Draw on management expertise from loaned executives

During his campaign, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald advocated tapping the talents of Greater Cleveland"s business community as a way to improve government efficiency.

FitzGerald promised to develop a loaned executive program that would draw on draw on the management expertise of the private sector. Managers from fields such as technology integration, worker productivity, human resources, and strategic planning will be invited to lend technical expertise.

"We value having a non-governmental perspective on ways to promote efficiency throughout the new county government,” FitzGerald said Feb. 7 as he announced the first business leaders who will consult with county staff.

Those five are:

• William W. Blausey Jr., the senior vice president and chief information officer for Eaton Corporation, who will review the process for issuing a request for proposals to bolster procurement efficiency.

• Judith G. Simpson, vice president for community investment for United Way of Greater Cleveland, who will consult on CountyStat, an empirical system of measuring departmental and agency performance and comparing them to nation-wide best practices and local goals. Implementing CountyStat is another of FitzGerald"s promises.

• Jon L. Gorney, a retired executive vice-president of PNC, who will be analyze the chief information officer position and the IT department for long-range planning.

• Fred Lombardo, IT manager for Latin America and Asia-Pacific for Corning, who will be matching systems solutions to county-wide needs for greater efficiency.

• Virginia Benjamin, chair of Calfee, Halter & Griswold's public law and finance group, who will provide legal analysis economic development financing.

The jury is still out on how successful the loaned executive program will be. But for now, we can move the Fitz-O-Meter for this promise to In The Works.