the big picture," Potter added, " we reduce uncertainty, clarify employee roles and expectations, and do a better job for our citizens, businsesses, and even our non-profits."
(It should perhaps be noted that in his own recent speech to another group of Rotarians, Potter opponent Jim Francesconi also stated that he would move to create a clear strategic plan for the City.)
Moving to the third element of his vision, Potter said, "I will ask the Auditor's Office to assembled a team of academic and business experts to design an evaluation for all City functions and services."
Incorporating both short-term and long-term goals, and performance measurements for all levels of City government (from Mayor and Council, through bureau heads, to employees), this public evaluation would combine with the Auditor's yearly citizen survey to "become the baseline for future City performance audits.
From the start, this process will provide clear benchmarks for government accountability to the citizenry. It will tell citizens how their money is being spent, and if the decisions of the Mayor and City Council are in conformance with our shared vision. It will tell citizens whether we are the best-run city in America.
"My Mayoral administration starts with a vision that is inclusive, effective, and focused on outcomes," Potter concluded. "This requires strong leadership from elected officials and our citizenry, and is democracy at its best."
Following his remarks, Potter responded to a question about the City's bureaus being "top-heavy" by saying that part of making the City more efficient and effective would be analyzing staffing levels, especially within management, and "pushing decision-making down to levels where it's more appropriate."
Asked for his thoughts about bringing major league baseball to Portland, Potter said that he would oppose such efforts if he thought the City's resources could be used for more important things. "It shouldn't have ranked [in priority] quite as high as it has," he said. He also expressed reservations about such a plan resulting in only short-term construction jobs, followed only by low-wage part-time jobs.
Urged to compare himself, whom the questioner deemed an outsider, to Jim Francesconi, deemed an insider, Potter referred to the City organizational chart included within the City budget. "At the top of the organizational chart is a little box called 'citizens' -- I am part of the government, and so are you folks."
Afterwards, I asked Potter about his desire to be a Mayor who coordinates bureau agendas within an overall citywide strategy. He said that while it theoretically might be more difficult under Portland's commission form of government (with the Mayor and each member of the Council responsible for various bureaus), it's certainly not impossible -- especially if you combine the "bully pulpit" power of the Mayor's office with citizen involvement.
As for how the current City Hall scores on this count: "It's not happening," he said flatly.
Potter also said (well, because I asked) that he doesn't necessarily oppose changing the City Charter to move Portland from its commission form of government, where "commissioners now have both executive and legislative powers," to the more common mayor/council form, but pointed out that Portlanders have rejected such Charter changes elevent times since the City first adopted commission government in 1913. "Most recently two years ago," he added.
(In actually, at least according to the Elections Divison, "the question of the City's form of government has come to the voters seven additional times" since the commission form was first adopted.)
He also argued that while Portland is only one of a couple cities left in America still using the commission form of government (in fact, according to the Council Clerk, "Portland has the last remaining Commission form of government among large cities in the United States"), the City does quite well when compared to many of the cities which have switched to other forms.
Using the past failures of Charter revision as a guide, Potter said it would seem that Portlanders are saying the City should keep what it has, but make it work.
As a sidenote, I should mention that the media advisory for today's speech seemed to indicate that there would be some portion of Potter's remarks which explained "an exciting new role for [the] city's neighborhood associations." This did not materialize this morning, and I have email out to the Potter campaign to determine what became of this aspect, and when it will actually be brought forth.