Five
months into the Bragg era
by
Mike Kroll
It has now been five months since Dane Bragg arrived
on the Galesburg scene as new city manager and amazingly enough you would be
hard pressed to find a citizen, city employee or city council member (past or present)
who isn't a fan. For a city facing as many problems, err Òchallenges,Ó as
Galesburg that has witnessed very little reason for hope this is an astounding
circumstance. Most incoming city managers or elected officials finding
themselves in similar circumstances would be laboring to diminish expectations
to lessen the pain of the upcoming fall, but Bragg hasn't done this. Instead he
has tackled the budgetary problems he inherited from predecessor Gary Goddard
with aplomb (and purchased himself a longer honeymoon as a consequence), broken
from past practice to institute the first ever city economic development person
at the director level and cast aside most of the veil of secrecy that
characterized all things Goddard.
Bragg would be the first to tell you he hasn't brought
the magic bullet to restore Galesburg to greatness nor has he even identified
all the problems that need to be addressed across the city much less fixed
them. What he has done is empowered his direct subordinates to take more
initiative and be more candid. He welcomes viewpoints and positions other than
his own and encourages frank discussion among staff. He has even promoted
greater transparency with the public, within limits. Recall that he felt the
need for the private two-by-two meetings with city council members to present
his ideas for massive ÒtweakingÒ of the 2007 budget and the creation of the
economic development director position.
I sat down with Bragg in his office to discuss his
Galesburg experience so far. I began by asking what he found different between
Galesburg and his former city of Decatur.
ÒThe politics of a smaller town is different. When I
arrived business as usual in Galesburg was far different from what I had been
used to in Decatur. In some ways I have had to adjust while in other ways I
will adjust the way Galesburg operates. Most importantly, I have been welcomed
warmly into the community. People have been accommodating and inviting but it
is clear there are high expectations for improving the city. I already have a
good working relationship with key staff, the mayor and city council and I am
looking forward to working with the newly elected aldermen. It has been a busy
but good first few months.Ó
Bragg recognized some problems almost immediately
after arriving in Galesburg and is working to solve them as the opportunity
presents itself. He is refreshingly open to discussion of ways to improve the
city or city government and says that Òcommunication is everythingÓ when it
comes to successful city management. He believes in a team approach to
government where each of his directors and chiefs independently operate their
own domains but serve both himself and each other toward better operation of
the city. With obviously limited resources priorities must be determined and
that is the job of the city council. But Bragg also realizes that it is his job
to implement the city council's strategic vision into tactical objectives he
can assign to his staff (the military metaphor is mine not his).
ÒI strive to be open and up front with everybody from
the city council to the citizens to city staff. Hidden or secret agendas are
self-defeating and an inefficient use of resources. There are many problems
that need addressing in Galesburg but we need to focus on the most important and
doable up front. Priorities can be both political and practical and they are
necessarily fluid. I must rely on my key staff to run their departments
efficiently while focused on the goals we share as an organization. This will
mean changes in how the city has historically operated.Ó
Bragg sees the present city department organization
structure as too compartmentalized. He would like to see a more programmatic
approach to city government as opposed to the departmental approach currently
used. ÒI want to see team of directors or city employees from across
departments work together to tackle some of the city issues. Right now our
departmental structure seems to get in the way of staff working together for
the best results in many areas . One of the changes to the budget i would like
to implement over time is a transition to programmatic rather than departmental
budgeting. This is a major conceptual change but I believe we can try it out in
an area or two for the 2008 budget year.Ó
As an apparently counter-intuitive example that Bragg
says epitomizes this notion he points to the disjointed structure of having a
separate parks department from recreation. ÒWhen I first arrived here I thought
that this was a silly way to handle parks and recreation by operating out of
totally separate departments but after talking with Roy [Parkin] and Larry
[Cox] I have been told that they see real functional advantages to the current
arrangement. So here is something I thought I would need to change that I am in
less of a hurry to mess with right now. We need to learn to evaluate city
operations from the perspective of accomplishments rather than line items. The
current total focus on departmental line items is a poor way to budget.Ó
Another thing about Galesburg that Bragg recognized
almost immediately is the city's tendency to over-use punitive measures,
particularly in the realm of neighborhood cleanup. ÒI remain convinced that it
is a mistake to depend so much on the stick when there are so many advantages
to using a carrot. It is clear that neighborhood revitalization is important in
a community of so many older homes but establishing harsher and harsher
penalties seems like the wrong way to go about this task. We are spending too
much money demolishing deteriorated properties only to he left with scattered
empty lots. Each torn down house is like loosing a tooth. Missing teeth lead to
further dental problems and a less attractive smile. We need to find a way to
slow down or stop the deterioration before demolition becomes inevitable. We
need to apply a lot more carrot beside our code enforcement effort. This is a
project I would like to take on soon, perhaps as early as next budget year.Ó
Bragg would like to concentrate a multi-department
approach to a targeted neighborhood for a couple of years at a time to induce
building owners to make necessary improvements. ÒWhen we tear down a house we
are spending thousands of dollars to get rid of an eyesore but we may
inadvertently be hastening the decline of the neighborhood and we are directly
reducing the city's tax base. Perhaps we should target some city funds toward
subsidizing ways to clean up neighborhoods and repair or restore deteriorated
homes.Ó
The new city manager was candid about his top
priorities. ÒThe mayor and city council have made it clear that I must focus of
improving the way the city budgets this first year but over the longer term the
goal must be economic development. These are clearly interconnected goals
because the budget is a direct function of the economic vitality of the
community. In the short-term the key must be to build the city tax base and the
fastest way to do that is through retail growth. However, the longer-range
economic development goal must be to expand upon the number of good-paying
local jobs. I think it has become pretty clear by now that that won't be
through attracting a big manufacturer. Galesburg's economic future will depend
upon establishing a more diversified employment economy and becoming more
attractive to young middle-class families.Ó
ÒIt is probably unreasonable to expect to attract a
lot of college-graduate singles to Galesburg but we need to become more
attractive to young college-educated couples with kids. This is a problem that
much of the Midwest outside of the large metro areas face yet our state leaders
refuse to recognize it. Too many young families are being attracted to large
metro areas or the Sunbelt at the expense of th Midwest's smaller cities and
rural areas.Ó
5/10/07