Management by walking around

When I was a much younger man I asked a successful local businessman if he had an MBA. No, he said, he had an MBWA — Management By Walking Around. That stuck with me throughout my business career and contributed to what success I achieved. Clearly it isn’t anything practised by our current city management, mayor or council.

Management’s first budget is ridiculous, not worthy of anyone who calls themselves a “manager” and conscious of the current fiscal circumstance. A little MBWA activity in Saskatoon would show examples of stupidly extravagant spending to just stupid. From hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace perfectly serviceable benches downtown to decals on a police half ton that spell out “truck unit” on three sides (as if anyone from Saskatchewan can’t pick out a pickup truck from a lineup of cars).

It is my hope that whoever approved the building plans for the Remai Modern or thought the new inconvenient and troublesome parking system was a good idea are already employed elsewhere, but if not, there’s a budget saving.

Any line item that calls for consulting fees should be eliminated. Let management come to council and explain each and every time, why they haven’t got the skill set to make recommendations without outside consultants.

All of us see through this annual practice of padding budgets, ultimately settling for what management really wanted after council supposedly shows fiscal responsibility by cutting here and there. I challenge city council to demand management come back with a zero increase budget. I’m confident I could name a dozen business people in this city that could cut the city budget by 10 per cent without anyone noticing except the beleaguered taxpayers — especially the working poor and our seniors.

Come on, let’s show everyone in Saskatoon you really are “managers” and can come up with a zero increase for the next two or three years. Rick Dobson, Saskatoon