Cities Emulate the Little Metropolis That Could : Innovative Arizona capital draws praise for competitive bidding process. Resident likes the small-town feel of government.

And now, a news flash: Things are going well in Phoenix.

It’s not stop-the-presses news, but Phoenix’s quiet success as a municipality is beginning to be recognized. At a time when the Clinton Administration is discussing the concept of reinventing government, Phoenix is basking in the attention it is receiving for pioneering its own form of government, a system experts are lauding and other municipalities are adopting.

Mayor Paul Johnson believes that Phoenix’s accomplishments bode well for the nation. “What’s going to happen to government is going to have to happen at the local level first,” he said. “I’m convinced the federal government is watching what’s going on at the local level. And it’s going to filter up.”

Indeed, Vice President Al Gore has pointed to Phoenix’s competitive bidding process as an example of how an innovative government can increase productivity. The system, which pits the city against private enterprise in the delivery of city services, is being used in Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Versions are being considered in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

The competitive bidding system was praised by the German-based Bertelsmann Foundation, a nonprofit organization that last fall declared Phoenix one of the two best-managed cities in the world.

Although Phoenix has been honored in other ways over the years, city officials say the Bertelsmann prize is the most gratifying. It is a onetime award with a worldwide scope. And the fact that a city the size of Phoenix (population 1.04 million) was judged to be as well-managed as the much smaller Christchurch, New Zealand, (population 140,000) is a further source of pride.

City Manager Frank Fairbanks said Christchurch deserves the award, but he noted that the city reformed its management as part of a national mandate. Phoenix, on the other hand, has been able to produce an efficient, effective government without any guidance from above.

“The (Bertelsmann) judges called us ‘The Lone Ranger,’ ” Fairbanks said. “We had been able to do all the same things as Christchurch, but we’ve done them alone and we’ve invented them for ourselves.”

So what is so great about Phoenix’s form of government? What is it that has prompted more than 200 businesses, cities, counties, states and countries to inquire about Phoenix’s management methods?

The Bertelsmann committee applauded lots of attributes that, government-speak aside, boil down to this: The city has been able to communicate effectively with its citizens and employees; it has been able to serve them efficiently, and it has not been afraid to try new tacks.

Fairbanks believes that innovation is the most important factor in Phoenix’s success: “We don’t get entrenched in things and do them the same way we’ve done them for 50 years.”

Employees are encouraged to suggest new ways to serve the community. And officials level with the citizenry.

“The people understand,” Johnson said. “They understand that they can’t have everything they want.” The secret, he says, is to involve them in the process and encourage them to be part of the solution.

To those who might dismiss awards as bureaucratic back-patting and Johnson’s philosophy as rhetoric, here are a few examples of success:

* The city has saved $25 million through the competitive bidding process begun in 1978. Tried first for garbage collection, the system now is used for delivery of 20 services, ranging from street sweeping to staffing the city’s public defender’s office. Another 40 are being considered for inclusion in the program.

* Since the Phoenix Fire Department took over the ambulance services after competitive bidding in 1985, ambulances arrive at emergency scenes within 10 minutes 94% of the time, doubling the private companies’ response record.

* During what Johnson calls “the biggest budget crisis since the Great Depression”--while population grew and demand for services increased--the city trimmed 500 positions from its 11,000-member work force and spent less money last year than the previous year. All of that was accomplished without a tax increase, a labor dispute or any noticeable effect on services.

* Ordinary citizens participate in government. City Council meetings and budget hearings are regularly conducted on the road to give residents of the sprawling city better access to their leaders. Volunteers also take part in the Phoenix Futures Forum (an ongoing planning process), Neighborhood Watch crime prevention programs and Neighborhood Fight Back improvement programs.

Residents have volunteered in droves to clean up mountain preserves, to maintain streets and medians, to read to children as part of the Mayor’s Reading Corps and to support public schools through a corporate adoption program.

Ima Jean Dolan got involved for the first time last year, attending public budget hearings to protest the planned cancellation of the annual electrical Christmas parade. Dolan, whose family had made participation in the amateur parade a holiday tradition, carried a jar of pennies and encouraged people to “throw in their two cents’ worth.” After Dolan collected nearly $6,000, the city reinstated the event and made Dolan grand marshal.

What impressed her most, she said, was the small-town feeling she got during meetings with the city’s top officials. “I can’t say enough about them,” Dolan said.

Warm feelings aside, Phoenix is not a small town. It’s the ninth-largest city in the country, and it faces serious problems like crime, air pollution and transportation woes. But because the government is efficient, Johnson said, it can better use resources to target such problems.