Remarks Delivered By John McGauley
Candidate for 1st District Allen County Commissioner
January 12, 2012
Since 2007, you have trusted me with the privilege of serving as Allen County Recorder. I have worked hard to pay back your trust by making ambitious commitments to do things better and to improve the state-of-the-art in local government.
And if there is one thing you should know about me, it’s this: Unlike too many others in government, I deliver. When I tell you I’m going to do something, I mean it and I do it. Every time. When I hold out the promise of faster, less expensive and more customer-focused government, it’s not a slogan. It’s a commitment.
Much of what we have accomplished in the Recorder’s Office is unmatched anywhere in local government. We have set the example for how county government can do its job in new and more effective ways, without controversy, delay or runaway cost. This is an example I think Allen County is craving. The time has come for an attitude that government should promise big and deliver BIGGER. Government lets us down too often. It makes promises it never intends to keep and loses its focus on its job – delivering services – while those who represent us waste time fighting and trying to one-up one another.
I’m tired of it. I’ll bet you are too. I’m tired of watching in frustration as government wastes money, opportunity and precious time. I think I can do something about it. That is why I have chosen to run for Allen County Commissioner. That campaign starts right here, right now.
Tomorrow can be different. Motion without results is just a distraction and we need action. We need it now and that is what I’m all about.
As my dad said, I come from a long line of men and women in the McGauley family who taught me that when someone takes a chance and hires you – be it as a bus boy or County Recorder, your goal is to outwork, out produce and out imagine anyone who came before you.
There’s no question about it. I imagined a lot when I ran for Recorder.
I said that it was time to stop forcing you come downtown to do business with government. I said that we all need a 25th hour in every day and that it was time for government to acknowledge that reality. Today, you can do ANY piece of business with the Allen County Recorder’s Office, be it recording a document or searching for the deed to your house, at your convenience, from wherever you are, 24 hours a day. We were the FIRST in Indiana to implement paperless “e-recording,” a tool that now handles 20% of our workload, saving over 16 WEEKS of staff time last year alone.
I said it was time for government to stop making you work so hard to figure out where crucial information is. We built a one-of-a-kind, award-winning Neighborhood Resource Center that gives you FREE online access to information about our community and the activities that are permitted in your neighborhoods. Government taking a proactive step to PREVENT conflicts between neighbors…what a concept! Today, it’s a concept that is being used more than 1,000 times a month to the benefit of neighborhoods countywide.
I even made an absurd commitment to make my office LESS reliant on your tax dollars. In 2012, our consumption of tax dollars will be 72 percent lower than it was when I took over 5 years ago and 84 percent lower than it was a decade ago. What was a half million dollars in 2002 will be $65,000 in 2012.
What a concept! But it’s more than a challenge, it’s a necessity. Tax caps, the economy and, more importantly, the stresses on the everyday citizens who pay the bills, make it a necessity. Budgets are shrinking. I’m the only candidate you will hear from this year with a proven ability to find new ways to pay for government and new ways to deliver service WITHOUT costing you more money.
It’s time to try it countywide.
I am running for Commissioner because I believe government’s most important job is to deliver services at the lowest cost to you. To do that, we MUST streamline county government and recognize long-overdue needs for change. And we must do it without the caveats placed in the way of change by current officeholders who fear for their jobs. The Band-Aid approach of cutting budgets only in response to crisis and without underlying reform will not work any longer.
I will propose a sweeping reorganization of county government, including a single-county executive structure, that will save money, streamline an incomprehensible flow chart and give our community “government on wheels,” not government rooted in the past. The greatest tribute to my tenure as Commissioner would be to work myself out of a job.
We MUST be more proactive in our pursuit of economic development to attract the jobs our community wants and needs. I believe we should become “economic predators,” scouring the nation to recruit to this community the jobs we want, not just the jobs that are willing to come here. We have a compelling story to tell. Our community has incredible ready-to-grow resources, particularly in the aerospace and technology fields, that cost less, grow more and work harder than those found anywhere else in America. Yet we continue to expend vast resources chasing jobs in shrinking industries and letting the industries of the future come and go with little notice. County government invests too much money in economic development to play a passive role in deciding what our economy will look like.
Most importantly, we MUST enforce a culture of “Yes!” in county government that gives employees maximum flexibility to meet the needs of their customers – the citizens and businesses of Allen County. The biggest arsenal of software and consultants cannot override an ever-present fear among government workers that they are not allowed to do what is right, regardless of the politics, whims or personalities involved. We must foster a culture of “Yes!” in local government before any other approach to improving customer service has a chance of success.
This is the approach to service that I have taken in the Recorder’s Office. The results are clear. Customer satisfaction at all-time highs. An unprecedented number of new and innovative ways in which to do business with the office. A 69-day turnaround time reduced to one day or less. Customer requests fulfilled in real-time, no longer subject to arbitrary rules. County employees are among the most innovative and ready-to-work people I’ve ever met. It is the elected leaders that too often hold them back. I have championed a culture of “Yes!” before and I will do it again as Allen County Commissioner.
Allen County needs leaders willing to redesign and remake government when opportunities arise and the benefits are indisputable. I am that kind of leader.
We share a vision of what Allen County Government needs to be. It should be our partner, nor our impediment. I have made our vision a reality on a smaller scale and I’m ready to take it countywide. Our chance comes on May 8th, 117 days from today – and I need your help. If you are tired of the noise, the bickering, the waste of our shared resources and of government spending too much time thinking of itself and too little time concerned about the community, we can do something about it – together.
Tomorrow CAN be different. We just have to make one more bold decision.
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