Harvey Garrett on Ray McGurn

Garrett responds to McGurn’s letter to the editor from last week’s Buffalo News. HT Revitalize Buffalo’s blog:

I agree with Ray on the praise owed his department on the streamlining that took place over the last couple of years. The Permits Department should be praised for all the things he mentioned here. They still have a ways to go, but they did significantly streamline the permits process and it was a team effort. Those involved do deserve praise. Although Ray didn’t mention them in his letter to the editor – there are also quite a few amazing, hardworking folks in the Inspections Department.

I blamed Ray McGurn for the 4 month inspections backlog, not his staff, because he allowed it to occur and was the only one who could have resolved,or minimized it, while waiting for necessary staff to be replaced (he could have moved resources around long before we hit the 4 month mark – we had been asking for a solution since it hit one month). The backlog (and my frustration) was still growing, with no reported solution, the day the paper interviewed me for the story – and the unnecessary devastation of losing a whole year on so many of the problem properties in this backlog is going to further destroy many of our neighborhoods. And I certainly am not ok with the retaliation that took place the day after my comments to the paper. But there have been good things accomplished in his department over the last couple of years, and there were many good people who worked very hard on making it happen. I don’t like to see the people who work hard at City Hall discouraged by all the bashing going on right now. I actually commend Ray on taking the time to defend the staff that worked on these streamlining projects – especially since, in this anti-Ray climate, many people will dismiss his praise. The changes took longer than expected – but the results were good, and a great deal of effort went into it. We should be encouraging more positive changes in this department (and others), not discouraging them. Although I don’t think my opinion matters much to many of the people in the Inspections & Permit Department right now – I agree with Ray that his department should be praised when they make significant improvements like this.

If we want positive change at City Hall we need to notice & commend the good change that occurs – not just point out the things that drive us nuts.

Harvey’s right. It’s a basic tenet of childrearing, actually. You have to negatively reinforce bad behavior while positively reinforcing good behavior. I’ve been all over the bad behavior, and Harvey’s obviously the better man, because he has the guts to give credit where it’s due.