The political vogue seems to be to talk about how we’re going to work on “basic services”. No more of these “unnecessary” distractions in local politics. This trend leads me to ask two questions. First of all, can’t we do both, or are we incapable of multi-tasking? Second, the City has been relatively well run for years, why do things seem to be crumbling around us now?
The City of Madison is a great place to live for many reasons, and at least some of those reasons are the actions that the Common Council has taken over the years. And we historically haven’t stuck to “just the basics” usually described as plowing the streets, good police and fire services, good drinking water, picking up the garbage, etc. Instead, we have things like one of the best child care accreditation programs in the country. Something that is not “basic services” as described by some.
What often isn’t said, is what all these “unnecessary” things that we are working on are. I’m guessing that its things like paid sick leave, inclusionary zoning, minimum wage, lobbying laws or anything else that isn’t liked by the business community. What is kind of interesting to note is that “economic development” doesn’t seem to be a “basic service.” But then again, neither is protecting our environment, affordable housing, good jobs, etc. but clearly we can’t have the quality of life we have here in Madison without them. And some of our basic services like the bus system and the swimming pool have been under constant attack by the right and center because they don’t “pay for themselves”. Well, neither do many other of our basic services like police, fire, streets etc.
What makes this focus on “basic services” even harder is that, we, as a Council, have historically been told to “stay out of it” when it comes to some of these basic services. “Micromanagement” is what we are often told we are doing. We are told that we hire good people to do the good work that they do. When we as alders stick our noses in to the business of some of the departments we are publicly chastised. The police department comes to mind.
Finally, why is it that lately it seems we, as a City, can’t get things done right? Is it poor management? Poor hiring decisions? Or have these calls for 3% reductions every year been taking its toll on some of these departments? As the city grows, we have been asking departments to cut or stay at the same levels and still provide the same level of services for a constantly growing city. The assumption seems to be that somehow since we are a government, we must be wasting money. I have to say, after many years of being involved, its hard to find that waste. And you can see that in lack of amendments to cut the budget from alders. As hard as some have tried, the obvious cuts just aren’t there.
So, while “basic services” are definitely important, I’m not sure its much of an agenda for the Common Council or Mayor for 2008. Its the job of the Mayor to manage the department managers. And the more we as a Council “interfere” with the daily functions of the City, the more this micromanagement is going to be met with a big push back by the departments. It should be an interesting struggle next year if indeed that’s the only thing that we focus on.
