Gerasimos A. Gianakis

Public purchasing: who’s minding the store?

The public sector purchasing function continues to face growing pressures to reform current purchasing processes. Yet, little is known about the abilities of purchasing professionals to adapt to this rapidly changing environment. This article identifies the critical job duties and work responsibilities of government purchasing buyers and officers in an attempt to determine if they currently posses the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully adapt to increased pressures for reform.

Reinventing or Repackaging Public Services? the Case of Community-Oriented Policing

If the sound bites of the reinventing government movement are ever to attain the status of sound scripture, they must first be operationalized in terms of specific services. These slogans call for a market-oriented, customer-driven government, owned by empowered communities and featuring decentralized services focused on preventing rather than on curing. These new initiatives are delivered by public organizations employing participative, team-oriented management systems and results-oriented evaluative criteria (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). Although community policing builds on previous innovations in policing, such as problem-oriented policing (Goldstein, 1990; 1979) and team policing (Schwartz and Clarren, 1977; Sherman et al., 1973) that predate the formal reinventing government movement, community policing has become recognized as the law enforcement manifestation of that movement (Turner and Wiatrowski, 1995). Like outcome-oriented, mission driven government, community policing has become a global phenomenon (Bayley, 1994a; Weatheritt, 1991) that reflects reinventions market values and outcome-oriented management precepts. In his capacity as chairman of the Task Force on Government Accomplishment and Accountability of the American Society for Public Administration, Raymond T. Olsen reviewed nearly 40 case studies of outcome management strategies in the public sector, and he concluded that the core management systems of the organizations pursuing these strategies were generally not being realigned to accommodate them (Olsen, 1997); that is, these management systems continue to reinforce a process of control rather than supporting a results-driven orientation. This article examines the implementation of the community policing model by local law enforcement agencies in Florida. It focuses on the extent to which adoption has affected existing policies, procedures, and organizational structures. Local law enforcement service delivery systems have typically been housed in hierarchical bureaucracies featuring command-and-control management systems. Such systems would appear to be antithetical to the spirit and substance of community policing. Community policing has suffered from conceptual confusion in both research and practice (Roberg and Kuykendall, 1993; Wycoff, 1991; Greene and Taylor, 1991). Community policing has been implemented in a wide variety of ways, manifesting differences in personnel, organizational structures, deployment schemes, patrol modes, operational functions, geographical scopes, and degree of involvement of citizens and coordination with external agencies (Bayley, 1994a; 1994b; Sadd and Grinc, 1994). However, despite this confusion, community policing is widely accepted by politicians and police professionals as an innovative way to deliver police services (Eck and Rosenbaum, 1994). As early as 1984, 143 police agencies surveyed nationally reported utilizing community policing (Trojanowicz and Harden, 1985). Forty-two percent of all police departments serving populations of over 50,000 recently reported that they had adopted some form of community policing (Trojanowicz, 1994). For Bayley (1994a) the basic elements of community policing are: consultation with community groups regarding their security needs; command devolution so that those closest to the community can determine how to best respond to those needs; mobilization of agencies other than the police to assist in addressing those needs; and remedying the conditions that generate crime and insecurity through focused problem solving. He and others (Moore, 1994; Eck and Rosenbaum, 1994) are comfortable with the ambiguity that surrounds the concept, but Wycoff (1991) suggests that it may now be a barrier to effective communication about police practices. Walker (1992) notes that community policing may be victimized by its popularity and rapid expansion inasmuch as proper planning and implementation appear to be lacking. …

The Implementation and Utilization of Stabilization Funds By Local Governments in Massachusetts

This paper examines the management of stabilization funds by local governments in Massachusetts. It assesses the implementation and funding of stabilization funds and explores how they were utilized to respond to a midyear reduction in state aid. We find that stabilization funds correlate weakly with unreserved general fund balances. We also construct multiple regression models to predict stabilization and general fund balances. We surmise that communities have either implicit or explicit financial management strategies in which slack resources play more than countercyclical roles. Further research is needed to determine the role of stabilization funds in local government financial management strategies.

Will gasb 34 induce changes in local government forecasting practice? a preliminary investigation

Certain of GASB Statement 34’s requirements might on their face induce an upgrading of local sector forecasting capacity as well as a reduction of tolerated forecast error. Results from our national survey of local and county finance officers suggest that respondents with graduate degrees who work in offices with forecasting software may respond to GASB 34 implementation in a manner consistent with this expectation. Others are unlikely to view the standard as a cue to enhance their forecast capacity at this early stage of rollout. Our results also suggest that the norm of revenue underforecasting is deep-seated and that survey results understate its magnitude. These results are a baseline; further experience with the GASB 34 may alter practitioner perception of need and lead to deployment of more advanced forecasting methodology and heightened expectations of forecast accuracy.

Critical Questions for the Transition to Defined Contribution Pension Systems in the Public Sector

Unfunded liabilities of pension plans sponsored by state and local governments have drastically increased in the past few years. This article examines the potential challenges faced by states and municipalities in meeting their pension obligations and explores the cost and benefits of a switch from traditional defined benefit (DB) plans to defined contribution (DC) plans. The authors draw on the experience of the private sector to depict the potential cost savings for governments and the likely impacts on employees. The authors also identify several issues that are unique to governments if a shift in pension coverage plans is to occur. One of the attractions of public sector employment has been the generous benefits offered; the authors examine whether it will be harder to recruit people in the public sector if the government does not offer DB pensions. The authors explore equity issues and the effects of eroding political support for public sector DB systems in light of their demise in the private sector. The authors also address the issue of financial illiteracy in the work place and its impact on the human resource function in the context of DC plan implementation. Finally, the authors pose critical questions regarding DC plan rollout and its inherent difficulties.

Supply management concepts in local government: Four case studies

The purpose of the article is to examine the factors that either foster or impede adoption of supply-chain management processes by public sector organizations, as well as to identify the potential benefits that can be achieved by local governments through the use of the supply chain framework. Case study findings suggest that in order for supply chain management innovation to occur in the public sector a number of factors must be addressed, including the willingness to invest in information technology; identifying opportunities for procurement to transition from a control to a support function; seeking to partner organizational expertise with vendor expertise; the ability to identify crucial supplies and strategic issues that add value to the organization; and to innovate incrementally. Results suggest that the adoption of a supply chain perspective can yield innovative procurement techniques.

What hath the gasb wrought? the utility of the new reporting model: A national survey of local government finance officers

Results from a national survey of local government finance directors suggest that five years after implementation, the post-Statement 34 accrual-based accounting model has done little to stimulate the development of operating cost data (such as activity-based costing) or performance measurement, and provides decision makers with little information to improve short- or long-term financial planning,. While younger respondents attach greater value-added to the New Reporting Model (NRM), overall support for the hybrid approach (traditional fund reporting plus entitywide full accrual reporting) is limited. Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behavior applied in prior accounting research; traditional sociological drivers (community size, form of government, and other demographic factors.) do not impact perceptions of the NRM. Findings also suggest accrual anomie due to lack of experience with this basis of accounting.

Simulating Massachusetts Municipalities' Recession Readiness: Early Warning of a Perfect Storm?

We simulate effects of two recessions on Massachusetts municipalities in light of their relative dependence on state aid, capacity to increase property taxes under Proposition 2½ constraints, growth, and non-discretionary costs. We also explore the efficacy of local government stabilization funds in light of current literature on stabilization funds, slack resources in general, and the state/local fiscal relationship. We found substantial variance in Massachusetts municipalities recession readiness. Fifty-five (16 percent) municipalities have insufficient resources to weather a severe recession scenario without significant sacrifice due to reliance on state grants-in-aid, low property tax revenue growth, erosion of property tax revenue increments by increases in non-discretionary expenditures, and inadequate stabilization funds.

Critical Issues in the Transition From the Defined Benefit to the Defined Contribution Pension Model Perceptions From Florida Municipal Finance and Human Resource Directors

The dramatically increased costs of maintaining many public pension systems after the recent economic downturn have spurred a number of state and local governments to reassess the sustainability of traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans and to explore reforms. To relieve this fiscal burden, some municipalities have considered implementing defined contribution (DC) plans for some portions of their workforce. This article explores critical issues attendant to implementing this paradigm shift. Utilizing a survey, the authors examine the perceptions of municipal finance and human resource managers regarding this potential transition. Findings indicate that these groups hold virtually identical positions on these issues. Reforms undertaken to bolster sustainability of the DB-centered model may bear unanticipated consequences—both positive and negative—that are largely unexplored given their recentness. Practitioners should prepare for these eventualities.

Teaching “Supply-Side” Social Equity in MPA Programs

Abstract The issue here examined grows out of the proposition that tax policy is the public policy that has the most pernicious effects on social equity in the United States. We hold that this proposition is so self-evident that it need be examined only tangentially to the main topics of this article: first, why would tax policy be excluded from a core MPA course on social equity, and second, how could the social equity implications of alternative tax structures be most effectively explored in the graduate classroom? The second proposition on which this analysis rests is that the substance of social equity is ultimately operationalized as economic equity. This does not refer simply to the distribution of income that emerges from market transactions, but rather to the distribution of the total range of social goods and other benefits produced by a society. The social goods and benefits that are the products of collective actions taken to either supplement or correct the distribution that emerges from the private sector are of particular interest here. The term correct leads naturally to the question of what is the correct distribution, and this issue is ultimately a purely political one whose resolution can only be informed by analysis.