Elections: City Hall and Bureaucracy

Remember the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? Some would have us believe that a “changing of the guard” (with a promised new direction) is taking place in Long Beach because we have elected a new mayor and three new council members--even though experience tells us that the mayor has no real power and that council members have been unable to demonstrate that they can rise above petty provincialism and move the city forward in a unified direction.

Alvin Toffler, the celebrated futurist, has noted that in every election, whether you vote Democrat or Republican, one side always wins: the bureaucracy. This is true because in the struggle over reform, bureaucrats have always been able to outlast the politicians. This Murphy’s Law of government has been reinforced locally with the recent passage of term limits.

It is in the nature of bureaucracy to spend most of its energy protecting and preserving itself rather than serving its customers, not because the people who hold bureaucratic jobs are bad people but because their organizations lack the incentive to change.

We must root out the duplications and redundancy that cost Long Beach taxpayers millions of dollars each year and produce no services, just high-paying jobs for City Hall administrators, consultants and supervisors. We must examine each government program to determine whether it serves a compelling public interest. If so, we must find the most effective and efficient way to accomplish that goal.

Now that the post-election euphoria has worn off, I call upon Mayor-elect Beverly O’Neill and the new City Council to create a “reinventing government task force” to be responsible for the oversight and execution of this process.

As usual, the city manager’s current budget proposal to close down the main library on Sundays and reduce park and street maintenance, coupled with increasing fees on natural gas, refuse, water and sewer service, avoids the real issue. It’s just another case of socking it to the little guy.

I am unwilling to continue life support for an ailing City Hall that is at the brink of financial, intellectual and moral collapse. I think I speak for more than 16,000 Long Beach taxpayers who voted for me in the auditor’s race when I say, reform or die.

WILLIAM MOLNAR, Long Beach . Molnar lost to incumbent Gary L. Burroughs in the Long Beach city auditor’s race in April.