Concerned citizens — take a look at Greg Fischer’s Report to Citizens, being touted by his Office as the first of an annual effort to let you know all the good stuff he’s doing, without all that nasty criticism from people like me. The report overlooks most of the city’s problems, but recognizes the challeneges inherent in the fact that every department that gets scrutinized is doing something morally or ethically wrong. So it ever-so-delicately mentions this —
“We announced a major MSD organizational overhaul, and conducted reviews of three Metro Departments: Public Works, Animal Services and Planning and Design. All three are using these findings to improve services. More departmental reviews are underway.”
The Mayor’s report involves a lot of optimism that projects he’s invested in will be successful — the partnership with Lexington, 55,000 Degrees program, even the difficult Bridges project. From the release:
“From late-winter flooding, to a bridge closing to the lingering recession, it’s been a year of challenges and some surprises,” Fischer said. “Yet, we’ve pulled together as a team, met the challenges head on and scored some solid successes.”
I’ll say this — I’ve talked with plenty of people who generally say that Fischer is doing better than they expected, but he’s spent a lot of his time cleaning up after the mess left by two decades of Jerry Abramson and complacency in every department. There’s more change needed, but 2012 will be the time to judge what kind of Mayor he is.
