From the PD

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson ran for office promising better city services. In his State of the City speech in February, he also pledged to cut next year's budget by 3 percent. Now he is moving to make good on those promises by creating a task force to help City Hall run more efficiently.

That may not sound terribly exciting, but it is critically important. Both the city's fiscal future and its ability to remain a place where people with options will choose to live, work and play are riding on the success of Jackson's initiative.

For his efficiency team, Jackson has tapped both experienced city employees and outside eyes. Between now and the fall, they are to examine four broad areas, including information technology and customer service, that affect all of city government. Four front-line departments will go under the microscope first: Building and Housing; Public Health; Public Service; and Parks, Recreation and Properties. Others will have their turn next year.

 

Jackson's chief operating officer, Darnell Brown, is leading the review. He insists that everything is on the table, including whether a given service is something the city should even be doing. That's important, because this is the first full-scale operations review since George Voinovich came into office 26 years ago. Much has changed since then, especially technology; this provides Cleveland an opportunity to rethink what it does and how it does it.