My favorite topic

Walmart is not really my favorite topic, but it gets the most (and most passionate) comments.

Last night the City Council unanimously voted to place the recently-qualified "Limiting Large Retail Initiative Ordinance" for the November 2009 local ballot.

Representatives of the Stop Walmart Coalition appealed to the Council to simply adopt the proposed ordinance instead of putting it to a vote of the people. Several speakers insisted "the people have spoken" by signing the initiative.

At the outset of the staff presentation, I noted that the ordinance itself does not address Walmart (although every speaker during public comment talked about Walmart.) Even if the ordinance passes, it would not affect the opening of a conventional Walmart (like the current one in nearby Oxnard) or a Walmart-owned Sam's Club. That's because, as proponents acknowledge, you can't just prohibit a particular store.

Instead, what the proposed ordinance bans are stores over 90,000 square feet that allocate more than 3% of their square footage to "non-taxable" items (groceries, in other words.) That would stop a Super Walmart -- and, for that matter, the recently opened Target store at the Pacific View Mall.

To be fair, some of the proponents made the distinction that while the proposed ordinance wouldn't keep out a conventional Walmart store, it would offer protection to the local residents who work at unionized local supermarkets against losing their jobs to a Walmart Superstore (which is a much bigger threat than the grocery items offered at Target stores.) But Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton countered that adoption of the ordinance by Ventura could just as easily result in the Oxnard Walmart being converted to a Superstore, providing competition right across the river. Councilmember Morehouse noted that if the vast majority of Ventura residents don't want a Walmart, they can meet the threat by not shopping there.

So given the passion on both sides of the Walmart issue, it will be up to the voters to try to assess whether the proposed ordinance makes sense for Ventura. In the meantime, it remains to be seen what Walmart will do. They have leased the old K-Mart store on Victoria, but would prefer to tear it down and replace it with a new store.

Back in 2004, the City Council adopted a citywide General Plan that specifically banned "auto-oriented big box" stores on the Victoria corridor in response to traffic concerns. A specific plan being finalized to implement the General Plan's vision for Victoria stresses office development instead. It does allow for retail development, but limits all stores to 100,000 square feet (approximately the size of the current K-Mart.)

Walmart has yet to submit any application -- to occupy the old store, to remodel it or to replace it. They have never appeared before the City Council either. I've been in contact with their attorney and real estate officials over the past four years, but it has been months since I've heard anything, despite my periodic inquiries.

A very strange debate -- over an ordinance that doesn't even mention Walmart and where Walmart is strangely silent about its desires and plans in our community.

How Ventura will tackle the economic crisis

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that when it comes to economic challenges, this one is “The Big One.” So it is also becoming increasingly obvious that we can’t simply reduce, restructure and eliminate as we have been doing successfully over the past five years. We need to redesign Ventura city government for the 21^st Century.

The Dow dropped another 400 points today to close below 8,000. With housing prices, auto sales and consumer confidence falling off a cliff, this is not a cyclical downturn, but instead a once-in-a-lifetime adjustment to a different reality.

Bruce Elkins, in his brilliant essay called “The Challenge of Sustainability,” notes, "There is a profound and fundamental difference between problem solving and creating. By problem solving, I mean focusing on what we don’t like and don’t want, and taking action to get rid of it. By creating, I mean focusing on what we truly do want, and taking action to bring it into being—regardless of problems, circumstances, or current capacity."

If we set out to solve the budget problem, we face the miserable task of chopping more than $5 million in ongoing, permanent savings from our already-stretched current General Fund budget.

If we set out to create a leaner and greener government, we have an open opportunity to allocate up to $88 million in financial resources to achieve what matters most for Ventura’s future.

On Monday evening, as part of a crowded Council agenda, Jay Panzica, our Chief Financial Officer will be outlining our latest budget recommendations. The bottom line is simple: the economic crisis has thrown this year's budget out of balance and we face at least two more years of reduced revenues. Read more about it in the Administrative Report for Agenda Item 19 here.

The short-term goal is to implement a plan by March that will allow us to live within our means for the next three years. The long-term goal is to come out of this crisis better and stronger than ever.

Eighty years ago, a devastating earthquake struck Santa Barbara. The bustling coastal oil town lay in ruins. Visionary leaders decided to rebuild a different town – instead of American red brick, they would require Spanish red tiles to redefine the ethos of who they were and what they wanted to become. They set a course that has made Santa Barbara one of the most beautiful, prosperous and beloved communities in America, with a distinctive style all its own.

It is not the crises that we face that define us. It is how we face crises that defines us. Today throughout Ventura, businesses and families are making hard choices about what they will spend, how they will invest and how they will adjust. City government must do the same. With the help and support of the community we serve, we can lay the foundation for future success.

Future of the mall?

Last month's sharp drop in consumer spending adds to the crescendo of dismal news for shopping malls. Newsweek notes that last year was the first in half a century where not a single new enclosed mall opened in America -- and that a fifth of the existing malls are in trouble:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/168753

The Pacific View Mall is holding its own, with a newly opened Target store and a coming Wood Ranch restaurant. The competition across the river at the Riverpark center under construction in Oxnard is struggling to win tenants.

Pacific View and the Ventura Auto Center are the two biggest taxpayers in Ventura -- and both were on tonight's City Council agenda. By a unanimous vote, the Council gave approval for a new 95 foot advertising sign for the Ventura Auto Center, paid for by the main property owner. Then, on a 4-3 vote, the Council upheld the Planning Commission, which had turned down Target's application to sell alcohol at their new Pacific View store. The Council majority cited the popularity of the mall with teenagers.

The looming question is: what's the future of Pacific View?

The immediate focus is on the long vacant buildings in the northside parking lot. Macerich, the mall owners, have put considerable effort into finding compatible tenants and is "close to a deal" with a package of three. The plan would be to demolish the existing buildings and reconstruct new ones of the same square footage.

City staff have consistently supported Macerich's efforts -- with one addition. Last year, we made an agreement with Macerich for them to fund a planning analysis for future phases of mall development. Given changing retail trends, it is in everyone's interest (the mall, its existing retailers, the city and neighbors) to look to the future evolution of a single-use shopping mall.

That future will be shaped by a variety of factors, of course. The general economy today has not only put the brakes on most new retail development, it is also forcing many chains to close low-performing stores -- or even going out of business. A boom of high-end retailing is now giving way to price consciousness. It's impossible to predict five years from now how retailing will be transformed by this unfolding shake-out.

But beyond retail trends, there is a more fundamental shift going on in Ventura and across the nation -- away from auto-oriented single-use zoning toward a mix of compatible uses. That trend has led to mall make-overs and even replacements with mixed use districts that include offices, residences as well as retail replacing bleak surface parking lots.

It is too soon to know when Pacific View Mall will move in that direction. But it is not to soon to look ahead to that day.

"Truly awful" State budget crisis

By the narrowest of margins, California voters appear to have adopted Proposition 11 to reform redistricting to make California legislators more responsive to the voters instead of the parties that draw the district lines. But we have two more years of the current Governor and legislature -- and a ballooning budget crisis to deal with immediately.

Predicting giant deficits until at least 2014, the State's non-partisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor sounded the alarm this week: "The numbers are just truly awful. It may be as dire a situation as I've seen in my time in the office. And as a result, we are recommending to our bosses it is just imperative that they act quickly and aggressively to address this problem."

The problem has reached a crisis because Democrats have resisted cuts and Republicans have blocked tax increases. According to the Sacramento Bee, Legislative Analyist Taylor disputed claims that the budget gap can be bridged by cuts or taxes alone. He noted his office until now has proposed ways to balance the budget without new tax increases, but said that is now impossible. Major cuts and taxes are needed to close the gap, he insists.

California's $1.7 trillion economy is ranked among the largest in the world. But without effective action in Sacramento, we risk permanent damage to our standard of living and quality of life.

The same Sacramento Bee is already running polls on the 2010 Governor's race. But elected officials, media and voters need to focus on sensible action to meet today's budget crisis before it is too late.

Government of the people . . .

Today, the website for the next Administration went live, less than 48 hours after the American people chose Barack Obama as President-elect: www.change.gov

It's an impressive achievement and a clear signal that the tech-savvy approach that fueled a campaign that attracted more than 3 million donors and more than 10 million volunteers will be a hallmark of the new Administration.



The site is already accepting expressions of interest for people who want to serve in the Obama Administration. It provides access to the policy papers drafted by the Obama campaign and the key priorities the new President will pursue, along with an opportunity for any citizen to submit ideas and suggestions. The site has a blog and press room and will soon provide details on the Inauguration.

This kind of commitment to on-line interaction is a key dimension of the change that voters embraced on Tuesday.

What it represents is a new level of transparency, engagement and accountability that raises the bar for government at every level. This is not your grandfather's post office -- this is 21st century governance.

At the local level, we are very much in transition. "My Ventura Access" provides around-the-clock opportunity to register a complaint, question, opinion or compliment. It also includes "Frequently asked questions" that substitutes for having to call or email to get answers quickly. We've got both live and archived agendas, audio and video for City Council meetings and you can apply on-line for a City job. But you can't pay your water bill online (yet) nor process a building permit. We are a long way from e-government.

Technology is not an end in itself -- and not everyone is ready for the latest gadgetry. But in today's world, it's both inefficient and unresponsive not to use the power of technology to do our job better and/or cheaper.

Change is in the air. It is relentless, powerful and here to stay. It's both refreshing and threatening at the same time. But it isn't going away. As I told our staff four years ago when I became City Manager: we can lead, we can follow -- or we can get streamrolled. I'm pleased that more often than not, Ventura chooses to lead. But the pace is picking up . . . and as our next president said Tuesday night, it is part of the challenge of making sure that "more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth."

Career in the Public Sector?

Today, the Ventura County Star reports on our decision to hold off on filling vacancies, in light of the national economy:

ttp://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/nov/03/ventura-official-rethinks-plans-to-fill-city/

We have more than 30 unfilled jobs, but we had cautiously decided to fill only about half of them prior to the dismal October stock market and retail sales news. Now we expect to defer hiring on all but a handful, primarily in police and fire where vacancies are pushing up overtime costs as we try to keep the city safe.

It's not a great time for getting hired almost anywhere, of course. Today, we received an official letter notifying us of 8 more lay-offs at Hollingshead International in Ventura, a division of Decrane Aerospace. It follows 14 people let go earlier this year (although 2 were rehired.)

Dr. Maurice Bisheff, who's an Instructor at CalState University Northridge's well-regarded Public Administration Program, recently asked me three questions:

1. Where is the field of public administration going?

2. What is the ideal MPA candidate look like to you?

3. Based on #1 and #2, what perspectives and management skills are you looking for when you hire or promote?

I don't think you can answer the first question without looking at the larger question of the public sector in America.

We are seeing a momentous change in the making.

A half century ago, President Kennedy's inaugural call ("Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country") gave public service a new luster as an arena for "the best and the brightest" to devote their talents. But as urban riots, Vietnam, assassinations, Watergate, stagflation and the Iran hostage crisis eroded American's belief in government, Ronald Reagan marked a radical shift in 1980 when he declared in his inaugural address: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."

In the intervening three decades, "bureaucrats" have been routinel demonized as wasteful, incompetant and self-aggrandizing. These stereotypes obviously discourage talented young people from looking to government as an attractive employer.

So where is "public administration" headed?

Well, it should be obvious that the public hasn't lowered its expectations of government -- in fact, precisely the opposite. Even before the current Republican administration launched the largest government intervention in the economy since the New Deal, public opinion continued to make escalating demands on the public sector to "solve" complex problems from environmental protection to regulation of biomedical research.

In that sense, it makes little sense to think of "public administration" in isolation. Leading in the 21st Century means confronting new challenges -- and even old challenges in new ways. In the age of "accountability," we need to learn to identify clear outcomes; measure performance; and be publicly transparent about results. We have to reconcile the need to empower our work force by giving them clear goals and letting them do their jobs against the incessant demands by elected officials and the electorate to instead impose increasingly draconian micro-management on how government conducts business, spends money and raises revenue. Given harsh economic and environmental constraints, we have to meet the challenge of building sustainable organizations and sustainable communities . We have to adapt emerging technology to the age-old truths of representative democracy, finding new ways to engage our citizens in the challenge of "government of the people, by the people and for the people."

Of course, these challenges didn't emerge overnight. But public consciousness of them is abysmal. The media shares the blame for this -- they almost never take the time to understand and report on the "dull" story of making government work better. Vice President Al Gore's "National Performance Review" had a huge (and long overdue) impact on improving the effectiveness of our Federal government. But this huge achievement not only didn't win him the presidency, the public was so little interested in the topic, it didn't even figure in the campaign.

In this atmosphere, a Masters in Public Administration today should prepare graduates for reinventing government, not simply studying it. Static models of governance, budgeting, personnel and regulation are not simply outdated -- they are counter-productive. When I'm hiring a department head, an MPA on the resume is not shorthand for useful expertise. At best, it gives me an indication that they have a drive for learning. I would be more impressed by an MBA, not because I think business is a better background than government, but because business schools are more likely to prepare graduates for leading in a changing world.

In looking for managers to hire or promote, in Ventura we have become much more focused on talents than skills. Applicants who are effective communicators, energetic, collaborative and have a passion for public service are better candidates than those who are "experienced" in a narrow range of job skills. It is easier to train for job skills (as we do, for example, with new police officers) than to take people who have lots of "qualifications" and "credentials" but don't have talents for managing time, people and money.

I expect people will look back on 2008 as the end of an era. Not just because our economy suffered a severe shock and we elected a new president. I think it will mark the time when we realized that we are part of rapidly changing world and government is absolutely going to have to be "part of the solution." As the public turns to government to "bail-out" the economy and make sure we steer our way out of dire global economic and environmental challenges, government at every level is going to have to step up to the challenge.

My hope is that we will benefit from a new tone set in Washington, starting on January 20. The mismanagement of the war in Iraq and the response to Hurricane Katrina have become emblematic of government incompetence. The change in strategy in Iraq, if it proves nothing else, demonstrates that leadership matters. The same is true at the state and local level. In tough times like we are facing, we may not be able to fill every vacancy. But we need to be making sure that those we hire and promote are suited to helping our nation, state and communities meet the very real challenges of our time.