THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300364
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
They came from across America to learn how to transform local government. First, they had to figure out what that meant.
More than 400 local government officials and community leaders have gathered in Norfolk this week for a ``Transforming Local Government'' conference.
Asked ``what are you transforming?'' - they offered a variety of responses, highlighting the difficulties of those who would reinvent government.
``It's more not what we're transforming to,'' said Hampton City Manager Robert J. O'Neill Jr., ``it's what we're transforming away from: highly structured - what are perceived to be - very bureaucratic and unresponsive organizations.''
Norfolk City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. said local government is being transformed to ``somehow a place where the community can set out its goals and come up with plans to implement it.''
``At this point it's more of a process than a place,'' Oliver added.
But whatever direction, there were a few constant admonitions.
Among them: Citizens must be more involved in solving local problems and creating opportunities.
``This conference has an underlying theme,'' said Cilla B. Shindell, citizen participation manager for Dayton, Ohio, who led one of Monday's workshops.
``Sometimes it's called citizen participation, or participatory government, or building a consensus . . . But we're coming to the conclusion that civic duty is essential for the government as well as the governed.''
The trick is getting enough citizens, from diverse backgrounds, to work together and trust each other - as well as to be partners with government.
``People are willing to get involved when there's a possibility of creating and seeing change,'' Shindell said. ``It isn't just getting involved to be involved. They want to see change and they want to see the possibility of it. So a product is real important.''
The Dayton government has built several innovative avenues for citizen involvement, Shindell said. They include a neighborhood leadership institute, a mediation center, community boards that recommend how to spend capital-improvement and operating funds, and neighborhood-based advisory panels, called ``priority boards.''
It's important, Shindell said, to foster long-term trusting relationships between government and citizens, keeping both sides working together. ``The first thing citizens want is respect,'' she said.
Her recipe for trust includes giving neighborhood groups clear and timely information for making decisions, and meeting at times and places convenient to residents.
The information, she said, could help neighborhood groups propose trade-offs and other compromises in working towards their goals.
For officials such as James D. Ritchie, assistant city manager of Roanoke, Shindell's advice confirmed another new role for local government, that of facilitator in helping citizens solve community problems and design programs.
Facilitating community change often means more meetings with citizens, usually in small groups, Ritchie said. ``There are more meetings, but they're more productive,'' he said.
Ironically, few Hampton Roads citizens attended the four-day conference, which cost about $300 and ends today.
Besides emphasizing citizen participation, conferees considered the need to change local government in the face of new pressures, such as federal and state cutbacks and global economic competition.
The privatization trend was debated on grounds of whether it gains efficiencies at the possible cost of lower employee morale and less accountability to citizens.
Governmental accountability continued to be an issue. Mosi Kitwana, deputy director of research and development for the International City-County Management Association, said there needs to be clear measures of city-hall performance and ``citizens need to know them.''
Conferees discussed using technology, such as computer links through the Internet, to disseminate information and build partnerships within communities.
Tom Babington, director of information technologies for Orange County, Fla., demonstrated his locality's ``Well-Connected Community'' program that was designed with the help of citizens, nonprofit organizations and businesses.
But Babington agreed that communication through computer networks is not an effective replacement for personal contact with citizens. ``That's part of the humanity behind the written word and the image you see on the screen,'' he said. ``It's from the humanity that the desire to communicate arises, as well as the ability.'' ILLUSTRATION: TODAY
The ``Transforming Local Government'' conference concludes today
with:
A presentation on Charlotte, N.C., 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the Norfolk
Waterside Convention Center.
Keynote speech by Rosabeth Moss Kanter of the Harvard Business
School and author of ``World Class: Thriving Locally in a Global
Economy,'' at 11 a.m. in Scope.
Call 664-4242 for information.
by CNB