Thoughts on the “B” Word

City government is big business in the United States.  Long gone are the days when a directly elected mayor and city council managed the day-to-day activities of the city staff.  In Davis, we currently use the “Manager-Council” form of government, thus trading direct and immediate accountability for professional bureaucracy.

The term “bureaucracy” emerged shortly before the French Revolution to describe the long series of desks and workspaces that ponderously processed the directives of the king into formal action.  Bureaucracy is many things to many people: a four letter word, a good-faith servant to society, a means to deliver efficient services, an obstacle to democracy, a compliment to democracy… an integral part of modern life that we love to hate.  In the pantheon of great literature, there is no greater anti-hero or villain than bureaucracy; consider the works of Chaucer, Dante, Kafka, and Pynchon, to name just a few. Confucius lives on in our collective memory not just for his contribution to the innards of fortune cookies, but because he advocated for and systematically described the need for governmental morality to guide the actions of a well-organized government.

How many people populate the ranks of Davis bureaucracy?  According to Bill Emlen, City Manager & Chief Bureaucrat of Davis, during his State of the City address on January 5^th, 2010, there are currently 421 employees of the City of Davis (that’s 1 city employee to every 149 citizens) and an additional 24 positions that are budgeted but not filled.  With no end in sight to this economic downturn, many are calling for more drastic budget cuts… especially when haggling over salaries and benefits with the collective bargaining units that represent city employees.

Employee compensation and benefit structures are by far the biggest outlays of our budget.  Over the past two decades, those amounts have risen precipitously.  Even Mr. Emlen admits, “other localities are realizing that we’ve been working against each other” in a kind of arms race to see who can attract the best employees with the biggest benefits package.  He goes on to say, “I will not deny that public retirement plans today are very generous… especially public safety.”  Admitting the problem is step one in solving the problem.

Our city’s liberal and once innovative agenda can coexist with fiscal conservatism.  And while I applaud our current leaders for moving slowly towards more sustainable models for budgeting and employee compensation, it would behoove them to dig a little deeper to check the health of the roots of our bureaucracy… and perhaps some pruning of the less productive branches are in order…

Since we’re all here, how about a thought exercise on an entirely different form of organizational structure: adhocracy… “When done well, adhocracy can be very good at problem solving and innovations and thrives in a changing environment.”

Now, before I raise the ire of my many friends and acquaintances that work for the City of Davis, or any bureaucracy, may I offer some humble advice?  Rather than falling prey to the adage “Bureaucracy exists to protect itself”, concentrate on creating efficiencies in your work rather than creating more work for yourself.  Prioritize what is really important to the health and wellness of our community.  And whatever you do, don’t expect sympathy from taxpayers because you’re doing work outside of your job description… we’re all doing work outside of our job descriptions in order to maintain and improve our standard of living.  We’re in this together, let’s all start acting like it.