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Manager needs to foster culture change in City Hall

Minot City Manager Tom Barry faces more than just a city balance sheet that is out of whack and a potential shortage of tools to be able to address the challenge. He faces the task of changing the culture of the City of Minot.

How so?

In addressing the drain on city cash reserves this week as a result of city efforts to balance its budget, Barry said of the current and next city council, “They are going to have to make some hard choices. Quite frankly, those hard choices probably should have been made some years ago.”

It’s a common complaint in Minot that city government is reactionary, only responding to a potential problem once it blooms into a total crisis. Adequate flood protection is an example. How about the downtown infrastructure projects? That needed addressing for years before it got underway. And now, adjusting the budget to reflect economic realities might be a little late in coming.

Good for Mr. Barry to point out the need for real action on the heels of inaction. A second thumbs up to Mr. Barry for planning a series of budget workshops to help catch council members, potential candidates and residents up on budget issues and challenges. This is exactly the kind of open, candid, cooperative initiative Mr. Barry has said he prefers, and which will be a huge benefit to the community. Hopefully, this type of frank talk from the city manager and efforts such as the workshops will help move the city from its longtime reactionary nature to a more proactive one. It’s more than habit, it is indeed culture. There was a time in Minot when leadership could afford to wait and see on issues, a time when the risk of doing so was minimal. That isn’t the case anymore, given economic factors, inter-connectivity of issues and the distinct opportunities in Minot’s basket.

As asserted frequently before, Minot needs to plan better. It’s a different way of thinking, a different culture. It’s also exactly what Minot needs. Hopefully Mr. Barry can help foster this new culture.

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