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CBRM’s management problems go beyond garbage

Reflections on how to reform a faltering municipal bureaucracy

Imagine for a moment the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) with excellent, responsive, no-nonsense delivery of public services.

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Imagine municipal politicians and senior staff relentlessly pushing something like a FACE Forward agenda.

That’s my shorthand acronym: It stands for fast – as in quick delivery of good services and rapid responses to citizens. Active – meaning healthy residents and engaged, well-designed communities. Clean – as in clean it up, literally and figuratively. Excellence-focused – as in striving to be the best bureaucracy for a mid-size municipality in Canada, creatively using limited resources and getting help from the community.

The forward part means finding solutions, not excuses. It means just getting on with things.

CBRM’s many recent problems with waste (non-) collection – labelled “growing pains” by senior staff – have literally hit home with thousands of residents.

Why did the tender fail, and why wasn’t there a second, re-structured (or subdivided) tender?

Why did management leave so little time to transition away from contractor pick-up to in-house pick-up?

Why were contingency plans missing to handle staff absences?

Did public communications falter again – as they often have with transit during snowstorms?

'We have to get this right': CBRM's open-air burning bylaw........

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