So this week I started getting some projects rolling at the office.  Basically everyone (the Peace Corps and the Mayors office in Reghin) told me to “do something that you see fit.”  I had plenty of ideas of what I wanted to do / thought I was capable of doing / saw what needed to be done, and they all pretty much relate to design ideas for the parks here in town.   Coming up with project  proposals isn’t the problem, executing them has proved to be a little more difficult.  I have little knowledge of how to best implement my ideas. 

For example, one project I am working on is designing a permanent structure in the central park for the flower sellers to sell their flowers in.  Right now they are just under some umbrellas.  I have drawn up a design but don’t feel I can move foward until I speak with the sellers themselves to find out their needs.  But we don’t want them to know I’m working on it until we know it is going to happen, and we don’t know if it is going to happen untill I show some final designs and building plans and budget to the city council and they approve it.  It seems very easy to get things done in public administration if you just totally leave the public out of it. 

I also hope to change the space around the broken fountain in the central park into a small stage area for events.  Water has not ran through its veins since the Communists were in power (1989).  The need for the change is something I have noticed and think would be nice.  Although, I have only lived in Reghin for about… 2 months.  What do I know?  When I ask around the office I hear “that would be nice” and “how much would it cost.”  I don’t get very favorable responses when I ask if it gets built, is the city prepared to use that space. 

I’ve decided just to move forward with all my ideas and turn them into graphics.  Once I have tangible documents, I can begin to peddle them around the office and get some excitement about them.  Once that is in place, hopefully I can push for some sort of public involvement events so that the projects can be tweeked to be more valuable to the city, and so the Mayor’s office can get a little more face time with Ionut C. Public. 

It differs from projects I worked on in school and in firms stateside because we were trained to get as much information about what we should do before we started drawing it up in plans.  The problem seems to be that I have too much control over these projects and the only checks and balances over my proposals are going to be the will of the Mayor and city council and the budget.  My job is to fit a few more stakeholders into the process to make sure that not only can these projects be done, but should they.

-alanica fara frica