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Text File | 1993-04-08 | 6KB | 135 lines

                                                                                CLINTON'S PEOPLE, Page 50

A Prophet of Innovation


Author DAVID OSBORNE tells how to reinvent government and
fight bureaucratic bloat

By DAN GOODGAME/WASHINGTON


    These days, when political influence is measured in
minutes of face time with Bill Clinton, rival job seekers
jealously track the comings and goings at the Governor's
mansion in Little Rock. More than a few of them took note when,
amid the procession of Senators and big campaign contributors,
a shy, intense, bespectacled man with an unfamiliar face met for
nearly an hour one-on-one with the President-elect.

    The mystery guest was David Osborne, 41, a public policy
consultant and author who shares Clinton's passion for such
nuts-and-bolts issues as bank lending to inner-city residents
and privatized pothole repair. The two met in 1985, when
Osborne interviewed Clinton for his first book, Laboratories of
Democracy, which was published in 1988 and included an admiring
chapter on Clinton's education reforms in Arkansas. Since then,
Clinton has promoted Osborne's writings to fellow Governors.
Osborne's ideas have been praised -- and implemented -- by
politicians ranging from Republican Governor William Weld of
Massachusetts to Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles of Florida.

    While researching his latest book, Reinventing Government,
Osborne spoke regularly with Clinton, who began using his ideas
and examples on the campaign trail. Co-authored by Ted Gaebler,
a consultant and former city manager, the book has sold 70,000
copies since its publication last February and has had a
profound influence on policymakers around the country. "This
book should be read by every elected official in America,"
Clinton gushed for a blurb on the dust jacket. "Those of us who
want to revitalize government in the 1990s are going to have to
reinvent it. This book gives us the blueprint."

    Osborne and Gaebler show how state and local governments
are dismantling bloated, rule-bound bureaucracies by injecting
competition and market incentives. Using hundreds of case
studies, the authors have distilled principles of
"entrepreneurial government" that Clinton says he intends to
apply in Washington. They include:


    Steering rather than rowing.

    Innovative Governors and mayors have learned, Osborne says,
that just because the private sector is not providing a needed
service, government does not have to "create a bu reaucracy to
do the job all by itself." Some governments hire private
contractors to run prisons or sweep streets. Others act as
catalysts -- bringing community leaders together with charitable
foundations, for example, to build low-income housing.


    Empowering rather than serving.

    The underprivileged should be encouraged to help themselves
through their own communities, Osborne argues, citing cities
that have increased effectiveness and cut costs through
community-based policing and tenant-managed public housing.


    Injecting competition into public services.

    While some cities and states have successfully privatized
such functions as landscaping and data processing, Osborne
emphasizes that "the important distinction is not public vs.
private, it is monopoly vs. competition." Phoenix, Arizona, for
instance, allowed private contractors to bid against city
garbage-collection crews and spurred both to become more
efficient.


    Rewarding success, not failure.

    Most of the federal money spent for welfare, food stamps,
Medicaid and public housing "rewards failure because it only
goes to those who remain poor," Osborne says. Clinton has
addressed this problem with his vows to end "welfare as we know
it" and replace "a handout" with "a hand up."


    Emphasizing prevention rather than cure.

    New Governors in California, Florida and Illinois have
emphasized the prevention of social and environmental problems.
Studies show, for example, that modest investments in prenatal
care and prevention of drug abuse among pregnant women can save
millions of dollars in hospital treatment for crack babies and
other unhealthy infants.

    A self-described "child of the '60s," Osborne graduated
from Stanford and began writing about public policy as "my way
to change the world." As a journalist covering California's 1978
tax revolt, however, he began to question liberal orthodoxy. "It
seemed to me that I was watching a watershed event -- the end
of the era of ever growing government spending that had begun
with Franklin Roosevelt," he recalls. "I felt that progressives
needed to take the lead in reforming taxes and making government
more responsive."

    Osborne, who lives in Essex, Massachusetts, with his wife
and four children, may soon get a chance to put some of his
ideas into practice: several Clinton aides believe the
President-elect will offer Osborne a White House job or the
chair of a commission to "reinvent" the federal bu reaucracy.
Economic adviser Robert Reich cautions that some of Osborne's
ideas "probably can't be implemented," but adds that "David
thinks about government in fresh ways. He constantly asks how
the public, as consumers of government services, can get the
most for its money." Bruce Reed, another adviser to Clinton,
notes that Osborne is "a good friend for Clinton to have
because he doesn't hesitate to speak hard truths or to take on
powerful interests."

    For now, Osborne refuses to talk about a job offer that he
says hasn't been made. But whatever happens, Clinton aides say,
he and his ideas will be as welcome in the White House as they
have been in the Arkansas Governor's mansion.