In jurisdictions from California to Virginia, people running the business of government are coming up with effective ways to manage the nuts-and-bolts tasks of public infrastructure. Their strategies run the gamut from writing and implementing software that improves maintenance and repair of sewer and water systems to streamlining the municipal permitting department to doing the homework to ensure that the state gets the most money for surplused land.
But before those solutions could be put in place, problems were identified, brainstorming went on. Even when technology was pulled out of a box and installed to improve building or public works management, it took identifying problems, plus reorganizational and budget work, to be ready to get on with a new way of taking care of the public's assets.
INDIANAPOLIS: TAMING THE PERMIT PROCESS
The city of Indianapolis looked to technology to improve the mundane process of permitting--but first it combed through the governing rules and made sure the department was organized correctly.There were more than a few hints that it wasn't. Sometimes citizens had to tromp around to three counters to get all the permits needed for one project. That was because permits for the Public Works, Transportation and Metropolitan Development departments were not well coordinated, says Clay Whitmire, the city's director of applied technology.
The process was revamped in 1994, but that still didn't seem to speed up service very much. A second restructuring, in late 1998, combined staff from the three departments into what Whitmire calls one-stop shopping.
Under the revised system, a customer service representative greets applicants and determines what type of permit they want. They are then routed to the appropriate person to issue the permit. The average time spent before people get to the municipal employee who will work on their permit has dropped from 120 minutes to 8 minutes as of October, according to Rosalie Hinton, permits administrator.
Getting to the one-stop shop, however, was a technological challenge. The permits process is data hungry: Reviewers must check historical documents and research such key information as zoning and right of way. It used to be that the applicant would sit and wait at a reviewer's desk while the employee searched files that might be located two floors away. In overhauling the process, Whitmire says, "it became important to us to do away with as much of that paper as possible." The point was to have all the critical information available at the reviewer's desktop.
To accomplish that objective, the city turned to several pieces of software: a records management system to keep track of a permit from the time a customer walks in through the final inspection, a document management system and a geographic information system. Instead of being scattered among file cabinets on several floors of offices, "all the pertinent records for an address are in the electronic file cabinet now," Whitmire says.
These days, some simpler permits, such as right of way and electrical, can even be processed on the Internet; eventually, the city aims to be able to handle all permits electronically. Zoning information already is available on its Web site (www.ci.indianapolis.in.us/). And with in-office electronic access to records under its belt, Indianapolis is rolling out a remote system so that inspectors can use laptops to research properties while in the field.
SAN DIEGO: CLICKING ON THE SEWER SITES
Some 3,000 miles of water and sewer pipes run underneath the city of San Diego. Maintaining them efficiently and making sure they are in good repair was a challenge for the San Diego water and wastewater departments.Until recently, they depended on a mainframe system to help keep track of the relevant data. The computer spat out work orders, but paper maps of the infrastructure were kept elsewhere and were not always current. Moreover, paper records of work completed were scribbled at the work site, then keyed in by data entry clerks later.
All in all, the paper-based system made it hard and time-consuming to organize, share and update information and to dispatch workers efficiently. Records too often were either inaccurate or missing. Employees had a hard time figuring out where work sites were.
Recognizing these problems, staff made plans in 1995 to buy off-the- shelf software to link up with the city's new geographic information system, which had mapped out all sewer and water facilities. The idea was that once that was in place, workers would be given field computers so they could tap into the networked system. That way they would no longer have to depend on bits of paper to know where they were supposed to go and what needed to be done to which piece of infrastructure.
Nothing in the market fit the specifications, so the city-owned San Diego Data Processing Corp. was put to work and developed SWIMpen, the Sewer/Water Infrastructure Management system, in consultation with the field workers.
Up and running since 1998, the SWIMpen application now stores San Diego's map and maintenance information on hand-held Pentium-based pen computers. SWIMpen also links to a global positioning system, which helps the 300 field crews more easily figure out where their assignments are. Now, when a crew goes out, members can electronically access and update system maps and record both what they've done and how long it took them to do it. Instead of calling the office to have someone do research on the mainframe or in files, they have instantaneous access to all the relevant information. And rather than using assorted pieces of paper to write up tasks accomplished, they enter information directly on the computer.
By making it easier to get to work sites and log in work, San Diego has been rewarded with more accurate information and more efficient maintenance and repair. The backflow-prevention-valve maintenance section, for instance, has almost doubled its work order completion rate, and redundant dispatching of crews to emergency calls has been reduced because dispatchers now can pinpoint where each problem is and route a single crew to an area. SWIMpen costs $500,000 annually to support; development cost $2,370,600.
FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA: THE HEAT IS ON
The disruption in maintenance and repair of all 24 of the city's buildings was extreme in 1996. In fact, says Robert K. Antozzi, director of parks, recreation and public facilities, "we were in a crisis."The parks and recreation department had just been asked to take over the running of public buildings because the situation had gotten so dire. Every day, something seemed to malfunction, and city employees couldn't keep pace with the deterioration. For example, workers had to spend two hours each morning just to get the water-cooling tower that served the circuit court building to run. "It's hard to have the time to do preventive maintenance when you're chasing down monsters," Antozzi says. "We had to stop the cycle."
As he planned a retrofit of the heating, air conditioning and lighting systems--major sources of trouble--Antozzi researched building management software, which centralizes controls and monitoring of HVAC and security on one computer. Once convinced of its value, Antozzi had the system installed, along with a mechanical system retrofit.
With the software in place, security system malfunctions, fire alarms and a temperature that is above or below a pre-specified range show up on the central computer. Buildings are even divided into zones, so that one room could be comfortably heated for an evening meeting while the rest of the facility is permitted to cool down to save energy. In addition, humidity is monitored in buildings housing historical documents.
The retrofit and software installation cost $788,000. Over the next 10 years, the city figures it will save $1.25 million in energy payments and hours and materials needed for repair.
CALIFORNIA: LANDING A SALE
Selling real estate in California is not necessarily the world's biggest challenge: Land is always in demand. But when the state goes to sell off its surplused real property, it has to deal with issues that don't necessarily affect a seller in the private market. It can't just sell to anyone for any purpose at any old price.That is why the state set up the Asset Enhancement Program in the Department of General Services. It is AEP's job to do the legwork to make sure that the state gets the best possible price and finds a buyer that will use the land in a way that meshes with local goals.
That means AEP staff had to learn how to do market research, pre- solicitation planning and development approval processing--unusual tasks for government. AEP, which launched its program in 1995, has laid out a series of steps to follow to take a property from surplus to sold:
- Anticipate legal, zoning or planning issues related to selling the property.
- Do economic, planning and market analysis.
- Research possible types of users, based on the likely uses of the land.
- Prepare a solicitation package, including a marketing brochure and background on the property.
- Place advertisements in local and national newspapers and journals, and make contacts with commercial real estate agents and potential buyers.
- Evaluate proposals based not only on price but also on the likelihood of getting the needed approvals from the local jurisdiction and the cost of any mitigations.
- Prepare the property for transfer, which may include removing hazardous materials.
- Obtain any necessary jurisdictional approvals: A thumbs down from local or environmental officials dooms a deal.
The other property was West Agnews in Santa Clara, almost 300 acres of a former state developmental hospital, including 170 acres of vacant land and a number of old buildings. Half the property was sold for $51 million to a company that will reuse some of the buildings. The rest is being sold for $190 million to a consortium that plans mixed-use development, including residential, shopping and a library, police substation and fire station. The consortium has agreed to set aside land for a school and public park.
In both cases, "we did a lot of homework before looking for a buyer. We did a lot of communicating with the city to be sure what we targeted was a likely use," says Frank Davidson, assistant chief of asset planning and enhancement in DGS. The state estimates that asset planning increased the value of the property by $100 million.
SAN ANTONIO: THE WATER CURE
Threatened by lawsuits over pumping too much water from an aquifer and thus endangering protected species, San Antonio had to find another source of water to serve its southwest portion. It bought a 600-acre ranch that included a lake, which it planned to use as a source of surface water. That solved only part of the problem, though. Its Bexar Metropolitan Water District still needed to arrange for intake, pumping, transmission and filtration.To do the job well and avoid hiring more people, water district management decided that a design-build-operate contract would work well. "We needed to get the plant online and in a hurry," says Keith Pyron, deputy general manager and chief engineer. Design-build was "the best option to do it fastest and get the best technology."
Under design-build-operate, all the services are compressed into one contract. While agencies have to do more planning and decision making upfront, once the design-build-operate contract is signed, the project is usually completed much more quickly than with a more traditional, sequential approach.
There was one hitch in using the approach in Texas, however. Public agencies in the Lone Star State are prohibited from signing design- build contracts. But a way to obey the law and still do design-build was found: In 1997 the district created a nonprofit corporation, issuing $30 million in revenue bonds to fund the proj-ect. The bonds are backed by the facility lease between the corporation and the water district. The corporation then signed a 10-year contract with the private-sector firms involved in the various parts of the project.
The first phase, which provides 9 million gallons a day, was completed in December. Plans call for the facility to handle 27 million gallons a day eventually.
MOBILE COUNTY, ALABAMA: TRAVELING RIGHT
Public works crews and supervisors in 1,600-square-mile Mobile County were looking for a way to bring more efficiency to their travel around the county. Now, they have a new tool to help. The county public works department, along with the sheriff's and emergency medical service departments, has just begun to use wireless mobile information software for dispatching and two-way communication of work orders.The plan is that the software, installed this fall, will let crews more effectively map out the best way to economize on distances traveled. Some 30 laptops have been bought; 100 are expected to be available within three years.
Although the travel problem was targeted as an inefficiency issue six years ago, it took time to find the money in the budget and work with a software maker to customize its product and put the technology in place. But now it's about to kick in. "This will enable supervisors to more efficiently keep up with the people they are responsible for," says County Engineer Joe W. Ruffer. "Communication is everything in a business environment."
