The jumping off discussion area for the rest of the Deck. All things Lakewood.
Please check out our other sections. As we refile many discussions from the past into
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Stan Austin wrote:Kevin--- I did post something that I thought was tremendously funny earlier.
But after reading a few times realized it went out of the "funny" range on the scale and was heading into "perversion".
So I deleted it. Stan
Stan
Some of us missed it, could you repost?
.
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident
"The very act of observing disturbs the system." Werner Heisenberg
"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it." His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Back to CitiStat. The point of CitiStat is to reveal problems with process; to determine how a department is doing something, and how it allocates resources (human and financial). Ed's point, I believe, is that the fact that the toilet is running and the pumps aren't tracking, could have been revealed through the Citistat review. Citistat is about accountability and transparency. It doesn't like sweeping stuff under the carpet and it provides the means to uncover problems with staffing, management and process. The resulting efficiencies can have a dramatic positive effect on both the budget and customer service.
Ed's answer about the fire department is confusing. If it's too complicated then it has to be Lakewood's problem. Citistat was originally developed and implemented to address the growing problems with the safety forces in New York City. Overtime abuse, sick leave abuse and staffing are right up Citistat's ally. Jack Maple and Rudy Giuliani made their reputations on this data tracking system. Retooling the program for other departments came later.
49 percent of Lakewood's budget is Safety forces. So why begin this process with a piece of Human Services that is, in total, only 3 percent of the budget?
“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.â€
Just a few more notes on the Citistat meeting of January 19th.
The discussions also covered the City fleet "motor pool" and the water and sewer departments.
Mr. Favre noted that after extensive analysis by Citisat it was found that the tire changing machine could not accommodate the larger tires found on some of the city vehicles. The decision was made to buy a new tire changing machine.
I suppose if I was paying a supervisor $100,000 a year to manage a department I would expect that he would discover the need for new equipment and take the necessary action as part of a normal business day. I expect too much.
During the power point demonstration one slide on the water department displayed a graph. A GRAPH!!! WITH DATA!!!
What could it be? An analysis of overtime, sick time, water usage, staffing levels, performance standards, benchmarks with historical averages, benchmarks with other cities, cost ratios etc...? No such luck.
It was a graph of rainfall in the City of Lakewood over time. You see, the load level of the sewer department is partially determined by the amount of rain that falls on City streets. It was discovered that while it might be raining at City Hall it might not be raining at the sewer plant. How was the sewer department to know if it was raining? The answer was elegant in its simplicity. Citistat would install rain gages at the fire stations!
Who would read the gage? Is that a function of a unionized employee? Which union? How often should the gage be read? How would the results be communicated? How should the results be interpreted? How did the department operate so long without a rain gage?
So many questions. Perhaps someone should form a committee.
You started your rant on Citistat months ago when you thought it wasn't being implemented.
It was.
You then maintained that Citistat should be immediately applied to all the city's' departments.
It can't. It has to be phased in. Otherwise it would draw dawn resources needlessly for implementation thus risking unnecessary expenditures.
You then finally decided to actually attend a Citistat presentation, maybe, perhaps to expose yourself to first hand knowledge rather that bleacher play calling?
And, surprise, since you don't understand modern management techniques or even modern technology you continue to throw your little pebbles at it.
To wit: if not rain guages (a technology that has been embraced by most state highway departments) what would you propose? A divining rod?
The tire changer in question was for 17inch rims which is now taking over for most city cars from 16inch rims. This was a decision based on the common sense evaluation, which is what in many cases Citistat is, that economies were to be had by buying the larger equipment instead of sending out tire changing.
I think I reflect the opinion of many Deck readers in my perplexity of your bizarre criticisms of any and all things.
Stan
Stan Austin wrote:You started your rant on Citistat months ago when you thought it wasn't being implemented.
It was.
Citistat is not being implemented. The Administration is just going through the motions. It has already been announced that the City's Citistat program will save no money and bring no operating efficiencies. So what's the point?
When the meeting was over I was left with the questions: If Citisat is needed to tell supervisors that toilets are broke, that equipment is outdated, that fuel gages are not working and that it is raining at City Hall what are all those supervisors doing? Do they communicate with employees? Do they leave their vehicles? Do they walk through the parks?
Isn't anything being done as part of the normal day to day management of a department? How did the City run so well 20 years ago with fewer employees and no Citistat department?
Modern city management is certainly complex. More and more people accomplish less and less and the only solution is to hire more and more people.
You know, after doing maintenance on a building for many years, we are pretty sensitive to building maintenance issue and we know that we had to pay for a leak anywhere and it adds up. Actually the city is quite good about helping you find leaks if you ask them.
We were at a Democratic Club meeting at the Woman's Pavilion - last summer and the urinal in the men's room was running. (Just like you said) Don looked around and found the Mayor figuring the buck stops there. He told him about the problem. Of course at first, the Mayor thought Don was joking and laughed about it. Finally at the next meeting a month later, Don saw it was still running and brought it up again to the Mayor. Don offered to fix it. The Mayor did go in and look at it this time with the security gaurd. Don was told it is designed to always run. Seemed like a waste of money to us too. I dont know if or how the CIty pays for its water usage. Something told us the city doesn't pay and somehow it is all added into our bill. Anyway we gave up trying to get it fixed.
So while in the scheme of things it is small potatoes, I will concur that we were aware of the problems months ago.
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." ~ George Carlin
If no one plans to fix that urinal, and with summer coming soon, perhaps we could come up with a new tourist attraction; that being "The Falls of Lakewood".
Or perhaps in this case, the "Fall" of Lakewood.
"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." T.S. Elliot
(Or in our case, with an everlasting stream?)
I have a new respect for my water bill now. The bigger question is how much does Lakewood have, for theirs?
What a fantastic distortion of an otherwise worthwhile program and informative presentation. Nice work taking several points out of context, misrepresenting achievements as failures and still having time to oversimplify duties while randomly assigning blame. I think that you've missed the mark on this one Bill. Is it the best thing since sliced bread? Probably not. Bread that comes in sandwich ready servings is pretty freakin' cool, but it's certainly not a disaster as you seem to contend.
City of Lakewood CitiStat Accomplishments
March 2006 – January 2007
General Municipal Benefits
The multi-department forum has allowed the participants to understand city issues from other perspectives. The CitiStat Panel membersâ€â€Legal, Finance, HR, IS, and Public Worksâ€â€are able to discuss specific issues and how their respective departments may be affected and assist in providing solutions.
The Initial Performance Measures have been refined and extended to provide useful management tools for all departments in Lakewood. All department managers now receive monthly reports for Payroll Analysis, Current Staffing, and Personnel & Operational Expenses to monitor their performance.
Furthermore, the tenets of CitiStat have fostered a culture of accountability for resolution. The follow-up processes, through memos and continual review of issues, have tracked particular problems and made their priorities clear.
The City began with four pilot departments in March 2006, and currently nine departments are part of the program, which represents 30% of City Departments.
Wastewater Collections, Winterhurst, Health/Animal Control, Information Systems, and Parks & Public Property began the process in January 2007.
Since the City is administering the program internally with the assistance of two part-time CSU interns, there is an administrative challenge to bring on large departments such as Refuse, Fire/EMS, and Police. Therefore, the CitiStat Team is pursuing outside funding sources to continue program expansion with the goal to have the capacity for all departments included by the end of 2008.
Quarterly Updates of the program will be released to City employees and the citizens of Lakewood.
Lakewood Citywide (as of March 2006)
Initial Issues:
A budget crunch amid an environment of expensive municipal services; justifying cost to council and citizens
A culture of precedent for operational procedures
Lack of performance measurement standards and guidelines
Disparate municipal databases/lack of centralized information
Solutions:
Quantifying performance with comparatives and standards
Raising questions about outdated modes and re-examining departmental purposes
All municipal departments are given monthly updates of salient performance data (budget, staffing, and productivity / leave usage)
Accelerated effort to implement GIS citywide with the requisite systems integration
Waste Water Treatment Plant (as of March 2006)
Initial Issues:
Engineering support for repairs and capital projects
Staffing shortages and personnel management (shifts & OT)
EPA compliance and contradictory regulations
Equipment upgrades and capital projects
Rainfall measurement/inflows discrepancies
First Energy power service
Solutions:
Coordination with Legal Dept. for EPA negotiations
Plans for addressing First Energy service problems
Assignment of rain gauge installations
Division of Aging (as of March 2006)
Initial Issues:
Program funding and service levels
Database management and software utilization
Complex funding arrangements and dependency on General Fund
Cost-benefit analysis of certain services (Transportation, Home Health Services, Meals)
Solutions:
Working with IS, discovered ways of generating useful reports from current software
Developing unit cost measures for various services to evaluate efficiency
Reorganizing the accounting structures for greater accuracy
Fleet Management (as of March 2006)
Initial Issues:
Capital equipment maintenance (PetroVend, vehicle lifts)
CFA software utilization
Replacement of Fleet Mgr
Preparation and organization of Fleet office for new Mgr
Solutions: PetroVend repair and updates completed
Revised job description specific for Fleet Mgr position
Formation of a hiring committee to select the best candidate
Arrangement of CFA training classes
Improved response to capital equipment repairs (budget adjustments made to better reflect dept needs)
When the Fleet Manager began in October, there were 70 vehicles in need of repair. As of January 2007, there were no vehicles waiting repair, and the department is in preventative maintenance mode.
Building & Housing (as of March 2006)
Initial Issues:
Field communications for inspectors
Database upkeep and consolidation
Re-inspection process (length, compliance enforcement)
Solutions:
Walkie-Talkie system implemented for inspectors
Database revisions made and continuing
Codified inspector SOP being developed
Working with Legal Dept to improve compliance
Training seminars held for better inspector effectiveness
Any questions about the program, please feel free to contact me at 529-6092 or Ed Favre at 529-6602
Shawn Juris wrote:Nice work taking several points out of context, misrepresenting achievements as failures ...
What achievements? Just curious.
While Jennifer is obviously much better versed on the ins and outs of this program, the only ones that I were referring to were each of the examples that were brought up earlier in the post. I believe they were; the gas pumps, larger tire exchanging equipment, phones/radios, toilets and tracking waste water levels. Each of these were somehow slanted to imply that Citistat was at fault for identifying and addressing the issue. Are we using the equivalent of "if you smelt it you dealt it" or can we agree that this is simply a tool and could be very useful if in the right hands.
Thanks for the information Jennifer. Nice to see something more than reactions and interpretations.
Stan
