Taming City Hall

People are no longer tolerant of government as usual. They are making themselves heard loud and clear at the ballot box. But can elected officials respond to this mandate and bring about real change without significant trade offs to government bureaucracies, special interests, or organized labor? Taming City Hall is the remarkable story of how one government's leadership team took the bull by the horns and voluntarily responded to citizens' call for government austerity. From 1987 to 1993, the City Council, City Manager Gerald Seals, and their staffs "rightsized" the city government of Corvallis, Oregon. Beginning in 1988, each successive budget was less than the preceding one, and the results speak for themselves: taxes reduced 10 percent, major crime down 11 percent, productivity up 10 percent, employee salaries increased 35 percent, and budget cut from $83 million to $43 million. Corvallis has been recognized as perhaps the first city in the country to employ rightsizing successfully and measure the results. Taming City Hall includes illustrations, key performance indicators, anecdotes, and actual rightsizing documents that you, your neighbors, and your local officials can use to make your local government work smarter.