A.G. Gancarski
Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece arguing that these Lenny Curry Transition Team budget reviews should not be open to the media.
Once they were made open, however, I endeavored to cover all of them that I could.
They were supposed to run for three days; in fact, they ran for seven.
Despite that, I made all but three departmental sessions. I blogged all of them.
Sometimes, I even made the blogs interesting.
The most common thing that I saw was Sam Mousa and Mike Weinstein telling heads of department after department to show their process.
Dozens of departments, including cash-strapped ones like Information Technology and the Jacksonville Public Library, cried poverty even though they had money in specific funds that could be used for operating costs.
I’m not sure if I heard about that entire $500 million that Lori Boyer said that she found sitting around, but I heard about a lot of capital that was not being used optimally.
Some have messaged me privately, offering critiques of Mousa’s management style. Did he come in with something to prove? Was he trying to make a point? That would be the response to one thing or another that I quoted him saying.
I look at it like this: There are two types of bosses. There’s the accommodating consensus leader type. Those folks are always nice to work for.
And then there’s the type who will tell you “The Buck Stops Here.”
Those are the ones who teach you how things are supposed to work.
As the sunset of my years approaches, I’m less sentimental about workplace dynamics. The efficiency of the overall machine matters. That’s especially true with bigger machines, such as the unwieldy behemoth that is consolidated government, such as that the city of Jacksonville has.
Each neighborhood, each area of town, has its own discrete issues. Some neighborhoods never see crime tape. Others look like sets for police procedural dramas. Some neighborhoods don’t have to worry much about UF Health, in terms of their primary care needs. For others, Shands is the hospital.
Even after almost a half-century of consolidated government, there still is little dialogue between the Haves and the Have-Nots in Jacksonville.
One of the bets that the Alvin Brown administration made was that cosmetic improvements were the things that would boost Jacksonville to the “Next Level.”
NBA preseason games. New scoreboards in what we used to call the Gator Bowl. Water taxis. A restored Southbank Riverwalk. The idea was to make Jacksonville a destination.
The problem with that approach is that it came at the expense of other civic priorities, such as infrastructure, police and fire vehicles, radios, and equipment, and other neighborhood quality of life issues.
In a different context, the always brilliant Susie Wiles, the policy director of the Lenny Curry transition team, referred to the “difference between politics in theory and politics in practice.” The reality for governments “is that they have to balance their budgets, and there is a finite number of ways to do it. … You’ve got to take the medicine.”
To get public safety right, to get the schools right, to get the safety net for the economically disadvantaged right, Jacksonville’s government has to get back to first principles. All expectations are that interest rates are about to go up. Counting on loose money and easy credit are not luxuries the city of Jacksonville has any more. Every dollar counts. Mousa and Weinstein are going to ensure that counting happens.
