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I
have a newfound admiration and respect for Al Stroucken,
chairman & CEO of Owens-Illinois. Stroucken is also the
newly elected chairman of the Board of Managers for Aspire,
the community/business collaboration charged to support the
success of every child in Lucas County from cradle to career
by rethinking how to best use limited resources to meet
their needs.
Stroucken, last week speaking on behalf of the business
community in particular and society in general, took
responsibility for some of the social failures that plague
our community. In an era where it is common to blame
everyone outside of ourselves, not only was this the right
thing to do, but Stroucken’s comments also revealed
authentic leadership at its finest.
Although the Aspire initiative is a challenging endeavor
with the optimistic goal to transform long-term systemic
failure, Stroucken’s genius lies in recognizing the fact
that it is impossible to legitimately talk about poverty or
African-American social issues as if they are a
one-dimensional phenomenon.
Indeed, the tendency to ignore the deeply embedded societal
factors of race and inequality while simultaneously
rationalizing bad public policy have helped to create a call
for a new kind of authenticity to fill the leadership void
in Toledo.
Who will do the right thing by dealing with the unresolved
issues of the past and thereby set the tone for authentic
leadership?
Stroucken, through the Aspire initiative and courageous
honesty, has made an ambitious beginning to use
collaborative action, the strategic use of data and evidence
based decision-making along with a shared community vision
to hopefully achieve real outcomes that better the lives of
all children in Lucas County.
I
will be monitoring Aspire’s processes and outcomes for
inclusion and the ability to obtain meaningful results for
our community.
The call to do the right thing and for authentic leadership
also takes us to Lucas County government, which is without
leadership at Lucas County Jobs and Family Services (JFS)
due to the recent departure of former executive director,
Deb Ortiz-Flores. The assistant director’s
position at JFS is also open, as is the comp administrator
position at Lucas County Child Support Enforcement (CSEA).
The CEO position for the Lucas County Board
of Developmental Disabilities is vacant as well. In
addition, the contract for Dean Sparks, executive director
for Lucas County Children’s Services (CSB), is also up at a
time when there is no current succession plan in place.
Will the Lucas County Commissioners show authentic
leadership and do the “right thing” in the search to fill
the vacant leadership positions?
The leadership void offers an opportunity for Lucas County
to rethink the way it delivers and conducts its social
services responsibility to the community. Since CSB, CSEA
and JFS share 66 percent in crossover clientele, one thought
has been to consolidate these agencies under an
administrator-led team rather than have a separate CEO and
board for each agency.
In addition, the three separate fiscal offices, human
resources departments and other infrastructure such as three
dissociated general legal counsels could save at least
$500,000 per year. Further efficiencies could also be
obtained by consolidating the multiple tax levy requests
that continually show up year to year under one combined
health and human services levy.
How can this consolidation benefit the community?
First of all, the tremendous savings could be used to
augment programming and invest resources more equitably in
interventions that actually get positive and relevant
community outcomes rather than merely documenting the number
of clients served as in the past.
But also, this leadership void provides an opportunity for
the County to do the right thing by bringing in leaders with
fresh energy and a different perspective by placing the
“right” candidates in leadership.
Seldom, do the “contestants of choice” for leadership in
Toledo include qualified voices of historically marginalized
communities. However, look for the County to bring in Alan
Bannister to augment the trend in new leadership that began
with the hiring of Lucas County Administrator Laura
Lloyd-Jenkins.
Bannister, well connected statewide and nationally but
under-appreciated by the D. Michael Collins administration,
is expected to lead Community Engagement and Outreach for
Lucas County.
With all of the leadership roles to fill in Toledo, its time
to acknowledge the absence of the African-American presence
in local configurations of power and do the right thing by
filling leadership vacancies the right way rather than the
same old, same old redundancy of the past.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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