REINVENTING MAG

Mayor Brown is happy with the MAG retreat and the progress he says the group made there.

"I think we got a lot accomplished," he says. "We know the best thing to do is make changes to the system we have got, and not disband and throw everything away."
But the action plan MAG has prepared--based on suggestions voiced at the retreat--is long on ideas about public image and short on either administrative or structural reform.

Plans for possible new public relations activities include a MAG newsletter (going out at the end of this month), flyers to be sent all over the county and new polling and focus groups.

"These are all steps we would not have taken without the retreat," Brown says. "I'm optimistic about MAG's future."
The plan also contains a list of ideas to improve the group that do not necessarily involve PR: a summit with the Legislature; more annual retreats to talk about goals and budgets; and improving the amount and kind of information mayors are given by staff. The most telling sections of the plan, however, may be those that follow the lofty goals enumerated in the list. Those sections have these headings: "Who will see it is done?" and "By when will it be completed?"

Those sections are all blank.