The article highlights the plight of the people living in Bullhead city. The article shows how river Colorado has been polluted by individuals who arrive annually for the Bullhead City River Regatta pirate-themed floats. According to the article, more than 30,000 people attended this year event which caused massive pollution along the Colorado River (Brown). The high number of people led to the high pollution along the river especially plastic bottles which littered everywhere. Local people are fed up with the disrespectful way these individuals treat their environment. The article gives insight as to the extent the mayor is willing to correct the situation. The mayor has provided additional trash can and dumpsters so that the garbage can is cleaned. Despite the amount of garbage this event causes, the mayor argues that it pumps money into the city’s economy.
In the book “Managing the Public Sector,” the public administration agency is quite sensitive to dominant interest groups they represent. In this case, the public administration has not represented the dominant interest group which they should represent. The public or rather the people of Bullhead city are the ones who should matter. The mayor has however foregone being environmental friendly and chose to increase the revenue of the city. The mayor has however felt the activists and chose to provide trashcans and dumpsters for the people that will be attending such a function in the future. This can be attributed to the constant complaints by the residents of the city.
The media has failed in its work to provide cover for the people of Bullhead city. According to Startling the media is one of the functions which the public administration can listen to (63). In this case however, the media has failed. It has not covered much about the issue in the city. Startling argue that the better the relationship between policy makers and the media, the more successful they will be in their work (63). Taking this into account, it is probable that the policymakers in the city are friendly with the media and that is why the issue did not receive wide coverage to show the pollution caused by the event.
Laurence in his book policy Analysis gives insight into the inseparability of politics and public administration. The same political participants and coalitions who seek to influence legislative process also monitor organizational allocation of resources and attempt to influence administrative rules. In the case of Bullhead city, the mayor who at one time was seeking that seat politically is now influencing the allocation of resources by favoring the little revenue over the conservation of the city’s river (Laurence, 272). What the mayor has done is utterly wrong and should have never been the case. The role of the mayor should be protecting the people rather than helping those that are harming the citizens through different means such as in this case destroying the environment.
The government needs performance measurement in the light of Bullheads’ mayor actions about its river. Laurence explains that public programs should be evaluated for efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, the performance of the agency should be compared with that of leading organization. The mayor needs to be controlled in regard to his recent activities. Comparing him with the best will show the flaws that he has allowed in the city. It is only through such ways that the mayor can be held accountable for his actions. Additionally, other future leaders will be careful in their decision making process. The public administrators which in this case will be the mayor should explain to the public the degree of their success. This will be in the interest of the public.
- Brown, Kailyn. “Heaps Of Trash In Wake Of Regatta Have Bullhead City Rethinking River Event”. Lasvegassun.Com, 2016, http://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/aug/16/heaps-trash-regatta-bullhead-city-rethink-river/.
- Lynn, Laurence. “Policy Analysis”. Current Issues In Public Administration, 1999, pp. 272-280.
- Starling, Grover. Managing the Public Sector. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
