Here is a starter list for the top ten tasks for the City Council:
1. Increase the visibility time for council business to at least three sessions before a vote. That way anyone can in due course see the matter, consider and communicate it, and have no excuse for not doing so. This will also prevent last minute special interest additions to the docket.
2. Examine city contracting policy and rules. Current practices may be open to abuse, particularly from “change orders”. The ideal policy is to have firm fixed price (FFP) contracts for all services.
3. Examine outsourcing as many city services as possible. Other than fire and police services my opinion is that there is nothing being done that cannot be done better and less expensively by private industry than by city employees.
4. Examine outsourcing education. There is a long argument for this approach, primarily a matter of effectiveness and cost.
5. Examine outsourcing harbor management. The current process has been far too arbitrary and has opened the City to legal liabilities.
6. Enforce more energetically the laws already on the books: loitering, jay walking, noise, red-light running, violations of rights-of-way, speeding, bikes on sidewalks, bikes in the wrong direction, parking in the wrong direction or wrong side, derelict property (“broken windows”), etc.. etc., etc. The “Broken Windows” approach has proven the adage that “Take care of the little things and the big ones take care of themselves.”
7. Comply with the law by creating and passing a mission statement and strategic plan for the City.
8. Develop an official City Vision Statement for the North End.
9. Develop an official City Vision Statement for Economic Development.
10. Develop an official City Vision Statement for Urban Renewal in the Washington Square area.
Truth, Courage, Commitment 