Progressive Chicago

Bloomberg grant to help ‘re-invent’ Chicago city government

By FRAN SPIELMANCity Hall Reporter July 14, 2011 10:16AM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel likes to talk about “re-inventing” Chicago city government, making it less costly and more efficient and reducing the “time-in-line” it takes residents to access basic services.

Now, he’ll have $6 million in a foundation grant to help deliver on that promise over the next three years, courtesy of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Chicago is one of five cities awarded grants by Bloomberg Philanthropies, a foundation created by the Big Apple’s billionaire mayor. Chicago got the most money. Other winners of the 100-city competition: Atlanta, Louisville, Memphis and New Orleans.

In Chicago, officials plan to use the money to create a Bloomberg-style “Innovation Delivery Team” of efficiency experts, with marching orders to reduce the time it takes Chicagoans to access city services, and to create “Energy Efficient Target Zones” across the city in an effort to dramatically reduce energy consumption.

Bloomberg established similar teams to address sustainability, poverty and government efficiency. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair did the same for transportation, education, health and criminal justice.

“Mayors are uniquely positioned to tackle some of our most pressing challenges — from growing jobs to fighting climate change to keeping quality of life high,” Bloomberg said in a written statement distributed by Emanuel’s office. “The Mayors Project will fuel these efforts by spreading effective programs and strategies and helping mayors work together in new ways around solutions.”

Emanuel’s transition report, put together as he prepared to succeed former Mayor Richard M. Daley, called for creating a performance accountability system even more elaborate than the General Electric-style system implemented in 2005 by Ron Huberman, who was then Daley’s corruption-fighting chief-of-staff.

“Critical services will be prioritized and benchmarked against comparable cities and public and private sector performers for both quality and cost,” the report stated, promising “benchmarks” for garbage collection, construction, maintenance and infrastructure repairs.

Department heads who “significantly out-perform” their performance benchmarks will be given “greater autonomy.”

Emanuel said the “generous grant” from Bloomberg Philanthropies will bankroll the salaries and support services needed to create a “topnotch team in the mayor’s office to help us deliver better services to taxpayers for less.”

Last year, Bloomberg was in Chicago as Daley accepted a two-year, $200,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Chicago used the money to hire a full-time “chief service officer” to craft a citywide volunteerism plan, in part to help at-risk youth. Bloomberg had earlier formed the Cities of Service Coalition and had already appointed a chief service officer of his own.

http://www.suntimes.com/6508669-417/bloomberg-grant-to-help-re-invent-chicago-city-government.html