When the 2008 recession finally hit, the days of “pension rate holidays” for local agency employers were long gone. The process of recognizing the true costs of those unsustainable decisions to expand benefits has been slow and horrendously expensive.
Putting Public Policy Into Perspective Every public policy has the potential to disrupt our lives for better or worse. For example, when the Rural Electrification Administration was created with the support of President Roosevelt in 1935, critics predicted it would be a highly disruptive public policy. At the time, 90 percent of urban residents had electric power but only 10 percent of rural dwellers did. Many groups opposed the federal government’s involvement in developing and distributing electric power, especially private utility companies that
argued it was bringing the nation closer to socialism. Few would argue today, however, that the availability of affordable public power in rural areas was not essential. One of my mentors, E.A. Mosher of the League of Kansas Municipalities, taught me that there are no “do-overs” for some public policies, so you had better get it right the first time. In that category he often put wars and nuclear power. The former has the potential to do real good and evil at a staggering personal and public cost. The latter presented literally never-ending public health risks due to the intractable practical and political problems associated with disposing of nuclear waste. There is a reason we have not yet located a permanent storage site in the continental United States for nuclear waste decades after we started operating nuclear power plants.
We are endlessly capable of dreaming up disruptive technologies and policies that can enrich or dramatically damage our lives. The job and challenge of public sector leaders is to know when disruptive technology needs to be regulated, which disruptive policies are needed and which ones need much more study and testing. That is indeed the sweet spot of public sector leadership. ■
Correction In the August issue, page 25 captions incorrectly identified two photos as a Los Angeles County project. The photos actually showed a City of Hayward project. Western City regrets the error.
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Western City, September 2014
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