Wanted: Citizen Feedback for Charter Commission
| By Rebuild Government on March 30th, 2010 | No Comments  |
Over the last 2 weeks, the Metro Charter Commission task forces have begun to make formal recommendations for the new charter, and it’s essential that they hear the opinions from our citizens.
Each week, Rebuild Government will send you a short survey asking for your feedback. It will take about 5 minutes to complete and we will report the public opinion as the Charter Commission makes its decisions.
Here’s the first one. The topics: 1) name of the new government; 2) responsibilities of the sheriff; and 3) libraries.
Click here to complete the survey.
Thanks for sharing your opinion with the Charter Commission
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...Stephen Goldsmith, National Expert on Innovative Governments, to Help In Rebuild Government Conversations
| By Rebuild Government on March 25th, 2010 | No Comments |
In our meetings all over Shelby County, there is one thing that everyone agrees on: that the #1 issue facing our community is crime. Many of you heard Stephen Goldsmith speak at the recent Leadership Memphis about how government has to find better ways to deal with complex issues, that new ways must be found to “liberate” public employees from a failed system, and that government should focus less on programs and more on public values.
Later that same day, he spoke to the Metro Charter Commission, where he talked about the “politics of the possible,” adding that “In the short run, a short-term urban loss can be a short-term suburban gain, but a long-term loss can’t be a long-term suburban gain.” That sense that “we’re all in this together” is at the heart of our work at Rebuild Government as we work to find ways that we, as a community, can come together to discuss a better future.
The Charter Commission asked for his advice as their work continues, and its members echoed our interest in knowing what he thinks about law enforcement and crime-fighting. Mr. Goldsmith is an acknowledged expert on government innovation and improvement, so we asked him for his thoughts about how government structure can improve crime-fighting and we asked him to write articles for the Rebuild Government website, beginning with law enforcement. That article will be published on our website soon, and as part of his research, he prepared an insightful look at law enforcement here. Because of the quality of his review, Rebuild Government Chairman Darrell Cobbins forwarded it to the Charter Commission’s law enforcement committee as it developed its recommendations.
We were pleased to help make this level of national expertise available to the Commission. As you remember, Mr. Goldsmith is the Daniel Paul Professor of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also the Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service, appointed by both President Bush and President Obama, and he is former mayor of Indianapolis.
As a two-term mayor, he cut government spending by $400 million, cut the city bureaucracy, held the line on taxes, and eliminated numerous regulations. He has written several books on innovation in government, and earlier this month, his latest book, The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good, was released.
We are excited that Mr. Goldsmith will contribute to our countywide conversations with his website columns. Besides law enforcement, we’ve also asked him to write columns for us on anti-corruption/ethics, efficiency in government, and economic development. We are fortunate to have someone with his background and expertise to help Rebuild Government increase the understanding and information that all of us as voters want.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Fear! Churchill Was Right
| By Brian Stephens on March 18th, 2010 | No Comments |
I was in Bartlett this past weekend conducting a discussion group on ways to improve our government and asking the participants to tell me what they would like to see in a new charter for our two largest governments (Memphis and Shelby County).
These discussion groups are meant to inspire conversation and get us to openly discuss where we want to go as a community. After conducting numerous meetings, I have noticed a certain pattern to the one-hour long talk. Participants at first are skeptical that anything they say or do will matter. They speak of tragic issues that occurred up to 40 years ago as if they were yesterday. They tell me we will never alter the course we are on as a community. They discuss their fears that we are doomed to repeat the past, fears of the unknown and many people are even afraid to simply discuss their personal future in this community, instead just accepting that they may just leave and move to an area with less crime, better jobs, etc., etc., etc.
It’s actually sad that some people in this community feel so hopeless about the future and seem to be so trapped in our past problems that they believe their only choice is to move. This, simply put, is not the future we have to accept.
Luckily the story does not end with people controlled by their fears.
During the meeting, it is exciting to see a change in the attitudes of the attendees as they start to get engaged in the process. That change gives me a true sense of optimism about our future. Once participants take the time to learn what is going on this year and that we will actually have a vote on a new charter and that “we the people” can actually give input into how this charter can protect, a say in what our community should look like and how we want our government to run, and when the participants take the time to understand we can have a say in what services we want from our government and discuss ways to compete on a global scale, attitudes begin to take a dramatic shift.
I truly enjoy watching the participants make a 180 degree turn as they begin to get excited about ways to reform our broken government models. Once a person makes the commitment to attend and participant in what is happening with the charter commission their attitude towards our future seems, at least to me, a little bit rosier than it was when we started.
The main concern I have is the citizens that are so afraid of the word, “consolidation,” that they are refusing to even participate in the process. Some fears are well-founded and must be addressed, but fear of change for fear sake alone should never stop us from at least exploring ways to improve our government. Instead we have the chance this year to address these fears and just maybe end up with a government that is better for all the citizens of Shelby County.
We all have fear in some form or another and in most instances we look upon this emotion as a negative, as a feeling we wish we could dismiss or get over. I think we all agree that we would rather be courageous and brave than fearful. We love tales of heroes that stand up to tyranny or examples of regular persons who steps out of their comfort zone and try to reach a goal they themselves thought unattainable. I have also noticed that in almost every instance when a person has overcome their fears they are happy they did not let their fear control them and in hindsight the person realizes their earlier fear was not grounded in reality. Fear is simply an emotion and something we all need to learn to control. In thinking back to occasions when I have been afraid to act, despite the knowledge that acting was the right thing to do, I was always grateful when a friend encouraged me to take the next step and explore the possibilities.
I believe that the co-chairs of rebuild government and other leaders in this community that are exploring ways to improve our government are acting like that friend. Pushing us to at least being open to talking. In the end, what the charter commission prepares may not be the right answer, in which case we simply vote no and look to some other opportunity to repair our government model and community. But at least we did not allow fear to stop us from exploring the possibilities and opportunities that are right in front of us.
Turning from a focus on the past to a vision of the future is really what this conversation is all about. And once our citizens begin to realize that they can actually effect the change that they have dreamed of for years, our entire community will be a juggernaut of success building new more prospers roads for our community to travel.
Regardless of what happens with the charter commission and the vote in November, I hope and pray that that we learn to openly discuss our problems and that we learn to overcome our fears and continually implement changes that improve our community. We have wonderful people in our community, and I hope this is the year we look back on as a turning point in our community; when we choose to take a path that does not blindly accept the status quo, but instead that we embraced change and began working together.
Then we can find the future that is waiting for us…just on the other side of our fear.
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5) Loading ...Update on a Great Week
| By Brian Stephens on March 5th, 2010 | One Comment  |
It’s been a busy week for Rebuild Government with dozens of meetings around our community, a presentation yesterday to Leadership Memphis’s Class of 2010, and government innovation expert Stephen Goldsmith answering questions of Charter Commission members yesterday afternoon.
Earlier yesterday, Mr. Goldsmith spoke at Leadership Memphis’s fourth annual community meeting which each year features a national expert on economic development and innovation. While he was formerly mayor of Indianapolis, a merged city-county government, Mr. Goldsmith’s presentation was about the way that innovation and competition can change government for the better. As mayor of Indianapolis, he saved $400 million over 8 years by signing 500 contracts for churches, nonprofits, and neighborhood groups to manage their parks, by setting up competitive systems that “liberated public employees” from the stifling system in which they work, and for setting up processes for neighborhoods to tell government what they want (rather than the other way around). His latest book was released Monday and it’s about civic entrepreneurs and how communities have to unleash the power of average citizens to lead change. We’ve already placed our orders.
At the Charter Commission, he answered more specific questions about how Indianapolis works and how the charter for a new government could be written to imbed innovation, accountability, and transparency. Once again, he lived up to his reputation as one of the smartest thinkers on government reform in the U.S.
We salute the Charter Commission for inviting such a well-known expert to advise it as it prepares to write the charter that will be on the November ballot. It gives the 15 members of the Commission the chance to hear from people who are leading the movement for major government reform. Mr. Goldsmith echoed the leadership of Rebuild Government when he said that the current process has to be about more than bolting two governments together. Instead, it’s about inventing a totally new government that is better equipped to respond to the needs and dreams of our community.
Meanwhile, as this totally new government is being considered, we continue to get brilliant advice and recommendations from our fellow citizens in our meetings, and as promised, we deliver every one of their comments to the appropriate Charter Commission task force as its members consider what should be included in the charter for a new government. We are convinced that a new charter must listen to the voices of our people and respond with a constitution for a new government that directly relates to their concerns and priorities.
All of us at Rebuild Government are grateful for the outpouring of interest that we have received, but more to the point, for the interest show in having a voice in this process so we are prepared to evaluate what the Charter Commission recommends and to decide if we are for or against it.
Also, this week, we had questions from the news media about an anti-consolidation group that has formed. We welcome anyone into the conversation about the future of our community, and we reaffirmed that we are neither for nor against this charter because we are intent about making sure it reflects what Shelby Countians are saying in our meetings. Specifically, we were asked about comments by one of its organizers on Channel 24 news that since schools aren’t being consolidated, they don’t know why we should bother with merging Memphis and Shelby County Governments. To recap, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton made a strong case for not including the schools in this process and the Charter Commission approved his recommendation. More to the point, Memphis City Schools Commissioner Tomeka Hart says that the schools cannot be included in the process because Memphis City Schools is a special district and only the school board can decide its future.
Also, we were asked about this comment by the anti-consolidation organizer: “We have big problems in Memphis and those problems really need to be solved
by Memphians.” We know firsthand the problems of getting a new grassroots organization up and running, and with all of the things to do to get organized, we hope that he simply misspoke. We think that Shelby Countians should discuss answers to those big problems, and in addition, if the suggestion is that our community should not hear from national experts on government and government innovation like Mr. Goldsmith, we just can’t agree.
Ultimately, all of us will vote on this at the polls, and we need to feel comfortable that every possibility for better government has been explored and that we have learned from the people who have run nationally acknowledged great governments.
Thanks to all of you have invited us into your home, your business, to a coffee shop, and to your Sunday School class to make sure your voice is heard about a new Charter. This process is the essence of democracy – citizens talking about what kind of government they want and then voting at the polls about it.
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5) Loading ...Thanks, Zack
| By Darrell Cobbins on March 5th, 2010 | No Comments |
Our communications director Zack McMillin has decided to return to The Commercial Appeal, effective Monday. We are grateful for his enthusiastic support for Rebuild Government and for his hard work to spread the word about the importance of this conversation about building a new government from the ground up.
We appreciate what Zack calls the “pull of journalism” for leading to his decision to accept an offer from the newspaper. He wrote to us: “I want to emphasize the positive feelings and respect I hold for those involved with Rebuild’s effort…I’m proud of the level of discussion we brought into the community. I have appreciated the opportunity to communicate with people throughout the county about their hopes, values, and concerns for the future.”
All of us at Rebuild Government wish him the best. He has been a valued colleague and friend. At a time when Rebuild Government as just getting organized, he made important contributions and we are better because of it. We look forward to once again seeing his byline in the future.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Former mayor of Indianapolis highlight of busy week
| By Zack McMillin on March 1st, 2010 | No Comments |
The Memphis and Shelby County Metro Charter Commission embarks on a busy week, with the highlight coming Thursday afternoon when former Indianapolis mayor and nationally-renowned government efficiency expert Stephen Goldsmith shares some of his insights. Goldsmith is also speaking at Leadership Memphis’s 4th Community Leadership event earlier Thursday, giving a presentation on the impact of government policy on economic development.
Go here for more information on the Leadership Memphis event. For more information on Goldsmith and his reputation for finding ways to make government more efficient, here is his bio from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard.
The Charter Commission schedule can be found at this link, and it is also available on our Facebook site (www.Facebook.com/RebuildGov) or see below.
Metropolitan Government Charter Commission
Thursday, March 4th, 2010, 4:00 pm
Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main, 4th Floor
Charter Commission Task Force Meetings
Charter Commission Executive Committee
Monday, March 1, 2010
4:00 p.m.
Crescent Center, 6075 Poplar Avenue, Suite 500
Amenities and Public BettermentMonday, March 1, 2010
3:00 p.m.
Crescent Center
6075 Poplar Avenue, Suite 500
Memphis , TN 38119Legal and Judicial Task Force
Monday, March 1, 2010
4:00 pm
Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main, 6th Floor, County Attorney ’s Conference RoomPublic Safety Task Force
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
9:00 am
Code Enforcement Building , 6465 Mullins Station Road
(In The Large Training Room)Ethics Task Force
Tuesday March 2, 2010
4:00 pm
Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main, Mayors Small Conference Room – 8th FloorCentral Support Services Task Force
Thursday, March 4, 2010
3:00 p.m.
Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main, County Attorney ’s Conference Room – 6th Floor
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...
