I don’t know if his ideas will work, but interim executive officer Steve Szalay impressed me last month with the way he approached Sacramento County’s $118 million budget deficit.
Instead of simply proposing cuts, borrowing or other financial moves, Szalay gave county supervisors ideas for providing core services in different ways.
He said the county “was in great need of reorganization or a fresh look at the way services are provided.”
In other words, his message wasn’t just the slash-or-tax choices we’ve heard in most government budget discussions, at least those held in public.
Whether or not his specific ideas prevail, Szalay’s push to prioritize is becoming a common theme in organizations that want to do more than just survive this tenacious downturn.
Such conversation gets my attention, partly because The Bee has undergone its own process of financial disruption and mission focus: What matters most? How do we serve our community and our customers?
Over lunch recently, several arts leaders told Bee editors about the struggles of groups hit in the last two years by recession (reduced giving and slower ticket sales) and government funding cuts.
Several organizations, as we’ve reported, have responded in ways that show their creativity extending from their art to their organizational management.
For instance, the Sacramento Ballet has drawn praise for its determined march back from canceling a big part of its 2008-09 season.
The company’s leadership changed programming and faced its financial challenges head-on, and in March staged a well-received production of its classic “Carmina Burana.”
We’ve also seen new approaches in community services.
Sacramento County supervisors recently transferred control of the Mather Community Campus and its programs for homeless people to the nonprofit Volunteers of America.
A separate local initiative has teamed Sutter General Hospital and a nonprofit community clinic called The Effort in a program called T3 that targets patients who come to emergency rooms for non-ER care.
T3 is getting credit for cutting ER visits, saving Sutter money and providing better help for patients who get services including mental health counseling, primary health care and housing.
These endeavors and others won’t all succeed. Yet they’re just a few illustrations of a truth too often forgotten: Good things can come out of adversity.
The Bee has chronicled many tough choices and their impacts throughout the recession; we’re also spotting success stories and encouraging trends. For instance, we’re offering an ongoing series called “Road to Recovery” that explores ideas and activity that might lift our region out of recession.
The series also is putting a focus on problems and obstacles to recovery. Dale Kasler’s latest installment (on Page A1 today) shows how California’s perceived and actual regulatory issues are influencing one promising local startup’s decisions.
This far into an economic downturn, most people recognize that solutions won’t simply be served up by circumstance. We can’t just wait for things to get better (though some government leaders seem to favor that approach).
I hope we’ll hear more public discussion, more fresh thinking and more candor about our choices. In other words, let’s hope for real leadership and public debate of the decisions that will shape our region’s destiny.