Exclusive: Gemma’s Plan for Transforming Government
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Anthony Gemma isn’t just running for a seat in Congress.
He’s aiming for nothing less than the transformation of how government works—from cities and towns to the State House, and beyond.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The mission is to reinvent and reinvigorate public service for the 21st century,” Gemma told GoLocalProv. “The vision is to create citizen-driven government and, in order to do that, this procedure that we put out is a way to get citizens involved in their government.”
(Click here to read GoLocalProv’s exclusive preview of his plan.)
Gemma, a Democrat running for the First District seat, is responding to what he perceives as widespread apathy about government and the elected officials who run it.
“Most people—they feel disconnected from their government because they really don’t feel that they have a voice,” Gemma said. “They feel that, when they express how they feel, the government is not often listening to them specifically. So they disengage more because they don’t feel they can make a difference.”
Putting Citizens in the Driver’s Seat
Gemma wants to put citizens back in the driver’s seat, and, in keeping with that analogy, he wants to create a Web site that will look like the dashboard of a car—with gauges showing exactly how government is doing on everything from reducing unemployment to raising test scores.
“Most people have driven a car so they can understand that they are looking at real-time measurements of how the car is operating,” Gemma said. “Our dashboard is much the same way. They can look at their government and see how it’s operating right now.”
This so-called dashboard tracks how government is performing in five areas:
● Financial Accountability and Transparency
● Open and Honest Government
● Citizen-Driven Government and Communication
● Unemployment Reduction and Economic Recovery
● Schools Attaining Educational Excellence
Those five areas lend themselves to an acronym—FOCUS.
Gemma: It’s Not a Gimmick
Some have criticized the idea as a mere gimmick. But Gemma says it is anything but. And today, he released a 20-page, heavily footnoted report to show just how serious he is about it. “We have to spark the imagination,” Gemma said. “We have to spark them wanting to get involved in a way that they haven’t gotten involved before.”
And he isn’t waiting until the Democratic primary or the election itself to put his plan into action. Already, he said his campaign is recruiting committees of citizens, community leaders, and business representatives who will help him flesh out each of those five areas.
If elected, he said his office would take on the task of amassing all the data it will be reporting on how the local, state, and federal government is doing. And Gemma said he would dedicate two members of his staff to oversee the citizen committees.
An ‘Executive Board’ for RI?
But is he stepping on the toes of mayors, school superintendents, and state leaders? Gemma says he isn’t. Instead, he said he would ask the entire Congressional delegation, the Governor, Attorney General, and other state leaders to meet in an ad hoc group he’s calling an “executive board.”
In such a group setting, he said they could better coordinate their efforts on such issues as education funding.
“So now we are working together for the state of Rhode Island and its best interest,” Gemma said. “That’s all I’m saying. I’m not trying to say that I’m going to take over gubernatorial duties or that I’m going to do municipal duties. What I am saying is that I’m going to help to lead the way and work together with everyone in a way that’s really not been done before.”
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