Paving the way to a new New Bedford: Reforming the way City Hall works… for you!

Matt Morrissey ~ August 22, 2005

To the citizens of New Bedford,

Our community is filled with diverse and creative people and blessed by an inspiring and accessible coastal location. Yet, after eight years, the current administration has made little progress in addressing the community’s core challenges and unleashing its true potential. Local aid from the state has been cut. Health insurance premiums for municipal employees have skyrocketed. These are well-documented facts and are not unique to New Bedford. In order to move forward, we must acknowledge the harsh fiscal realities and not compromise fundamental principles that we as citizens value: trust, service and accountability.

It all comes down to a simple equation: 4 + 33 + 17 = 54.
Our community continues to have 4th highest unemployment rate in Massachusetts; approximately 33% of our high school students drop out of school; and there are 17 unsolved murders; all despite a 54% increase in our property tax bills. Worse yet, basic city services have suffered over the last eight years. Our rank and file workers have the knowledge and talent to get the job done, but there is no strategic leadership at the top nor an overall plan and vision to guide them.

In the face of similar challenges, other cities have reformed the way their city government operates and how they engage people in the life of their community. It is happening in Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland; and Portland, Maine. Visit these communities, and many others like them and you can feel a refreshing vibrancy. These cities face real issues regarding crime and education, yet there is a current of enthusiasm, collective focus and determination that moves through a cross-section of people driving truly innovative, inter-connected projects. Each of these communities enjoys visionary, transparent, inclusive, forward-thinking leadership. They openly and honestly confront core challenges, and they welcome all to participate in new opportunities. They are communities that have moved beyond the politics of individual credit grabbing, government arrogance, and back-room dealing. As a result, they are among the most livable cities in the country. They have proven that civic engagement succeeds.

These cities are surging ahead, yet none of these cities possess New Bedford's extraordinary diversity, culture, heritage, and geographic assets. If New Bedford is truly going to move forward, we must look to these cities as successful examples of how others are accomplishing their goals and then have the courage and the will to come together and get things done.

Our goal is simple: to become one of the nation’s most livable communities.

Three critical underpinnings must be in place in order to accomplish this goal:

• As citizens of this city, we all must see and feel value for our tax dollars. We must dramatically improve our streets, our sidewalks and the general condition of our neighborhoods – the services City Hall is paid to deliver to all of us.
   
• There must be a new philosophy at City Hall – that government is a facilitator, a motivator, and an entity that empowers creative and innovative people and their ideas.
   
• We all must trust again that City Hall is working for us rather than for a handful of connected power brokers.

There is a chronic lack of will within the current administration to think innovatively, to break the mold, and rally people around common interests. The Morrissey administration will be different. Decisions about services will be guided by clear and thoughtful strategies rather than the political trade winds. This proposal offers a series of tangible plans for action in the context of a new way to deliver services by a new administration. These ideas represent a starting point, not a laundry list, to be built upon in an open and thoughtful process in the first days of a new administration.

The highlights include strategies to:

• Restore trust between City Hall and New Bedford’s citizens
   
• Communicate a strong overall vision and purpose ensuring accountability and results at all levels of city government
   
• Establish a plan for roads, sidewalks that transcends election year politics
   
• Create a Community Progress Report Card that measures our collective performance
   
• Improve customer service by streamlining city services
   
• Engage citizens and create new partnerships

As with our neighborhoods plan, “Paving the Way to a new New Bedford,” is offered in the spirit of creating a new way of doing the business of our community. It is built on the recommendations of dozens of people we have met over the last several months. We do not claim to have all the answers, and we look forward to listening some more. What is clear, however, is that together, we CAN do better. We MUST do better. We WILL do better.

Sincerely,

Matthew A. Morrissey
 

Summary

To better deliver city services, the Morrissey administration will:

• Work to reestablish trust between City Hall and New Bedford’s citizens by establishing a code of ethics, measuring performance, being honest about shortcomings, and correcting current deficiencies.

• Communicate a strong overall vision and purpose. All divisions of city government will be fully engaged in the development of the strategic plan and will be expected to implement this plan in the daily delivery of city services.

• Establish a clear plan for streets and sidewalk repair and resurfacing that transcends election year politics. Our roads and sidewalks must be maintained on a schedule that is transparent to all of us.

• Strictly manage the trash disposal contract to assure trash is picked up on time with care and speed. Aggressively investigate street cleaning programs, and ensure that couches, tires, and old TV’s are SOMEONE’S responsibility for removal. These are conditions that only inspire a sense of lawlessness. We will also closely study the best snow removal procedures of cities across the nation and implement the best model for New Bedford.

• Streamline City Hall to make it more efficient and customer friendly by simplifying permitting processes, fostering an understanding that city hall employees work for city residents, and making sure that all services are delivered in a cost effective manner.

• Create a Community Progress Report Card that is based on shared credit and shared responsibility for moving the city forward.

• Institute an advisory panel of private industry managers to make recommendations for improvements in city administration and services.

• Establish New Bedford Municipal Seminars to introduce citizens to the way their government works.

• Expand and improve the senior volunteer program in City Hall.

• Create a formal internship program between the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and City Hall.

• Create a formal partnership with the Southern New England School of Law for advanced law school students to serve as resources within the city solicitor’s office.

• Identify strong and creative managers and place them in leadership roles organizing key positions and departments with emphasis on innovation, collaboration and performance.

• Evaluate existing managers and new hires establishing 6-month performance reviews for key managers with emphasis on innovation, collaboration and performance.
   

How will the Morrissey administration differ from the Kalisz administration on the role of city government and the delivery of city services?

• The Morrissey administration will be a performance- and merit-driven administration. We will evaluate our performance on a regular basis to ensure all departments are delivering the highest level of services. There will be no free rides for under-performing individuals or departments.

• We will ensure that City Hall is for all people, not for only the politically connected few.

• We will make City Hall an open, positive, welcoming, and vibrant place.

• We will dramatically increase the flow of information to ALL city employees. This will bring morale in City Hall way up, and with it an increased level of services to all of our citizens.

• We will welcome opinions and ideas that come from outside the administration. There will be no predetermined outcomes and no monopoly on good ideas.
   

We CAN do better

The citizens of New Bedford have lost faith that their government’s primary function is to exist to serve the needs of us all. Too many of our citizens believe City Hall is organized and managed to serve the politically connected few and the squeaky wheels rather than advance the collective community interests and needs. The public trust has been lost by the current administration and the citizens of New Bedford are not naive.

City services: I have spent the last 90 days walking the city’s neighborhoods on a daily basis. I have seen first hand the condition of our streets, sidewalks and neighborhoods. The poor condition of many of our main roads is causing real damage to cars and many side streets in our neighborhoods look like they have been ignored for decades. In too many of our neighborhoods, in vacant lots and on sidewalks, there are couches, shopping carts, and trash of every kind strewn around. It is clear that this trash has been present for weeks or longer with no results in getting it removed. Graffiti is allowed to exist for far too long, and other results of vandalism are going unchecked.

Have you ever tried to reserve public space for an event? Have you ever attempted to get a driveway installed for your property? Have you ever attempted to get a tree planted in front of your house? The number of hurdles in City Hall that we have to go through in order to accomplish even simple tasks is outrageous and frustrating. Many permit applications require extensive and unnecessary application forms. In too many cases we are asked to go up, down and back up stairs, between departments for seemingly simple requests. Customer service is not a priority of the current administration.

This last year we had an extraordinary winter, one which few cities were fully prepared for, but shutting down the city for a week was unacceptable.

City Hall mismanagement: Eight years ago, Mayor Kalisz promised the citizens of New Bedford that he would create a thoughtful master plan for the city so services and development could be delivered in a smart, cost-effective and non-political manner. He has failed to keep that promise. There is no BIG PICTURE to guide the administration. Related departments are not organized to improve service or create innovation.

There is no regular substantive communication between departments and divisions. Top-down, fragmented micromanagement of departments by the mayor’s office is the rule. This approach relegates divisions to putting out the mayor’s fire of the day. Independent and creative thinking is not welcomed.

The current administration’s greatest weakness is a “know it all” philosophy. This is what constantly gets the current administration into trouble with our citizens, the City Council, the legislative delegation. The guiding philosophy is, “we know more and we know what is best.” Final results (see Home Depot, Keith School) are almost always predetermined and are frequently intended to serve the desires of a few while ignoring the needs of the many. There is no practice of exploring reasonable alternatives and meaningful public involvement is general discouraged. The atmosphere lacks efficiency, and is demoralizing for the department heads and staff, yielding limited value for the taxpayer.

Lack of accountability: If a project is taking twice as long as was planned, or services to taxpayers are not being delivered in an efficient manner, department heads feel no pressure to perform better. Many projects do not have a lead person or even a lead department. If no one is in charge, no one is to blame when the results are poor, late or both. Many department heads and staff members are talented and dedicated, but they lack coordination between each other. There are also few, if any, professional development opportunities for managers and staff. There are no performance reviews.

We WILL do better

The Morrissey administration’s goal is that New Bedford become one of the nation’s most livable communities. Improving and delivering effective city services are key elements to accomplishing this goal. Under the Morrissey administration, city government will be trustworthy, efficient, results-orientated and accountable.

Restoring the public trust: No effort to improve city services will be successful unless we restore faith that City Hall is working in the community interest rather than political special interest. The Morrissey administration will establish a two-year moratorium on former high-ranking city officials’ lobbying of city boards, agencies and policy-makers; and require paid lobbyists to register with City Hall and identify their clients. The public is served best when all competing interests are known.

We will establish clear and rational performance measures – with a premium placed on innovation and collaboration -- so every department’s progress in improving city services can be measured. In addition to city hall management, we will be tireless in reviewing the contracts of all service providers to the city such as trash, street light maintenance and the sewer treatment management company. Are these contracts based on a level of performance? We must ensure that the city is getting the same or better service for a tangible cost savings to the tax payer. If not, we will include penalties to the "contractor" as part of future contracts for poor performance.

The key to full engagement is credit sharing. Too often, mayors tend to seek credit for every new initiative or idea even when they had very little to do with it. The Morrissey administration will recognize that no single individual can have all the answers and must work closely and collaboratively with the City Council, state and federal delegations to move our community agenda forward.

Develop a strong overall vision and purpose: The process for a new master plan will start within the first 30 days after the Morrissey administration takes office will be completed within 160 days. There is no more time to waste. Divisions and departments, from the top down, will be fully engaged in the development of the strategic plan, and there will be an expectation that they follow it when it is implemented. This plan will provide a “road map” for all divisions and departments to follow, one that is shaped and embraced by the citizens that they serve.

Streamlining & improving services: As citizens, we need a partner in city government, not an obstacle. We will catalog, evaluate and rank City Hall’s primary interactions with the people who actually pay for city services. We will measure every activity by the following factors: customer service, meeting department mission, net cost reduction, meeting statutory or legislative mandates. The resulting program will offer countless immediate reforms we can take to ensure that doing business with City Hall enhances a citizen’s feeling about the city. The results will be a more efficient and customer friendly experience. We will simplify permitting processes, foster an understanding that city hall employees work for city residents, and make sure that all services are delivered in a cost-effective manner.

Every citizen in New Bedford deserves to know when his or her street will be repaired or repaved. City infrastructure should never be about election year politics. Like any upkeep of a capital asset in any business, our roads must be maintained on a schedule that is transparent to all of us. The Morrissey administration will undertake a road condition inventory, assess the bond cap, and develop a 3-5 year City Infrastructure Plan for road and sidewalk upgrades. Your street may not be getting paved tomorrow, but you will know when improvements and repairs to your streets and sidewalks are planned to take place. Everyone will have the same information and priorities will be based on need, not influence. Basic services such as well-maintained streets will take priority, as they are key to the stability and growth of our neighborhoods. This model of good planning and communication will be repeated for all major projects and services and will be a component of the strategic master plan.

We will strictly manage the trash disposal contract to assure trash is picked up on time with care and speed. We will aggressively investigate street cleaning programs, and ensure that couches, tires, and old TV’s are SOMEONE’S responsibility for removal. These are conditions that only inspire a sense of lawlessness. We will also closely study the best snow removal procedures of cities across the nation and implement the best model for New Bedford. A better-prepared and better-equipped city response is needed for these types of emergencies. The snow removal plan should be comprehensive and communicated to all. We should all know what to expect and not expect during these types of emergencies.

Engaging citizens and building capacity: We will bring fresh energy, experience and know-how to City Hall by engaging seniors and young people in the life of city government through internships and volunteer opportunities. Besides providing critical resources, we see this as an opportunity for young people to learn about community service and gain a work ethic from a generation that has great pride in New Bedford. We will model the senior volunteer program after the highly rewarding St. Luke’s Hospital program that has benefited so many people.
Modeled after the highly successful Massachusetts Senate Citizen’s Legislative Seminar, we will introduce people to the inner-workings of city government. The program is described as: “The six-week program, sponsored by the Senate, is designed to familiarize citizens with the Legislature and the lawmaking process through seminars conducted by state senators and representatives.” We will seek nominations from city councilors.

We will create formal internship programs with UMass Dartmouth and Bristol Community College to promote an understanding of municipal government. Political science, business and other students will provide the city with work in exchange for course credits. The sponsoring professors will manage the program. Interns will provide services in all appropriate offices of city government and share their passion and ideas within the building and in neighborhoods. We will also create a formal partnership with the Southern New England School of Law for advanced law school students to serve as additional resources within the city solicitor’s office.

A Community Progress Report Card: As part of the strategic master plan we propose the creation of a series of measures and benchmarks for success. Sometimes, it seems we are surrounded by so much information that we don’t know what to do with it all. This will be different. This information will be collected because you want it to be. It will be made available to all who want to see it. And, it will be in a clear form so that all can understand it. It will be presented as a Community Progress Report Card that recognizes that we are all in this together, that the future of New Bedford will be determined by a public/private sharing of both credit and responsibility.

This information will build upon the excellent work continually done by the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts. The Center’s SouthCoast Signals already provides valuable insight into how well we are doing. However, we will work to ensure that you have what you need to be informed and to make sure we progress in ways you need. Many other cities have created similar community-based indicators of success. Cities as different as Santa Monica, California and their goals for a sustainable city to Burlington, Vermont and its Legacy Project all have what we do not – a way to measure our path to the future.

Saying we are doing a good job it not enough. Proving it is a necessity in the years ahead.

City Hall Administration: The Morrissey administration will immediately begin the process of evaluating all mayoral appointees. In order to remain in city service, existing department heads and managers must demonstrate clear leadership ability, a driving sense of inclusion, and measurable progress in their specific areas of expertise. Further, they must demonstrate a solid budgetary, management and organizational track record of success. All key managers will have 6-month performance reviews with heavy emphasis on innovation, collaboration and performance. Managers will be empowered and expected to think innovatively around key themes of the administration.

We will identify strong and creative managers and place them in leadership roles. As JFK stated about his staff, “We want the best and the brightest.” Some in City Hall fit that description today. Some are waiting to be recruited. The key to being a successful manager is identifying the best and recruiting them to serve at a wage that is less than they will find in the private sector. We WILL do better!

Although grant writing was successful during the current administration’s early years, substantial grant writing is almost non-existent now. This needs to be corrected. We need to be aggressive in identifying grant sources and going after these opportunities as they make sense as to what our goals are. Every time a grant cycle comes and goes and the city doesn't apply, we are cheating the taxpayer! We will not create a new department, but managers and staff will need to have this as a skill, and we will make these efforts a "standard operating procedure". This is one example of how a Morrissey administration will be making every effort to increase the level of service in the most cost-effective way to the taxpayer.

A working committee of non-city personnel will be formed to inform, assist and enhance the work of city staff. This group will also evaluate progress and make recommendations for improvements. Members of this new “working group” will need to possess two traits: a technical area of expertise (professional landscaper, architect, police, law, etc.) and a willingness to provide meaningful involvement. This is not a group for talkers but for doers.

There will be no monopoly on good ideas. This will be the Morrissey administration’s greatest strength. This is not about pushing leadership responsibility to others. It is about allowing all ideas, concerns and alternatives to be heard. The best idea may not be the mayor’s idea. It takes confidence to allow all ideas to be heard, select an idea that was NOT yours, and then execute that idea to its fullest potential. We will do it.