Thursday, March 18, 2010
Government A Decent Proposal: Marlin Mosby
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 8:30 AM
[As stated yesterday, the Flyer's cover story this week takes an early look at the consolidation process and players. To read it, click here.]
For the last 25 years, Marlin Mosby has been trying to hire Ivy League graduates to come to Memphis to work with his company, Public Financial Management (PFM). And in that 25 years, he's been able to convince only a few who didn't already have ties to the area.
"We hired two who came here and they left within a couple of years," he says. "Most I wasn't able to get here. ... People who want to compete against the best and want to be at the highest level of their career, they don't see Memphis as a place where they are going to be successful."
He staffs his office here with Rhodes graduates.
(I know, I know. You're thinking: What does this have to do with consolidation?)
PFM is the financial adviser for Shelby County, Germantown, Collierville, and Bartlett, and was a consultant for the city of Memphis for 20-plus years until a few years ago. As he sees it, Memphis doesn't have high taxes because of government inefficiency or corruption:
"It appears on the surface that we're paying a significantly higher tax rate than Nashville/Davidson County. To make it comparable, you have to figure out what the tax rate would be if you levelized it across the whole community," Mosby says. "It brings it much closer."
But the most important factor for him is the relatively large number of children in the area. In the Memphis region, school-aged children account for almost a quarter of the population. In almost every other city, school-aged children are about a fifth of the population.
School-aged children consume a lot of resources, and don't contribute a dime. But it's not because the area has a preternaturally high birth rate.
Generally, the bulk of a place's taxes are paid by people 25 to 50. Unfortunately, those are the people that are leaving Memphis and Shelby County.
"If you look at the difference in the percentage of the population we have of school-aged children versus the percentage of the population of school-aged children in Nashville ... it works out to about $200 million a year," Mosby says. "For every working family, we have to spend more money to finance schools."
And that's just with education. It doesn't take into account the criminal justice system or the health department.
"That implies to me that we're not doing quite as poorly as we think we are," he says. "We have a demographic issue that drives the way we spend money here."
Mosby suggests that we need to retain and attract talent (something that several groups are working on around town). The other idea would be to make education less costly.
"The big dollar savings are in schools," Mosby says of consolidation. "There would be a huge impact on savings if we could find some way to consolidate schools but keep neighborhood control of them. But it's a non-starter at this point."
The charter commission established early on that it wasn't interested in consolidating the school systems, as it's just too controversial. And, as noted in John Branston's sidebar, "Why Is It So Hard to Reform Government?" in this week's story, schools were a non-issue in both the Indianapolis and Louisville consolidations, though for different reasons.
John also says this:
"What, then, is left besides good intentions after you carve out schools and public safety, which account for most public employees and budget expenses, from rebuilt government?"
Mosby thinks the final charter document will be watered down, but says he's still for consolidation.
"It saves money, but it doesn't save huge amounts of money," he says. "Obviously there is duplication, if you are able to eliminate that duplication, it saves money."
PFM also consulted for Louisville during that city's consolidation with Jefferson County. That community spent years putting a plan together, and services changed dramatically afterward.
"Today they see themselves as a community and 10 years ago, they did not. Nashville sees itself as one community," he says. "If we can start a discussion about how to make this a place where people want to live, in the long-run, it helps everyone. We've gotten to the point where we don't want to have a discussion about the long run, all we care about is: What's it going to cost me today?"
"I don't think there's any question that it would be good," Mosby says of consolidation. "The history everywhere else has been positive."
Comments (10)
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"The history everywhere else has been positive." says Cobbins.
That's just not true. The best one can say is the history most everywhere else is marginal under the best of circumstances and leadership. And, there are very few examples of that! It isn't like there are city/county governments all across the country jumping on consolidation as their saving grace, because they aren't. Consolidation is an outmoded ineffective way to deal with the problems of Memphis. We need truthfulness in this "conversation" so voters can make an informed decision, not one molded by a blovated marketing campaign.
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With schools being the bulk of the tax burden, how can this subject be excluded from the consolidation talks?
What a blow hard! Does anyone care who he hires? Is he that wonderful that everyone should want to work for him? I'm sure people who work for him feel great that the are "second fiddle" to all those better qualified Ivy League grads that refuse to work in a place like Memphis (that doesn't have the best and brightest).
Rosemark Rebel:
More than 100 cities are right now looking into consolidation as a more efficient platform for innovative government. But every one else is wrong and the kneejerk anti-consolidation folks are right, I guess.
Speaking of bloviated...
Schools have to be left out because Memphis City Schools is a special district set up by the Legislature, and as a result, a Charter Commission can't touch them. And since the school districts have their own elected leaders, it seems reasonable that they should decide on the future of schools.
This is a very reasonable position on consolidation. Even his couterpoints are honest, reasonable and seem to be made without the benefit of political agenda. The truth is, this model HAS worked in other cities. Why do you think they have left Memphis eating their dust? As someone who was on the first thing smoking after high school (to UT -though Knoxville is a horrible city) and then again after college (to NY), I totally identify with this gentleman's plight to attract talent. I actually tried to get a job here just before 9/11 and couldn't - even with major market experience and a director's title under my belt before the age of 30. Others will share that same story. So many of us wanted to stay and want to come back, but not if it means having to take substandard jobs and wages. If anything blows, that does.
Mosby's not alone in having problems attracting folks here. Both The City of Memphis and Shelby Country are having a really hard time attracting companies. Part of the problem is that this area has two CEOs: A C Wharton and (right now) John Ford. No matter how much you may or may not admire these men, that still means two egos and two somewhat different agendas. With one leader and one elected body of representatives instead of two, we can have a coherent plan for our future that encompasses every citizen.
I have watched in envy at the transformation that has taken place in Nashville/Davidson County since they consolidated. And it hurts my heart every time I see Memphis placed high on an undesirable list like Forbe's recent "Most Miserable Cities to Live In." Consolidation isn't a cure all but at least with consolidated leadership we'll all be pulling for the same side. And that's a difference this community sorely needs.
I'm aware of the special district status afforded MCS, but let's get down to brass tacks. MCS and Shelby County Schools were split due to white flight and desegregation, plain and simple. With education being the single largest expenditure of local government, why are we not looking at ways to improve efficiency there? The separate but equal idea of the MCS/SCS split system is outdated and long over due for a change. If money could be (and should be) saved anywhere in local government it would be in these two entities.
Thanks phlo! Nothing like a week in the wilderness!
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