Professor to discuss how local government can address 21st century challenges
Flagler College
November 29, 2016 8:39 AM
Joe Saviak
As part of Flagler College’s Community Lecture Series, Dr. Joe Saviak will be speaking on “Reinventing Local Government for the 21st Century,” on Tuesday, Dec. 13 in the college’s historic Solarium in Ponce Hall.
“Flagler College has taken a lead role in aiding local governments in our region in effectively meeting critical challenges,” he said. “Through Flagler’s Public Administration Program, which is offered as a community service, executives and professionals in local government learn how to reorganize the public sector around the realities of the today’s demands. We help these public servants optimize performance for the citizens they serve.”
Saviak teaches in Flagler’s Public Administration Program, working with students who are public sector administrators and professionals serving in 50 different local and state government agencies across the northeast and central Florida regions. Through his work, he has seen how local governments must contend with greatly reduced resources, smaller public sector workforces and limited funding for public services.
In his lecture, which will appeal to any citizen receiving services from local government, Saviak will share the strategies and best practices that serve as the core of the Public Administration Program curriculum. These strategies, he said, have a real impact in our communities.
“There are a number of specific tools we employ—from analytics to contracting to public-private partnerships—to not only generate a high-performance workforce, but to also make local governments more agile, flexible and responsive,” he said. “In short, there’s a revolution occurring worldwide in local government. We’re rethinking, re-engineering and redesigning how government will deliver services. The 21st century is demanding new approaches to ensure government is efficient and effective.”
Twice in his career, Saviak served on senior management teams responsible for significantly improving the performance of agencies with over 1,000 employees and annual budgets in excess of $100 million. Prior to teaching at Flagler, he worked as a senior administrator in local government, and he is often asked to speak to audiences of policymakers and public managers on the strategies for successfully meeting the challenges facing local government. He teaches the principles, strategies and skills of effectively leading and managing change. He recently co-authored a guide for state and local officials on how to utilize contracting and public-private partnerships to best deliver public services and needed infrastructure.
During the 2016-2017 season, Flagler celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Community Lecture Series, which was founded in 2007 to offer the local community an opportunity to explore topics covering arts, religion, politics, culture, history, economics and more with experts on the college faculty. The theme of the series this year is “Challenges at the Crossroads: Finding Solutions to Local Issues.”
The programs take place monthly. Tickets are $5 per person for a single lecture, or $15 for four lectures. Active military personnel may attend at no charge. Lectures begin at 10 a.m. in the Ponce Hall Solarium at Flagler College, 74 King St. Reservations are not required. The lecture will last approximately one hour and will be followed by a coffee and pastry reception.
Call (904) 826-8617 for more information, or visit here.
If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Lynn Francisco at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.
**This event was previously scheduled for Oct. 11, but due to Hurricane Matthew clean-up efforts had to be rescheduled to Dec. 13. **
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