XPost: alt.government.abuse, nyc.general, nyc.politics 
 XPost: nyc.transit 
 From: RagingHAL.removethis@netscape.net 
  
 In article <1110778535.215126.295670@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, 
 AllstonParkingRefugee@hotmail.com says... 
 > Raging HAL wrote: 
 > > The problem with New York City government is complicity.  Parts of the 
 > > middle and upper layers of bureacracy value loyalty over competence, and 
 > > the balancing mechanisms are ineffectual. 
 > > 
 > > Things could be worse if we had a partisan mayor. 
 > 
 > New York City and State really need some political heroes, who will 
 > focus on fixing the things that matter, instead of wasting money on 
 > sports megaprojects and driving us further and further into debt. 
  
 How would one find a hero among a group of partisan politicans, who must 
 return favors to those who put him in power? We are already beholden to 
 the State and the Federal government for many things. Everyone says that 
 he wants to fix things that matter. This Mayor has done a good job so 
 far by getting rid of Board of Education, and implementing 311, among 
 other things. 
  
 A starting point towards "fixing things that matter" is improving the 
 quality of the budget documents. The budget may tell how much was / is 
 planning to be spent, but many project items have incomplete project 
 definition and milestone information. There are few key performance 
 indicators (if any) elsewhere that link performance, results, and 
 dollars. 
  
 Parts of the career bureaucracy press the ambiguity created by this 
 reporting environment to their advantage, masked and aided by the sheer 
 size and programmatic width of the City's $48.3 billion budget, the 
 Mayor's loyalty to his employees, political popularism, and general 
 public apathy. Other parts of the bureaucracy have a "If other people 
 waste tax dollars, why can't I?" mentality at certain management levels. 
  
 Improved financial transparency would lessen complicity in New York City 
 government. It would be a step forward toward the elimination of the 
 "pleading ignorance" defense (unpopular right now in private sector, but 
 very prevalent in public sector) because it would give the public and 
 the press a greater ability to ask "What did you do with our money?" 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)