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From Governing’s
Grading the Counties introductionFebruary 2002 issue
THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE PROJECT
Report Card:
That applies to government just as it does to life in general. Although it is one of the nation’s fastest-growing counties, with a population of 1.6 million and a budget of $2.6 billion, Broward has an old-fashioned, nine-member county commission, and rotating chairmen with little authority other than a gavel. Reformers have been talking for years about the need for stronger executive leadership. But when Miami-Dade established an executive mayor position in the mid-1990s, that amounted to the kiss of death in Broward; voters turned down the idea of a strong mayor last year.
Reform advocates haven’t given up hope; the charter review commission is revisiting the issue, exploring the idea of creating a mayor but with weaker powers than in Miami. Meanwhile, concerns remain that there’s a lack of countywide leadership under the current system. Indeed, while Broward has avoided the “scandal-a-month” atmosphere that has plagued Miami-Dade, the county has had its share of problems. One commissioner ended up in prison last year over a charge of mishandled campaign funds. Four years ago, a brouhaha surrounding an overpriced land purchase resulted in the ouster of the county attorney and the forced resignation of the county administrator.
One significant electoral change took effect last year. The nine commissioners are now chosen from single-member districts rather than countywide--a move designed to increase minority participation. As in other places, though, the change to a district system seems to be creating parochialism, particularly in the capital management area, as commissioners fight for projects in their communities. “They’re becoming very possessive of matters that occur within their district,” Aronson says.
One other important change: It’s been mandated that by 2005, all unincorporated areas in Broward must be melded into one of the county’s 30 cities--or into new cities. This will take county government out of the role of providing municipal-type services, such as fire and rescue, to these unincorporated areas. As the county relinquishes that role, it will also lose the accompanying income. The commissioners insist they don’t want to lay off any employees, setting up a potential fiscal problem in the years ahead.
Positives: Budget in excellent structural balance; accurate revenue and expenditure estimates; five-year forecast; ample reserves, including 5 percent annual set-aside from estimated revenues; debt-management and investment policies in place; declining general obligation debt per capita; good financial reporting, with easy access to budgetary information; good controls on use of county funds without sacrificing managerial flexibility.
Negatives: More formal policy needed to protect and stipulate use of reserve funds; recent study points to favoritism in contracting and lack of minority opportunity; procurement slow; county commissioners overly involved in contracting process.
Positives: Good capital planning, well integrated with other county goals; citizen input solicited; monthly reports to track project status; road and bridge condition well monitored; preventive-maintenance management system planned for facilities.
Negatives: Some construction contracts far behind schedule; facility-condition assessments too widely spaced; assessment data maintained manually in auditor’s office; no formal cost estimates on bringing facilities to good condition.
Positives: Thorough employee training in line with strategic goals, such as customer service; ample employee recognition; active and innovative recruiting effort, including bus posters, banners, direct marketing; good labor relations, with emphasis on open communication; great human resources Web site with useful performance data.
Negatives: More succession planning needed to deal with onslaught of staff retirements; bulky classification structure with large number of titles; HR team burdened by many reclassification requests; no HR strategic plan; grievance process can be time consuming.
Positives: Good strategic planning, including countywide goals formulated at annual commissioners’ retreat; standardized customer survey in use through most of government; annual performance report; measures widely used by administrative departments.
Negatives: Limited mechanisms for ensuring accuracy of data; no public comparisons between targets and actual results; more citizen input would be useful.
Positives: Very good Web site with many transactions available for citizens; award-winning procedures for county record-keeping, as well as digital mortgage closings; vendor has been selected for IT disaster-recovery system.
Negatives: Stand-alone systems abound; GIS developed independently in different agencies, with poor countywide linkage; lack of consistent approach for looking at IT benefits versus costs, although more standard approach in development; slow procurement of software and hardware.
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t’s only a 30-minute drive to downtown Miami from the Broward County offices in Fort Lauderdale, but nothing defines Broward more than its desire to be as different as it can from Miami-Dade, its neighbor to the south. “There’s a sense,” says Lisa Aronson, executive director of the Broward County Charter Review Commission, “that because Miami-Dade does it a certain way doesn’t mean Broward should do it that way--at all.”