A common thread many citizens discuss is that our local government spends too much. Most cannot tell you on what. It’s easy to point out obvious items (like buying a fleet of electric buses that do not work from a manufacture that is now bankrupt). Those are the easy items to identify.
I think the issue needs to be approached from a different angle. Presently, the front-line government employees do not have any incentive to think about how the government can save taxpayers money. What tasks can be streamlined not just to be efficient but also save money. Some might think that artificial intelligence is the answer. I think as promising as AI might be, it’s too early to justify all our efforts in that when that technology is presently very mistake prone, to put it mildly.
The better solution is for Miami-Dade County government to have an annual challenge. County-wide, the Miami-Dade County government employee that can come up with a solution to save the county substantially significant sums in their department, could win a prize: one-year of their salary as a bonus. Front-line government employees know better than anyone else where the inefficiencies in our government are. Incentivize them to come forward with ideas. Let them have that “Aha” moment that becomes “why didn’t we think of this before?”…