Competition and Costing

1995 Winner -- City of Indianapolis, Indiana

Steve Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Program, knows what it takes to foster award-
winning innovation. Under his leadership as mayor of Indianapolis in the mid-1990s, Goldsmith's program to privatize city services through "managed competition" was recognized nationally as a model for other municipal governments. "As a result of the recognition we received from the award, we had more than 3,000 officials from around the country and beyond coming to see how we did it," he said. "We had to hire staff to deal with all of the visitors." Replicability is one of the key criteria for successful applicants. There are numerous examples of how other cities have adopted versions of Goldsmith's program over the last 10 years, including when the city of San Diego announced details of its own managed competition program in September of this year.