Leadership makes a difference.(from the editor)

Leadership can be difficult to define, but everyone knows when it's needed. As the economy worsens and balancing the budget becomes increasingly difficult, government finance officers are being asked to provide fiscal leadership. This issue of Government Finance Review showcases farsighted and inventive strategies that have a powerful impact on the organizations that developed them and could make a difference in your jurisdiction, as well.

In The Role of Leadership in Building High-Performing, Sustainable Organizations, Robert Goehrig talks about the performance improvement methodologies that made the City of Coral Springs, Florida, the first local government to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

In Leading the Way to Fiscal Health, Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian outline strategies government finance officers can use make sure the organization is sustainable over the long term. They define the role as that of a diagnostician who must identify symptoms, diagnose causes, and prescribe treatments.

The cost of health care is a major concern for any finance professional. In Maricopa County's Employee Health-Care Initiative, Mike Schaiberger provides a wealth of details about how the county reduced its medical expenditures while increasing employee satisfaction with their health benefit.

In many jurisdictions, infrastructure is not adequately maintained by the existing capital planning and budgeting process. Recognizing the problem is difficult, and building a consensus to do something about it is harder. In Public Stewardship." Building a Long-Term Funding Policy for Infrastructure Maintenance, Marilyn Miller and Margaret Browne share strategies the City and County of Denver, Colorado, undertook to successfully address this issue.

Finally, in City Fiscal Conditions--From Main Street to Wall Street, Chris Hoene and Michael A. Pagano summarize their National League of Cities' City Fiscal Conditions in 2008 report. They examine the effects on cities of problems in credit and capital markets, the fiscal conditions in city and state governments, and the implications for resulting state aid to cities. And they point out that there may also be some hidden opportunities.

The GFOA provides you with many resources to help you lead your organization through these difficult economic times. Information about accessing these resources is available on our Web site at www.gfoa.org.

Anne Spray Kinney

Editor in Chief

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