New mayor eyes efficiencies, investment to spark city

DIGGING IN: Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, on the job since January, described his leadership style as
DIGGING IN: Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, on the job since January, described his leadership style as "hands-on," saying that his administration has "stayed connected with the community." / PBN PHOTOS/STEPHANIE ?ALVAREZ EWENS

It’s been nearly four months since Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza took over the corner office at 25 Dorrance St. While new leadership often brings a great sense of hope and optimism, the rose petals can fall quickly in Providence, where many people are still wearily dusting themselves off from the remnants of the Great Recession.

But the first-term mayor, a former Housing Court judge, isn’t sugarcoating economic hardships that blemish the city. He’s moved quickly to tighten internal controls on how Providence does business.

In an attempt to soften the perception that the city is a difficult place to conduct business, Elorza says he’ll continue the freeze on the commercial tax rate, modernize and streamline the permitting process and – for now – meet twice a month with members of the business community to include their collective voice in City Hall decisions.

Elorza inherited a fiscal 2015 deficit, the result of overspending and revenue shortfalls, but he expects to close the projected $3.6 million gap before the fiscal year ends.

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As for fiscal 2016? He will unveil his first city spending plan on April 29.

“People are taxed out,” Elorza told Providence Business News more than once during a recent interview. “There are some tough decisions that have to be made.”

What’s been most challenging in your transition to City Hall?

Easily the biggest challenge is that I don’t get to see my family that often. I have a close relationship with my nephew and my niece, and I don’t get to spend time with them, but it is what it is, it’s what we signed up for. As for [city] transition, the focus has been on a number of different areas, but we have the administration almost entirely in place and we have a lot of new people here in City Hall. … If there is one story from the first three months it is that we have a phenomenal team here.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I really like being hands on, whether it’s shoveling snow, filling potholes, a police ride-along. I love being present. … I visit about two schools a week, it’s really amazing how much you learn from being inside.

We have stayed connected with the community. … I had a community forum in City Lake recently and to the best of my knowledge that’s never been done, but this is something we want to do on a regular basis.

There’s been a focus on customer service. On streamlining our systems. Make no mistake about it, the budget is very, very tight and resources dollars are scarce, but even with that I still think we can do much better. Better services, with the reduced resources that we have.

I hate wasting money. I hate wasting time. I hate wasting anything. This is an attitude that we have throughout the city right now.

How does that differ from your immediate predecessors?

I can’t speak to my predecessors, but I can tell you about my approach and my attitude toward things. The first is being absolutely hands on. From [Department of Public Works] to the Police Department, Fire Department, School Department – by being present you learn so much and you truly do set the tone from the very top.

The second thing is – and I don’t mean this as an indictment on anyone or a criticism of anything – I just believe that as a matter of principal, regardless of who you are, what you’ve done and how you’ve done it, we can do it better.

We can always do it better.

The entire world around us has changed, and it’s about time that those innovations – that the outside world has found as a result of fiscal and market pressures – come to city government as well, so we’re instituting lean management principals in what we’re doing.

You appointed Nicole Pollock chief innovation officer. What can we expect to see from this new position?

We need to institutionalize the process of continuous improvement and that’s what she’s is doing. She’s reaching out to directors and employees across the city and asking them, ‘How can we improve?’ So, it’s gathering the information and also engaging employees. Another piece of this is that I’ve always believed that you can’t evaluate what you don’t measure. What she’s been doing is making sure that we integrate metrics and have concrete assessments to which we evaluate our progress over time.

So how do you improve?

One thing is integrating technology throughout City Hall. One thing that I’ve brought in is a project-management system that we all work from now, it’s ASANA, and it’s phenomenal. It’s not like before where a department director needed a full complement of administrative staff. The world doesn’t work like that anymore. Technology has automated a lot of this work and, frankly, directors and even I – as the mayor – do a lot of my own administrative work. I communicate directly and I’m kept in the loop, and this project-management software allows me to do that and it’s all based online.

It keeps us all on task … we are able to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

One perception of Providence is that it’s an unfriendly place to do business. Perception doesn’t always reflect reality, but …

But sometimes it does.

So how will you address it?

So, a big piece of it is our taxes … across the board, but in particular our commercial tax rate. Our commercial taxes are just too high and people are taxed out. It’s a big impediment in attracting development and business, so I’m committed to freezing our commercial tax rate, it’s already too high.

With the economic reality that we have, we have to make sure that we have an environment that attracts business, so I recognize that, and I will do what I can to make sure we hold the line on the commercial tax rate. Now people [also] want predictability and they want stability and I get that. Along those lines is our permitting process here in the city. The way our [city] software interfaces with the state’s permitting process, we need to do a much better with integrating that. Our folks here in the city are talking with the state side so there’s movement on that, but there’s a lot we need to do on our own system.

Our permitting process is too long. So many people run into challenges with fire inspectors and so we’re looking to integrate this system, to streamline it, so we can get permits in and out as quickly as possible – especially now that there hasn’t been much development in the recent past. … We need to make sure that we make it as easy as possible for people to invest in our city.

The city recently hired a consulting firm to look at its economic viability. The same firm did a similar study for the state just a few years ago. At what point do you stop the studies and start the action?

That’s a City Council initiative, so from what I understand from Fourth Economy, they did a statewide report. And while there are similar challenges we face and opportunities that we have, there are also very different ones. So having a fine-tuned and very detailed idea of what our economic-development opportunities are here, I think is a good idea all around.

But, I think you ask a legitimate question, we run the risk of dying a death by a thousand reports if there’s no action behind it. So [the City Council and I] are committed to working together.

Do you think the multimillion dollar streetcar project is worthwhile?

This is an area that I spent a lot of time looking into, and what I’ve learned about streetcars is that it’s not just about transportation, although transportation is very important. It’s also about economic development. What you see consistently, city after city, where[ever] you lay down the streetcar lines there’s development and property values increase along that corridor. Historically, if you look at the streetcars dating back to the 19th century, that’s exactly what happened. You drew the streetcar lines and that’s where homes sprung up and neighborhoods were created. There’s a lot of opportunity for that right now. We’ve identified a source of federal funds that we’re going to be applying for.

How much is the grant?

It could be anywhere between $10 million to $60 million, but most likely somewhere in between. This would be a great boon, we already received the TIGER grant for it from the federal government, and you can find [other] creative-financing strategies. We’re trying to piece all the parts together so we can start the construction.

Looking at the Interstate 195 land, what would you personally like to see there?

I would like the economy of the future to grow out of our work on the I-195 property. We all recognize it as a great opportunity, but if you asked 10 people what their vision looks like, you’re going to get 10 different answers. So, what we need to do first and foremost is go through a visioning exercise and working in partnership with [Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s] office we’ve put out a [request for proposal] for a firm to come in and guide us through that visioning process.

Once we have the vision in place, we can craft a plan, and once we’ve crafted a plan, I personally – and I think the governor is committed to this – am going out and marketing the property, championing the property and actively recruiting businesses. We can’t wait for them to come to us, we need to go out and get them.

I want the economy of the future, and we have to go through the visioning exercise, but I think that property should be committed to innovation. Literally, where it’s situated, it’s between our Knowledge District with our universities and our hospitals. … We have that foundation to build off and I want to make sure we’re making investments in the innovation economy. That’s where I believe the future of our city and state’s economy is going, and I want it to be tied to the I-195 land.

Do you feel that the independence of the I-195 commission from the city is a good thing or not?

It’s good, it’s bad. I don’t think that necessarily will make the difference. What makes the difference is collectively every stakeholder’s willingness to work together. The commission, with its leadership and its new commission members, the governor’s office, the General Assembly and the city, we’re all committed in being partners and collaborating on this, and that’s ultimately what is going to make the difference.

Former Mayor Angel Taveras famously began his administration with a “Category 5 Hurricane” budget analogy. Where does the city stand now in terms of the fiscal 2015 and 2016 budgets?

These are still challenging times for the city, absolutely challenging times. … We’re not completely out of the woods yet. There’s a lot of tough decisions that we’re going to have to make. But with that said, I want to [add] that with our resources tight, I still believe that we can provide better city services. … The commitment to providing better city services remains, and that’s going to be a constant.

With respect to the current year’s budget, I inherited the structural deficit and in fact even within that structural deficit I inherited for the first two quarters of the year, before January, the city was over budget, so we refinanced some bonds and we took a number of steps, and I believe we’re going to close this year on budget, making up for the over-budgeting from the previous administration.

The 2016 budget … there’s some tough decisions that have to be made, but we’re going to make sure of three things – I’m committed to being fiscally responsible. I’m committed – if I have the honor of being re-elected – to being here for eight years, so … [third] we’re thinking about the long-term health of the city. •

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