Cutting back on senior-level bureaucracy is fast becoming a staple of District Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration. Whether the reorganization will improve government, however, is not yet clear.
The latest example of streamlining is in the office of Neil Albert, deputy mayor for Economic Development and Planning, a central agency in implementing Fenty’s campaign pledge to “run the government like a business.”
The office had consisted of the deputy mayor, seven core program areas and seven sub areas. But this week, it was downsized so the deputy mayor oversees only five areas: economic development finance, real estate, community development, operations and affordable housing.
Too much bureaucracy harkens to a time “when we didn’t have a highly functioning government,” Albert said Thursday. If a program needed special attention, he said, people thought the best way was to have a deputy mayor “lord over it.”
“We don’t have any lordships here any more,” he said.
Instead, program areas will shift to more appropriate agencies.
The realignment will eliminate five to eight positions, including directors and project managers, saving at least $250,000 a year, Albert said.
In November, Fenty announced he would get rid of three of four deputy mayor offices, though he then created a new deputy mayor for education. Last month, Health Director Gregg Pane announced he would realign his department, reducing the number of health administrations and several senior positions.
The current trend in management is streamlining, to “push accountability down in the organization,” George Washington University Public Policy and Public Administration Professor James Kee said.
“I think the trend is toward less bureaucracy and more interaction between top leaders and rank-and-file workers,” Kee said. “It’s a very appropriate strategy if your desire is to develop a more collaborative administrative style.”
The one downside, he said, is that losing middle managers means dropping the people who are most experienced in communicating with regular workers.
