City Government Needs a Culture Change
City Government Needs a Culture Change
Robert Mounts, Gainesville
The recent citizen campaign
to stop GNV R.I.S.E. was wildly successful by any measure. At least for now, it
derailed a flawed and poorly thought-out policy initiative that many believed would
destroy neighborhoods and do little to increase affordable housing. At it’s
worst, we believed it would primarily benefit developers seeking high density
infill (i.e. more market rate bedrooms for rent to students), not the
community, especially in vulnerable and racially diverse neighborhoods close to
the urban core.
Now we await a promised
effort to develop a comprehensive plan for affordable housing, as well as a
serious community engagement plan (one that was supposed to get underway in
January). It’s not happening, in part,
perhaps, because of the sudden resignation of City Manager Anthony Lyons.
We never expected Lyons to resign. Lyons is justifiably credited for being a
“change agent” responsible for many positive improvements in our city. He might still be City Manager today if he
had shown some degree of humility, as well as a willingness to openly engage
the public regarding perceived mistakes that have been made, and make a course
correction. We just wanted a “culture change”, especially in the Department of
Doing.
We wanted more than a change
of policy; we wanted a change of attitude that would put people first, over the
greed of investors and developers. We
wanted actual implementation of the Department of Doing’s motto “Citizen centered;
people empowered”. So far, we have not
seen evidence that this will happen.
Instead, we have seen Mayor Poe
and members of the City Commission complain that the problem with GNV R.I.S.E.
was not that it was bad policy, but that it was not rolled out well. If only there had been a more effective
public engagement plan they believe, it might have passed. No one has
acknowledged that what was bad policy today, will be bad policy tomorrow, and
will still be bad policy three years from now.
Instead, the Mayor
“preaches” from the podium and routinely puts citizen comment last.
Instead, the Department of
Doing is failing individual citizens, like Lee Malis of the 5th Avenue neighborhood, who has repeatedly pleaded for the City’s help in protecting
his home from the excesses of a powerful developer.
Instead, the Department of
Doing issued a hasty demolition permit after Christmas to another developer, in
outright contempt of citizens seeking public review of a proposal for historic
preservation of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.
Instead, the Commission is pushing
forward with plans to eliminate reasonable restrictions on amplified music
events downtown, threatening peace and tranquility in nearby neighborhoods.
While the Mayor and the City
Commission may have heard some citizen complaints, they cannot direct corrective
action or make personnel decisions below the Charter officers. However, they
can require the Charter officers, to include the Interim City Manager, Deborah
Bowie, to change the culture in city departments. They can “put people first”
(but so far, this is not happening).
This may well require new
leadership.