“Can’t I get the job done and inspire you at the same time?”
So asked then-long-shot-candidate Eric Papenfuse in a text message to me, shortly after he announced his intention to run for mayor of Harrisburg. He was responding to a column in the March 2013 issue of TheBurg, in which I had written that I would settle for basic competence from my next mayor, as opposed to some type of inspiration.
Since then, Papenfuse and I have revisited that topic several times, including in an extensive Q&A in the current issue of TheBurg, as well as in several casual conversations. I set the bar at competence; he raises it with both competence and inspiration.
Therefore, I was pleased, if a little surprised, at the stone-cold pragmatism he’s demonstrated during his first week in office.
It started right at the beginning, during his swearing-in on Monday. His address focused not on grand ideas, theoretical concepts, dreams or history, but on repairing the bedraggled municipal building. After brief, plain-spoken remarks, he led reporters on a tour of City Hall’s dirt, disrepair and dank, hoping to use the assembled media and rolling cameras to put out a public call for private funds.
I’ve written that I see a mayor, primarily, as an administrator tasked with delivering a core group of critical services to the people–the residents–who are paying for them. And nothing is more fundamental to that mission than providing a decent environment for workers who must deliver those services. That said: even I was surprised by the smallness of the small ball. That’s not intended as criticism, but as an acknowledgement that reform and advancement of city government must start at the bottom, building up from there.
Papenfuse’s cabinet appointments similarly showed attention to the practical realities of governing and delivering services. We already knew that the well-connected and respected Joyce Davis would serve as communications director. He then named Neil Grover, a founder of Debt Watch Harrisburg and special counsel to City Council, as city solicitor. Former Councilman Bruce Weber will serve as budget and finance director, and Aaron Johnson, Papenfuse’s former rival for mayor, will lead the Public Works Department.
Taken together, the appointments serve another important and practical function. These department heads all have ties to City Council, which should help Papenfuse with Harrisburg’s often-contentious legislative body. He seems to understand the reality that he cannot dictate, that, in order to get anything done, he needs the support of council members. That may sound obvious, but it’s a lesson that both mayors Reed and Thompson never seemed to learn, to their–and the city’s–great detriment.
When I was a young reporter in New Jersey, I covered our area’s local legislative delegation. At the time, a long-time state assemblyman was appointed to the Senate following a vacancy. When I learned of the appointment, I called him and asked what his priorities would be as a state senator. I suppose that I expected the articulation of some great goal or, lacking that, at least a few talking points out of the Republican playbook (less government, lower taxes). Instead, he told me that he wanted to make sure that the grass was cut regularly along state highways, that he was always bothered by the overgrowth and weeds in the medians and at the sides of the roads as he motored along to Trenton. So, he’d make that his first order of business.
Standing in Harrisburg’s City Hall the other day, I remembered that story. Given my past conversations with Papenfuse, I was expecting his inaugural speech to be gilded with soaring rhetoric, grand ideas, lofty goals–words and phrases designed to inspire. Instead, he wanted to patch some ceilings and repair some walls.
I was OK with that. Harrisburg badly needs to fix itself, and the municipal building seems like a fine place to start. As the week wore on, I began to see an administration playing the long game, not issuing edicts from on high but courting council and the public, laying down a foundation for actions to come. I also saw a focus on basic municipal services, as well as action on a few other practical, first-order items (a help desk instead of a security check, no metal detectors, no security detail, a meeting with Attorney General Kathleen Kane).
Perhaps, in weeks or months, Papenfuse will unpack the inspiration that I’m sure he still considers important. But, personally, I found this first week encouraging. As a resident, I want the grass cut, the potholes fixed, the roads striped, the trash collected. That’s what I want from my local government, and that requires several necessary conditions: a motivated workforce, good managers and a healthy relationship with City Council.
