When John Fitzgerald succeeded Frank Feely as Dublin City Manager in July 1996, he insisted on being photographed seated at his desk rather than on the roof terrace of the Civic Offices, with its panoramic views.
Mr Fitzgerald wanted to mark the transition to a more low-key style of leadership. And since then, his hands-on approach has revolutionised Dublin Corporation, transforming the 6,500strong organisation and its once-fractious relationship with the city.
These days corporation employees, particularly its senior officials, seem to walk with a new spring in their step. A new "can do" philosophy permeates the Civic Offices.
And this is no accident - the 200 people in management posts have all been "re-educated". Groups of up to 20 at a time were sent to Tulfarris House, in Co Wicklow, for two-day sessions to "think more objectively about what their role really is", as he puts it.
"It was primarily geared to create a management ethos to think more strategically and make a better job of managing people. Because my view is that if we can make the organisation more focused and point it in the right direction, it can go anywhere you want it to go."
Mr Fitzgerald rejects any suggestion that officials are institutionalised. "The willingness and ability of most of the people running the system to be galvanised into action is incredible at times. Most of them jump at the chance to do a decent job," he says.
And in his view that job is to provide civic leadership in what he sees as "a business that embraces the whole city". So after fine-tuning the organisation, he set about forging a new relationship with the city through last autumn's "Let's Hear It For Dublin" initiative.
Over a period of 10 weeks, more than 3,000 community representatives were invited to the Civic Offices for a reception - each group of 300 or so from a different part of Dublin. Everyone was given "a plate of food and a glass of wine" and shown what the corporation was doing.
Around 50 to 60 staff turned up for each evening session. "I was fairly nervous about it at first and they were even more nervous. But after every session, when the initial hot air had dissipated, almost invariably we ended up with a common agenda."
The initiative helped to "restore the relationship" between the corporation and the city's community leaders, he says. "It was aimed at re-engaging people, because I believe that a lot of the arguments and rows over things in the past could have been settled over cups of tea."
Mr Fitzgerald cites the port tunnel as an example of the consultation process he has in mind. Despite the controversy, he believes it worked well, producing "a better project" albeit one which will cost £45 million more than the earlier estimate of £130 million.
Ballymun is another example. "We set up a regional office under Brendan Kenny [now principal officer in housing] and he gathered all of the corporation's resources together to engage the community and achieve a meeting of minds. It was spectacularly successful."
This was a prelude to the current programme to regenerate Ballymun, at a cost of £180 million. Since then, a company has been set up at arm's length to oversee the project with representatives of the corporation and the community - once constantly at loggerheads - on its board.
Based on the Ballymun model, the city manager plans to set up 10 local offices in areas such as Ballyfermot, Darndale and Inchicore, where people will have access to a range of services. Front-of-house staff will include planners doing local action plans.
Mr Fitzgerald has also managed to secure the City Council's agreement to establish area committees to deal with local issues. This would leave the 52-member council to concentrate on city-wide policies.
These initiatives are all "inspired by an acceptance that the way we're structured at the moment is not the right way and needs to relate more closely to the community", he says.
He is concerned about the widespread perception that Dublin is "doing well" and that the real need is in the west of Ireland. "Of the 11 areas of social deprivation nationally, nine are in Dublin and seven of these are in the corporation area. That's intolerable," he said.
Some of these areas, untouched by the economic boom, have unemployment as high as 80 per cent. "We cannot afford to leave their problems unaddressed, and we can only do this with the backing of all of the agencies involved and the community in general."
The corporation has earmarked £85 million over five years, not just to "fix the bricks and mortar" of run-down blocks of flats, but also to regenerate the community so that the investment in improving the physical environment is not set aside by subsequent social collapse.
In this context, Mr Fitzgerald is concerned about the Government's proposal to impose a "cap" on commercial rates, because he can see situations arising where the rate system might be used by agreement to "do things in the city that might not otherwise be done".
The corporation has a new economic development unit, with a brief to identify potential development opportunities and get them going, sooner rather than later. "My view is that if it's possible to make something happen in 1998 instead of 2008, it's better for the city."
He envisages a "short, sharp" debate about the revised city plan, due to be unveiled later this month.
"Rather than spend six years haranguing each other about a draft development plan that's not going to achieve anything in itself, I would much prefer to devote the resources we have to making things happen, particularly at a local level," the city manager says.