Deputy Goldsmith Mike Bloomberg Lobbyist & Private Contractors Rejoice Vs. Tax Payers Robbed Low Tier NYC Gov. Workers Laid-off

http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2011/07/mike-bloombergs-deputy-goldsmith-reader.html

another reference to NYC Deputy Mayor Goldsmith from David Hoppe's 1/26/05 NUVO alternative weekly column in Indianapolis:

 "You remember Steve Goldsmith. Used to be mayor of Indianapolis. Ran for governor claiming that he was CEO of the state’s biggest city and wanted to be CEO of the entire state. Got clobbered in the election, and took a particular pasting in Marion County where his “customers” (or were we supposed to be “the help”?) closed his account. Well, now Goldsmith is a professor at Harvard University. Which puts the lie to the right-wing saw that American universities are bastions of ill-conceived, subversive poppycock — or, on second thought, maybe not. Anyway, Goldsmith writes, “Government itself is being transformed into a fundamentally different model, ‘governing by network,’ in which executives redefine their core responsibilities from managing people and programs to coordinating resources for producing public value.” It turns out Goldsmith has written a book called Governing By Network: The New Face of the Public Sector. He goes on to say that “governing by network” represents the confluence of four trends, the first of which is “the use of private firms and nonprofits to do government’s work.” Why is it that when Steve Goldsmith says “governing by network” I immediately think “crony capitalism”? Maybe it has something to do with how he ran this city’s public transit system into the ground by trying to privatize it. Or the way he cut city employees by half and then made a mess of parks maintenance by channeling contracts to a big campaign contributor. And isn’t “governing by network” what the Bush Administration had in mind when Dick Cheney gathered his oil industry friends behind closed doors to draft the country’s energy policy? I suppose when Halliburton received billions of dollars worth of no-bid contracts to help make Iraq such a great success, that was governing by network at its best. “By using outside partners to deliver a service or accomplish a task, managers can hire, fire, assign and reassign on short notice,” Goldsmith writes. Public employees take note. Private contractors, with your high-priced administrative fees and your lobbyists, get out your wallets. Talk about déjà vu...”

Thanks Bob Feldman for sending me this and the earlier post which I added my own thoughts to as well....