The Silver Lining Playbook: Under New Management Part 3

A dark cloud of incompetence and corruption hangs over Savannah's city hall. From out of the east a ray of hope shines through the darkness in the form of Chatham County Manager Lee Smith, who has just completed his first year on the job and shows what competent management really looks like. If Savannah was managed in similar fashion, we wouldn't have half the problems we're faced with now.

You gotta love Lee Smith.

A newcomer to the Lowcountry, Lee started out by getting out of his office and meeting people in the communities that he serves. In meeting with city managers with different agendas he was able to quickly find the common ground. His hardest task was having to deal with Savannah's city manager over the police merger, which remains his single biggest challenge and there is no question as to why.

One of the first things Smith did was run internal and external audits and turned up the problems at Building Safety and Probate Court. He wasted no time in drafting a new financial policy to include internal controls previously lacking and has placed all departments handling cash under video surveillance. Not content with merely finding and fixing problems, Smith went to the root cause of the problems and addressed inconsistencies in oversight-- which remains a fundamental flaw in Savannah's system.

Oh, but there's much more to this Lee Smith: He's all about the zero-based budget, a process more thorough than the former model and requires justification for every single expense. Yeah, try imposing that downtown, fellow Savannahians...

The mess that Smith inherited regarding capital purchases will take as long as five years for him to fix. But he intends to cure the lack of planning by developing a long-term strategic plan to gather data and develop a blueprint that will span the next 20 years. Most forward-thinking managers are lucky if they can install a 10-year plan for their cities-- Savannah hasn't got a 10-minute plan, much less a 10-year-- and here Smith is drawing a bead on 2035.

Citizens that have a problem with the County can get in touch directly with Smith and comments are entered into the record. In addition to the ability to reach him through an email address that is vigilantly attended, Smith plans to hold regularly scheduled public meetings.

Compare and contrast to the City of Savannah, where town halls have been suspended and emails go unanswered. It's all part of Smith's overall approach that the public deserves respect from its government, to be heard when they have a problem, and that no government employee is "entitled" to their job.

In this election year it is shocking to me that Savannah's city counsel allows their city manager to mumble and bumble her way through an agenda that changes on a daily basis, has ceased to interact with the public, has no checks and balances, a budget that is pure science fiction, a total lack of planning for the future, and a lack of regard for the general public. Cutter remains insulated by a counsel that rewards her handsomely to take the flak while they take the bribes and spread it around with their cronies. We have only to look at the total mess that is the SCMPD merger and see Cutter at her incompetent worst and Smith at his patient best, and wish that the former was half as efficient as the latter.

As Savannah's next mayor, all I can promise is that on day one of the new administration, we hold an open, honest nationwide search for someone like Lee Smith to manage the City of Savannah.