I have been writing about
Springfield local government since the Great Satan in the White House was a
Republican. During that time, able and earnest citizens sat down to recommend
improvements to everything from local government, water supply and railroad
relocation to industrial development, downtown redevelopment and historic
preservation.
Whatever
the experience has taught me about local government, it taught me to dread
having to read yet another report describing the results. The casual definitions of terms. The declaration of vague “principles,”
which is how “truisms” is spelled in such documents. The confusion of cost-cutting
with efficiency. The roster of participants chosen because they know local and state government,
which in fact they know only Illinois local and state government. The
ignorance, even indifference to alternatives that have been
proven to work outside Illinois, or even outside Sangamon County.
It
was with surprise as well as pleasure, therefore, that I read the report of the
Sangamon County Citizens Efficiency Commission in described in my recent
column, “Rearranging
the desks.” Most such report resort to blather to conceal their emptiness, but this
report is precise in it language and as clearly stated as complexity of its
subject allows. There is a refreshing insistence on evidence as a
test of alternatives. (“Collectively, we 23 members of the CEC found it easy to
say what we thought might make government better, but found it very difficult
to demonstrate clearly that our notions were correct.”)
This is as surprising as it is refreshing. So is
the endorsement of expertise as a precondition of intelligent reform: “It is
imperative that other jurisdictions considering efforts similar to that
undertaken by the CEC understand that, in the absence of professional staff of
the caliber made available to us, the effort is likely to produce only mediocre
results if not outright failure.”
That professional staff, it
should be noted, usually are found at their desks at the Springfield-Sangamon
County Regional Planning Commission. Well done, all.
This article appears in Apr 17-23, 2014.
