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e-Public Administration/e-Governance and the New Public Management

  (an electronic workbook)

by

Frank Owarish, Ph.D.

Introduction

All societies need a system of public administration to function. Such a system is rather complex and hinges on several elements. To understand what public administration is about, one should look at these elements in terms what they are, how they interrelate and how they are used to build up public institutions i.e. institutions serving public purposes.

1.         What is Society, Governance, Politics, Government and how do these relate to Public Administration?

1.1       Concept of society and governance; why does society need governance; what is e-Public Administration/e-Governance;

Society: a group of people living in a specific area (physical, legal) sharing common values and having a common legal bond.

Governance: process of steering a society in certain directions deemed to be in the interest of the society through the exercise of authority or power. Those elected or selected to do so require legitimacy or the right to act (necessary authority or power)

            Why does society need governance:

1.2       What is a pluralistic society;

Pluralistic society: a society, like that of the US, made up of several groups with distinct cultural heritage

Although America’s culture is becoming more uniform, its society remains a diverse mix of ethnic, racial, and religious groups. The United States is a pluralistic society, meaning it is composed of many nationalities, races, religions, and creeds. Some of the people who immigrated to America embraced the opportunity to leave old cultures behind and to remake themselves unencumbered by past traditions and loyalties. Others found that the liberties promised under the Bill of Rights allowed for distinctiveness rather than uniformity, and they have taken pride in preserving and celebrating their origins. Many Americans find that pluralism adds to the richness and strength of the nation’s culture. The diversity of the U.S. populace has been a source of friction, as well. Throughout the nation’s history, some segments of American society have sought to exclude people who differ from themselves in income, race, gender, religion, political beliefs, or sexual orientation. Even today, some citizens argue that recent arrivals to the United States are radically different from previous immigrants, can never be assimilated, and therefore should be barred from entry. There are very different understandings of what makes a person an American. The nation’s motto, E pluribus unum (“From many, one”), describes the linguistic and cultural similarities of the American people, but it falls short as a description of the diversities among and within the major groups—Native Americans, those whose families have been Americans for generations, and more recent immigrants. This diversity is one of America’s distinguishing characteristics.

1.3          Politics as the cornerstone of governance; political ideologies, parties and platforms; democracy: consent of the governed;

            Politics:

Political ideologies: basic thinking/doctrine underlying political movement; what political groups believe in; political ‘credo’;

            Parties and platforms:

            Democracy:

Democracy (Greek demos,”the people”; kratein, “to rule”), political system in which the people of a country rule through any form of government they choose to establish. In modern democracies, supreme authority is exercised for the most part by representatives elected by popular suffrage. The representatives may be supplanted by the electorate according to the legal procedures of recall and referendum, and they are, at least in principle, responsible to the electorate. In many democracies, such as the United States, both the executive head of government and the legislature are elected. In typical constitutional monarchies such as the United Kingdom and Norway, only the legislators are elected, and from their ranks a cabinet and a prime minister are chosen. Although often used interchangeably, the terms democracy and republic are not synonymous. Both systems delegate the power to govern to their elected representatives. In a republic, however, these officials are expected to act on their own best judgment of the needs and interests of the country. The officials in a democracy more generally and directly reflect the known or ascertained views of their constituents, sometimes subordinating their own judgment.

1.4          The three components of the political system: legislature, executive and judiciary;

            Legislature:

            Executive:

            Judiciary:

1.5       Machinery of government: these three components are also the three main branches of government; public administration is the accomplishing side of government i.e public administration=government in action;

            Machinery of government:

            Public administration doctrines:

Specifically, it is the planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling of government operations.

While the functional objectives of government administration vary from system to system, all countries that are technologically developed have evolved systems of public administration. A number of common features may be detected in all such systems. The first is the hierarchical, or pyramidal, character of the organization by which a single chief executive.

1.6       Theory and practice of public administration: as a subject of study, public administration started as a component of political science and progressively evolved to become a subject on its own with its distinctive nature; more recently, public administration has been influenced by management thinking and technology;

7.16     Conceptualizing the role of public administration in society:

a)      providing public services which society needs,

b)      finding solutions to the problems of society,

c)      improving society;

1.8       Concept of common interest and public good.

            Common interest:

            Public good:

1.9       What is e-Governance: process whereby entities undertaking the function of governance making use of electronic tools, mainly computer systems;

1.10        Trends and developments in e-Governance: more and more services being provided ‘online’ rather than in line as evidenced by the growing number of gov/pa web sites;

1.11     Policy on e-Governance: go to www.whitehouse.gov and look for and browse through eGov;

1.11The future of e-Governance.

1.12Case study:

2.         Management: public and private; classical and modern

2.1       Society viewed as consisting of three sectors: public, private and non-profit sectors;

            Public sector (first sector=government sector):

            Private sector (second sector=business sector):

            Non-profit sector (third sector=not for profit sector):

2.2       What is entailed in managing each of these sectors and the organizations they consists of;

            Managing public sector and public sector organizations:

            Managing private sector organizations:

            Managing non-profit organizations:

2.3       Classical definition of management:

            Management: the art or science of getting things done;

2.4       The public sector consists of various organizations and they need to be ‘managed’; management can be defined as the ‘art’ or ‘science’ of getting things done. To understand the specific functions and activities involved, it is helpful to look at existing conceptualizations. There are several of these; focus will be on six of these considered to be the most significant. The first set of three pertains to management in general and the second set of three pertains particularly to public management.

2.5       Management conceptualizations:

M1) The scientific management doctrine of Frederick Taylor: management construed as a science that can be observed and studied. Taylor observed what he called management, essentially the steps involved in getting things done; the scientific part is to make these steps as efficient as possible through what is now termed ‘Taylorism’ (i.e secure the best utilization of resources through streamlining the steps, get the most outputs for a given amount of inputs).

M2) Management functions as identified by Henri Fayol, French Engineer, who observed the management process and developed one of the most comprehensive outlook of what management is about. According to Fayol, all organizations need six elements (technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting and management); he went on first to define management as being composed of the functions of coordination, control, organization, and planning) then articulated specifics such as division of work; authority and responsibility; discipline; unity of command; unity of direction; subordination of individual interest to the general interest of the organization; remuneration of personnel; centralization; scalar chains; order; equity; stability of personnel tenure; initiative and ‘team spirit’.

Fourteen Principles of Management (Fayol)

1.         Division of work: work has to be divided and allocated often on the basis of specialization;

2.         Authority: the right to give orders and instructions;

3.         Discipline: conform to expectations agreed upon;

4.         Unity of command: one person to be in charge; subordinates report to one superior;

5.         Unity of direction: employees geared to a particular common course of action;

6.         Subordination of individual interest to the common good;

7.         Remuneration commensurate with work done;

8.         Centralization or decentralization as needed;

9.         Scalar chain: the chain of superiors ranging from the top to the lowest level;

10.       Order: employees and material to be in the appropriate location/place;

11.       Equity: fairness in treatment;

12.       Initiative: employees encouraged to come up with new ideas and suggestions within the authority allocated to them;

13.       Stability of tenure: guarantee long-term relationship to employees in return for commitment/dedication;

14.       Team spirit: employees to acquire ability to work with colleagues as a team.

M3) Modern management: in many ways, Peter Drucker is considered to be the father of the modern school of management; his doctrines have influenced all organizational particularly business ventures in the USA and the world for that matter and curricula of universities offering management as a subject including Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Stanford. He provided an updated picture of what management is about. He drew attention to the importance of  ‘effectiveness’ and its complementarity to ‘efficiency’. He also developed the concept of MBO, whereby organizations have to be clear about what their objectives are and advocated that the employees be involved in developing objectives for their work units with all the sets of unit objectives aggregating to what constitute the overall organizational objectives.

2.6       Public management conceptualizations:

PM1)   The POSDCoRB conceptualization as developed by Luther Gulick and Al Urwick (Papers in the Science of  Public Administration, 1937): simple, useful and comprehensive picture;

PM2) the systems public management model developed by Gabriel Almond based on Norbert Wiener’s classic systems model (CYBERNETICS, 1948): from inputs to outputs via processes, taking into account feedback and the operating environment;

PM3) 3-tier model developed by the Interagency Study Committee on Policy Management Assistance in its 1975 report to the OMB: (i) policy management (ii) resource management and (iii) program management.

2.7       Similarities and differences between public and private management:

 John Dunlop’s impressionistic comparison of government management and private business management yields the following contrasts (based on text quoted in Stillman’s Public Administration - concepts and cases, Houghton Mifflin Company, pages 287-288)

1. Time perspective: Government managers tend to have relatively short time horizons dictated by political necessities and the political calendar, while private managers appear to take a longer time perspective oriented toward market developments, technological innovation and investment and organization building.

2. Duration: The length of service of politically appointed top government managers is relatively short, averaging no more than 18 months recently for assistant secretaries, while private managers have a longer tenure both in the same position and in the same enterprise.

3. Measurement of performance: There is little if any agreement on the standards and measurement of performance to appraise a government manager, while various tests of performance - financial return, market share, performance measures for executive compensation - are well established in private business and often made explicit for particular managerial position during a specific period ahead.

4. Personnel constraints: In Government, there are two layers of managerial officials that are at times hostile to one another: the civil service (or now the executive system) and the political appointees; there are complications in the recruitment, transfer and layoff of personnel to achieve managerial objectives.  Private business managements have considerably greater latitude in the management of subordinates.

5. Equity and efficiency: In government management great emphasis tends to be placed on providing equity among different constituencies, while in private business management relatively greater stress is placed upon efficiency and competitive performance.

6. Public processes versus private processes: Governmental management tends to be exposed to public scrutiny and to be more open, while private business management is more private and its processes more internal and less exposed to public review.

7. Role of the press and media: Governmental management must contend regularly with the press and  media.

8. Persuasion and direction: In government, managers often seek to mediate decisions in response to a variety of pressures and must often put together a coalition of inside and outside groups to survive.

9. Legislative and judicial impact: Governmental managers are often subject to close scrutiny by legislative oversight groups or even judicial orders in ways that are quite uncommon in private business management.

10. Bottom line: Governmental managers rarely have a clear bottom line, while that of a private business manager is profit, market performance and survival.

3.         The New Public Management

3.1       Elements of the ‘old’ public management; the classical paradigm of politics and administration and the dichotomy theory;

            Politics and administration:

            Dichotomy theory:

3.2       The modern theory of the ecology of administration and public policy (derivative of public pressure to act);

            Ecology of administration:

            Public pressure to act:

3.3       The new public management; the capacity to orchestrate public actions;

3.4       What is public policy?

            Public policy:

3.5       How are public policies formulated and carried out; interest groups;

            Policy formulation:

            Interest groups and lobbying:

            Policy implementation:

3.6       Based on empirical evidence, dichotomy theory no longer valid;

Practice=ELE: most policies originate from the executive machinery (E=President), which has the necessary technical expertise; approval by the legislature(L=Congress) and signature authority of the head of the executive(E=President);

3.7       Public policy models;

            Process model:

            Elite and expert model:

            Institutional model:

3.8       The new public management as the tug of war between the Executive and the Legislature;

3.9       The new public management: let us not forget the role of the judiciary;

3.10     Public policy examples: education, health, defense

4.         The new public management as the interaction of government entities at the federal, state and local levels; federalism/intergovernmental relations (IGR): changing dynamics; role of the NGA;

4.1       The unitary system of government/public administration compared to the federal system of government/public administration;

            Unitary:

            Federal:

4.2       Federalism and IGR defined and provisions in the US Constitution;

            Federalism:

            IGR:

            Review of US Constitution:

4.3       The government entities at different levels:

            Federal/central/national:

            State:

            Local:

4.4       Evolution of federalism/IGR (contingency factors and political ‘push’) and fiscal federalism, grants: categorical, block; unfunded mandates;

4.5       The NGA and its meetings with the President and Congress;

4.6       Court cases defining the boundaries of federal and state entities.

4a.       The intricacies of the machinery of Gov/PA: comparing a unitary system of gov/pa with a federal system and a confederal system; in the case of the US it is a matter of gov/pa at the three levels, i.e federal (national), state and local; the specific responsibilities of gov/pa entities at these three levels working on their own and cooperating in some areas at times with overlapping responsibilities;

4b.       Division of responsibilities between the fed gov/pa and the state gov/pa according to the US Constitution; division of responsibilities between the States and local entities: the Dillon’s principle, gov/pa entities below the state level are entities of the state;

4c.       The three layers, i.e federal, state and local and the entities;

4d.       The meaning of federalism and IGR; how entities at the three levels interact, compete and cooperate with each other; evolution of federalism/IGR (1789-1933: dual, 1933-1960: cooperative, 1960-1968: creative, 1968-1980: new, 1980-1993: new new, 1993-present: competitive); understanding the responsibilities and functioning of entities at these three levels through conceptualizations: (a) the ‘layer cake’ model; (b) the ‘marble cake model’; (c) the ‘picket fence model’; fiscal federalism/revenue sharing and mandate sharing: (a) general revenue sharing (b) categorical grants (c) block grants (d) unfunded mandates;

federal gov/pa: organized into departments and agencies; main functions (national in scope): national defense; treasury and commerce; foreign affairs; transportation; energy; education; veterans’ affairs; law enforcement and social services;

state gov/pa: also organized into departments and agencies; main functions (state in scope): education, transportation, social services, public health and safety, economic development, natural resources and environment, recreation, criminal justice; state gov/pa entities often work in cooperation with fed gov/pa entities and with local gov/pa entities;

local gov/pa: organized into municipalities/townships, counties, schools districts and special districts each with departments and agencies and operational entities (e.g schools, hospitals); main functions: (i) general purpose: police, fire protection, public works, parks, housing, public transportation, industrial development (ii) special purpose: education, hospitals, water supply, waste management, drainage;

4e.       Problems facing entities at the three levels: overlap, duplication, competition (e.g education, social services); efforts to streamline and avoid duplication; complexity of coordination; role of the NGA, regular meeting of the President with the NGA (group of Governors);

5.         The new public management as the dynamics of interaction of the public and private sectors

5.1       Ideological considerations having a bearing on the size and role of the public and private sectors: the communist/socialist approach (large public sector to a small private at times non-existent private sector) compared to the capitalist approach (public and private sectors co-exist); within the capitalist approach: the Democrats’ approach (intervention to deal with the so-called market failures) compared to that of the Republican (minimum government involvement leaving a free hand (laissez faire) to the private sector; situation in many developing countries: the public sector fostering the development of the private sector;

5.2       Placing the public and private sectors side by side and looking at their activities as a spectrum: activities pertaining traditionally to one or the other, activities that both sectors carry out (possible/desirable competition) and activities where they cooperate; public sector undertaking activities which traditionally belong to the private sector (case of Renault in France) compared to the public sector helping out like in the case of Chrysler; government corporations (public sector organizations conducting quasi-business activities; privatization: hiving off activities from the public sector to the private sector; privatization efforts going on in the Russian federation and China, moving away from an exclusive/dominant public sector to a co-existence of the two sectors with the private sector growing, emulating the Western European model;

5.3       Competition of the public and private sectors (e.g postal services);

5.4       Cooperation of the public and private sectors: a) joint ventures/partnership b) sub-contracting by the public sector to the private sector c) outsourcing d) leasing;

5.5       Privatization;

5.6       Public sector fostering the development of the private sector: e.g of the Internet, telecommunications; the State of New York fostering hi-tech research and ventures through funding and tax incentives as well actual participation as an ‘incubator”;

5.7       Conflict between the public and private sectors: the public sector as the custodian of the common interest and the common good: regulatory role;

5.8       Regulation and deregulation: a matter of degree; regulation: role of the FDA, OSHA, FCC and SEC as examples; role of the Federal Reserve in fostering economic growth; deregulation of the airline industry: rationale;

7.16Role of the public compared to that of the private sectors; interaction between the two sectors: cooperation, competition, conflict; the public (government/public administration) sector as the custodian of the interests of society at large; regulation; deregulation; sub-contracting; leasing; privatization.

7.17Case study:

Regulating the safety of the Coal Mines

6.         The accountability of public managers; oversight to which the public managers are subjected to

6.1       The building blocks of management systems: authority and responsibility; delegation of authority and responsibility/chain of command; legal norms and ethics;

6.2       Centralization versus decentralization: arguments for and against;

6.3       Managerial control and accountability;

6.4       Oversight: rationale (transparency of public management) and underlying principles: independence, professionalism etc.,

6.5       External oversight: the Government Accountability Office (GAO);

6.6       Internal oversight: the Inspector General (IG system) (federal, state and local systems);

6.7       Technique used by oversight personnel: audit, inspection, evaluation and investigation;

7.16     Reporting on oversight exercises undertaken.

7.17    Case study:

Lobbyist's plea likely to expose seamy underside of Congress

Wed Jan 4, 2006

Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist who pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud and tax evasion, is a vivid illustration of Mark Twain's adage that truth is stranger than fiction. Abramoff got into lobbying after a stint making mediocre action movies. Once in the influence-peddling business, he made a quick fortune by defrauding Indian tribes, representing foreign dictators and cozying up to powerful lawmakers - often at a Pennsylvania Avenue restaurant he owned. Perhaps some day someone will make a film about Abramoff. In the meantime, his plea has focused attention on an even more appalling spectacle: the lawmakers that were part of his network.

What is most shocking in the Abramoff case is not that he would want to make a fortune and spread it around to gain power and influence. It is that so many members of Congress would be so quick to accommodate him. As many as 20 lawmakers and senior staff members are believed to be under investigation. That makes Abramoff, who has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, the most dangerous man in Washington right now.

Prosecutors say Abramoff "engaged in a pattern of corruptly providing things of value to public officials, including trips, campaign contributions, and meals and entertainment, with the intent to influence acts." Officials who were eager to take Abramoff's money are now scrambling to give it away.

The Abramoff scandal is likely to make 2006 the year a seamy underside of Congress comes into full public view. Barely a decade after the arrival of a reformist GOP Congress, the institution has fallen into one of its most tawdry periods ever, with members actively seeking favors in exchange for legislation that sells out the public interest for personal or partisan gain.

Some of their behavior is legal, though troubling. Today's Congress is more than willing to grant special tax breaks to companies and industries that provide the most bountiful political contributions and have the most influential lobbyists. Some acts of individual lawmakers, though, might exceed even the minimal lobbying laws that govern their behavior. The Abramoff scandal, which touches both parties, shows a widespread sense of entitlement among lawmakers to some of the lifestyle perks that their better-paid lobbyist acquaintances enjoy. One member of the House, Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, figures prominently in the plea agreement under the pseudonym Representative #1. He is alleged to have acted on Abramoff's behalf 11 times. Former majority leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is likely to receive intense scrutiny for taking trips to the South Pacific, Scotland and elsewhere bankrolled by Abramoff's groups. These, however, might be the tip of the too-long-ignored lobbying iceberg. Abramoff is far from the only Washington lobbyist who tried to join with members of Congress in cheating the public.

A full accounting will be a painful episode. It will bring shame to lawmakers and embarrassment to the nation. It will, we hope, lead to changes in the ways lobbyists are regulated and campaigns are financed. It's true that morality can't be legislated. Even so, a cleansing process triggered by the Abramoff scandal can help ensure that fewer members of Congress are beholden to corrupt special interests operating behind the scenes.

7.         Public sector planning, budgeting and management: the new thinking and integrative approaches

7.1       Meaning of planning; need for planning in all purposeful ventures; difference between planning (the process) and a plan (the output of the process i.e blue print for action)

7.2       A look at various public sector planning models:

            a) centralized planning: Soviet and Chinese models;

            b) the indicative planning model of France;

c) (i) planning in the public sector in the US: there is no overall macroscopic planning; planning follows pragmatic approaches and emulates corporate planning, i.e planning by organizations e.g the MTA has its plan; but in the pragmatic approaches, there are plans which deals with an issue or problem area e.g plan to develop yet preserve the Florida Everglades; Chancellor Rudy Crew as a plan to improve NYC public schools;

(ii) the rational planning model (the steps) and components of the model and how it works; experience with PPBS; taking a look at the Strategic Planning Model used in the private sector and its applicability in the public sector and the mixed results;

7.3       Monitoring as a tool for the program managers involved in carrying out plans and policies;

7.4       The rationale for evaluation; the typology the Research Evaluation Society;

7.5       Steps in undertaking an evaluation; applications of the results thereof to improve further planning

7.16          Case study:

7.17   Basic meaning of budgeting

7.18     Basic elements of a budget: expenditure, income; relations between expenditure and income: balance, deficit, surplus

7.19     Budget cycle

7.20     Evolution of budget: growth (zero, negative, positive)

7.21     Basic purposes of a budget: financial tool, blue print for action, instrument of policy

7.22     Evolution of public sector budgeting:

            a) line-item budgeting

            b) performance budgeting

            c) planning-programming-budgeting

            d) MBO and budgeting

            e) zero-base budgeting

            f) top-down budgeting/target-based budgeting

            g) results-based budgeting

7.23     The federal budget process and cycle: preparation; review and approval, implementation, audit

7.24     A look at the federal budget: expenditure side, income side (categories and amounts)

7.25     Controlling the federal budget deficit, reducing it, eliminating it; balanced-budget;

7.26  Budget deficit at the federal level: issues and considerations

7.27 Taxes: Case study

Bloomberg Would Put Higher Tax on Cigarettes

By JIM RUTENBERG New York Times

ALBANY, Jan. 23 - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called for a further rise in the city's portion of the cigarette tax during testimony here on Monday in which he skewered parts of Gov. George E. Pataki's proposed budget as deeply flawed and unfair to New York City. Aides to Mr. Bloomberg said he would lay out his ideas for a higher cigarette tax in his State of the City address on Thursday, and make a more detailed proposal when he unveils his own budget plans a few weeks after that. But in comments to reporters after his testimony at the Legislative Office Building here on Monday afternoon, Mr. Bloomberg indicated that he believed a rise of 50 cents a pack was possible. Smokers in the city now pay $3 a pack in taxes. "I think another 50 cents might be good," he said. "There's a clear correlation: You raise your cigarette taxes, fewer children go and smoke."

Mr. Bloomberg said the extra revenues would go toward new public health initiatives to reduce smoking. Mr. Bloomberg's cigarette proposal, which would have to be approved by the Legislature, came as he criticized Mr. Pataki's complicated proposal rejiggering cigarette taxes statewide. In contrast to Mr. Bloomberg's proposal to raise the city's share of the tax, the Pataki budget would reduce it. That budget proposal would raise revenues for the state for various health programs while reducing the difference between New York City and out-of-city cigarette prices. It would raise cigarette taxes outside New York City to $2.50 from $1.50 per pack while reducing the city's portion of the cigarette tax to 50 cents from $1.50 - so that statewide, smokers would pay $2.50 in taxes and city dwellers would continue to pay $3. The state would then reimburse the city the $78 million it would lose annually because of the change. But Mr. Bloomberg said in his testimony yesterday that there was no way to ensure that that money would always go to the city. "This is a classic case of, 'If it ain't broken, don't fix it,' " he said. Mr. Pataki's proposed changes in the cigarette tax provided but one target for Mr. Bloomberg yesterday. His critique was followed by similar testimony from the new City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn. The mayor called upon the state to follow the city and eliminate its portion of the "job-killing tax" on clothing items costing $110 or less, as did Ms. Quinn. He said the governor's proposed Medicaid cuts and cost reductions threatened the city's fragile hospital system. But he reserved his fiercest criticism for what he termed "this ridiculous imbalance" between what city residents provide to the state in taxes and what they get back from the state in education money.

"Let me tell you, we are not going to stand by and let this happen," the mayor said. "We've been shortchanged for too long, and we'll use every resource at our disposal to correct this outrageous injustice."  During her testimony, Ms. Quinn said: "The administration and the Council are united and determined on this issue. We will fight on behalf of our city's children until the state fulfills its obligation."

Mayor Bloomberg and Ms. Quinn also both complained that one of Governor Pataki's main budget proposals - giving $400 property tax rebate checks to homeowners in school districts that limit their spending - left New York City out in the cold. The governor's budget states that no rebates shall be issued to property owners in any city with a population of one million or more. Only one city in New York has a population of one million or more: New York City. And the school districts in the municipalities whose residents do get the rebate will be reimbursed, for a total of $530 million.

"Of this $530 million in new education aid," Mr. Bloomberg said, "We get zero percent."

Mr. Bloomberg said that since the state is not sharply increasing education aid to comply with a court order, the city will be forced to cut $1.8 billion from its school building plan, causing the cancellation or delay of several projects, including a new elementary and middle school for Lower Manhattan, a beloved project of the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver. Speaking with reporters earlier, Mr. Pataki shrugged off Mr. Bloomberg's complaints about school aid. "I've yet to have the mayor come and not say that," Mr. Pataki said, adding that the state was picking up $770 million in costs the city was not expecting it to bear. But over all, the tension between the two Republicans played out in subtle ways, with neither taking on the other personally. Mr. Bloomberg went out of his way to compliment Mr. Pataki personally, saying: "He's been a good governor for the last 12 years and he's trying to do what he thinks is right for 18 million people. What I've got to do is I've got to fight for the rights of 8 million people."

7.28 New York City budget

What does OMB do?

In assisting the Mayor with developing and implementing the City's budget, OMB monitors and forecasts the revenues and expenditures of the City. It analyzes the economy, evaluates agencies' management improvement initiatives, including information technology purchases, conducts value engineering reviews of capital projects and, in cooperation with the Office of the Comptroller for the City of New York, issues bonds and notes in the public credit markets.

What is the size of the City's operating budget?

For the current fiscal year, the City's operating budget is $52.9 billion.

When is the City's fiscal year?

The City's fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30.

What is the budget process?

The budget process begins in late autumn when the various City agencies, after consulting with the 59 Community Boards, submit their budget requests to OMB. On or about January 16, the Mayor releases the Preliminary Budget and Four Year Financial Plan for the ensuing years. This is followed by a period of public comment during which the 59 Community Boards, the 5 Borough Boards and the City Council make recommendations on the budget to the Mayor. The Mayor then submits the Executive Budget to the City Council on or about April 26.

What is the Executive Budget?

The Executive Budget primarily consists of three parts: a revenue budget for anticipated receipts; an expense budget for operating expenditures; and a capital budget for improvements to infrastructure. The Executive Budget is accompanied by the Message of the Mayor, which contains the highlights and objectives of the Executive Budget; a description of programs; a description of the general fiscal and economic condition of the City; a description of anticipated aid from the Federal and State governments; a three year forecast for expenses; and a comparison of the prior year's budget with actual expenditures.

Where do the City's revenues come from?

The City's revenues come from a variety of local taxes, user charges and miscellaneous revenues as well as from Federal and State grants.

What does the City spend its money on?

The City's expenditures are for public safety, education, social services, community and economic revitalization and environmental protection.

Case study: Fare increase to deal with budget shortfall

NJ Transit fare hike

10 percent fare increase

 (New Jersey - WABC, June 1, 2007) – Traveling to work will be a little more expensive for New Jersey commuters.

A 10 percent fare hike is now in effect for New Jersey transit.

Eyewitness News reporter Ken Rosato has more from Newark Penn station.

Authorities say the increase will close a roughly $60 (m) million-dollar budget deficit and pay for new and expanded service. Plans call for new rail cars with more seating, and additional parking spaces.

Commuters will see different increases for different rail and bus lines. Some can actually save money by avoiding more expensive peak fares. The morning peak period will begin half an hour later, at 7 a.m. Now, trains that arrive at the final destination between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. are considered peak fares.

NJ Transit provides almost 857,000 weekday trips on bus routes, light rail and commuter rail lines.

It's the first fare increase since July 2005 for NJ Transit, which runs buses and trains to New York City.

7.29 The new public management: strategic planning and management, management for

 results;

7.30     Thinking/doctrine about management in general has constantly evolved and at different times there were different prevailing ideas/concepts: in classical literature, emphasis is on efficiency (finding the best way to get things done, minimizing costs and maximizing outputs); modern schools of thinking place emphasis on effectiveness as well, with management implying a careful balance between efficiency and effectiveness factors; productivity remains an important consideration. Technologies in particular information technology have an ongoing impact on management. Emphasis in the recent years has been laid on strategy and results. Private sector organizations have applied these management ideas in what can be conceived as an ongoing experimental field (trying and finding what works best under different circumstances);

7.31     Public sector organizations have been more careful about experimentation and ‘adventurism’; the dominant stand is one of conservatism (remember the dictate ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’); conceptual difference between thinking in terms of administration (legalistic connotation with rules and regulations) and management (practical in connotation with policy and procedures); public sector organizations are gradually evolving their thinking from administrative to managerial (this is practically speaking a change in culture); attention in the public sector is increasing being given to concepts developed and applied successfully in private sector organizations; the GAO for instance undertook an exercise in finding out the best practices in both private and public sector organizations which public sector organizations could learn from;

7.32     Essential elements of management strategy for maximizing results;

7.33     Integrating Planning, Strategic Management and Budgeting: the GPRA Solution;

7.34     The building blocks of GPRA/review of first set of concepts:

a) input b) output and c) outcome/result/results-based budgeting

7.35     Review of second set of concepts:

a) planning, strategy, strategic planning

            b) performance, performance indicators, bench marking

            c) reporting

7.36     Basic purpose of GPRA: attempting to resolve weaknesses of government, introducing efforts to make agencies/departments become more performance and results oriented

7.37     Elements of GPRA:

            a) planning/strategy definition: mission statement

            b) performance plan

            c) reporting

7.38     The era of experimentation/pilot projects: 1993 to 1997

8.         Decision making

8.1       What is decision making; objective and subjective considerations; choices;

8.2       The rational approach: identifying problems/opportunities, gathering the facts, formulating alternatives and selecting the appropriate alternative(s) as decision(s), implementing decision(s);

8.3       The incremental approach;

8.4       The mixed-scanning approach;

8.5       Doctrines having a bearing on decision making: Empirical, Kantian, Pragmatic, Dialectical;

9.         Going from traditional organization theories to the re-invention and re-engineering paradigms

9.1       Focus is on understanding public organizations and the principles of organization: moving from management concepts and principles to concepts of organization and principles of organization

9.2       Definition of organization; examples of organization; examples of public organizations

9.3       What is an organization chart and the purposes it serves; limitations, i.e it is useful but provides a static picture, whereas an organization is dynamic in nature

9.4       Major clasical schools of thought/doctrines:  

a) open and closed systems models and models aimed at reducing uncertainty

b) doctrines emphasizing structural aspects and those emphasizing humanistic aspects

9.5       In-depth look at Max Weber’s Model of Bureaucracy that has had far reaching effect on shaping public sector organizations

9.6       A look at other forms of organization, including the so-called matrix organization

9.7       Organizational communication

9.8       Reorganizing, re-inventing and re-thinking government

9.9       A look at private sector organizations shows that they are constantly reorganizing, restructuring and re-inventing themselves: change dynamics and pressures thereto; those that do not adapt and change go ‘under’;

9.10     Public sector organizations tend to be more static and less induced to changes;

9.11     An organization which is static is going nowhere and is likely to decline; the Catholic Church as an institution faced that problem in the 1950s; revisit the concept of the ecology of administration and the contingency theory of organization; how the Catholic Church organization rejuvenated itself;

9.12     How could public sector organizations rejuvenate themselves: procedures to bring about organizational changes; concept of OD (organizational development); organizational learning: transforming an organization into a learning system;

9.13     Introduce Re-inventing Government and the National Performance Review;

9.14     The need for continuing effort to improve the functioning of public organizations and the delivery of public services; the effort in the public sector parallels those undertaken on a continuing basis in the private sector; the compilation of good practices/learning from experience;

9.15     Reinventing Government by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler, i.e their blue-print: governments should 1) steer not row 2) empower public communities to solve their own problems rather simply deliver services 3) encourage competition rather than monopolies 4)  driven by missions not rules 5) be results-oriented 6) meet the needs of customers not of the bureaucracy 7) concentrate on earning money than on spending it 8) invest in preventing problems rather than curing crises 9) decentralize authority and 10) solve problems by influencing market forces rather than creating public programs;

9.16     The National Performance Review: Report on Creating a Government that Works Better and Costs Less: Ch. 1:         Cutting red tape; Ch. 2: Putting customers first;

            Ch. 3:  Empower employees to get results; Ch. 4: Cutting back to basics;

9.17     Implementation of the NPR recommendations;

9.18     Assessment of the results of the NPR.

10.       Leadership as spurring public organizations to results

10.1     Concept of leadership (an organization needs to be constantly directed/steered); leadership theories (leaders are born (traits); leaders are made (trained)); leadership styles;

10.2     The human side of organizations; emergence of the human relations school (the Hawthorne studies); motivation; the Hierarchy of needs of Maslow; Theories X and Y of Douglas McGregor; Theory Z of William Ouchi; Chris Argyris’ theory;

10.3     Concept of organizational behavior; group dynamics and synergy;

10.4     Combining leadership with the human side: William Reddin’s model.

11.       Public management as maximizing implementation and evaluating results

11.1     Understanding the implementation process;

11.2     Complexity of joint action;

11.3     Implementation ‘games’;

11.4     More effective implementation;

11.5     Evaluation: purpose, methods, results (plus case study of Head Start).

12.       The new public management: deregulating human resources management and emulating private sector personnel management

12.1     Introduction: meaning of human resources; importance of human resources; why are human resources said to be the most important assets of an organization;

12.2     Evolution of values/ideas i.e principles underlying the public service: brief review;

12.3     The civil service System: the meaning of merit:

            a) main characteristics,

b) main functions; job analysis/classification, planning, selection, employee development, discipline, dismissal, counseling, labor relations, communications, research and evaluation, performance appraisal, compensation and benefits, rights and obligations;

12.4     The collective system;

12.5     The political executive system;

12.6     The professional career system;

12.7     The professional public administration system;

12.8     Deregulating efforts;

12.9     Issues in public personnel management; achieving a diversified workforce;

12.10   Performance and incentive pay;

12.11   A safe work place; ergonomics;

12.12   Other personnel issues as found in private and public sector organizations: (a) discrimination, equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, policy of inclusivity and cultural diversity (b) age (c) physical disabilities (d) sexual harassment (e) drug in the work place;

12.13   The EEOC;

12.14   Labor disputes and unionization.

13.       e-Management and e-Public Management; the use of information technology by public sector  entities

13.1     Information technology: definition

13.2     Information systems; basic steps in information processing: hardware, software and human-ware considerations;

13.3     Networking of computer systems; the Internet;

13.4     Technological innovations in organizations: efficiency factors and human considerations;

13.5     The mixed results of computer applications in the Federal Government;

13.6     The Information Technology Reform Act of 1996; EFT-99;

13.7     MIS, DSS and GIS;   

13.8     The impact of computer systems: positive and negative aspects;

13.9     e-Management;

13.10   e-Public Management

14.       Public management as management of the non-profit organizations

14.1     Focus is on understanding the functioning of non-profit organizations and civil society;

14.2     Introduction: it is widely recognized that there are many non-profit organizations which provide public services essential for the functioning of society; civil society means that a substantial segment of society decides to undertake activities for the betterment of that society; few textbooks of public administration cover this growingly important subject and one of the few is ‘Managing the Public Sector’ by Grover Starling; abundant information on both subjects could be found on the Internet;

14.3     To illustrate the importance of the non-profit sector: while the government sector employs over 20 million people, the non-profit sector employs over 12 million of people; the public sector in this broader perspective employs over 32 million people;

14.4     Characteristics of the non-profit organizations: set up by private initiative(s); privately funded; serve public purposes and provide public services; some receive public subsidies and grants from government; some receive grants from private companies (e.g PBS-Channel 13); sometimes government subcontracts services to them e.g legal services through the Legal Aid Society for people who cannot afford a lawyer; the endowment system; some non-profit organizations charge user-fees; non-profit organizations cannot make a profit although they can generate a surplus which must be re-invested in the organization; some pursue an advocacy and policy role e.g MADD (Mother Against Drunk Drivers); many are operational e.g Wyman Center (see Starling Chapter 1); some are multi-purpose organizations e.g the US Red Cross; contributions in cash and in-kind (e.g Salvation Army); voluntarism is an important feature of many non-profit organizations; management: policy directions set by a board of directors or trustees, day-to-day management is by a small number of regular staff, extensive use is made of volunteers;

14.5     A look at the US Red Cross (which has been very much in the news) working alongside FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency);   

14.6     Partnership of government organizations - non-profit organizations; debate the issue: are government organizations reducing what they are supposed to do as non-profit organizations play a growing role? Concept of civil society; civil society in our daily life;

14.7     Voluntarism;

14.8     Benevolence

National Disaster Response: FEMA Should Take Action to Improve
Capacity and Coordination between Government and Voluntary
Sectors. GAO-08-369, February 27, 2008 (57 pages).
http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-08-369


 

Conclusion: usefulness of classical public management and limitations thereof; the new public management; e-Management