Archive for the ‘Vision and Management’ Category

Like many Trentonians, I approached the 2010  mayoral run-off with trepidation and knew I had two less than perfect options.  But there’s always hope. 

Since then, I’ve largely taken the summer off from Trenton politics because I was too depressed about the election including the city council contest in which most of my choices lost.  But still there’s hope.

Now here we are, a month into our new government, with a well documented litany of bad and possibly nefarious decisions and revelations coming out of city hall.  The regional and national press is covering Trenton’s train wreck.  Citizens are openly discussing recall elections and State takeovers.  Our murder rate has spiked and absolutely NO progress has been made on actual revitalization.

 Mr. Mack is wrong when he says the election is over. He wasn’t the first choice of a large majority of Trentonians in the first place and even if was, he’d have to win them over daily in order to get the city moving.  Great politicians keep campaigning.

Reinvent Trenton and subsequently the Fix Trenton’s Budget group were set up calmly discuss revitalization policy and budget process.  This is hard to do in the best of times but in an environment devoid of trust, I’d say it’s impossible to initiate brave new policies.

For Trenton to take new approaches like the ones I’ve outlined over the years, we’ll need to take leaps of faith in our leadership.  Our leader will need to bring along not just people like me, but all of the citizens in Trenton.  Tony Mack himself once told me, “Dan, I like your ideas, but how will they play in the Wilbur section?”.  I thought it was an excellent question and I gave him what I believe was the good answer, “Rising water raises all ships”.  No matter who we are, we’re better off with more wealth in Trenton.

To get his administration back on the right leadership footing and to earn the ability to lead us in the policy leaps of faith, Mr. Mack needs to do a few things. 

• Institutionalize transparency,  especially into his own finances

Anyone in Mr. Mack’s financial situation would be desperate.  However, not everyone is mayor of a small but high profile city.   His situation damages his leadership ability but more importantly gives rise to suspicion that he will abuse his power in order to resolve his debt issues.  To abate these concerns, Mack needs to put his finances under official third party scrutiny until he’s resolved his problems.  This is uncomfortable I’m sure, but how else will we be able to establish trust?

• Develop a revitalization plan that passes the test of economic soundness

None of the candidates offered real revitalization plans and to be fair, it would be hard to do so without the resources of a city administration.  So now, Mr. Mack needs to get down to work on this.  So what is  “this”?  The budget is only part of the problem. When we talk about cuts, we’re really talking about surviving.  We have to talk about not just surviving but thriving.  I’ve said many times,  that this is harder than rocket science and therefore we need a serious effort.  We need a solid team led by a serious person.  While Mr. Guhl may have been a serious person, the idea that the solutions to our city’ core problem would be resolved by a volunteer who could easily resign, is ill-conceived.  I’m not saying volunteers shouldn’t be welcome to work on this (I’ve repeatedly volunteered to help and to no avail) however leadership should come from a cabinet level city employee (or at least a paid consultant).

• Slow down and begin operating from a core set of management principles

One of the observations I’ve made about Tony Mack over the years is that he seems to manage in the minutia.  I remember him offering marketing tips to the Marriott when his central complaint was about the ownership structure.  People like this are often shooting from the hip.  Great chief executives don’t do this.  Rather, they operate from a well communicated set of core principles (e.g. integrity in government, create a positive business environment, be fair).  Then they focus on developing and managing their subordinates and fostering communication.  I wrote an article,  “Trenton as a Turnaround Opportunity” a couple of years ago that Mr. Mack will find worth reading and perhaps discussing with his advisors.

Hopefully our city council will quickly move away from the issue of the council president’s “race”. It is unseemly to think that race divides our city council.

On to more important things.

A few weeks ago, Trenton made two uneconomic decisions right in the thick of the election.

1. It approved the receipt of HOPE VI funding to replace Miller Homes, and
2. It approved a tax abatement for Escher Street SRO, a halfway house

Both decisions are emblematic of the path Trenton has been following for the past 20 years and both run counter to the focus on economic recovery most of our candidates espoused.

In 2004, the South Trenton neighborhood comprising the Lamberton Historic District fought against HOPE VI funding which would have replaced one housing project, Kearney Homes, with another. They hoped for better and they’ve gotten it with a 100% market rate development from Ryan Homes.

In the course of that battle two astonishing observations were made concerning the agenda of the Trenton Housing Authority and the City administrations.

1. When asked whether an economic impact analysis of the project had been done, neither the City nor the THA had done one. They had no idea whether the project would be economically good or bad. At one point in the meetings between the neighborhood and THA, I asked about this and a THA official suggested that I prepare the analysis for them. It was a flippant comment, but I went ahead and did it. Sure enough, that project would have been a drain on the city.
2. THA set up meetings with citizens to get input on the project. About ¾ of the way through one of these sessions, several of us realized that no one from THA was actually capturing notes from the input they were supposedly getting from the 100 or so neighbors in the room. It was a rude awakening to the callousness of bureaucrats towards the communities they serve.

I don’t imagine the neighborhood around Miller Homes was nearly as organized as the Lamberton group (I certainly haven’t heard about them). So I doubt there was anybody to raise issues about HOPE VI this time around. And I am sure that no one in the current administration or city council asked for an economic impact analysis. Going forward, let’s please do better.

The abatement on Escher Street SRO was even more ironic. All through the campaign, candidates including the three on the current city council have bemoaned Trenton’s structural deficit and the high number of non-tax-paying non-profit owned buildings in Trenton. They were talking about buildings exactly like the halfway house which had had a previous abatement but had ran out. When it came time to do something about it, city council folded. They passed the abatement measure in the same session where they were forced by the state to actually pass a budget which represented the failed policies of the past. Their actions didn’t measure up to their words when they granted an extension on Escher Street thereby extending Trenton’s structural deficit.

The problem with both of these decisions is that they ignore the basic economics of our city. Trenton is awash in costs for the poor and has no tax base to support those costs. We all know that our per capita income and therefore our ratables are very low, dangerously low.  And yet these two projects add to overall structural deficit.

A HOPE VI project will generate far more costs in the form of school, police, inspections, recreation and social services costs than it will ever generate in the form of property taxes.  As politically difficult as it sounds, the project will be an additional drain on the city.  This is the challenge that a politician faces in Trenton. We can no longer afford to do the cuddly, feel good thing.  We have to make hard choices, and our current council and administration failed to do it with Miller Homes.

The halfway house is even worse. I’m sure the home would have had to close. But presumably it would relocate to a community better able to subsidize its existence. We need halfway houses in this world, unfortunately Trenton can’t afford them at this time. Perhaps, when we’re healthier.

I point all this out to illustrate the kind of difficult decisions our next government faces.  We, as citizens, need to understand that we can’t afford to do everything we might want and that economic analysis can help us separate the good from the bad.  We’re like airline passengers that have lost pressurization in the cabin.  We need to put our oxygen mask on first before we worry about saving everybody else.   

Most importantly, we need to focus ourselves, as well as Council, on economic recovery and away from racial politics.

by guest writer  – Brian Hill

So I was thinking about what I do for a living, and that I am a municipal public employee… and how I see so much waste everywhere. I also really dislike the perception that we are all just lazy bastards. So how do we really change the City of Trenton employee image and while we are at it, how can we change the image of Trenton? Us, how can we do it as well???  I did some research and wrote this up…

It’s just a few days away now — Election Day. Regardless of who is elected Mayor on June 15, the City of Trenton will close one chapter of its history and begin a new one.
Hopefully the new administration will bring new ideas to the challenges we face as Trentonians: challenges that are economic, challenges that are sometimes uncomfortable, and even though in some cases we will flat out disagree with policy, we hope that the greater good is served.

It has always been a mantra of mine that we are a service-driven industry but, what does that really mean? Those of us that work for the City of Trenton probably feel that we know our job, our role and the responsibilities that come with it. But maybe it might be a good idea to have a refresher course and take the lead from some great groups. At the Disney Company, they recognize that a key element in creating the best environment for engaged employees is great leadership. Leaders take responsibility for creating a vibrant employee experience, understanding that their own behavior and vision drives the creation of a work environment in which employees can be fully engaged. This is needed in the City of Trenton, from all employees.

We also need to take a look at what some folks believe is a sound business plan for public service employees:

• Improved effectiveness – more oriented to identifying and producing results.
• Greater service orientation – developing a culture in which the delivery of an outstanding service to the public is accepted as the norm.
• Improved accountability – performance must be effectively managed, measured, and failure to meet standards should be recognized and dealt with
• Improved financial accountability – the competent management of resources according to a strong “value for money” ethos as a hallmark of the public service. The public needs to see their money is not wasted
• Improved flexibility – a greater ability to work in teams across traditional departmental lines. Especially now with little funds and shrinking departments.

These are just a few things we can do as employees and hopefully  be part of an engaged municipal government. We will all be part of the team that works on behalf of Trenton, from paying our taxes on time, the upkeep of our home or business, to sweeping the street in front of our home – and it is up to all of us to work with the new leadership to tackle those challenges.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t want to have to be involved in local politics at all.

However, I live in Trenton and own enough property so that high taxes and declining value could be a substantial economic blow.  I am not alone in this precarious situation.  Every home and building owner in Trenton is at risk as our city’s budget comes closer to falling into the financial abyss.

I’ve listened to the candidates and just don’t hear a serious “by the numbers” explanation of how they think we can rescue ourselves.  Instead, I hear a lot of blame being laid on the State.

I also know that many of our candidates have been in public life for many years but have never jumped up and down screaming about the fact that we were so dependent on the State.  Even now, several of the candidates are asking for votes so they can do more for the poor citizens of Trenton.  We’re sinking, as a city, and yet there are candidates talking about new social programs.

There are candidates who either believe or know that citizens want to hear, “that fixing the schools will revitalize Trenton”.  That notion is absurd and tells me that I’m listening to a “Know Nothing”  politician.  In order to magically fix the schools, we’d have to start with the young kids and put them into some magical environment that hasn’t even been invented, wait 12 years, and then perhaps we’d have a graduation rate worth bragging about.  It could be decades before Trenton’s schools are better than surrounding suburbs.  Nobody moves to a city for the schools that are “almost as good”.  Trenton schools need to be “as good, or better”, but we can’t make that happen in time to save our city.

We need a no-nonsense, and dare I say pragmatic (another word for Republican) approach to our problem.  We need a “Bull in the China shop” much like Chris Christie has become for NJ.  We need to do the opposite of what we’ve been doing in Trenton for the past 20 years.

We don’t need balance, we need imbalance.  Trenton has gone out of its way to be attractive to the poor for quite some time and has done little to attract middle class and high income residents.  We’re going to have to change that balance.  We’re actually going to have to find a way to appeal to people with disposable income and lots of them.

As I look at the candidates and at myself,  I’ve come to the conclusion that I have something to offer Trenton.  As a Management Consultant, my job is often to help organizations improve and to do the best things first.  We help our clients manage by the numbers.  As a volunteer in Trenton, I find myself drawn towards the challenging problem of urban revitalization.  It’s one of the great challenges of our time and I want to be a part of meeting that challenge.  ReinventTrenton.com is all about that as is TrentonLofts.com and FixTrentonsBudget.com.

Running for mayor is a thankless job and being mayor would involve some personal and financial pain for me and Michelle (Michelle doesn’t like the idea).  However, if voters look around and decide they just can’t tie their futures to any of the existing candidates and would prefer to take the opposite approach, I will serve.  Probably only for one term, but I’d serve long enough to give the opposite approach a chance to take shape.

I understand that many Trentonians have been fed a diet of rhetoric on revitalization over the years and I’ve written quite a bit to debunk much of it. But, just so there aren’t any surprises, a few of the ingredients a Dodson administration include are listed below.  If you can’t depart with the notion that these sacred cows need to be cast out, then don’t vote for me:

• Create and institutionalize a meaningful budget process
• Reassess on a 5 year cycle and adjust our tax rate accordingly
• Lift the residency requirement for all city workers (we need the best minds possible on the case)
• Call in outside law enforcement support to augment our police
• Reinvent our city processes to enable our staff to have a bigger impact for less
• Make every aspect of Trenton the MOST business and development friendly in the US
• No support at all for subsidized, deed restricted, housing
• Negotiate a fair deal with the State, to gradually get us off of state aid
• Lobby, maybe through the US Justice Dept., for integration of schools in Mercer County and NJ (that equates to busing)

For those that have read my blog over the years, none of this is new.  I just want to make it clear that my firm belief is that protecting the above “sacred cows” is in the way of Trenton’s progress.  Adopting the above is the “opposite” of what we’ve been doing and the “opposite” of the positions for many of the current candidates.

In the end, it’s the voters choice. If called I’d serve and would love the challenge.

Jim Coston was a transformational councilperson for Trenton and the South Ward but with his leaving, the race to fill his spot is wide open. Read the rest of this entry »

The July 18^th edition of Trenton’s Urban Studies group had Alan Mallach as its guest speaker. Mr. Mallach has been studying cities for 40 years and works today as a consultant and author on the subject. He was formerly Trenton’s Economic Development director back in the 90s.

The upshot of Mr Mallach’s comments was that a small city like like Trenton, should have as its objective, to increase the numbers of higher income residents. Increasing downtown residency is an important part of this prescription. Read the rest of this entry »

Councilman Coston referenced in his blog, an email discussion he and I had about the impact of income distribution on Trenton. Mr. Coston’s blog can be found at, SouthTrenton.com.

I’ve taken the opportunity to restate the debate here.  It’s a useful discussion for policymakers and I thank Jim Coston for being the kind of Councilman that is open to challenging his own assumptions. Read the rest of this entry »

Saving Trenton from its crazy self

The idea of the state having to take over Trenton has come up recently. However, many citizens, even when faced with the evidence that Trenton clearly can’t take care of itself, suggest that the state would do an even worse job. They have a point; even with its broad financial resources the state clearly hasn’t fixed Camden.

So, let’s imagine for a moment that state oversight is a bad option. We already know that we can’t run the city ourselves. What then are the remaining options? Read the rest of this entry »

With one act of enlightened self interest, Trentonians can spawn a new industry

It’s an industry without the risk of the car business. It attracts sought after  middle class workers. And, it’s inherently good for the community.

What’s this wonder industry? And more importantly what do we need to do to attract it?

Education can be Trenton’s next great economic engine, all we have to do is break the monopoly government has on it. Read the rest of this entry »

Of the five major ways to foster urban revitalization;

1. Facilitating high end real estate development,
2. Supporting the arts and culture,
3. Cleaning up the joint,
4. Squashing the gangs, and
5. Creating a reason for Trenton to be here,

Only “Cleaning up the joint” can be done inexpensively.

Visitors to Trenton often comment that the city looks “run down” and dirty. Residents agree. Read the rest of this entry »