City of Long Beach seeks accountability

In the City of Long Beach, there's a stark contrast between its thriving downtown, a magnet for the young, and its lurching city hall, a lesson in how not to operate. It's time for the government to hum like the nightlife.

This week, the city got the latest fiscal bad news: Moody's Investors Service sharply downgraded its bond rating. Earlier, the city had to borrow to meet the final December payroll and fund termination pay for some employees. The city council's Democratic minority tried unsuccessfully to stop the termination-pay borrowing. But the election restored Democrats to the majority, the fourth power switch in the past eight years -- after three decades of Democratic control.

Clearly, a change of control is not enough. A change in approach is what's really needed. So the incoming council's announcement this week of its choice for city manager offers an encouraging sign that Long Beach is ready for something new: real accountability.

Jack Schnirman was deputy supervisor in the much larger Town of Brookhaven, when Democrats won control in the 2005 election, after long GOP dominance. He helped install and manage ServiceStat, a data-driven system for making department heads accountable. And he plans to enforce the same day-to-day discipline in Long Beach.

Now the job of the city council is to stand behind its new manager as he turns the government upside-down, until it works. It will be painful at times, as Schnirman learned in Brookhaven. But if the council backs him fully in cleaning up the mess, maybe Long Beach the government can live up to the reputation of Long Beach the destination.