A Vision for Boston:
Questions for the 2009 Mayoral Candidates

Day 2: City Personnel Spending

As a candidate for Mayor what do you think is the best way to control the growth in employee compensation and ensure a sustainable workforce?

Response from Councilor Flaherty:

We shouldn’t have to choose between having a quality workforce and bankrupting our city. Tackling Boston’s fiscal crisis and escalating personnel costs requires strong data-driven management and the adoption of innovative technologies that make government run more efficiently and responsibly. My administration will adopt CitiStat, a management program that tracks government activities, providing real-time data for each city department. To date, CitiStat has saved cities like Baltimore millions of dollars by identifying and cutting wasteful spending. Sweeping annual performance reviews will also be conducted to pinpoint areas for improvement, consolidation, or elimination in all departments, services and programs. At the same time, we will reduce personnel spending by joining the state’s Group Insurance Commission and enrolling city retirees into Medicare. This commonsense and proven solution is a win-win initiative for everyone since taxpayers will no longer have to foot the city’s expensive health care bills and city employees will have access to quality health insurance. By running a more efficient government and trimming wasteful spending, we can achieve meaningful savings that can be redirected towards maintaining appropriately staffed schools, police force, fire department and other critical services that have been compromised by funding gaps.