Home Commentary Op-ed Source Manager’s Journal: For Mapp, Now Comes the Hard Part

Source Manager’s Journal: For Mapp, Now Comes the Hard Part

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Frank SchneigerGov. Kenneth Mapp’s excellent inaugural address brought to mind the most famous quote of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who died recently: “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.”

For most elected officials, the poetry part is hard, but the prose part is really hard.

That reality is particularly true for a governor of the Virgin Islands. While every state was hard hit by the great recession, none received the double blow of recession and the loss that the Hovensa closing represented.

Then, there is a third daunting reality, which is that the territory’s government employment driven economic model may be coming to the end of its useful lifespan.

This trifecta of misery is what Gov. Mapp inherits, fortunately from an administration that achieved the least-worst outcomes in the crisis and stabilized what could have been a downward spiral.

In his speech, the new governor touched on all of the most important priorities: economic growth, education, violence and community safety. (For the outside observer, there was one truly shocking note in the governor’s speech: the cost of electricity compared to anywhere else in the United States.)

The challenge now is in the “prose” of governing, most specifically in managing change and executing plans for improvement in the critical areas the governor outlined in his speech. As every executive either knows or quickly discovers, this is the really hard part. Strategy is easy. Execution is not.

It is even harder in the Virgin Islands for a very specific reason. It is difficult to get people that you have known for a long time to do something that they don’t want to do. Especially if they don’t feel that keeping their job depends on doing it. And, added to that, in many instances, if they have become quite comfortable over a long period of time in not doing what they don’t want to do.

All of this has produced high levels of cynicism and a deep pessimism about the possibility for real change. Rather than being openly addressed as a problem to be solved, cynicism and pessimism are like background noise that negatively affects, or, more accurately, infects, everything. They lead to the Virgin Islands version of French politics. In that version, everyone is in favor of big changes and improvements. But – a huge “but” – there is a single prerequisite to making these changes: everything has to remain the same for my group and me.

It doesn’t work, and the price that is paid goes up year after year. Hard times and retrenchment have the effect of magnifying these weaknesses, strengthening resistance to change and further raising the price. This is Gov. Mapp’s reality, and it fundamentally affects all of the goals that he has spelled out.

The quality of education will not improve in the absence of greater accountability for achieving higher standards, improved systems and processes and support for teachers in the classroom. Violence reduction and the achievement of community peace are achievable, but they are going to require more police officers and implementation of the public-private “community peace” initiative started last year on St.Thomas. The hospital crisis on St. Croix is far from being resolved, and will require hard decisions that do not relate only to money, but also to getting people to do things that they don’t want to do, or replacing them with someone who will.

In the end, money is a critical issue, but it is far from the only issue. There is merit to the conservative critique of trying to solve problems by throwing money at them. But, especially in the case of public safety, there is a pressing need for spending more money, and it is not clear where it will come from.

But assuming the money can be found, it needs to be connected to the formula for successful execution. That formula: a solid strategy plus the right people in the right jobs plus a culture of performance, problem solving and accountability plus basic systems and processes that work plus clarity and good communications. That formula provides a useful checklist of the challenges that the new administration faces in turning Gov. Mapp’s vision into reality.

January 7, 2015

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