TRANSFORMATIONAL FISCAL LEADERSHIP

"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.” ~Winston Churchill”There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than what you are capable of living” ~Nelson Mandela

As we began to discuss in a prior article, our communities have found themselves in the uncomfortable financial condition of having to "do more with less." Far from a cliche', doing more with less at the municipal and county level has become the new normal that we are faced with as administrators, elected officials, and residents.

We must become passionate like never before about elevating our communities to become model communities that attract more great residents, robust businesses, committed educators, and joyful recreators. If we fail to invest that depth of emotion in our own communities, then we will decay as our residents and businesses move on to communities that did invest.

I say our financial conditions have become "uncomfortable," but I do not necessarily believe that all discomfort is bad. As each of us knows on a personal and professional level, sometimes we don't make needed changes until we are forced into changing by external forces (i.e. watching our dietary intake AFTER the heart attack). Detached from the vitriolic political rhetoric, we can admit that our local government budgets could certainly have endured some pruning even before reduced state and federal funding externally forced us to expedite the process. Some cuts are good.

Good cuts do not imply that we should take a machete to our local budgets, but instead we should seek to surgically identify and reduce those items that have become bloated through (1) habit; (2) inattention to vendor cost increases; and (3) failure to collaborate to deliver services where prudent.

HABIT

• Simply put, did our budgets continue to include maintenance and repair line items for obsolete technologies or no longer existent facilities?
• Did we continue to use "snail mail" long after email and web site postings would have sufficed?
• Have some departments or functions become overstaffed due to technologically-driven efficiencies, while other departments/functions became understaffed due to increased interest/activity/population?

INATTENTION TO VENDOR COST INCREASES

• Do we review and comparatively analyze every municipal/county vendor contract well prior to renewal to ensure that we are not overpaying? [Even if our vendor used to be the only local provider, that doesn't necessarily mean it still remains so.]
• Have unit costs to the vendor decreased without commensurate decreases in unit costs to our governmental unit? [i.e. even as the manufacturing and distribution costs of technology hardware decreases, do our invoices continue to reflect annual cost increases?]
• Does a "well-connected" individual  or organization provide services to our locale due to a "special relationship" with a current/former elected official or administrator?

FAILURE TO COLLABORATE TO DELIVER SERVICES

• Territorialism based upon municipal borders drawn on a map centuries ago need no longer prevent professional financial administrators and elected officials from actively seeking multi-jurisdictional partnership to provide services.
• Without impinging upon collective bargaining contracts, future plans can be mutually designed and negotiated in a manner that will best serve the tax-paying citizenry. [i.e. fire departments, emergency medical services, law enforcement, recreation centers, schools, etc.]

Transformational fiscal leadership will only begin to take place at the local governmental level when elected officials and administrators set aside well-worn habits and guarded egos to instead focus upon their fiduciary responsibility to administer the taxpayers' funds in the most prudent manner possible. Safe, attractive, vibrant communities will attract and retain tomorrow's young families, growing businesses, and best talent.

Will your community leadership embrace Transformational Fiscal Leadership or will your community export families and businesses to those communities that do?

Legacy of 9/11: Dare NOT to Forget

"Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.'” ~President George W. Bush September 11, 2001.

"I told him (the Lieutenant) I wasn't leaving...We were still missing one guy..."  ~Patrick Martin, NYFD


Where were YOU on that fateful morning of September 11, 2001?

Wherever you and I were that morning geographically, we were forevermore changed at our core individually, spiritually, and as a nation. We watched the images of selfless men and women, from everyday citizens to professional public safety personnel, struggling to save as many lives as possible in the aftermath of the airliners being overtaken by terrorists.

For a period of time, we were one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Partisanship ceased to be a defining factor as all elected officials stood side-by-side and citizenry pulled together to bury our dead with dignity...to restore normalcy...to bring justice to bear upon those responsible for the heinous act of cowardice.

As we approach and move past the tenth anniversary of that fateful morning, the bipartisan honeymoon has been over for some time as rancorous partisanship ascended again. Political lines again became more important than unemployment lines. Our courageous citizens have been buffeted by economic turmoil, financial insecurity, and future uncertainty. Our selfless police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel across the nation find themselves shorn of their numbers as federal, state and municipal bureaucrats seek to balance fiscal year budgets.

Communities suffering vacancies amidst the mortgage foreclosure crisis now risk being branded as underprotected as line items for public safety take precedence over actual manpower needs at firehouses and police stations across this nation. We mistakenly save a few dollars today at the expense of the safe neighborhoods and attractive communities of tomorrow.

Our elected officials will have now attempted to revive that unified feeling amidst banners, flags, and slogans to commemorate the 10th anniversary, but they must do more than window-dress the very real transformation that this nation underwent that morning and in the days that followed. Instead, genuine bipartisan problem solvers must work together in a professional and collegial fashion once again. This time their legislative efforts won't be about enacting anti-terror legislation, but in that same spirit of cooperation they must recommit to working together to ensure that firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, school teachers and other selfless public servants are not reduced like some faceless, nameless budget line item.

Stand up, stand together, and restore our neighborhoods and communities so that we can once again be that Shining City upon the Hill that we have always been. God bless our public servants and may God Bless America!

COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP: ELIMINATE THE NATIONAL DEBT

"There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means." ~Calvin Coolidge

"Good business or investment decisions will eventually produce quite satisfactory economic results, with no aid from leverage." ~Warren Buffett


Eliminating the National Debt will require shared courage from the electorate as well as rare courage from our elected officials. Decades of discussing the National Debt has done absolutely nothing to decrease its size or reduce its rate of growth. I propose that the newly-chosen Congressional Debt Committee could learn a thing or two from American consumers who--despite unemployment challenges and rapidly rising costs of necessities (i.e. food, gasoline)--have continued to reduce their dependence upon consumer credit. The communities we live in are tightening their own budgetary belts as municipalities are forced to make difficult decisions that potentially reduce public safety and/or the quality of recreational life in those communities.

In our communities we are faced daily with personal and professional choices regarding business infrastructure investments and expenditures. We must maintain our walk-in refrigeration units and industrial ovens in good working order. We must stock our restrooms with anti-bacterial soap and toilet paper. At home, our children require functional footwear and school supplies to return to school for the new term. While we may manage our business and personal finances through the responsible use of revolving credit, we do do knowing fully that the bill must be paid on time. Even the mortgage on our business site or our home requires a timely payment lest we forfeit our very location from which we operate or live.

Despite the vitriolic rhetoric across the political spectrum, the National Debt is not the sole responsibility or fault of one political party. Our nation has increased the size of the debt under Administrations and Congresses overseen by both major political parties. Even when the Budget has occasionally been balanced, the National Debt has not magically disappeared. Real National Debt Solutions do not derive from passive-aggressive behavior between political parties, factions within parties, or squabbles between branches of government. While financial woes are often cited as a primary cause of marital dissolution or bankruptcy, our nation cannot seek such similar options.

Instead, much as our families, our employees, our neighbors and our mayors have done with courage, our national leaders must step up their level of fiscal leadership and make difficult long-term decisions. Voters have an opportunity each election cycle to send the most qualified Representatives and Senators to Washington, D.C. and it is incumbent upon those elected leaders to put aside debts owed to special interests, opportunities for cable news soundbites, and ultimatum floor speeches and instead do what many day-to-day business owners and families have done: (1) starve the urge to spend beyond one's means; and (2) identify savings.

Professionally and personally, we know when it's time to put away the credit card. For those who cannot control their own debt accumulation, that urge is cured externally by creditors withdrawing existing (or refusing additional) credit privileges. Secondly, we seek savings to reduce our cash outlay, a process that is not without its own pain. Reducing less productive staff, eliminating accustomed perks, or closing unprofitable locations are among the value-added decisions that we must make to grow our businesses during challenging economic times. At home we may eat out less, change insurance carriers, or curtail a costly club membership.

Our national leaders must put their respective personal leadership credibility on the line without partisanship. Decide once and for all to spend within revenue receipts and identify and execute swiftly the savings that can be had from a close, unbiased examination of the federal expenditures. The courage to lead doesn't imply that one will remain popular enough to survive re-election, but the prospect of future electoral defeat shouldn't deter a leader from making fiscally responsible decisions.

Today, as an elected official, accept the mantle of fiscal leadership.
Today, as a voter, accept the obligation to elect committed fiscal leaders instead of partisan mouthpieces betrothed to special interest lobbyists.
Together, let us restore balance and fiscal pride to our communities, our states and our greatest nation on Earth.

Freedom: Our Greatest and Most Precious Natural Resource

"I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life." -President Ronald Reagan 

"What the American people hope -– what they deserve -– is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories, different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared: a job that pays the bills; a chance to get ahead; most of all, the ability to give their children a better life." -President Barack Obama

Were you to learn today that your husband or wife or your child had been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, what financial limit would you place upon the medical treatment? After all, you've got bills to pay already...a mortgage, a boat payment, credit cards. And besides, you have been saving up for that vacation trip your family has been planning for next summer! What do you figure...maybe agree to spend up to $5,000...maybe $10,000 max on the medical treatment. "Doc, just set the meter and let me know when it reaches $10,000. We'll just have to stop treatment at that point so I can make my boat payment." ABSURD!

You and I would both move Heaven and Earth, sell everything we might have, borrow exceedingly, and pray ceaselessly until our cherished loved one recovered or went home to be with the Father. One does not place a price upon the genuine love we have for our spouse or child.

Likewise, as Americans we have been smart enough to know better than to place a phony or politically-motivated price upon our Freedom. From the American Revolution to the Civil War to the World Wars to our current missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have long learned that families across America demand Freedom and the world looks to the greatest nation on Earth to safeguard freedom from tyrants and terrorists. Today's war-torn foreign family could be tomorrow's American entrepreneur. Today's forlorn orphan could be tomorrow's state college graduate.

I don't know about you, but I'm not of Native American ancestry. I am the son of a son and daughter of sons and daughters of immigrants...some dating back centuries, others to the early 20th century. Our Ellis Island loomed large as the ships made their way into New York's harbor, much as Miami or Los Angeles or Seattle or Houston loom large to tomorrow's engineers, fishermen, firefighters and ditch diggers. Nor can we ever forget the tragedy brought upon those individuals and families who arrived under the duress and cruelty of the colonial slave trade.

While my immediate family and yours (perhaps even YOU personally) have bravely and unquestioningly served our nation at home and on foreign soil, our immigrant ancestors with one foot planted on American soil and one foot planted in their homeland, looked upon us from Heaven and smiled proudly. The Department of Defense has acknowledged that our legal immigrants are a welcome addition to our strong military. As the United States Senate supported our military in standing up for inclusion and diversity this week, I thought back to why we fought the American Revolution (freedom from unlawful taxation and oppression) and the Civil War (equality for all God's children)...and acknowledged that we're still the "land of the Free, the home of the Brave" that draws families craving God's love, entrepreneurial and educational opportunities, and the Call to Military Service.

We cannot deny that we live in the greatest God-loving nation on Earth! Just as we would never think to turn off the financial tap to save our beautiful wife, our precocious child, our hard-working husband, why would we--ourselves descendants of immigrants--divisively and discriminatorily tell this generation of immigrants not to likewise serve in the strongest, proudest Military on Earth? Much as we cannot look back at the racial segregation of the American Military or American higher education with any pride, nor will our grandchildren look back with any pride if we deny men and women who yearn for Liberty the opportunity to serve God and Country simply because of an accent, a wardrobe, or a skin color difference.

Tear down those walls of hatred and fear...throw open those garden gates of welcome...and embrace all those law-abiding folks who yearn for the God-given freedom and equal opportunity that our great nation has offered our ancestors so that we might become entrepreneurs, home owners, farmers, soldiers, and ditch diggers.

 

God bless you and your family, and God bless America!

D.C. LOBBYIST TARGETS RURAL AND URBAN FAMILY BUDGETS

***DISCLAIMER: As always, this brief policy article represents my own research and opinions and does not purport to represent the opinions of nor was it funded by any third party organization.***


"My parents moved to Los Angeles when I was really young, but I spent every summer with my grandparents, and I'd stay with my grandfather on the farm in Longview. He was retired from the railroad, and he had a small farm with some cows and some pigs. I remember part of my youth was feeding hogs and plowing fields and stuff, so that's a part of me." -Forest Whitaker

"We believe this (Debit Card Interchange) rule should be thoroughly and expeditiously reviewed prior to implementation to ensure that it will not raise fees or otherwise harm at-risk communities, including communities of color." - Hilary Shelton, NAACP

I have become very disturbed over the past several weeks as I've received innumerable pleas from cash-strapped rural and urban families regarding the effect of the pending Debit Card Interchange Rules that threaten to add transaction fees for using a debit card and to take free checking away from those hard-working families struggling to make ends meet.

http://www.savemyfreechecking.com/

Why would anyone want to charge families more to purchase children's clothing and groceries. Don't those big retail corporations earn enough profits already?

And why would anyone want to increase restaurant costs for a family that can only only afford to eat out every once in a while, and even waits to splurge for such a luxury for times between special occasions?

I like fast food, but I certainly don't like any politician pulling a fast one that harms our farm families.

Just plain disrespectful to our working men and women in our cities if you ask me or any other patriot! 

What does Illinois Senator Dick Durbin have against hard-working dual-income families?
You can call and ask him at (202) 224-2152.


What did debit card interchange fees have to do with a few unscrupulous and irresponsible former mortgage lenders? And what motivated Illinois Senator Dick Durbin to bring his amendment to the Senate Floor to be included in the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 when he did?

http://www.savemyfreechecking.com/What_Can_I_Do_675.html

Initially it would appear that Senator Durbin, as a member of the Senate Leadership, simply recognized that the Congressional mood for financial reform legislation could easily absorb another "consumer protection" measure. Yet I couldn't help but question who/what had motivated this particular measure, since the public had not been clamoring for it and no definitive study of the debit interchange topic had concluded that it harmed either the consumer public or the sophisticated commercial enterprises that freely contracted to provide or benefit from debit card interchange services.


When a diverse array well-respected public responsibility groups, including the NAACP, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, join together to urge Congress to revisit the well-funded and erroneous legislation, consumers immediately recognize that something is amiss in Washington.  Our Congressional leaders certainly wouldn't approve of such financial measures that harm our hard-working spouses stretching every budget dollar!

Does your Congressional representative stand with urban and farm families on the Debit Interchange issue? 
Ask him/her: http://www.savemyfreechecking.com/What_Can_I_Do_675.html

The debit card interchange rule doesn't actually have anything to do with legitimate consumer protection for families. Financial services professionals have always supported the common-sense market-driven consumer protection measures and licensing requirements that protect the public from the few unscrupulous charlatans who engage in predatory practices.

Since financial services professionals are simply honest, hard-working consumers with families just like you and me, they clearly recognize that protecting the integrity and public trust within the financial services industry has always provided a win-win outcome. The majority of potential misdeeds are squelched before any damage can be wrought due to internal control policies, ethics training, licensing requirements, and the self-policing nature of the industry.


The debit card interchange rule was a pro-business creation born upon a conference room table within Suite 1100 at 325 7th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C., home of the National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association, the National Council of Chain Restaurants, and the Merchant Payments Coalition. These trade associations represent corporate retail and restaurant conglomerates that have long sought to unilaterally renegotiate the debit card interchange fees to which they had contractually agreed. Apparently dissatisfied with their own business leaders' efforts employing commercial negotiation in the free market, these organizations turned to trade association lobbyists to continue the effort using Federal Government action to harm military families by establishing debit card usage fees and eliminating your free checking account.


Enter Rob Green, Executive Director of the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR), who succeeded Jack Whipple last month to manage all NCCR government relations advocacy. Preceding his move within the confines of Suite 1100, Green was Vice President, Government and Political Affairs at the National Retail Federation (NRF), where he served as a senior lobbyist for the world’s largest retail trade association during the influential time leading up to Senator Durbin's introduction of the debit card interchange "consumer protection" rule.


Lobbyist Green immediately recognized that a perfect storm would briefly open the display window of opportunity for the NRF during which time he would propose a government price-fixing rule that would amount to a  72.7% reduction in interchange revenue for the financial services industry that had built the networks and provided the fraud reduction technology that facilitated cost-savings for consumers and businesses. Imagine if the NRF had found themselves on the receiving end of proposed legislation that would have mandated reducing their retail prices by 72.7% to those very same consumers? Would the NRF have simply "embraced" that legislation? We think not.


I am certainly not accusing Senator Durbin or Rob Green of any violations of federal law, but FEC records detail that more than just burgers and fries were in the bag when the honorable Senator and his colleagues met the former-NRF lobbyist and current NCCR Executive Director at the drive-thru window of opportunity. You yourself may follow the money transfers disclosed in publicly-available documents. While some of the world's largest big box retailers represented by Green poured money into organizations associated with Durbin and his former aides lobbying for the rule, the good Senator wove the rule into the larger legislative framework intended to curb the egregious mortgage-related abuses perpetrated by the few.


From a corporate executive viewpoint framed to maximize shareholder returns, one can certainly understand why the investment into lobbying appeared (and continues) to be a prudent investment. But given the certain unfavorable financial impact that the debit card interchange rule would impose upon American families struggling to emerge from the recent financial downturn, I would urge Senator Durbin to assume a new ethical stance and join his colleague Representative Barney Frank to support further objective study of the issue in the light of day and allow the results of such studies to be fully disclosed to non-lobbyists to allow for a proper analysis of the real impact upon the American family's budget.

For leading this effort on behalf of all American families--rural and urban--I applaud the consistent and untiring effort being put forth by Frank Keating (ABA) and Fred Becker (NAFCU) nationally, as well as John Llewellyn (Michigan Bankers Association) and Jordan Kingdon (Michigan Credit Union League) to educate the public about the very real household economic effect that implementation of this dubious rule would wreak. Ultimately, our collective efforts to preserve consumer choice and to protect business from government unconstitutional price-fixing will prevail in the bright light of day. Thank you.