Transparency, Communication and the Good Old Days

I remember my early years on the City Council when we faced a $103,000 million dollar deficit! WOW, those were the good old days. Times where we could have said, we will use our unilateral power and make decisions to cut employees and services and get this budget under control regardless what the public thinks or if there is council agreement.
Well we did get it under control to an all time low of a 10 million dollar deficit; but we did it in a thoughtful, well planned way that involved the entire community, staff and council, working together so we were all on the same page, not always in agreement, but the emphasis was on process, transparency and inclusion.
In fact we even won a national award for our budget process of public participation, we gained the attention of the national press and won the Helen Putnam Award for excellence, articles were written about our city manager and other cities called to find out how we did it.
What a vast difference as we fast forward to how the city is handling today's $18,000 million dollar deficit.
As we analyze the process the differences are alarming.
Today, unlike in years past, we have had no citywide town hall meetings scheduled in the evening hours or half days on Saturday where we invite the public to listen to department heads explain services and ponder the necessary cuts with a heads up to the public most impacted.
Today, we have no break out groups that allow the public to weigh in with city staff to share their thoughts, concerns and ask questions regarding neighborhood impacts.
Today we have meetings during the day scheduled at 3:30 pm when people work and provide a whopping one hour to run through a series of reports leaving little or no time for council or the public to respond.
Today, we have the City Manager and the Mayor making decisions about the elimination of departments, services and staff via contracting out all in one meeting.
Today, department heads are afraid to speak up, the public is given 3 minutes, and the council is the last to know about decision effecting their constituents.
Today, we have term limits that provide council the ability to rise to the next level quicker, as long as they don't rock the boat or speak up too loudly.
Today, we have less employees, less services, and the City Manager is considering the elimination of the Departments of Civil Service, Community Development, Library and Towing and Lien Sales.
Today, the City Manager is asking the council to give back the responsibility of trees and sidewalk maintenance to the public, a public that is experiencing double digit unemployment.
And, today we still have an 18 million dollar deficit.
Change for change sake is a mistake.
Providing information to the community and educating the public is a powerful tool when it comes to solving problems. Why is management trying to do it alone?
The Roman Empire was characterised by an autocratic form of government, but in case you haven't noticed, we are not the Roman Empire, we are Long Beach, and oh yeah, we still have an 18 million dollar deficit.