Former Mayor Richard on helping Obama

Former Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard played key roles in Barack Obama's campaign and in his transition to the White House.

Monday, he sat down with Newschannel 15's Mark Mellinger to talk about all of that publicly for the first time.

"I'm excited about making government work better," he said. And that's the main reason Richard's so excited about Barack Obama.

Richard became connected with team Obama through a mutual friend in summer 2007. That friend -who, unbeknownst to Richard, had gone to law school with Obama- had read Richard's book on making government more effective and passed it on to Obama staffers. They liked Richard & his ideas, and asked him to come aboard.

"The campaign was particularly meaningful because I felt the ideas -in addition to the organizational commitment that we needed- were being heard," said Richard.

Besides helping recruit local volunteers, set up offices, and raise money,  the former mayor served on two campaign policy teams: one on urban development and another on government reform. Then, he was part of Obama's urban housing policy team during the transition.

One of Richard's proposals that may become policy under President Obama: making it easy for mayors to share examples of innovative urban housing projects -like Fort Wayne's Renaissance Pointe- on the internet site You Tube.

"What I'm finding is that there are good ideas all over this country that need to be shared quickly, rapidly as the economic recovery and stimulus money comes to communities," said Richard.

Richard's also pleased that Barack Obama will be the first president to hire a chief performance officer focusing on government effectiveness and efficiency; something the former mayor strongly backed when acting as a policy adviser during the campaign.

"It's exciting to see that ideas coming out of Fort Wayne, Indiana or anywhere in the country that are good ideas are bubbling up to the top, and that there's a sense -at least at this stage- of embracing a new way of doing government business," Richard said.

Richard has not spoken with Obama personally since the election, but the two did have a couple of brief face-to-face conversations when Obama made campaign visits to Fort Wayne last year. Richard said Obama seemed particularly interested in Fort Wayne's pioneering use of high-speed broadband technology when Richard was mayor.

For now, Richard won't serve in the administration, though Obama officials asked him to consider it. He wants to spend time developing his consulting business and being with family. But he would consider serving in a second Obama term.

The main way Obama opens up a door for him now: Richard hopes to advise government agencies on becoming more lean and effective.

He's already started doing some of that with the Department of Defense. He says his work could help the federal government save billions of dollars in the years to come.

Richard says there are three essentials a leader must have to become a great president: demanding times, the gift of communication, and the ability to surround himself with talented people. So, can President Obama become one of the greats?

"If he can make those elements come together, stay on track, course correct when he needs to, yes. All the elements are there for him to do that," said Richard.