Statement of Jack Evans on Fiscal Responsibility and Management Reforms In An Evans Administration

Press Conference
Wednesday, July 1,1998
1:00 p.m.

I want to first say good afternoon to everyone and thank you for coming.

As Jo’Ellen Countee said, we invited you here today to hear my outline of a blueprint for restoring fiscal responsibility and management accountability to the government of the District of Columbia.

Before I get to my solutions for a healthy and fiscally sound D.C. government I want to take just a moment to provide a context for what we are doing here today.

Everyone agrees that in order for us to regain Home Rule for the District of Columbia we have to be prudent in our spending, and in establishing our spending priorities; we have to manage the city like a clock, with everything clicking in at the proper moment and at the right time; and, the city government's reputation for inefficiency, mismanagement, budget deficits and poor customer service, must be eliminated.

Since joining the Council, I have tried to do that — control spending, balance the budget, hold managers accountable, and improve service delivery to our citizens.

I have been on the frontline fighting for fiscal responsibility and management accountability for a long time — long before there was a Control Board and long before there was a Chief Financial Officer..

In 1992, I introduced the D.C. government Managers Accountability Act of 1992. The act, which was passed by the Council and is now law, requires D.C. government managers to be held accountable for budget cost overruns and workplace performance standards.

In 1994, I co-sponsored, along with Councilmember Kathy Patterson, the Multi-Year Plan and Balanced Budget Resolution which provided for five-year spending plans and balanced budgets in D.C. government programs.

I want the people of the District not to be hoodwinked into thinking that the financial recovery of their government has been accomplished by the work of one individual, or that the Control Board was the only body involved in establishing spending controls and calling for balanced budgets.

If it takes a whole village to raise a child, as some people say — I say that it has taken the President, the Congress, and all of us in city government to bring some measure of financial stability to our city government.

Mr. Anthony Williams, who is a candidate for Mayor, is claiming to be the only candidate in the race who has contributed to the city’s financial He should get credit for some very good work, but at the same time he must share in the blame for deficits in the D.C. Public Schools — that happened on his watch.

Mr. Williams has called for a need to raise the gross receipts tax — at least he called for it on one occasion and then backed off his position on another occasion. I think that a raise in the gross receipts tax at this point in time would be harmful to the city's economy and the city government's financial recovery. We can return the city government to fiscal health without automatically raising taxes.

As some of you may have heard, the theme of my campaign for Mayor is, Solutions. Not Excuses, and my solutions are fundamental, long-term financial and management reforms that will make the city a model of government efficiency.

Today, I am pleased to set forth an agenda for fiscal responsibility and management reform in an Evans administration. Some of my prescriptions are not new and much of this is not rocket science.

My agenda is different from the others. First, it comes from a public official with a consistent record of telling it like it is and offering sometimes unpopular remedies. It is not enough for a mayor to be compassionate and empathetic. After empathizing a mayor must lead, which often means having to tell the truth — no matter how unpleasant — rather than tell everyone we can have everything.

A mayor must compromise. A mayor operate in the give and take of a democracy. Things happen not just because someone snaps his hand and orders it. A mayor must cajole, convince, and love people. In Washington that means ward by ward; neighborhood by neighborhood; and even street by street.

My plan is also different in that it aims for not just for an improved city government but a continually improving city government. I don't want to stop at fixing the engine and cleaning the boiler room. I want to convert to electricity.

In cities and counties across America, and in national governments overseas, governments are reinventing themselves as 21st century institutions adopting practices from some of the most innovative and successful businesses.

Can government be a business? No. Can it operate like a business? Not always. But can it treat citizens as valued customers? Can it adopt cutting edge re-engineering practices? Can it adopt strategic planning and link budgeting to actual performance? Can it change basic leverage points of influence and change public organizations? Can it measure results and make decisions according? The answer to all these is yes.

First and foremost we have to pay down the city debt.

When a family falls behind on its household budget, the first thing it does to get back on track is pay off overdue bills. That is exactly what I will do with the city's budget — I will, as your next Mayor, dedicate at least half of any budget surplus each year to paying down the city’s outstanding debt.

As Mayor, I will not approve, or recommend to the Council, new spending increases until the city's fiscal house is in order and the Control Board is discharged. We have to hold down D.C. government spending and require that any essential new spending must be paid for by savings in other areas of the budget.

Families can't spend their way out of debt, and neither can cities, especially this city.

Building on the series of management studies and reports conducted by the Control Board and other public and private organizations, I will conduct a Performance audit of the entire city government and insist that the Council institute at least 20% of its recommended savings in each new budget year.

I will aggressively pursue fundamental reforms that improve customer services for D.C. residents and give city workers the tools to provide those services efficiently, I will institute neighborhood based management through Service Area Committees and bring government to the people and make city services more accessible.

For the city to truly recover, we must revitalize the business corridors of our neighborhoods. We have to attract local small disadvantaged business enterprises to our neighborhoods. Small businesses employ over 70% of all working Americans.

I will encourage city contracting for goods and services with local businesses and call upon the Chief Management Officer, whose position will be City Administrator after the first two years of my administration, to issue tracking reports every quarter on the city’s progress of contracting with local small disadvantaged businesses.

While instituting spending guidelines and program evaluations, I do not intend to bring the government to a crawl and stifle creativity and imagination. To encourage managers and the workforce to explore the best management practices, I will establish an Innovation Bank funded by budget surplus funds. This bank would make loans available to city offices and agencies to modernize, purchase advanced technology, or simply pursue reforms that would save money while improving service.

In addition, I will encourage the public to provide money-saving ideas by rewarding the originator of any idea that is implemented with up to 10% of the documentable savings realized during the first year.

Similarly, I will establish a city employees reward system, whereby city employees that save D.C. government money will be rewarded with bonuses based on the amount of the savings for one year.

I think that our position paper is some 24 pages long and I'm not going to stand here and go through each page and each category, but I do want to highlight what I consider to be a couple of the key reforms.

It goes without saying that the District can not compete for jobs, business and industries without embracing and implementing comprehensive regulatory reforms. I will restructure the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, reduce the number of administrative personnel, and increase the number of workers directly serving the public to cut down on long lines and long waits for permits, applications and service.

The District has, on a consistent basis, lost millions of dollars of grants and entitlements from the federal government because of our inability to monitor available funding, track spending and complete applications on time, I will establish a city-wide grants management office to ensure that the District gets its fair share of federal monies.

The city’s procurement system, with its over reliance on sole source contracts and emergency contracts has to be overhauled, again. Although procurement of goods and services constitutes one-third of the District’s budget, less than 1% of the District's procurement workforce is professionally certified in procurement. Managers and employees will not be the only ones held accountable for their performance. I will require that all contracts with the city be “performance based”.

Anyone who has been downtown recently can see how clean the streets are and how the graffiti has been removed from the sides of buildings. The whole atmosphere is better and makes people want be downtown.

We have to achieve the same sort of cleanliness in our neighborhood streets and in the buildings that houses D.C. government workers. I will insist on clean streets, clean neighborhoods and clean working conditions in D.C. government facilities.

In our zeal to bring the District government to financial solvency, we must be mindful that we are here to serve the residents and not to place unbearable financial burdens on their backs. To prevent our tax administration from becoming a mini out-of-control collection agency, I will establish a Taxpayer Bill of Rights for the District to provide additional protections for taxpayers with legitimate disputes with the city.

My task, since I intend to be the next Mayor, will be considerable; and restoring fiscal responsibility will be the number one task. Even with the reforms and gains that are being touted on the campaign trail, the prevailing mood of lets spend the money has not been addressed.

Fiscal stability is the key to creating and maintaining a system where city government is truly the servant of the people — where business people do not have to navigate long lines and multiple offices to obtain a permit or license to do business, where neighborhoods have a seat at the table in managing the city and identifying local needs, where city streets are kept clean and potholes repaired, and where residents are proud to tell others, we live in D.C.

Fiscal responsibility and management reform are not just about compassion and empathy or wanting to help everyone. Nor are they just about describing problems and prescribing solutions. It’s about combining these attributes with leadership, experience, and grassroots connections to make them a reality that the whole city can adopt in unison. That’s the sort of leader this city needs as mayor.

Nothing less than a transformation of how the District government operates will enable the city to return to long-term, sustained fiscal stability. The kind of transformation that I am proposing will guarantee that the residents of the District of Columbia will regain the rights of all other citizens of the United States — the right to govern ourselves.

I thank you for attention and will now take questions from the media.