The Herald-Sun has a story in its Sunday edition about an opinion poll that city officials commissioned to see what the taxpayers think of their performance. According to the story, citizens feel better about the city’s performance that they did the last time the poll was taken, but they still give low marks for street maintenance.
There’s not much detail in the story about what exactly the city fared better on since the 2007 poll, so it’s hard to say how well the city is doing in particular areas. Did they go up from a 29 percent to a 34 percent in, say, transparency, or did they go down? We don’t know.
We also don’t know what the survey cost, because that’s not in the story. Not sure if the question wasn’t asked or if the city didn’t reveal it, but I think that’s important for us, meaning citizens of Durham, to know.
Another question is why is this tracking poll even necessary. There was a time when elected and appointed officials knew what the public thought of their performance, and they acted accordingly. They didn’t need to hire a consultant to find out. But that was when city managers and other bureaucrats had some political expertise. Nowadays they’re just technocrats with MPAs who think politics — meaning caring enough to know at all times what the mood of the public is — is a bad word.
This is what I call the “death of expertise” in municipal government. Nobody has any real skills anymore. If they need something studied, they hire a consultant, usually for a minimum of a six-figure price. As with taking the pulse of the public, there was a time when city officials, when asked by their councils to study something, did it themselves.
And, funny thing, things worked better back then.
