Mayoral candidate Dan Gookin recently floated the idea of compensating city employees for cost-saving measures they discover and implement. While his proposal lacked details consider the following scenario as an example.
Picture this: “Thank you for saving the city $40,000, Mr. Jones. On your next paycheck, we will give you a bonus of $40!” While the savings in this scenario are great for taxpayers, the monetary reward for city staff pales in comparison to the savings. A bonus of $400 would be more exciting to the employee. But, where do you draw the line? How would the city differentiate last-minute, money-saving changes from poor planning or vetting? Isn’t efficient spending part of the job? Isn’t that what engaged employees do? Gookin’s idea comes across as if he has never led an organization or a group of people. It takes extra time and effort to change course in a bureaucracy and implement cost savings. To put a number on it devalues the intrinsic motivation.
We need engaged city employees. But even more, we need engaged citizens. City staff can’t be everywhere all the time, but citizens are! Consider how one citizen noticed this problem in the park:
City beach exhibits erosion.
Four days later the erosion increased and undermined the sidewalk. An engaged citizen contacted city officials to report the issue. “[The Parks Department] was unaware of the erosion, probably caused by a broken sprinkler head. A crew will fix it shortly.”
Thankfully, the city fixed the issue and the beach and sprinkler are as good as new.
