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8:30 - 9:00AM
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Registration and Continental Breakfast
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9:00 - 9:15AM
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Welcome
Presented by:
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9:15 - 10:15AM
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Keynote - Michigan: Moving Forward
Presented by:
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10:15 - 11:15AM
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Cities generally predate states, and yet they are creatures of state government. Gov. Snyder says that Michigan is recovering strongly - and that Michigan's cities... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Mark Funkhouser, Ph.D., Director, GOVERNING Institute, former mayor, Kansas City, Missouri
- Hon. Dayne Walling, Mayor of Flint, Michigan
- Hon. George Heartwell, Mayor, City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Hon. Kurt D. Dykstra, Mayor, City of Holland, Michigan
- Hon. Virg Bernero, Mayor, Lansing, Michigan
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Description:
Cities generally predate states, and yet they are creatures of state government. Gov. Snyder says that Michigan is recovering strongly - and that Michigan's cities are vital to that recovery. How do things look to Michigan mayors? And what would they like to see the governor do to strengthen the relationship
between the state government and its cities?
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11:15 - 11:30AM
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Break
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11:30 - 12:30PM
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Concurrent Sessions
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Not for nothing do they call it "public works." Environmental stewardship, economic competitiveness and quality of life for the residents of our cities and towns... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Ryan Holeywell, Staff Writer, GOVERNING
- Jeremy Kalin, Senior Fellow, GOVERNING Institute, President/CEO, Eutectics Consulting, LLC, and former Minnesota State Representative
- Kirk T. Steudle, P.E., Director, Department of Transportation, State of Michigan
- Timothy K. McGuire, Executive Director, Michigan Association of Counties
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Description:
Not for nothing do they call it "public works." Environmental stewardship, economic competitiveness and quality of life for the residents of our cities and towns all rely on dependable and fully functional transportation networks and water and sewer systems, as well as a wide range of other little noticed but vital infrastructure systems such as the electrical grid and dams, locks and levees. The American Society of Civil Engineers and others have reported that these systems are in terrible shape and that billions of dollars are needed to bring them up to par. The need to make the investment is clear. What is not clear is where the money will come from, and that is what this session will cover.
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In an increasingly crowded, complex and competitive world, people can choose where they will live. Cities that thrive will be those that recognize that members... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Mark Funkhouser, Ph.D., Director, GOVERNING Institute, former mayor, Kansas City, Missouri
- Hon. Brenda L. Lawrence, Mayor, City of Southfield, Michigan
- Hon. George Heartwell, Mayor, City of Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Mike Senyko, Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, State of Michigan
- Philip H. Power, Chairman, The Center for Michigan
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Description:
In an increasingly crowded, complex and competitive world, people can choose where they will live. Cities that thrive will be those that recognize that members of the public are full partners in service delivery and in creating an excellent quality of life and a distinctive sense of place. To borrow Matt Leighninger's phrase, these are cities in which The Next Form of Democracy is emerging and where expert rule is giving way to shared governance. Using examples from Michigan and elsewhere, this session will explore "horizontal" communication and deliberative democracy and will provide practical advice for public officials who want to tap the energy and ideas of the public.
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Nationally, six straight years of revenue declines have put enormous pressure on cities. Nevertheless, some cities are thriving. Standard & Poor's, the credit-rating agency, reports... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Peter Harkness, Founder and Publisher Emeritus, GOVERNING
- Alfred J. Moran, Jr., Chairman, The Moran Group, LLC, former director of Administration & Regulatory Affairs, Houston, Texas
- Richard L. Baird, CEO, MI Partners, LLC
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Description:
Nationally, six straight years of revenue declines have put enormous pressure on cities. Nevertheless, some cities are thriving. Standard & Poor's, the credit-rating agency, reports that it issued more bond upgrades than downgrades in 2012. Some cities have simply been lucky, stumbling into positive economic circumstances that allowed them be stronger financially. Others have followed a deliberate strategy of institutionalizing innovation and making the smart investments and policy decisions that allow them to improve productivity. This discussion will cover how to improve cost control, increase operational efficiency and build high-performance government.
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12:30 - 1:15PM
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Lunch
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1:15 - 2:00PM
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Lunch Keynote - A Call to Public Service
Presented by:
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2:00 - 2:15PM
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Break
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2:15 - 3:15PM
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Concurrent Sessions
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In the face of the federal government's ongoing partisan paralysis, states and localities have come to realize that they're increasingly on their own fiscally. Federal... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Ryan Holeywell, Staff Writer, GOVERNING
- Carol O'Cleireacain, Ph.D., Economic Consultant
- John E. Nixon, CPA, Director, State Budget Office & Department of Technology, Management and Budget, State of Michigan
- Mark Skidmore, Ph. D., Professor and Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance, Michigan State University
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Description:
In the face of the federal government's ongoing partisan paralysis, states and localities have come to realize that they're increasingly on their own fiscally. Federal funds are drying up and property-tax revenues are down, but as governments closest to the people, states, counties, cities and towns still must deliver basic services. The result is that we've entered one of the most innovative and interesting periods of government finance in decades. For example, several governors, including Michigan's Rick Snyder, have suggested alternatives to the traditional gasoline tax for paying for transportation infrastructure - something that would have been practically impossible just a few years ago. This session will explore innovative approaches to paying the governments' bills.
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When you examine the stories of successful turnaround cities - from Santa Monica, Calif., to Chattanooga, Tenn., to St. Petersburg, Fla. - you... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Erin Waters, Publisher, GOVERNING
- John O. Norquist, President and CEO, Congress for the New Urbanism, and former Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Robert A. Ficano, County Executive, Wayne County, Michigan
- Steve A. Hewitt, CPM, City Manager, City of Clinton, Oklahoma
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Description:
When you examine the stories of successful turnaround cities - from Santa Monica, Calif., to Chattanooga, Tenn., to St. Petersburg, Fla. - you usually find a strong strategic plan. You can add Michigan's Traverse City to that list, and Envision Utah is an example of a successful strategic-planning effort at the state-government level. The era of permanent fiscal austerity that we seem to have entered has only increased the need to carefully chart a course to the future and to authentically involve the citizens who will co-produce that future. In this session, we will hear the stories of successful strategic-planning efforts and discuss how to take the pieces that fit and apply them to other communities.
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Can governments learn? There is no learning without mistakes, and yet governments historically have an extremely low tolerance for mistakes. For that reason, the term... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Zach Patton, Senior Editor, GOVERNING
- Michael J. Pompili, Clinical Assistant Professor, Program Director, Program for Excellence in Environmental Health, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University
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Description:
Can governments learn? There is no learning without mistakes, and yet governments historically have an extremely low tolerance for mistakes. For that reason, the term "government innovation" might seem an oxymoron. In his powerful new book, AntiFragile, Nassim Taleb argues that in today's complex and interconnected world, organizations that thrive will be those that build systems that fail early, often and small and thus allow for quick and relatively painless recoveries that enable them to learn from mistakes without real damage. High-performance governments are those that take calculated risks and that can measure and predict the potential reward for the risks they take. These issues are especially salient, for example, in the areas of health and human services in general and implementation of health-insurance exchanges in particular. In this session, we'll explore how successful governments balance innovation and risk and how they measure their return on investment.
Additional Invited Speakers:
Cynthia Green-Edwards, Director, Office of Medicaid Health Information Technology, State of Michigan
Thomas Bardwell, County Commissioner, Tuscola County, Michigan
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3:15 - 4:15PM
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Concurrent Sessions
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State and local governments are important to our quality of life but, in the aggregate, they are in pretty serious financial trouble. Public officials are... more
Presented by:
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Description:
State and local governments are important to our quality of life but, in the aggregate, they are in pretty serious financial trouble. Public officials are beginning to see, as California Gov. Jerry Brown said in his recent state of the state address, that "fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our good intentions but the basis for realizing them." In Brown's view, a significant part of California's fiscal discipline has been the approval by the state's voters of a measure to increase taxes in support of education. In this session, we will use the work of the State Budget Crisis Task Force and a study of local-government fiscal crises by the George Mason University Center for State and Local Leadership to focus a discussion on how to manage such threats to fiscal sustainability as rising health-care costs, unfunded pension obligations and deteriorating infrastructure.
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In a widely cited series of articles last December, the New York Times reported that state and local governments spend at least $80 billion a... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Zach Patton, Senior Editor, GOVERNING
- Hon. Bobby J. Hopewell, Mayor, City of Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Matthew A. Gibb, Deputy County Executive, Oakland County, Michigan
- Michael A. Finney, President and CEO, Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).
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Description:
In a widely cited series of articles last December, the New York Times reported that state and local governments spend at least $80 billion a year on tax incentives with little evidence that they work. And in an article in the Wall Street Journal, the leaders of the Connecticut Policy Institute wrote, "Jobs created with incentives are good when they are net contributors to the economy. They are bad--handouts, effectively--when the incentives cost the state more than the jobs contribute back to the economy." Tax incentives work only under very specific criteria, and they can achieve sustainable results only if coupled with other, parallel initiatives. Are investments in quality of life, improved mobility and public education the necessary drivers of sustainable economic development? In this session, we'll discuss innovative ideas for reinventing economic development, including Gov. Snyder's "recalibrated" approach to job creation.
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Attracting, training and retaining highly skilled and highly motivated staff is critical to achieving high-performance government. And it probably has never been more difficult. Years... more
Presented by:
- (Moderator) Erin Waters, Publisher, GOVERNING
- Bill Leighty, Partner, DecideSmart LLC, former Chief of Staff to Governors Kaine and Warner, Commonwealth of Virginia
- Hon. Karen Majewski, Mayor, City of Hamtramck, Michigan
- Janet A. McClelland, Acting State Personnel Director, State of Michigan
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Description:
Attracting, training and retaining highly skilled and highly motivated staff is critical to achieving high-performance government. And it probably has never been more difficult. Years of layoffs, furloughs, pay freezes and cutbacks have taken a toll on the attractiveness of public service, as has the often-denigrating portrayal of government employees in our public discourse. Nevertheless, there are folks out there, especially many of today's young people, who are looking to do something meaningful and important with their lives. And many of those young people have the savvy to see how to make the best use of technology to create improved government outcomes and community conditions. This session will cover what works best to connect with these people and create the skilled and committed workforce that a high performance government needs.
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4:15 PM
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Join the GOVERNING staff, our sponsors, our speakers and your colleagues as we rehash the highlights of the day over drinks and appetizers.... more
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Description:
Join the GOVERNING staff, our sponsors, our speakers and your colleagues as we rehash the highlights of the day over drinks and appetizers.
