In the previous installment I laid out a bit of path that I intend to cover at some length in this and a subsequent post. This post will be about what the city government has done over the past 10-odd years. The City has been through some distressing times. The illegal immigration problems that followed the immigration wave from central and south America. Housing collapse, great recession and eventual significant downsizing of the City government. Hiring a new city manager and his subsequent departure. Federal lawsuits. Poorly performing schools.
As I stew on all of that I guess that I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm pretty proud that a group of relative newcomers to local government managed to get through all of that. We did have some highly skilled help in the form of Larry Hughes and his staff when it came to the Great Recession and our response to that but the Council did have to hold together. Or at least a majority did anyway. The "center" held for much of that time. That seems positive to me. What I didn't like so much was that, aside from not going broke, not much positive was achieved in that time. There was Manassas Next and the initiatives contained therein and maybe the neighborhood stabilization initiative but that is about it. At least in terms of positive movement forward. I don't include "Education Forward" initiative as that wasn't strictly a Council deal although I will return to that.
One might reasonably ask "why"? Why did nothing really good happen? Well, certainly there wasn't any money to do anything ground breaking but that's really not the root of it. I've served beside 2 different Mayors and, while they have very different approaches to "Mayoring" they do share one belief: the budget is the single most important thing the Council does. The budget process reflects that priority. We meet probably 30 times on the budget. Some are finance meetings, some are work sessions and some are regular Council meetings but we spend more time on the budget than everything else combined….and by a large margin. When I was first elected we also had 2 all-day Saturday meetings. Most of the other local government folks I know, including our recently departed manager, are surprised by our budget process. It's byzantine by any measure. It's also largely supply sided. Until 2 years ago we didn't do spending projections! I'll never forget the finance meeting where our staff introduced our first spending projections. They were pretty conservative projections with small salary increases and a low inflation number. Some Council members were so freaked out to see those numbers that they wanted to pull the report back! We're telegraphing a tax increase! I understood but didn't share that concern. I was the one that asked for the projections, I need to understand what a "base case" of spending looks like a couple of years down the road. I do it in my business and it's a good practice. I don't know any very successful business owners who don't do this. It's an integral part of a financial model.
Now, using this process isn't all bad. Indeed, it served the City well for a good 30 years but I feel that the process itself has become so insular and byzantine that it serves almost nothing but itself. The death march that has become our budget process has largely become our vessel for a policy making process. Some will rightly point out that your budget defines your priorities – we spend a lot on schools, public safety and public works. That's a pretty common set of priorities in local government so nothing wrong there but the point I'm trying to make is that while our problems as a community have changed, our governance and its processes have not. Simply put, this all-consuming focus on budget, budget, budget has had an unfortunate side effect: our winning strategy, our methodology for dealing with the City's problems has been to make Manassas the cheapest place to live in NoVa. When all you do is focus on the budget, it becomes the solution to everything.
When I went through my first budget process a line-item copy of the budget was distributed and the process used that 150 page book. Clearly, the aim was for Council members to understand each line in the budget. It is proper and correct for Council members to have a thorough understanding of the budget but believe me that there is a finite amount of energy that any Council member can bring to this job. A finite amount of focus. Now, then dwell on these two questions:
1. Is understanding the budget at that level where you want the City's leadership to expend those finite resources? and
2. Has the method of governance proved successful over the past 6-10 years? Has being the cheapest place to live in NoVa been a successful strategy?
As my coda, I'll offer this: if you've read this and think I'm making an argument for raising taxes, please, you're missing the point. Go back and read it again.
I'll deliver the final piece of this in a week or so.
September 10, 2013 at 12:42 pm
A local businessman explained that his customers want his services cheaply, quickly and of high quality. He always explains to them in fatherly tones that they can pick any two of their three wants (cheap, quick, good) but never all three. They can have it cheap and good but that will take time. They can have it quickly and good but it won't be cheap or they can opt for fast and cheap but it ain't going to be quality. City government is the same. The City provides services that everyone wants fast, inexpensive and of high quality. You can choose any two but not all three. If the City focuses on just low cost then either the quality of City services or the response times will suffer. This, of course, is not an answer – only an observation.
September 11, 2013 at 2:42 pm
OK then!!! There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000+ residents of the City of Manassas. Only I responded and I live in the County. Even my answer wasn't on point to your questions. I have to conclude that no one cares about the direction and governance of their city or that everyone is satisfied with how things are headed. Not even other Council Members deigned to respond. If either of those two conclusions are right, you are banging your head against a wall. Maybe it is time to expand the City's boundaries to include neighborhoods and business districts that care.
September 11, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Some of the folks who care have moved out of the city because they became frustrated with the lack of goverance.
September 11, 2013 at 6:44 pm
I care. I've lived in the City 32 years. I think one of the best things the City did was hire a communications coordinator. The newsletter, website, Flickr photos, Facebook and Twitter are all great. I was out of town Monday – and was able to watch the City Council meeting online. I like that the City encourages leadership development – both Juan Rivera, Airport Director, and Carl Crawford, Assistant Chief of Police are in Leadership Prince William's 2014 signature class. The City's community partnerships with Northern Virginia Community College (the Manassas Campus is hosting this year's Neighborhood Conference on Nov. 16), the Boys & Girls Club and the Hylton Performing Arts Center are outstanding ways to double and triple those ROIs. I don't know if the senior center is in the City or in the county, but I'd love to see the Lifelong Learning Institute-Manassas based there. Anything the city can do to embrace cultural diversity, educate youth and encourage economic gardening — many great businesses started in a basement or garage — the more you will flourish.
September 12, 2013 at 9:07 am
Cindy, the Senior Center located over in the "Donut Hole" is a story in itself. But to start with – the Prince William Area Agency on Aging is, based on a 1977 agreement, a tri-jurisdictional entity (County and two Cities) and located in PWC government since they have the largest number of our "Vintage Virginians". Of course, over time, it has come to be considered a County Agency vs. the orginial defintion…but the two City Councils do legally have a say. Now as for the Senior Center…..
27 years ago, before it was built, the Senior Center in Manassas was primarily City since the original building was over by the Baptist Church on Center Street. When the current building was built, financing for it was agreed to by the three governments (similar to the agreements on the Regional Jail construction). It just gets viewed as a "County" facility, but the interesting thing about the "Donut Hole" is it was a 30 year court fight from 1975-2005, and in the end, the City does have rights to that total complex over there and everything within that small 3 or 4 acres if the County decides they don't have a use for it.
As for LLI, working on it….working on it….LOL!
September 12, 2013 at 9:09 am
BSinVA, working on an answer….my first comments I deleted before posting. As you know from reading here, Cindy and I are probably the most frequent of people who comment. But your right about other Council Members…rarely do you see them add their thoughts to a structured debate. I say structured since Andy has control over comments that get out of hand. Be back later with my thoughts on the two questions.
September 13, 2013 at 7:31 am
I must disagree with BS. Just because you do not post an answer does not mean that you do not read the conversation, develop your own idea's etc. Here is the way I see it. One of the great things about Manassas is that it is a City of 10 square miles and 38,000(?) people. One of the bad things about Manassas is that it is a City of 10 square miles and 38,000 people. The small size of our City offers the oppurtunity for everyone to be involved and speak about how we govern ourselves but the small size also limits the funding availible to do some of the things some people want. We need to recruit more volunteer help to offset some of the costs that a Fairfax County (for example) provides its citizens. The volunteer help I'm talking about is not giving one afternoon a year to help clean up the ballfields but to volunteer to be a little league coach or work the snack bar or volunteer to assist with registration etc. and do this year after year.
It's very easy to demand sevices and have someone else pay for them or to demand services that we simply cannot afford. We see that in the Federal Government budget where we have more government that we can afford. When you offer free services, those seeking that service will find you. Remember, we are 10 square miles and 38,000 people. Taxation is not the total answer, recruitment of cost free labor offsets a big chunk of tax dollars.
September 13, 2013 at 11:00 am
Manassas featured in new Fiat Car Commercial as a classic "European City"…..now, how would Community Development capitalize on this?
http://manassas.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/new-fiat-car-commercial-features-cameo-by-manassas-restaurant-owner
September 13, 2013 at 2:02 pm
People get the government they elect. People in Manassas have elected status quo / low tax / low service candidates. Apologies to Mr. Harrover but if you think establishment candidatesare goint to deal with the problems we have now you're going to be disappointed.
September 13, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Term limits…Term limits…Term limits !!!!!
September 13, 2013 at 3:43 pm
BS, that's a nice thing to say but how short do you want to make the limits? 5 of 6 council members have served less than 2 terms, as has the Mayor.
Shady: no offense taken although it is odd to see myself referred to as "the establishment"…
September 15, 2013 at 7:14 pm
I understand the arguments in favor of term limits, and they are for the most part good. Problem is, one of my most precious rights is the right for me to choose whom to vote for. The last thing I want is to see that right limited. My various rights are increasingly limited here and there. I'd prefer to decide for myself how to cast my vote. I don't want a law limiting my decision. [Yes, I do appreciate that term limits already apply to the prez and to our gov.]
September 20, 2013 at 10:10 am
"After seeing our set of cities over the past few weeks, the ineffable
but powerful roles of 'community' participation, and local
consciousness loom larger in my awareness than they did before."
(The Atlantic website 9-20-2013 – James Fallows)