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.

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