Restructuring Local Government
Management Expert David Osborne Says HUD Reforms Could be Model for Reinvention
REINVENTION OF AMERICA - Part 5a Fascism by Any Other Name...
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The one thing Mussolini is most known for is "making the trains run on time". The Republicans who chanted the mantra, "make government efficient - run it like a business" with the marxist little troll, Grover Norquist's vision of making government so small, it could be drowned in a bathtub are getting what they wanted. By definition, the smallest government possible is a police state supported by a corporatocracy . Corporate power merged with government power is fascism and that's what the "reinvention of government" gave us - fascism. The following are excerpts from a 1993 article printed in the Baltimore Sun (emphasis added): |
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Don't Just Talk About Making Government Work April 12, 1993|By NEAL R. PEIRCE Washington -- Starting with President Bill Clinton, this town's newest phrase is ''reinventing government,'' a tribute to David Osborne, whose ''Reinventing Government,'' last year, may be the first public administration book ever to make a best-seller list. ...Enter a new organization to help them out. Its chair is none other than David Osborne, who says governments must now go through the same radical restructuring that is sweeping through American business. His Alliance for Redesigning Government will try to connect the thousands of government reformers who now, in his words, find themselves part of ''a movement without a central nervous system.'' Home for the new alliance is the congressionally chartered National Academy for Public Administration, now shifting under a new president, R. Scott Fosler, to the kind of ''entrepreneurial'' mode Mr. Osborne recommends for government itself. As a journalist ''fellow'' of NAPA, this writer has been working with Mr. Fosler, Mr. Osborne and Alliance director Barbara Dyer to launch the effort. As a first move, we decided to assemble a balanced, bipartisan advisory committee of government officials, labor, nonprofit and media leaders. Aiming for 20 acceptances, we sent out 40 invitations. To our astonishment, 37 people accepted. Just a sampling of the list includes our vice-chairs, Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts (D) and former Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut (R), U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), Govs. William Weld (R-Mass.) and Roy Romer (D-Colo.), and Mayors Sharpe James (Newark) and John Norquist (Milwaukee). We also have such star city managers as Camille Barnett (Austin) and Robert Bobb (Richmond)... |
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the book, Ted
Gaebler seems to have dropped off the radar when the above article was
written. Small wonder since Gaebler's track record would have
exposed the real agenda behind "reinvention" and would have provided a
preview for the kind of corruption we are now experiencing at all levels
of government. |
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The Most Entrepreneurial City in America
PDF Welcome to Visalia, California -- a city that could teach most companies a thing or two about good management. By DAVID OSBORNE | Sep 1, 1985 ....But Ted Gaebler isn't your typical city manager. I've never forgotten when I worked at Columbia [Me.]," he tells audiences, referring to the "new town" built by James Rouse, the legendary developer who also did Boston's Quincy Market and Baltimore's Harborplace. "We would be wailing and gnashing our teeth about some horrible social problem, and Jim Rouse would come in and muse philosophically, 'How can I profit from this problem?'" ...When the school district sprang its trap, Gaebler asked his staff the same question. Months later, after a series of negotiations and land purchases, a four-parcel swap and sale left the district with $1.2 million and a prime site for its new school -- and the city with commercial property that it expects to sell for a tidy profit. [Note: somebody should investigate the history of that deal. It sounds like an "arranged success".] The deal was without precedent elsewhere, as far as anyone in Visalia knows. But for Gaebler and his staff, it was not unusual. This is a city, after all, that stepped in and ran a minor-league baseball franchise for six years -- the only municipally owned professional baseball team in the United States at the time -- after the Mets pulled out and no private buyer turned up. It is a city that won the scramble to buy an Olympic training pool last summer, at a savings of $400,000, because, after hearing about the deal on a Thursday, it was able to cut a check the following Monday. Visalia, in other words, is what Don Borut of the International City Management Association calls "one of the most entrepreneurial cities in America." Borut may not have taken a scientific survey before bestowing that honor, but from all the evidence, he could not be too far off. At first glance, "entrepreneurial government" seems a contradiction in terms. Many entrepreneurs consider government, by its very nature, to be inefficient, unwieldy, and bureaucratic -- the antithesis of entrepreneurial. Hence the widespread belief, in business circles, that the government is best that governs least. Ted Gaebler and his colleagues have proven that there is another way. Gaebler, whose glasses and deadpan delivery bring fleeting images of a taller Woody Allen, is a fanatic on the subject. He speaks in rapid, precise bursts, with the zeal of an apostle. If an entrepreneur is someone who knows there is a better way and will risk everything to prove it, Gaebler fits the definition perfectly. He does not think of the city manager's position as a job, he says, but as part of a mission "to change the nature of city government." He took that mission to new frontiers last month, when he became city manager of San Rafael, Calif., the seat of affluent Marin County. ..."Be a catalyst," Gaebler urges other government
officials. "Be a broker. Don't be a doer. My ideal concept of city
government is a $150,000-a-year city manager and five $100,000-a-year
assistants. Period. They do nothing but broker the community's services." ... Gann's
group has taken a survey of business people in town concerning the
city's intervention in the marketplace,and he plans to present the
results to the city council. Before Gaebler took the job in San Rafael,
there was talk of one or two "anti-Gaebler" candidacies for council this
fall, although no one predicted such campaigns would succeed. Even among
the developers, the desire was to set the city manager corralled, not
fired. ...The classic example came when Gaebler grabbed statewide television coverage by proposing to rebate $25 of Visalia's budget surplus to every citizen as a "share" in the city. The police, who wanted higher salaries and better retirement pay, were outraged. And the city council, which had never passed on the idea, was embarrassed. Meanwhile, his handpicked successor, Don Duckworth,
faces some serious internal problems. The staff Gaebler leaves
behind is in the midst of a transition from the excitement of start-up
to the plateau of sustained achievement. The novelty has worn off,
people are stretched thin, and the strains are beginning to show.
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In 1994, Osborne was forced to try and
defend the philosophy of "reinvented government" in view of the
financial debacle Visalia was experiencing due to the "entrepreneurial
governance model" Gaebler implemented and Osborne cheered: |
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Entrepreneurial Government, Enterprise and Risk Governing magazine reports in its May issue that few American cities went the entrepreneurial route as enthusiastically as Visalia, California -- or got their fingers burned so badly. The story focuses on a hotel deal made by former City Manager Don Duckworth three years after he succeeded Ted Gaebler, co-author of Reinventing Government. When the chosen developer failed to secure financing, the city stepped in and eventually invested $20 million to buy the hotel and save the project -- rather than the originally projected $4 million investment. ...NP: What's the difference between
"enterprising government" and "entrepreneurial |
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In 2006, Ted Gaebler, still proselytizing fascism, gave a slide presentation to the government of Canada. The following are a few slides from that presentation. The entire slide show in PDF format can be viewed HERE. Do you consider Constitutional, Representative government simply a paradigm to be changed or eliminated by people like Ted Gaebler, David Osborne, Al Gore, Bill Clinton? Do you have any representation in a regional "governance" structure? Do you even know there is a regional governance structure? Who are they? Whose interests do they serve? Not yours, I guarantee you that. Slide 12
Slide 13 is true.. and it's the reason why nothing is changing regardless of which party, republicans or democrats are in power. And this slide is precisely the reason why we need a government that operates strictly according to law and rules, does not collude with private enterprise and is not allowed to operate as a profit-seeking enterprise with a gun to your head. Government should provide legal protection against con artists who cheat old people, street criminals who rob homes and businesses, protections against white collar word artists who are masters of the con and protections against all who prey on the weak and vulnerable. They should provide services that we cannot provide for ourselves. That's the purpose of government. Slide13
This slide is very clever because it can be argued both ways. Personally, I don't want a government that is captain of my ship. I want a government that provides good roads, a good water and sewer systems, one that clears the roads in the winter, one that provides police and fire services. I don't want ANY of that privatized because privatization means services for profit - and when essential services are privatized, it's a license to steal. Slide 17
This slide presentation alone is evidence is of sedition - yet Gaebler, Osborne, and more importantly, Al Gore and his entire team of "reinventors" of government are still walking around and the transformation to fascism continues. Slide 20
Slide 23
Slide 30
Slide 33
Slide 35
Slide 37
Slide 40
So.... how are we doing with this "reinvented" government? Do you have more trust in government? Do you feel secure about the future? Are they giving you better service? Do you like what the TSA is doing at the airports? Do you like what the SEC did with Wall Street? Do you like what the FDA is doing with food and drug inspection? How about the economy? Are we happy and prosperous? How about the schools? Are they producing educated citizens we can be proud of? Case closed. Vicky Davis
Oh... both David Osborne and Ted Gaebler are still proselytizing fascism:
An Exclusive Western City Interview With Ted Gaebler
and defending Practical Public Administration: A Response to Academic Critique of the Reinvention Trilogy
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