Archives for June 2009

Those who work for the City of Dayton or follow city news know that the city has had a rule in its city charter since 1987 stating that anybody employed by the City of Dayton (including police and fire) must live in a primary residence within the city limits.  This rule has been fought by many employees over the past several years, and it has gone through the court system all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, where a state ban on the practice has just today been ruled constitutional.  In the mean time, it has been discussed elsewhere that the city employs private detectives to snoop on employees they suspect are not actually living within the city limits.  And whether or not that is true, it can’t be argued that the city has paid quite a bit of money in legal fees to keep the fight going.  But what exactly is the city trying to accomplish?  Why does the city insist that this residency rule is worth so much to fight for?  What is the city afraid of?

Fellow blogger David Esrati has blogged about Dayton’s residency rule as perhaps others have, so I’m hardly the first blogger to weigh in on this.  But I believe the residency rule should be lifted and the fight to keep it should end.  Aside from whatever this means from a legal implementation stand point (it was in fact voted on by Dayton’s citizens), the residency rule is much more trouble than its worth – and I believe our city would be better off without it.

I’ve heard all the reasons for keeping the residency rule – everything from the fear of a mass city exodus by city employees if it was lifted, to the notions that city employees will do their jobs more effectively if they have a personal stake in the city (ie a primary residence), and fire and police will be more knowledgeable and empathetic about city neighborhoods if they in fact live in them.  But are these in fact rational arguments?  I say no.

If the residency rule is ultimately overturned, I’m sure many employees will immediately look to move out of the city.  Perhaps they wish to move to a better school district or have other reasons for wishing to move as maybe their personal circumstances have changed since when they first took the city job.  But I doubt the exodus will be as massive as is feared – if employees really wanted to move out of the city then they would do so and simply take a job elsewhere.  And good employees will typically give 100% if they are doing a job they enjoy and working for management they believe in; whether they actually live in the city or not is irrelevant.

Lifting the residency rule would also have tremendous benefits.  Imagine increasing the size of the talent pool from which to choose city employees – does anybody not think this would be a benefit to our city?  I’d rather hire a stellar candidate who lives in Oakwood or Kettering instead of having to settle on a mediocre employee whose best qualification is being a city resident.  I’m not at all suggesting that all of our city staff are mediocre (I happen to know some very talented city staffers, and our fire and police are already top notch), but even if we only replaced city staff through attrition we’d still be better off if we had the whole region as a talent pool to choose from.

Finally, the residency rule is simply another negative reinforcement that sends a terrible message and makes Dayton seem like a desperate and stifling organization to work for.  Instead of yet more fighting on the part of the city to keep the residency rule intact (next step – U.S. Supreme Court?), I expect more out of our city’s leadership.  While we’d lose some employees as city residents, we’d also have a chance to gain new residents as employees from other parts of the region who might ultimately choose to move INTO the city as they become more involved through their employment in it.  That may sound idealistic, but isn’t that the kind of thinking we need to move our city forward?

(Image credit: Blue Day Media)

Read more discussion about this topic at the DMM Forum – and join the conversation

I’ve noticed with all of the news articles, opinion pieces and various commentary – everybody refers to this as “NCR relocating to Atlanta”.  Atlanta this, Atlanta that.  Yes, there is a lesson to be learned here for Dayton and it is exactly what I wrote about in my previous post – the need for the entire Dayton region to once and for all give up on all the parochialistic attitudes and come together a one single region – first in attitude, but ultimately in organization and government.

NCR is not moving to Atlanta; its new headquarters will be in Duluth, GA which is not only 30 miles away from the city of Atlanta, it is in a different county (Gwinnett).  NCR had already moved customer service operations to Peachtree, GA – 35 miles southwest of Atlanta in yet another county.  Additionally, Georgia is building a brand new manufacturing facility for NCR that will employ 870 people in Columbus, GA – which is over 100 miles away from Atlanta and actually closer to Montgomery, AL.  But despite these distances from the center city, the story is “NCR Moves to Atlanta.”

Distance-wise, this would roughly be the equivalent of a corporation locating its headquarters in Springfield, OH, moving its customer service office to Mason, OH and opening a manufacturing plant in Findlay, OH (with commute times being much longer in GA).  But given this Ohio equivalent example, does anybody think that this would be called a win for Dayton, Ohio?  Does anybody think that the name “Dayton” would even be mentioned?

Granted, it is unfair to compare Georgia to Ohio since Georgia truly has one single major city that everything else revolves around while Ohio has several large and medium-sized urban centers that are relatively close to one another.  Not to mention that Atlanta is the largest metro region in the entire southeast and dwarfs Ohio’s largest metro regions, let alone smaller Dayton… we may be talking apples to oranges (or apples to peaches as the case may be).  But Atlanta-proper is actually not that big – if Montgomery County, Ohio was a single city it would in fact be bigger than Atlanta in terms of population.

My point is that there is much power in having a unified region, where everybody identifies themselves as Dayton – regardless of whether you are in Centerville, Oakwood, or even in a different county like Beavercreek.  While our little fiefdoms are fighting amongst themselves (see Centerville vs Washington Township, Dayton vs Beavercreek, etc.) as we shuffle businesses and residents around the same region and call that economic development, regions like Atlanta are busy competing against Chicago, New York and other global cities.  That is, when they’re not sucking businesses away from smaller and weaker cities like Dayton.

We may be a long way off from UniGov – the politics, current power structures and general attitude of the population make that nothing more than a pipe dream today.  But we must be making transformational changes as a region that move us in that direction; ultimately we will have to start looking at ourselves as the Cincinnati/Dayton/Columbus region if we are to ever compete globally.  Local leaders are beginning to discuss this more – if you want to participate in the discussion or hear more about the ideas currently being discussed, attend the Economic Development Forum – Montgomery County event being hosted by the Dayton Business Journal on Tuesday June 23, 2009 at Sinclair Community College (click the link for registration details).  Or, join the on-going discussions on this topic right here on the DaytonMostMetro.com Forum, under Regionalism.

As if being listed as a top-ten dying city last year wasn’t enough of a wake-up call, Dayton’s largest and most famous home-grown company NCR has announced its relocation to Atlanta and sent shock waves throughout the region and up to the state capital. While various city, regional and state leaders spent their media time complaining about NCR’s unwillingness to return phone calls or come to the table, they might have inspired more confidence in our community with the following:

“We’d like to thank NCR for the 125 years they’ve been an integral part of the Dayton community. We appreciate the support you’ve shown to our local arts & culture groups and other non-profit organizations over the years, and we will always cherish the rich history that your company has had with Dayton going back to the days of John Patterson. NCR’s departure comes as no surprise to those of us who have been trying to work with the company over the past several months to no avail, and we regret their decision to unceremoniously abandon Dayton. But starting this very minute we will look forward to new opportunities with emerging and growing businesses and remain committed to all of those companies that actually wish to stay and grow in the Dayton Region. We will not dwell on what has been lost, but we will take advantage of this opportunity to make the bold changes necessary that will transform our city and region.”

“Dayton’s past represents the era of a few mega corporations that the community relied on in every facet of life, but Dayton’s future represents a brand new environment created to attract and nurture thousands of small and medium-sized businesses that are able to innovate, grow and retain top talent. This new reality will require a completely new way we operate government at the local, regional and state levels, and we are dedicated to making the hard decisions that will get us to where we need to be.”

Those are simply words, and words alone will not push our community forward – bold action is required. It seems as though NCR’s ‘sudden’ departure has struck quite a nerve at the highest levels in state government, and it is time to capitalize on the attention we now have from the state. Here are some things I would focus on if I was leading the charge:

Transform Tax Structure
We must completely overhaul our antiquated tax structure that may have made sense decades ago but is now the single largest force against our region’s ability to work together. The current system forces cities to rely on income tax, the counties to rely on sales tax and townships to rely on property tax. Added to a political climate which pits rural and suburban communities against urban cities, it is no wonder our region is so divided. Change must happen at the state level in order to implement a more equitable tax structure that encourages communities to work together rather than compete against one another.

Consolidate, Cut, Streamline, Simplify
We must consolidate similar organizations when at all possible, cut every duplicate administrative role possible and streamline our remaining organizations to become as efficient as possible – thereby freeing up more resources that can be invested in our communities and businesses. It is never easy to kill positions, but businesses do it every day in order to survive – we must do it if we are to survive as a region. In addition to cost savings, simplifying our system gives us a better opportunity to speak to businesses with one regional voice – an ability we’ve paid a significant price for lacking all of this time.

Change the Culture
We must finally transform ourselves away from a series of individual counties and communities competing with one another and into a single region that values the unique identities of our individual communities but that works closely together to ensure that every investment and development decision is made to maximize the benefit to the entire region. Only when the diversity of choices our region offers both residents and businesses alike is considered an asset rather than an “us vs them” argument will we become a unified region. And only when we become a unified region will we become attractive to outside business and investment. Culture change is not easy, but it can happen with true leadership and an effective message to the community at-large.

Strengthen the Core
Our entire region is seeing the effects of having a weak urban core, as we are seeing our largest businesses flee to regions with strong central cities. While others debate whether or not the city’s current leadership has effectively done its job for the city, those we elect in the future must be able to inspire confidence and speak not just for the city but for the entire region – even if they do not have any official regional power outside of the city’s borders. City government must do a much better job at attracting responsible residents and businesses to the core. And at the same time, the region at large must get over its irrational attitudes and biases against the city and understand once and for all that we’re all in this together.

Change is never easy, and the type of change that will be necessary to push the Dayton Region forward will be especially difficult. It will require true leaders who are unified with their mission and message to a region that is now extremely divided. Politics must be set aside, and individual egos and personal agendas that conflict with the greater good must be fully exposed and destroyed. The question is – do we have the will to make Dayton emerge a different yet stronger city and region? Or will we simply become paralyzed by the enormous challenges we face as Dayton sinks further into irrelevance and becomes a far-away exurb to Cincinnati? What do you think?