By Tom Allon
New York has had its share of crises in the past decade: Sept. 11, the Great Recession and Hurricane Sandy. Who leads the city during times of crisis — and relative calm — is important and that person’s ability and experience as a manager and leader is paramount.
When we pick the next mayor this fall, it is important to focus on management skills and style.
The last two occupants of City Hall, Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, had strong management backgrounds, but their styles were different.
Management skills are tough to quantify or define precisely, but to me it is about recruiting talented managers, giving them clear direction, commanding their respect and knowing when to empower or replace them.
Giuliani came to Gracie Mansion after a stint as a crime-fighting U.S. attorney. He hired deputies and staff who were hard-charging, fiercely loyal and as determined as their boss to prove that New York was governable.
From 1993-97, Giuliani’s turnaround management skills were just the tonic New York needed, his strong team helped drive down crime and the welfare rolls and the city became a more livable and desirable place.
Bloomberg, much less a micro-manager than Giuliani, hired great people, including Patti Harris, Dan Doctoroff, Kevin Sheekey and Edward Skyler, to form his inner circle. The leadership skills he honed building Bloomberg LP into a booming company were proof that he could lead a city of 8 million residents with a $42 billion budget back then.
And now we come to this year’s crop of mayoral contenders. A few have impressive management backgrounds while others have résumés so thin that it leaves one dreading the next four years.
None of the Democratic contenders has any impressive private sector management experience nor the forceful management style of a candidate cut from Giuliani’s cloth.
Bill Thompson had a fairly strong run as comptroller and has recently worked in the private sector. To many, however, his mild manner gives them pause. But in the current crop of candidates, his nuanced positions and lack of personal drama are refreshing to the reality show swirling around him.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a mixed record. On the debit side of the ledger is the slush fund scandal and the term limits power grab. She also seems to have the personality of a vice president or deputy mayor, almost always following rather than leading.
To Quinn’s credit, however, she has managed an unruly legislative body for eight years, is not thought of as a pushover and has taken some unpopular stands.
Anthony Weiner has a pretty dubious reputation as a manager. A recent New York Times piece about him pointed out his revolving-door staff and confusing management style. Not a promising background for the potential leader of a city with a $70 billion budget that employs more than 300,000 people.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and City Comptroller John Liu have had citywide offices just long enough to leapfrog to a mayoral run and nothing in either of their résumés gives one confidence that their management skills can handle being the chief executive of a large metropolis.
On the Republican side, management skills are more evident. John Catsimatidis is a self-made billionaire and has run a large chain of companies from supermarkets to oil refineries to aviation enterprises.
Joe Lhota, besides a stint as Giuliani’s deputy mayor, has been successful on Wall Street and as an executive at Madison Square Garden. But, like Quinn, he has to convince people he is more than a second banana.
What is a confused voter to do? Well, think of the chaos in New York in the late 1960s and ’70s, when we had a charismatic but management-challenged mayor, or when his successor, a mild-mannered former comptroller, plunged the city to near bankruptcy.
Who we pick to succeed Giuliani and Bloomberg as New York’s chief executive matters. Who do you want making the tough decisions that lie ahead on public safety, education, labor contracts and infrastructure rebuilding — the pandering career politician or someone who has a firm backbone as a manager?
Tom Allon was a Republican and Liberal Party-backed mayoral candidate in 2013 before he left the race to return to the private sector. Reach him at tallon@cityandstateny.com.
