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?