But when you ask the same group of outsiders to suggest how these inefficiencies should be eliminated, they will--just as inevitably-- fail to grasp why these inefficiencies exist, how they were created, or who will have to do what to eliminate them.
During the fall campaign for mayor, the candidates searched for some issues--any issues. Every candidate, for example, promised to increase security--everywhere, from the Zenith City Airport to high-school football games. The voters, however, didn't react properly. Sure, they wanted more security. But they weren't convinced that the new mayor (whoever he or she would be) could have a major impact on their personal security.
Then, in the candidates' final debate, Reggie Ronald suggested that the city needed to improve efficiency--and that he was the candidate who would do it. It was an off-the-cuff comment, but it dominated the next day's coverage of the debate. The headline in the Zenith City Tribune read: "Ronald Blasts City as Inefficient."
Thereafter, whenever Ronald appeared at a campaign event, supporters, opponents and journalists all asked, "How, as mayor, will you improve the efficiency of city government?" So Ronald quickly offered a conventional response: "The day after I'm elected," he promised, "I will appoint a task force to ferret out every inefficiency in city government."
Moreover, Ronald promised that his task force would report back within a month--by December 1. "So, when I'm inaugurated on New Year's Day, I'll be able to issue the necessary executive orders to clean up the mess in city hall."
A mess in city hall! This the voters understood. Moreover, they understood that this was, indeed, the mayor's responsibility. On November 6, Reggie Ronald won. The next afternoon, a beaming Ronald held a news conference to announce that Grace Peters, a senior partner in the accounting firm of Burton & Daniels, would chair his Efficiency Task Force.
Peters' group met Ronald's deadline. On December 1, it delivered a 3- inch-thick report full of inefficiencies in city government that, Peters announced, were "wasting millions." And as you read the document, you realized that the task force got it both incredibly right and incredibly wrong.
The task force hardly missed an inefficiency. In less than four weeks, its members had, indeed, ferreted out most of the obvious inefficiencies and a large number of the less obvious ones: The Transportation Department wasn't buying asphalt from the least expensive source. The Taxation Division kept its real estate records on one computer system, while the Water Division had its records for the very same properties on another computer--and neither computer could talk to the other. And the Police Department posted an officer from dusk to dawn in the city's four big parks--even though other regions of the city had much higher night-time crime rates.
But Peters' task force never grasped why. Implicit throughout its report--and explicit in the mayor-elect's speech when he accepted it-- was the accusation that these inefficiencies were all products of mismanagement and incompetence, along with some unspecified perfidy.
But why didn't Transportation buy its asphalt from the cheapest source? Because the West Dakota legislature had, for years, required all state and city agencies to purchase their asphalt from vendors with headquarters in the state. Why had Taxation and Water failed to consolidate their computers? Because, despite their joint annual request for a new computer system, the city council had refused to appropriate the funds. Why did the Police Department keep an officer in each big park from dusk to dawn? Because, a decade ago, following a rash of muggings in the parks, the Zenith City Tribune had led a campaign to have the city council require the police to do so (something that the paper, when reporting the task force's list of inefficiencies, had failed to recall).
As the director of administration, you will have the task of "fixing" these inefficiencies. When Ronald asked you to stay on, you were surprised. He, however, well understands that he needs you. With a quarter of a century in city government, you know where all of the inefficiencies are buried. And because you need several more years to qualify for a full pension, you have decided to stay.
Now Ronald expects some kind of plan--by inauguration day.
