The Observation Deck

Charlie Page wrote:I know you know this but I have to say it. Citistat is not some magical black box that you plug in and suddenly all these numbers and stats come flowing out like a waterfall. Citistat is a management tool. It requires a lot of upfront work and maintenance. Maintenance costs money. How many people did Baltimore hire whose sole duty is to operate Citistat? How much did Baltimore invest in systems to produce those fingertip numbers?

Charlie

We are confusing many issues here.

1) I know it was not a magical black box. But some of our "civic leaders" sold it to us as
the cure for cancer, and as a magical black box. I think it is time that the city starts to
wonder if those leaders have any grounding in fact or is everything they embrace magical,
and special, and black boxes.

Go back and read the stuff on CitiStat, Voices and Choices, Regionalism, Click to Brick, and
on and on and on and on and on again. At some point don't get a chance to say hold on.
Is there any proof 1,000s come to Lakewood every week to smell the beautiful flowers?
Or do we have to believe it like everything else that is spoonfed to us by those above
answering any and all questions?

With that said...

I worked for a company in the 80s called MedPlus, did their logo and marketing kites. They
created a system that allowed hospitals to chart and bill out every Q-Tip, bandaid, aspirin,
etc. Automatically so nothing slips through the cracks. That was in the 80s. One would
hope that in 2011 they might be a way for a city to track in real crime, costs, departments,
etc. In a dream world residents, you know the employers of a city could see this too and
and could actually vote and ask relevant questions based on known facts instead of guess
work and allegations.

FWIW


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Jim O'Bryan wrote:We are confusing many issues here.

1) I know it was not a magical black box. But some of our "civic leaders" sold it to us as
the cure for cancer, and as a magical black box. I think it is time that the city starts to
wonder if those leaders have any grounding in fact or is everything they embrace magical,
and special, and black boxes.

Go back and read the stuff on CitiStat, Voices and Choices, Regionalism, Click to Brick, and
on and on and on and on and on again. At some point don't get a chance to say hold on.
Is there any proof 1,000s come to Lakewood every week to smell the beautiful flowers?
Or do we have to believe it like everything else that is spoonfed to us by those above
answering any and all questions?

Who are these “civic leaders”?

hmmm...many references to things by LA. Is this another barrage on them?

Jim O'Bryan wrote:I worked for a company in the 80s called MedPlus, did their logo and marketing kites. They
created a system that allowed hospitals to chart and bill out every Q-Tip, bandaid, aspirin,
etc. Automatically so nothing slips through the cracks. That was in the 80s. One would
hope that in 2011 they might be a way for a city to track in real crime, costs, departments,
etc. In a dream world residents, you know the employers of a city could see this too and
and could actually vote and ask relevant questions based on known facts instead of guess
work and allegations.

You can’t compare hospitals that have systems that bill out every last band aid to those of a municipality. The two serve vastly different purposes. Unlike a hospital, the City doesn’t send a bill for most of its services rendered. However, having some sort of costing mechanism in place could help the City make better decisions and properly price the services it does bill out.

For example, the price of a building permit is based on the total dollar value of construction. A more accurate price would be based on the time to review drawings, the number of inspections needed, the complexity of those inspections plus some overhead cost. The permit for a 30k kitchen renovation costs more than finishing half a basement (with bathroom and shower) but required the same number of inspections (per recollection of my own experience). Therefore, it costs the City relatively the same in time to do both but they don’t charge as much for the finished half basement. So, are they overcharging for higher dollar construction or not charging enough for the lower dollar stuff or both? My guess is they could safely bump up permit fee for the lower dollar stuff.

Another example is EMS billing. Are the costs per EMS run known? Are the charges to the user high enough to cover those costs? Should the charges be higher to cover the EMS runs for the uninsured? Is there any state/fed assistance to defer the costs of the uninsured? Can CDBG funds be used to offset the cost of the uninsured who never pay up? Aren’t CDBG funds supposed to be used to benefit the economically disadvantaged?

Are the fees charged for the City to cut the grass when the owner refuses high enough to cover the cost?

I doubt Citistat would tell you any of this.

The system the City uses to enter transactions and generate financial statements works pretty well from what I’ve been told. It’s not perfect but it does the job. Have you looked at the City’s financials lately? On the City’s website, Jenn Pae posts the monthly financial report that is pretty detailed. But it won’t tell you the cost of making a sign or police at an event. The 2011 budget is also posted there as well as prior years CAFRs.

Charlie Page wrote:Who are these “civic leaders”?

hmmm...many references to things by LA. Is this another barrage on them?

Charlie

Why no it is not. But thanks for marginalizing the discussion.

Try this again, go back and look at the discussions. Why let me take this out of context?

Old forum, "Citistat"

Charlie

So you tell me the city is in financial trouble. So bad we are carrying garbage to the curb
to help do our part. But it does not matter about the little things that in my mind are
quickly adding up to $100,000 here, $200,000 there, next thing you know you are talking
real money eh? Or do we depend on more dead people leaving the city money in their
wills, ala Richard Jacobs?

I am not asking Jenn to do a better job, she is spectacular. What I am thinking is really
conservative and republican in nature. Do we have to spend as much as we are spending?

Is there a better way?

I guess you are one of those guys that believe if you do the same thing long enough you
might get a different result. Me, I like faster results. Especially now, in this day and age, in
this city.

Charlie, since you brought it up..
Lakewood Alive? Did they give themselves another award I missed?
Nothing but good things to say about them right now. Took part in their
survey that other "downtown stakeholders" took part in. Seems we all
unanimously thought LakewoodAlive needed nicer offices
with better views and visibility. Go figure.

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I'm not sure where you're going with this conversation.

I'll say that the root cause of government inefficiency is complacency, mainly due to lack of competition. What happens to any company when there's no competition? For starters, the company gets fat and lazy and starts to lose touch with reality. Your costs continue to climb but there's no incentive to lean out because the money just keeps coming in and coming in. Then tough times hit. The reserve you had in good times is gone. The revenue isn't coming in like it used to. Those previous years of fat spending are coming back to haunt you! Ahhh, crisis! Sound familiar?

Citistat is good to pick the low hanging fruit when it comes to reducing expenditures and increasing efficiency. Lakewood is well beyond that which is why I suspect it has appeared to lose its luster at City Hall. What's needed is more good old fashioned common sense and management skills. Do we need a $50,000 engineering study to tell us how big the cracks in our roads are? I don't think so (don't laugh, it was included in budget iterations over the last couple years but I don't believe it ever made the final cut thanks to inquisitive Council members).

You can have the best systems in the universe but it won't replace skilled managers and common sense.

So you still want Citistat? Fine, hire 3 people to run it the way it should be run at a cost of 400k per year to save 200k per year. What a bargain!