by Joe Sullivan
The "streamlined" organization of city government that Mayor-elect Bill Haslam announced on Tuesday says quite a bit about his priorities.
One might have supposed that economic development would get the foremost emphasis. After all, that's what is uppermost on the agenda of the business community, of which Haslam was a part before running for mayor. And he reinforced this supposition by announcing just after the election plans to convene a Jobs Symposium in November, but the symposium has been postponed.
Instead, in his announcement, neighborhoods head the list of his priorities, followed by accountability, efficiency and job creation. The biggest organizational change that he's propounding is the creation of a new Department of Community and Neighborhood Services. The new department would combine functions now performed by three present city departments: Public Service, Parks and Recreation, and one arm of the Department of Development. Moreover, Haslam's announcement states that, "The Police and Fire Departments will work closely with the Department of Community and Neighborhood Services."
Haslam has also announced the appointment of a Neighborhood Working Group to "evaluate the function and efficiency of city services." Its seven members are heavily weighted with representatives of center city neighborhoods that supported his opponent, Madeline Rogero, in the Sept. 30 election. Among them: Fourth and Gill, Island Home, Oakwood-Lincoln Park and Parkridge.
"People judge the city on what kind of service they get for their tax dollars. So it's up to this administration to measure how we're providing services—everything from crime statistics to how frequently the brush gets picked up to how many codes issues we have fixed," the mayor-elect says.
The new department is one of eight in the revamped city organization chart Haslam unveiled. That's down from 14 presently. The others are finance and accountability, operations, economic development, communications, law, police and fire.
While the Police and Fire Departments would continue to report directly to the mayor, they would have a dotted line accountability to the Department of Community and Neighborhood Services. "One of the things that's apparent to me is how hand-in-hand codes enforcement and police are," Haslam says. "Under the new organization, there will be a lot more coordination about how we're approaching problems. The police have a pretty good data base about places where there have been repeated problems, whether it's with codes violations or a park where the wrong people have taken it over at night."
Haslam says he's about a week away from naming any of his new department heads. So it's purely a guess on my part that Sam Anderson will head the new Department of Community and Neighborhood Services. For the past 16 years Anderson has been the director of Parks and Recreation—the first African American to head a city department, as Mayor Victor Ashe is fond of pointing out. Anderson, who is also chairman of Knox County's school board, was among the several influential black officials who supported Haslam and helped him carry predominantly black precincts that were crucial to his narrow victory over Rogero.
In identifying the elements of the present Development Department that would go into the new department, Haslam describes them as the "community development pieces that Kevin DuBose runs." So one can infer an important role for DuBose, who is also an African-American, in the new administration. Building permits and inspections that are now domiciled in the Development Department would be shifted to the Operations Department that would also encompass the present Engineering Department and "heavier duty" projects now under the Public Service Department.
The director of the Development Department, Leslie Henderson, has stated her intention to depart city government when Ashe leaves office. Law Director Michael Kelley is also taking his leave, and another odd-man out could be Public Service Director Bob Whetsel—but that is anything but clear.
Where economic development is concerned, Haslam's description of the role of his new department head sounds responsive to Rogero's campaign call for more public participation in the city's decision-making process. "Any development project that we're going to be spending public money on, there's going to be a public process, and the Economic Development Department will be coordinating that process," Haslam says. The mayor-elect envisions working closely with the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership on business recruitment and retention, and he plans city funding support for the chamber's Jobs Now! program that Ashe demurred on.
There were few specifics to go with Haslam's other stress points: efficiencies and accountability. "I haven't had time yet to sit down with department directors and understand better how we spend our money and if there's a different way to do it," he said in an interview. Consolidation of some functions with Knox County remains a possibility, but "it would be premature to name any." He's been meeting weekly with his close friend, County Mayor Mike Ragsdale and "we started out talking about lots of things we thought were possibilities, but we decided to step back and take a more holistic approach to it."
On accountability, he says, "Everything performs better when it's being measured. So I want to introduce the concept of performance measurement in everything we do."
The biggest performance test, though, will be the incoming mayor's ability to cope with the many difficulties facing him. A looming budget deficit and a floundering convention center head the list. And he must find a way to build cohesion on a newly constituted City Council that is starting out sharply divided on the first matter facing it: selection of a new vice mayor. But Haslam's organizational emphases attest to his resolve to be a consensus builder at a time when one is sorely needed.
November 20, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 47
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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