Commentary on Resignation of COO Primas
Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

Philadelphia Inquirer

Fewer dreamers, more doers

By Jeffrey Brenner

The resignation of Melvin R. "Randy" Primas Jr., Camden's state-appointed chief operating officer, opens a new chapter in the long recovery process for Camden.

He brought charisma, enthusiasm, an insider's knowledge and a genuine love for the city to his job. For that he deserves appreciation.

With his resignation comes an important opportunity to take stock of our current situation by evaluating the status of Camden's municipal recovery and reassessing the overall redevelopment strategy.

To move forward without a public reassessment at this time would mean that many of the lessons of the last four years have been missed.

Many residents of the region will conclude - based on headlines in newspapers about subpoenas and grand juries - that it's corruption that has derailed Camden's recovery process. This conclusion would be incorrect.

The lack of significant progress in Camden over the last four years has much less to do with corruption than with the absence of focus on the mundane details of municipal governance.

It's the proper execution of a thousand details that ensures that trash is picked up, streets are cleaned, police are equipped, school books are ordered, public contracts are negotiated correctly, budgets are balanced, staff receive training and periodic reviews, and sewers are repaired.

For example, the most recent stumbling block for the proposed Cramer Hill redevelopment project was a legal technicality. The $1 billion project was stopped because witnesses were not sworn in at a meeting of the planning board.

This is emblematic of the broader failures of the redevelopment effort in Camden: There's a gigantic vision with no ability to implement or execute it and no willingness to listen or see the obvious.

How is a city that hasn't seen market-rate, for-sale housing built by a privately financed developer in 50 years going to pull off a project of the size and scale proposed for Cramer Hill?

As the city rose on the national crime rankings to become the most dangerous city in the country, as its budget deficit grew, and as the school system continued to unravel in a scandal of cheating on standardized testing, who did we think was going to buy 5,000 new market-rate housing units in Camden?

A gradual approach to bringing market-rate housing would have been more attainable and less controversial.

While vision is critical for rebirth and renewal, the failure to attend to details will cause a government bureaucracy to collapse and be rendered ineffective. Corruption breeds in the vacuum of oversight created by a failing bureaucracy.

On the side of Camden City Hall it reads, "Where there is no vision the people will perish." The sad truth in Camden is that when all we have is vision, the people will perish.

The next phase of the recovery demands leaders with the ability to execute and a passion for the details of municipal government.

Who will replace Primas and how will that person be chosen?

If Camden were a failing corporation, we would conduct a national search for new leadership and assemble some of the best minds in the industry for advice.

For the $175,000 salary paid to Primas as chief operating officer, we can bring world-class talent to the city.

The State of New Jersey should assemble a distinguished, blue-ribbon panel of municipal government experts with a few local residents on the panel to help lead the search for a new COO and get the next phase of the recovery off to the right start.

The residents of Camden and the taxpayers of New Jersey deserve no less. Please join me in adding your voice to this opinion by logging on to www.timeforchangeincamden.org, an organizing Web site set up by me.

Jeffrey Brenner is a family physician who practices in East Camden and resides in the city with his wife and 2-year-old son. A board member at CAMConnect, a warehouse of Camden data, he served on the state Attorney General's Blue Ribbon Camden Police Reform Commission.