You know when someone gets on TV who has just ridden a pogo stick across the country and they say "the hardest thing I did was deciding to do it" ? Yeah, me either, but it is often true that the hardest decision is to crack that first tough nut. The experts all say that it is downhill from there. In public policy the experts are often full of crap – the hardest step isn't making that first decision, it is sticking with that decision after your constituents find out about it!!!
So it is in our fair city. We took some positive steps last year: the School Board and the Council joined hands and passed our CIP. This was a much needed and positive step. However, as difficult as this step was, it is only a downpayment on what needs to happen to get our City back on the right track. Yes, spending taxpayer money is tough but you know what's even tougher? Twerking.
Wait, what? I was distracted by Miley's latest hit, "wrecking ball". Sorry.
No, what's tougher is making and sticking with unpopular policy decisions. The number of people who show up to oppose spending pales in comparison to the numbers when Council even talks about unpopular policy. Want a room full of angry people? Have a discussion about reducing trash pickups. People get pissed! The City Council has not, in recent years, made these kinds of decisions. We've spent the vast bulk of our 
time on the budget. We have just started next years budget and the Council will meet 24 times on the budget. 24 times. Instead of me prattling on, let me just recast this debate in the form of a question: would you characterize the results of our current approach to governance as "successful"? Are you better off now than you were 6 years ago? I don't think we are.
Indeed, the Council's response to the problems that vex us has been mired in suburban thinking and policy. Perhaps if we spend just a little more time on the budget everything will be ok?!. Bollocks. We're trying to solve urban problems with rural thinking. Indeed, the City's population has transformed from a upper-middle income largely white suburb to a lower-middle income enclave with 40-ish percent of our residents being immigrants from central and south America. The schools have seen this the most clearly although their response was as confused as the Council's. Talk about sticking to the company line. We sent "X" number of kids to Ivy League schools! Yay! What about the other thousands? Could they put that on their resume?
The predicable result of this has been seen elsewhere before and now we're seeing it: at least 1 and maybe 2 rounds of white flight, the business leadership has decamped for tonier surrounds and the schools are struggling.
Now, I'll take a bit of a break for a cup of coffee and some Slipknot. I needed a bit of lubricant when I started and will now switch to coffee to maintain that edge…..
Okay, back at it. See, I believe….no., strike that. I KNOW that any organization that faces drastic change will only recover and thrive when the leaders of those organizations clearly identify and understand the challenges they face…and are bold enough to take decisive action. Creeping incrementalism is the plague to be avoided. Sure, it is easier and events may bypass the problem to make half measures look successful but this is more often the cause of failure than success. Could be a company, city or nation.
In the public sector, it's the "decisive action" part that is the sticking point. Decisive action in government is n.e.v.e.r as easy as it looks. Really great politicians can do it and make it look easy but that's a rare lot. We've buried the last of those leaders on the Federal level and there aren't any on the horizon. On the local level you're stuck with the likes of me. Guys like me try to deliver decisive leadership but mostly we struggle with it. In defense of my colleagues and myself, we have no staff to help with this stuff, almost no communications media available and have to get up and go to a real job tomorrow. Nevertheless I'm unfazed by those limitations and if you keep reading you're bound to see me fall on me own sword. To wit:
So, not for the first time, I'll be accused of parading around like some font of rarified knowledge and it is, therefore incumbent upon me to spill it. I'll do that but do know that I'm about to get myself uninvited from all of the good Christmas parties and alienate some fair number of people but that's my lot in life and I've shrunk from that role for too damn long.
And….I'll provide particular suggestions in the next post but allow me a bit of foreshadowing: there isn't a damn thing wrong with the makeup of the City. The people that live here are the people that live here. It's up to the leadership to provide better outcomes for our peeps. We're past the initial shock of the immigration wave. Time to make some more hard decisions and, oddly enough, the schools are leading the way…..Gimme 2 days and I promise I'll deliver.
September 27, 2013 at 5:35 am
If you are going to advocate celebrating and promoting what the City is and not what the City was then HooRay !! That, in my opinion, is the answer.
September 27, 2013 at 12:48 pm
Man, that ending is a real cliffhanger! Looking forward to hearing some epic…..
September 27, 2013 at 9:55 pm
"we're trying to solve urban problems with rural thinking"
That is an excellent line. Yup, the good ole boys get rilled up at the people on the dias and "we have to do something". Instead of backing efforts or intiatives that are moving forward and working such as the Housing Planner & Adovacte – who could have carried the ball quite well to implement the Council's Priorities for Housing Revitilization applying an urban approach to older neigborhoods – no, no…let's cut the money. Oh yeah, let us also cut out the idea of having the seed money of $250K for housing.
Instead, let's get more pretty awards and get our name in the Book of Records for "Red Light Green Light"…of course, getting in the book was easy since we bused in the ringers to get the numbers up.
I made a suggestion once – take that Big City Map and put a red dot on infrastructure (utilities, facilities et al) that is breaking, broke, or dang near close to it. Put it in the mailbox of every resident. And then they will see how bad keeping the rural way of thinking in our urban City is.
Leadership – you my friend do a good job of it, but the disaster at the moment is…"let's wait on the new City Manager". Should have continued with the actions and created a longer transition period between acting and incoming Manager. That is urban thinking. Instead, now a half-year of the budget goes by before action can begin again. Maybe.
Schools – yup, send them out to Ivy! But ask yourself this question about graduation and college: How does the brokest City in the Commonwealth of Virgina produce graduating classes with a high percentage of 2 and 4 year college kids?
September 27, 2013 at 10:04 pm
Oh, forgot about income: keep in mind the REAL weekly money in the bank average for our City is $1,004. Manassas Park follows us with $956 and the County is at $846. You called it right with saying lower-middle income since for the City, the average annual salary is little over $52K.
Toss out following the nonsense that the Average Median Income is $73,091 as it is just "Monkey Money".
September 28, 2013 at 9:16 am
"Not wholly unexpected was the defeat of the proposition to issue
$30,000 worth of bonds to install adequate water facilities in Manassas.
Organized and persistent opposition fought the proposed improvement
from the moment of its inception. The opposition fighting against any advance
in taxes or fees, no matter how slight, was aided by the apathy of too many
other citizens that could not be aroused."
(Manassas Journal 6-2-1910)
" 100 Years of Utilities Makes City Customers Winners!
The City of Manassas Dept. of Public Works is gearing up
for for their grand 100th year anniversary celebration on Sat. Oct. 12th."
(The Manassas Connection – August 2013)
Note: The bond purchase finally passed in 1913 after a third vote.
October 1, 2013 at 1:05 pm
Ray, we did 17 work projects in Weems community in less than a day, and many of those "ringers" walked from their nearby homes, or came in youth groups from churches based in Manassas or Prince William County. "Pretty awards"? I just got back from the state neighborhood conference where the winners were a community gardening group from Reston, a EMT in Virginia Beach and a faith in action group from Virginia Beach — all are doing the neighborhood work on their own, with local government as a partner. I met several people who started civic associations to make change happen. Maybe it's time Weems reactivated the civic association that was active in the 70s. Andy, can't wait to hear your suggestions in Part IV.
October 2, 2013 at 10:41 am
Steve, as always, I appreciate you being the "Resident Historian" as this little City's history definitely reflects on many issues that there is "Nothing new under the Sun" as ole King David proclaimed.
October 2, 2013 at 10:45 am
Cindy, my point on the Big Day of Serve is one we have discussed….where is the follow-on? I, like you, follow what other Counties/Cities/Towns are doing via their Neighborhood Services, and there is always the catalyst and then support till the various folks become somewhat self sustaining.
Your work with Neighborhood Circles a couple of years back was excellent and a good start….the Neighborhood Leaders Group was another. But where is the City interest in carrying forward and supporting the work. And in the Pilot Projects on Revitilization, not once was Housing Planner/Advocate invited into meetings. Thus, my view on these "one day" projects is slanted because there is no focused intentional post-day planning and programs.
October 3, 2013 at 9:36 am
Ray,
That was my point on part 2. Putting people together for 1 day projects, while I still would encourage it, will not have a real budget impact. It's the long range committments like volunteering one day a week ( 5 volunteers equals one full time employee) at the museum, working a full season coaching little league baseball or other parks and rec projects, etc. Those are the people who will have a direct influence on not only budgets but the quality of life in the City.
October 4, 2013 at 6:04 am
You're missing the point of the one-day projects. They are meant to engage people in the community and tap them to continue the process. With 17 projects, there were 17 project leaders who learned the skill of partnering with the city, with volunteers, to make one small change happen in their neighborhood. For children who painted tiles, now every time they go to the city pool, they see their artwork on the mosaic wall and become a stakeholder. I've been volunteering long enough for neighborhood services to see individuals who moved from attending a public meeting with a legal pad full of complaints to taking leadership roles. Several of the people I met through county neighborhood leaders group or neighborhood improvement circles in the city have even been through – or are going through – Leadership Prince William. When Point of Woods 1 & 2 has their fall festival Oct. 13 – go out there and talk to those neighbors. Ask them what the one-day project did in their community, now that they are 2 years past it. Ask them if they've increased their engagement and volunteer roles. One of the planning committee members for that 1-day project was Ian Lovejoy. Gee, I wonder what he's doing these days?
October 7, 2013 at 8:47 am
I was cruising the recent issue of the Virginia Municipal League magazine, and it is the annual awards as VML heads into its annual conference. Virgnia Beach is winning the "President's Award" for their planning. They have a Strategic Plan with eight Strategic Growth Areas. What is facscinating with the City's Plan, to include their Comp Plan, was the dedicated effort to ivolve the Citizens to include Neighborhood meetings as they developed the SGAs.
Granted, Virginia Beach is larger, but they focused on two levels – their urbanized areas and striving to retain their "Green Line" – to protect their rural land. Now, that approach could be adapted to Manassas in urban thinking, and protecting our "Green Areas" since we really do not have a large rural area. We do have a section of the City which is "non-urbanized" – the Airport Area and over by the B&G Club.
Here in Manassas, there was some Citizen participation in our Comp Plan 2032 as it got finalized, and it was nice to see the list of individuals printed in the plan (although they spelt my last name with the "other" spelling of the family name…fine by me, I take either). Through the Sector Plans, there was participation. My personal belief of the BEST EXAMPLE of Citizen involvement was the CAC for Prince William Street, which brought that project cost lower than Staff estimate.
The one document I wished had allowed for Citizen involvement was the Council's Priorities. The Council met and prepared a draft; a meeting was held with City Staff and then the final document went out. Mr. Budesky had announced at one point there would be time for Citizen comment, but no form was ever put in place – either a formal written process, or a Public Hearing during Council Time. A lost opportunity to take the "urban" approach which Andy is writing about….it gave the impression this was a "City Hall Only" document.
October 7, 2013 at 8:58 am
Mo, you raise a good point – the dollar value of a volunteer within the budget. Of course, what that would take is a solid analysis and then a coordinating office of these non-Council appointed volunteers. I had once suggested years ago that is an aspect Neighborhood Services should be doing.
Your mentioning of sports always makes me think of GMBL. That ballpark out there is an econmic generator for the City, but never really looked at it that way. Outside of the ongoing teams, there are also the various regional events. If it was being viewed for its true value as a volunteer led organization, and also the various related money coming in when teams are there for not only their snack bar, but surrounding resturants, gas, etc., the City would assist in funding improvements to make it appear as a "premier" site as folks enter the City through that "gateway".
October 11, 2013 at 8:08 pm
Economic Development Department:
So here we go again pushing off on a key Department to move this City forward. The Council Agenda for October 16th shows a work session on the 5-Year Forecast. And low and behold, one of the recommendations by Staff is to push the Economic Development Department out to FY 2016 "when it will be fully funded".
Ah yes…first we approve for FY 2014 (July 1, 2013) restoring the Department. THEN Council decides,since Mr. Budesky is leaving, to push off moving forward on it until a new City Manager is on board so he could select who would be this key Department Head. Thought was to start possibly after January 1, 2014.
And now in the Forecast to be discussed, let's push it off until July 1, 2015! Well, why not? Instead of getting the Department stood up to attract business to the City (recently ranked #5 as best place for business in Virginia), let's push it off again. Good urban thiking there!