Let Them Wear Badges!

August 4, 1997

Orlando is the town deluded - awash in ready cash and tax dollars - and yet can't keep its symphony or ballet afloat. (but we need that performing arts center and the Magic moved to Maitland?! Hmmm.... the Maitland Magic...it's got a ring.)

And yet, O-town's higher ups believe the city is a world class operator. Well, even the best need to be monitored. Proof positive - the $80 million dollar cost overrun on our new courthouse. So let's help.

On the world stage, few are more renowned for excellence than the Japanese. Why not take a page from their book of monitoring organizational behavior and tracking and reviewing the decision making of public officials? The goal here is to introduce accountability through a visual system which allows the public to readily identify the track record of public officials by simply glancing at each official in public (or in the media).

Orlando is certainly ready for Ribbons of Shame. This is a time-honored tradition of insuring that individuals entrusted with the health and welfare of many are reminded daily of their duty. Ribbons of Shame will ensure both accountability and ease of identification of the track records of public officials.

How would this work? Well, public officials would be mandated to wear their large festive ribbons which explain their biggest blunders and the direct percentage and dollar impact on us: the taxpayers. It's important to impart the weight of their error, in the most real and immediate terms, because this is exactly where the connection is currently missing between the larger dollars expended, the public decision maker's direct involvement, and the impact on us. For example, if eight commissioners are involved in an $80 million dollar cost overrun, then a Ribbon of Shame might read:

"Ask me about my $10 million dollar, 12.5% expense error with your tax dollars. My colleagues and I are responsible for a 50% error in the overall courthouse project. My 22% of that vote contributed to 12.5% of the overrun and error. You and your children will pay for my error to the tune of $5,152 over the next twenty years."

Accountability could also be enforced through a direct impact to public officials' salaries. If the Ribbons of Shame alone didn't grab their attention, this certainly would. Commissioners' salaries would be reduced by the percentage of their public financial blunder. (When you and I make an egregious error and purchase something in haste and excitement, we see the direct impact to our cash flow. Let's implement the concept at a governmental level.) Therefore, the commissioner wearing the Ribbon of Shame described above would have his or her annual salary immediately reduced by 12.5 %.

Notice the beautiful, natural, synergistic byproduct of this policy. Their errors actually accumulate to remove them from office by decreasing their salary below a survivable level. Sentence them with their own numbers. Genius, accountability and simplicity - all in one stroke.

In Japan, the public figures have enough honor and decency to remove themselves from office. Unfortunately, we haven't found that to be in true here in Orlando. The decent human sentiment of shame seems to be overrun by other more self-serving motives. (Some will claim intellectual weakness; take your pick.) So, our Ribbons of Shame system will have to auto-terminate our politicians.

You, the fair taxpayer, will have the comfort of knowing that the next time some of our town officials are cogitating our future and our money, they'll glance, for just a brief moment, at the discipline Ribbon and hopefully be inspired to make a decision that's truly in the public interest.

--Max Tillinghast

Max Tillinghast
is a local member of the business community who is intent on bringing down the system from the inside by reporting on its excesses.