Jcole,

Other mayors have implemented 10% pay cuts, increased employee healthcare costs and laid off even more employees than Bing has. But they were successful in getting thousands of employees to volunteer for Angel's Night and Clean Sweep anyway. Most of those volunteers received no compensation. Many of those volunteers patrolled in their own vehicles and got family members, friends and neighbors to volunteer for the City's two big volunteer events. Departments made a big event out of getting employees to volunteer for these efforts. Sometimes there was friendly competition to see who could get the most volunteers. That's what you get when people feel like they're part of a family or team.

But, a leader has to have team-building skills in order to get employees [[or anyone else for that matter) to volunteer. The leader has to know how to talk to people, even while making tough decisions. The leader can't always be running to the press to "tell on folks" and set them up to take the blame when things go wrong.

BTW, I'd like to know how the non-employee volunteer numbers are going too.

Yes, people should rise above the animosity they might be feeling and do what's best for the city, and I'm sure many will. But most probably won't because that's just human nature.