Building a more efficient, effective city government in Central

Sponsored by City of Central

For Central Mayor Wade Evans, his approach to government is simple: The value of the services the city provides should exceed the cost of providing them.

Government does not exist to provide government jobs. It exists to ensure that necessary services are delivered effectively, efficiently and responsibly. That means the focus should be less on who performs the work and more on whether the work gets done well and taxpayers receive good value for their money.

That philosophy has guided the city’s approach to government in Central.

Central has approximately 30,000 residents, but its infrastructure serves far more people each day. As a pass-through community within the Baton Rouge region, the city’s roads and drainage systems experience demands that cannot be measured by population alone. The challenge is to maintain that infrastructure without building an unnecessarily large and expensive government bureaucracy.

Central has accomplished that by treating labor, equipment, expertise and partnerships as resources to be managed strategically.

Rather than maintaining enough permanent employees and equipment to handle every possible peak workload, the city utilizes third-party contractors, regional partnerships and other governmental agencies when they can provide a service more efficiently. This allows multiple projects and maintenance activities to occur concurrently while giving the city access to specialized equipment and expertise without placing the full long-term cost on Central taxpayers.

Collaboration is equally important. Municipalities do not operate on islands. Strong relationships with parish, state, federal and regional partners allow Central to leverage resources, coordinate projects, solve problems and stretch local dollars further.

Ultimately, the mayor believes government should own the responsibility for results, not necessarily the means of producing them.

In many ways, the best government is the government citizens rarely have to interact with. Roads are maintained. Drainage systems work. Permits are processed. Public spaces are cared for. Problems are identified and addressed. Citizens should not have to understand which employee, contractor, department or governmental partner made it happen. They should simply expect their government to do its job.

Efficiency, however, is not the ultimate objective. Quality of life is.

Every dollar managed wisely is a dollar that can be invested in the things that make a community stronger: infrastructure, public safety, recreation, economic opportunity and the places where families build their lives.

That is the community Central continues working to build – a place where people want to live, businesses want to invest, families want to raise their children and visitors want to spend their time.

Good government is not measured by how large it is. It is measured by how well the community works and by the quality of life it helps make possible.