New Yorkers need the best mayoral manager

New York is the most complex and ambitious company in America. With a budget exceeding $ 116 billion, more than 325,000 employees (more likely triple in contract workers) and a portfolio of services that extend, from child care to bridges, snow products with wastewater, it offers more than 8.5 million residents each day.

It is a city that builds as much underground as above, manages the largest public school system in the country and probably responds to more emergency calls than any other place on Earth.

And he does this while responding to the most demanding, frank and demanding shareholders in the world: New York taxpayers.

What does it take to manage this miraculous beast of a city? A deep bench of meritorious managers and focused on the mission – people who combine operational grain, strategic vision and moral clarity. The commissioners directing more than 50 agencies and the assistant mayors synthesizing and accelerate this work.

The assembly of this team is the most critical task to come for the next mayor. And this year, New Yorkers are worth knowing – now, not in November – the team’s capacities and expertise. The nation is in shock from the reality TV choices of our president, for our administration of the current city, much more than a handful of key agency commissioners and assistant mayors have resigned under a dark cloud, and the main democrat winner has no previous experience of the city government, it will therefore have to fill this void through the choices of intelligent leadership.

This year, if the public must really judge the man who pressure for work (one day it will be a woman), we must now know who will be by his side to govern before, not after having completed our ballots.

The problems that encounter the mayor’s office are not only complicated – they are puzzles at the escape room, superimposed policy, legal constraints and massive financial participations. These are tedious decisions that make institutional knowledge, care and emergency. Four years is a blip in time, prudent progress must move at the speed of the chain.

Whether we are talking about affordability, infrastructure, public health, education or security, nothing is done well without the right type of talent. If the team is not excellent, the city will not deliver – period.

Fortunately, there have already been a lot of discussions on the next police commissioner, focused on Jessie Tisch’s clear jurisdiction. But there are many other roles that change the game. Let us take, for example, the adviser of the aptly named company, the best lawyer in the city. Are they able to navigate the spider network of administrative law to implement bold policies, proactively defend our city and recruit and keep the best talents?

Or the budget director, whose funding decisions determine if our schools obtain good supplies, if our underground pipes are built to withstand the next tropical storm and if we invest in coastal protection against inevitable destructive tides, remember Sandy.

The pot is not endless, so what is not funded is as important as what is. The role requires a creative long-term reflection to identify the necessary funding beyond our current tax base, especially since the federal dollars dry, while creating the next generation of success.

New Yorkers deserve to know who will lead this city – not just the person at the top, but the characteristics otherwise the names of the team performing the vision. The “shareholders” of this city – taxpayers who finance everything – await and deserve nothing less.

While we are heading around November this year, we have to ask candidates an atypical question, who is on your bench? What qualities are you looking for in your commissioners and deputies? What is your selection process? Be specific. Be responsible. Applicants can convincingly articulate campaign promises, but none will materialize without a “A” team. The good news is that we live in a city with an abundance of talents and convictions.

It is the largest public company on Earth. We can succeed. But we have to choose – and the staff – wisely. Because in this city, leadership is not only symbolic. It’s structural.

Joshi is a former deputy mayor of New York for the operations and the new president of the green cemetery of green wood, a place of beauty, culture and sustainable peace.