At the first meeting between John Bush and Jay Melder, an hour-long conversation over coffee at the Coffee Fox, Bush did not mince words.
Bush, a victims' liaison with the Chatham County District Attorney's office at the time, wanted to help Melder, who had just been hired as Savannah's city manager, get acclimated to the real Savannah, the city where Bush was born and raised.
Bush did not sugarcoat his from-here insights with chamber-style soundbites about charm and dripping Spanish moss. He told Melder about what he saw as the city’s shortcomings: the need for neighborhood-level programming with the right people and enough resources to make a difference, about the lack of coordination among existing resources, and the uneven distribution of assets around the city.
"He was straightforward with me," said Melder, "and he did tell me his point of view about what we need to do. Our philosophies were kind of aligned."
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Leaving the meeting surprised and impressed by Bush's straightforward manner and warmth, Melder urged Bush to apply for a new position he was creating, the director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. He gave Bush a quick run-down of the program: using a public health and community support approach to reduce gun violence. Melder has modeled it after an office he created when he served as assistant city administrator for Washington, D.C.
Once the city put multiple candidates through a rigorous interview process at the assessment center, Bush came out on top.
"He knew about this work and he knew about this community, and that's pretty invaluable to a new city manager coming in looking at this problem," said Melder. "What struck me is that he's passionate about the work and his experience is clear."
Addressing root causes of crime
In his new role, Bush plans to address root causes of crime. He believes those causes arise from, among other factors, poverty, lack of opportunity and exposure to crime. But, he acknowledges that it won't be easy getting at those causes alone.
“This is the department that handles that,” said Bush. “We're working with all [city] departments to engage every citizen to find a solution to the problems.”
Although the number of non-domestic and domestic aggravated assaults involving a gun have decreased this past year — from 353 in 2020 to 291 in 2021 — Bush acknowledged that too many disputes in Savannah end with violence.
"There's a generational thing that we're dealing with where people are engaged in retaliatory activities," said Bush. "It's back and forth. And that's what we play a role in: There is something better to do with your lives. You don't have to go out there. We have a department of government that handles all that. Your job in life is to thrive. Your job is to not look into your past, but to look into your future. We want to provide those opportunities to look into the future."
Bush's new job represents the culmination of all the roads he's traveled to get here, from serving as a community intervention specialist for the Chatham County DA to a community leader for the End Gun Violence Initiative spearheaded by the Savannah Police Department.
His experience in the victims' witness assistance program allowed Bush to work directly with with people harmed by violence. In that role, Bush met with people in the hospital, comforted families, identified friends and affiliates of victims, even going so far as to visit with them, work through their pain, and encourage them not to retaliate.
During his time with the DA's Youth Intercept program, Bush picked up kids from school and took them to after-school activities. He identified high-risk youth based on their school attendance, grades and discipline records.
“One of the things that we want to do here is support organizations and programs like that,” said Bush. “To make sure that they can do their job to the fullest, to make sure we have a network of those opportunities going around, and getting maximum exposure for the kids that actually need that kind of exposure, to make a change in their lives.”
Sitting in his new office on the second floor of city hall, Bush said his biggest challenge, is, “I have to help everybody else do what I was already doing. I really still want to be out there. I still want to be hands on, but I have to step back and actually help other people get an opportunity to be hands on.”
For now, Bush said he needs to weigh community input to assess the problems residents are facing, hire a few more staff members, and develop and implement a detailed strategic plan. He also needs to determine how to distribute the $1 million in grant funds approved by the Savannah City Council in the 2022 budget to support the office. To do so, he plans to research community groups, get a sense of the service-provider landscape before holding meetings with organizational leaders.
“Our kids want to do better," said Bush. "We just have to offer them something better. And that's what this office is going to do.”
Drew Favakeh is the public safety reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: John Bush to head new Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement
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