“I knew I’d be arrested if I spent another night in Harrisburg. Cursed city!”
Jack Kerouac made that observation after a rough evening, much of it spent walking along the banks of the Susquehanna River with a hobo, while passing through our little city.
Indeed, it often seems that Harrisburg is cursed, at least since the late 1940s when Kerouac made the cross-country trip that resulted in the famous beat generation novel, “On the Road.” In the post-war period, the city has experienced almost unrelenting bad news ranging from de-industrialization to repeated floods to depopulation to profoundly irresponsible governance to near bankruptcy. And that’s the short list.
Harrisburg, though, now has the chance—the chance—to start anew, to move in a fresh direction. In January, the city will have new leadership and will begin to seriously implement the Harrisburg Strong financial recovery plan. In a city’s history, such opportunities for radical change don’t come about often.
No doubt, Mayor-elect Eric Papenfuse will face tremendous pressure on big issues once he takes the oath of office in January. He will need to assemble and deploy competent managers and staff; get up to speed on how best to handle the large, entrenched bureaucracy; ensure that critical services are delivered without interruption; and carry out many elements of the complicated Strong plan, among other overwhelming issues.
There are, though, numerous small things that Papenfuse could do immediately, with little effort, which would go a long way towards starting out right. Seeing to these would indicate a new day in Harrisburg, a clear break from the often-toxic, disruptive, high-handed Reed/Thompson approach to governing, which too often isolated the mayor and turned potential allies into enemies.
Court and respect City Council. Even in Harrisburg’s strong-mayor form of government, council members wield substantial power. It’s hard to get anything meaningful done without their support. So, meet with them, listen to them, involve them early in important matters and show that you respect them and their concerns. Also, as I’ve said before, don’t just send your underlings to council meetings. Go yourself, listen attentively and make yourself available as needed. Thompson’s original sin as mayor was immediately going to the mat with council over her first budget, which set off four years of often-pointless combat.
Follow the rules: Time and again, Reed and Thompson stumbled by not following proper rules and procedures. Reed knew the rules but habitually chose to ignore or go around them for the sake of expediency or to avoid checks on his power. Thompson often didn’t seem to understand processes or their importance, such as when she bypassed mandated principles when launching a redraft of the city’s comprehensive plan. Not following established rules is an unforced, avoidable error, one that will be exposed and has nothing but downside.
Be gracious and humble: In his acceptance speech as mayor-elect, Papenfuse said, “I’m a stronger and humbler man than the one who started this race.” I hope that’s so, as humility has been in short supply in the mayor’s office for a long time. Here are few ways to show the public that an attitude adjustment has arrived in city hall. First, get rid of Thompson’s wasteful security detail, car and driver. Second, don’t refer to yourself in the third person. Third, ditch other trappings of the office that have built up over time, such as the ridiculous “mayor’s tent” at festivals. The mayor of Harrisburg is a local public servant of 49,500 people, not a head of state, not a dictator and not chosen by God. There must be daily understanding and acceptance that the mayor serves the people, not the other way around.
Make the past public: Papenfuse spent years as an outspoken critic of Reed’s financing schemes and as an advocate for good government. Therefore, I trust that he will make good on his vow to release documents that may be relevant to how Harrisburg tumbled into the financial abyss. I’m not one who likes to pick at old wounds, but city residents, who pay each day for past wrongs, deserve as full an accounting as possible.
Expect criticism and don’t take it personally: As mayor of Harrisburg, you will be criticized constantly. You must accept that criticism comes with the office and take it in stride, even with good humor, even when you think it’s unfair. My best advice: ignore it entirely and move forward with your job. Do not let it distract you. If you believe press criticism is egregious, follow procedures to meet with editors and reporters. Do not call reporters to scream at them or refuse to meet with them because you feel they’ve “disrespected the office of the mayor,” both of which have happened to us.
Lastly, Papenfuse must always keep in mind his primary job—to provide a core set of services to residents who are paying for them through taxes and fees. The mayor is an administrator elected (hired) to head up the citizens’ collective that we call municipal government, which pools money to purchase things like police, fire and sanitation services. Somewhere during the past 30 years, the mayoralty morphed into something else, a strange mix of power-obsessed CEO, celebrity and monarch. To regain our bearings as a city, the mayor must return to his traditional role as a manager charged with delivering critical services to the 11.4 square miles that we call Harrisburg.
Papenfuse could begin to make these remedies immediately, from his first day in office. They won’t cost a dime and could well set the right tone within the government and with residents for years to come. Doing these things may help separate Harrisburg from its long-held reputation as “cursed city.”
Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.
