Last
Thursday evening, I led a seminar at the Ash Institute for Democratic
Governance and Innovation at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I
spoke about Somerville's growing reputation for innovation in municipal
government, and about how mayors and other elected leaders can foster
and drive innovations that improve services, save money and make the
best use of new technologies.

Somerville has developed a close
relationship with the Kennedy School over the past several years. The
City has benefited from what amounts to free labor and advice from
Kennedy School students and faculty. K-School grads work in a number of
city departments, including our Police Department and the Office of
Strategic Planning and Community Development. I've even been taking
some courses there myself – and it's been a valuable experience.

With
all of that in mind, I was more than willing to develop a presentation
that covered SomerStat, 311, ResiStat, Shape Up Somerville, the ACE
(Accurate, Courteous, Easy) customer service initiative, our
comprehensive police reorganization and all of the other programs and
policies that have brought Somerville so much national and regional
attention – and played a major role in winning us recognition by the
National Civic League as a 2009 All America City.

Even though
I only had enough time to touch on the highlights, laying out our
record for a Kennedy School audience was still a valuable experience:
just like the inaugural and mid-term addresses I've given every January
for the past five years, the evening provided an opportunity to reflect
on how much we have accomplished – and how much more we need to do to
fulfill this city's terrific promise and potential.

As I talked
about the ways we've adopted and adapted best practices from all over
the country, I was reminded how quickly something that was once new and
exciting becomes a matter of routine. 2004 isn't that long ago, but
it's amazing how many changes we've been able to make in technical
systems and procedures that make Somerville's government more
accountable, transparent and cost-effective.

It's also amazing
how much you can get done just by paying attention to what's going on
outside your own community. As I told my fellow students, you don't
need to be an inventor to be an innovator – but you do need to be an
adaptor. Somerville has often been the first community in Massachusetts
or New England to adopt a new idea, but only because we were the first
to figure out a way to do it gradually and inexpensively. We're willing
to start out with a basic version of a program like SomerStat or 311,
and then expand it gradually by adding new features, more departments
or other enhancements until it compares very favorably to fancier and
more elaborate versions that come with a much higher price tag.

But
as my good friend, Mike Shea, likes to say, "In politics, the question
is never 'What have you done?' It's always, 'What are you doing now?'
And that's just as it should be. As proud as I am of the way we have
upgraded our city systems, I am committed to doing even better. We need
to get even more data onto our website, and we will. We need to bring
even more new technology into play to improve our response time on
service and information requests – and we will. We need to do much more
to reduce our carbon footprint through more efficient energy usage –
and we will. We need to upgrade and rebuild even more of our aging
infrastructure, and we will do that, too.

Of course, "doing even
better" was made much harder by the current state and national fiscal
crisis. We've already absorbed the deepest cuts to local aid that
anyone can remember, and we may well have to endure another round of
cuts in the current fiscal year. It's not going to be pretty.

On
the other hand, the systems we have already put in place have created
efficiencies and savings that have helped us expand services in the
past, and will help us preserve services going forward. Combined with
the growth in our commercial tax base that is coming with the continued
development of Assembly Square, the enhancements to Union and Magoun
Squares and to the East Somerville section of Broadway, and – at long
last – the construction of the Green Line Extension, our best practices
in governmental operations will help us weather these tough economic
times and bounce back stronger and faster.

Current trends
suggest that the national recession is ending, and that Massachusetts
will emerge more quickly than in most other parts of the nation. When
that happens, look for Somerville to be one of the communities that
leads the way – not because we have more wealth or a bigger industrial
base than other Massachusetts cities and towns, but because we've been
willing to embrace the new ideas and technologies that help us use our
resources more efficiently. You can see it every day – in where we've
been and in where we're going.