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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/27/2018 - Regular Minutes - City Council - Audit CommitteeMayor Karl Mooney Mayor Pro Tem Linda Harvell City Manager Bryan Woods (r 9; CITY OF COI ,LI GI STATION Home of Texas Ae'rM University" Minutes CITY COUNCIL AUDIT COMMITTEE Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 3:00 PM City Hall Administrative Conference Room 1101 Texas Avenue College Station, Texas 77840 Audit Committee Members Present: Karl Mooney, Mayor James Benham, Mayor Pro Tem — Not in Attendance Linda Harvell, Councilmember Mike Ashfield, Committee Member Nathan Sharp, Committee Member — Not in attendance City Staff: Ty Elliott, Internal Auditor Madison Rorschach, Assistant Internal Auditor Jeffrey Capps, Interim City Manager Jeff Kersten, Assistant City Manager Aubrey Nettles, Special Projects Manager Carla Robinson, City Attorney Yvette Dela Torre, Deputy Local Registrar Mary E. Leonard, Finance Director Pete Caler, Assistant Director PW/Operations Wally Urrutia, Division Manager — Solid Waste Heather Woolwine — Recycling & Environmental Compliance Manager Council Members Jerome Rektorik Bob Brick John Nichols Elianor Vessali Dennis Maloney Regular Agenda Item No. 1— Call to Order and Announce a Ouorum is Present. With a quorum present, the Audit Committee of College Station was called to order by Mayor Mooney at 3:03 p.m. on November 27, 2018 in the Administrative Conference Room of the City of College Station City Hall. Regular Agenda Item No. 2 - Presentation, possible action, and discussion of minutes for the Audit Committee meeting held on September 25, 2018. MOTION: Upon a motion made by Councilmember Harvell and a second by Mayor Mooney, the Audit Committee voted three (2) for and zero (0) opposed, to approve the September 25, 2018 Audit Committee minutes. The motion carried unanimously. Regular Agenda Item No. 3 - Presentation, possible action. and discussion concerning the City Internal Auditor's Follow Up Audit of the Public Works Sanitation Division. Ty Elliott, Internal Auditor, presented the City Internal Auditor's Follow Up Audit Report of the Public Works Sanitation Division. For the most part the recommendations have been or are in the process of being implemented. At the direction of the audit committee, the city is to continue with the "No Fault Policy" for waste collection. It was the direction of the audit committee to keep with the current level of waste collection service. Regular Agenda Item No. 4 - Presentation, possible action, and discussion of amending the FY19 City Internal Auditor's Office's annual Audit Plan. Ty Elliott, Internal Auditor, informed the audit committee that Madison Rorschach, Assistant Internal Auditor, will be leaving the City. He proposed a potential FY19 auditing schedule. Audit committee directed staff to look for a new audit assistant instead of stopping the continuous auditing implementation. Regular Agenda Item No. 5 - Presentation, possible action. and discussion regarding future agenda items. There were no future agenda items discussed. Regular Agenda Item No. 6 - Adjourn. There being no further business, Mayor Mooney adjourned the meeting at 4:14 p.m. on 'uesday, November 27, 2018. oney, ivyayor ATTEST: 4)12A-c, Y}i$tte Dela Torre, Deputy Local Registrar TY ELLIOTT CITY INTERNAL AUDIT OFFICE AUDIT COMMITTEE City Internal Auditor 1101 Texas Ave. Mayor Karl Mooney telliott@cstx.gov College Station, TX 77840 Mayor Pro Tem James Benham TEL: (979) 764-6269 Councilmember Linda Harvell Mike Ashfield Nate Sharp TO: Audit Committee Members FROM: Ty Elliott, City Internal Auditor DATE: November 20, 2018 SUBJECT: Public Works: Sanitation Division Audit Follow Up Report A follow up audit of the Sanitation Division’s October 2017 Audit was conducted per direction of the Audit Committee as part of the fiscal year 2019 audit plan and pursuant to Article II Section 30 of the College Station City Charter. We conducted this follow up audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. This report summarizes the Solid Waste (previously Sanitation) Division audit’s recommendations, management’s responses, and our audit follow up findings, which describe to what degree City Management has implemented the Audit Office’s recommendations since publication of the original report (October 2017). In addition, a section has been included at the end of this report that address our opinion on the Public Works Department’s and Solid Waste Division’s responses to the motor vehicle accident that occurred on 09/20/18. The methodology used to complete the audit objectives included: • Interviewing pertinent City staff members, including Public Works and Solid Waste management; • Reviewing documentation regarding policy, procedure, and operational changes, including FY18 and FY19 budget documents, Solid Waste publications, e-mail communications, etc.; • Analyzing current residential and commercial customer collection schedules and routes; and • Reviewing documentation on the 09/20/18 motor vehicle accident including the police report, Solid Waste memoranda, etc. Sincerely, Ty L Elliott CIA, CFE, CGAP, COSO City Internal Auditor 2 | Page Recommendations & Follow Up Findings Some Previous Audit Recommendations Require Further Direction 1. Investigate accountable routing methods. Recently, the City hired a consultant to develop new routes. While this will help with route balancing, it does not ensure that routes will be driven as designed. For this reason, we recommend investigating on-board computers for Sanitation vehicles. These systems have many benefits including accountability for drivers and customers, potential integration with billing, and turn-by-turn route directions. This being said, on-board computers would require several operational changes to be most effective including: placing customer service representatives as the main educator of customers; changing policy to embolden drivers to leave obstructed canisters as defined by the Division; and increasing scheduling flexibility through additional cross-training. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. The division will investigate on-board computer systems and associated operational changes in order to improve safety, accountability, and efficiency in solid waste operations. Audit Follow Up Finding: Implementation in Progress Solid Waste has attached six collection vehicles with video cameras that provide a 360° view around the truck. This video can be monitored by the vehicle’s driver while on route to increase safety and can be reviewed by Solid Waste management to encourage equipment operator accountability. This technology will continue to be implemented as old trucks are replaced. An example of this system is shown in Video 1. Video 1: Solid Waste 360° Collection In addition, the City Manager’s Office has begun work on identifying and implementing a video, GPS, and diagnostics solution for certain divisions – including Solid Waste – of the City’s Fleet. This solution should be able to provide turn-by-turn route instructions to Solid Waste Equipment Operators, which will increase efficiency and bolster spare operator 1 effectiveness. The project budget of $420,000 was approved during the fiscal year 2019 annual budget process and will be led by the Information Technology Department. 2. Develop stronger enforcement methods for obstructed canisters. Tagging residential carts is not an effective deterrent to disregarding collection guidelines since carts are typically collected anyway. For this reason, a process should be established that compels customers to follow guidelines. For this process to be effective, the Division must communicate the change in procedure to the public before it goes into effect, and an “obstruction” must be clearly defined by the Division. This recommendation could be fulfilled through recommendation 1. 1 “Spare” Solid Waste Equipment Operators fill in on all collection vehicles when the standard driver is on leave. 3 | Page Management Response: Management somewhat concurs with this recommendation and will be investigating best practices in the industry to determine an effective method of communicating collection guidelines. However, regardless of the reason for an uncollected cart, returning for collection of that cart is a customer service issue and prevents issues with the next scheduled collection. Audit Follow Up Finding: No Concurment The City currently employs a “No Fault Collection” policy. This policy allows the City to provide a high level of customer service that the City’s residents have come to expect. This being said, this level of service comes at a cost to the City via time, money, and safety. The magnitude of these costs were explained in further detail in the 2017 Performance Audit of Public Works: Sanitation Division. 3. Develop hiring guidelines based on route balancing. At this time, Sanitation typically requests new positions once overtime exceeds a certain level, however, overtime is not a suitable method for identifying hiring needs. Instead the Division should develop route balancing standards based on current collection times and industry guidelines to signal a need for new route cycles, new employees, and investment in equipment and vehicles. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. Staff will research industry best management practices to revise hiring guidelines to reflect metrics associated with route balancing. Audit Follow Up Finding: Not Implemented At this time, hiring guidelines based on route balancing have not been developed. Instead, hiring decisions (i.e. when to add a new route) are made qualitatively based on the Division foremen’s observations of equipment operator workloads, including number of canisters collected, Division overtime, City growth, etc. The Division should continue investigating hiring best practices for the industry and formalize these procedures to facilitate route balancing and efficiency. 4. Institute a hierarchal promotional system for route managers. The Division is currently faced with short staffing issues, which are compounded by single-service drivers. Creating a hierarchal system for route managers based on the vehicle types they can operate will increase scheduling flexibility for the Division and may indicate employee motivation levels. Moreover, this system could give employees a further sense of direction and growth in a Division with few opportunities to advance. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. The division is working on a hierarchal system by updating job descriptions that will allow employees to advance based on their ability to operate different vehicle types. Audit Follow Up Finding: Implementation in Progress As of this report, the Division has requested and been denied a hierarchal promotional system 2 for Solid Waste Equipment Operators (i.e. Route Managers). Human Resources in conjunction with the City Manager’s Office made this decision by considering similar career progressions in other divisions (such as Street Maintenance Equipment Operators I and II) and comparing current Solid Waste Equipment Operator pay ranges to the market. After discussing this issue with HR 3 2 Within the City’s pay structure this is called a career progression track. 3 It should be noted that Human Resources was not contacted before issuing the original recommendation. 4 | Page and Solid Waste, an Equipment Operator II position may not be suitable for the City’s current pay structure. This being said, Solid Waste still faces staffing issues. The Division currently employs a few drivers as “spares,” who should be able to fill in to any position when a single-service employee takes leave. However, staffing these multi-service driver positions (i.e. spares) is difficult as there are currently few incentives for Equipment Operators to train on different vehicles. We have prepared two possible options that may mitigate this difficulty, however, other options could become apparent through discussions between Human Resources and Solid Waste. • Performance evaluations and related pay increases could be used more effectively to incentivize vehicle cross-training as required by the current Equipment Operator job description. • The Division could be restructured to classify most Equipment Operators as single-service and to include a few multi-service Equipment Operator positions. 5. Separate residential recycling and refuse collection days. Residential refuse and recycling cart collection are negatively affected by same-day collection. Splitting the two collections to separate days would increase efficiency for both the Sanitation Division and Brazos Valley Recycling. This being said, adequate communication of this change is critical, and collection information is currently difficult to find. It is key that the Division not only run communication campaigns, but make collection information easier to locate if either the recycling or refuse collection day is to be changed. These communications will help to mitigate confusion and criticism from customers. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. Dual collection schedules were initially implemented for citizen convenience. The division conducts a city wide balancing project every five years in order to help balance collection routes between all operations. The next city wide balance will occur around mid-year of 2018. As part of this city wide project, the division plans to separate recycling days from refuse days in order increase efficiency in both areas. Audit Follow Up Finding: Implemented After analyzing the City’s residential collection schedule, we found that same-day residential recycling and refuse collection has been discontinued for about 91.5% of residential locations. While same-day collection still occurs every other Friday, this separation has significantly reduced the risks – both cost- and safety-wise – of same-day recycling and refuse collection. This decision was made to avoid operational hindrances to both Brazos Valley Recycling and the City’s Solid Waste Division. 6. Review Sanitation’s role in the City’s construction and development process. Many City construction standards delay the Division in their collection efforts. Currently, Sanitation reviews some development plans before they are approved, but these comments are not always fully incorporated into the final plan set. Greater consideration of Sanitation requests and comparing the costs and benefits of some construction standards could increase the Division’s efficiency. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. Some examples of standards that hinder collections are cul-de-sac streets that are not wide enough for our collection vehicles to make a complete turn without backing up and dumpster enclosures that have been 5 | Page grandfathered from the old conventional rear load collection system that the city used prior to moving to an automated system. Sanitation staff will continue to communicate with planners on changes to the design guidelines and standards needed for efficient and effective solid waste collection operations. Audit Follow Up Finding: Implemented The Solid Waste Division Manager has become more involved in the approval process of new site plans. In addition to commenting on drawings within the City’s TRAKiT system, the Division Manager is required to sign off on a project before it receives its certificate of occupancy. Furthermore, the Division Manager and Foremen have begun visiting sites during construction to inspect dumpster enclosures; when an enclosure is not up to standards the construction manager is informed and is required to correct the issues. 7. Adjust commercial customer scheduling procedures to aid route balancing. As a courtesy, the City allows commercial customers to control what day their refuse is collected, which creates inconsistency in commercial routes throughout the week. Ending this practice would help balance routes, however, we understand that some business may need collection on a certain day. For this reason, an appeal process should be established to allow these businesses to request a certain collection day. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. Staff will be investigating various methods to balance the commercial customer demand across the work week. Audit Follow Up Finding: Not Implemented The City’s Solid Waste Division provides a very high level of customer service to citizens and businesses throughout the City. As part of this customer service, businesses’ requests regarding their pickup schedule are honored by the Division. However, this hinders route balancing throughout the week. While we found no evidence that these scheduling procedures had been adjusted, the Division has and continues to make every effort to balance commercial routes while maintaining this level of customer service. This being said, limiting when and how frequently businesses can request collection, or charging a higher price for collection on busier days may increase collection efficiency. If the City wishes to continue with their current level of service, the following factors should be considered to aid route balancing and efficiency efforts: • Multi-family collection schedules are easier to manipulate than commercial businesses; • Geographically-orienting routes, while typically effective, may also be hindering route balancing due to commercial growth patterns. 6 | Page 8. Design and communicate videos addressing safety surrounding Sanitation vehicles to the public. Sanitation has developed videos in the past to educate the public on collection standards. We believe developing a video showing the risks Sanitation vehicles present could increase pedestrian safety. Management Response: Management concurs with this recommendation. Staff will be working closely with our Public Communications department to develop educational videos with the intent of improving pedestrian and vehicular safety. Audit Follow Up Finding: Implementation In Progress The Public Works Department plans to work with Public Communications in the upcoming months to develop educational videos regarding employees operating in the City’s right-of-way. This includes not only Solid Waste equipment operators, but also street maintenance crews, traffic signal, markings, and sign crews, public safety staff, and more. In addition, Public Works hopes to partner with other local agencies, such as the City of Bryan and Brazos County, to implement a large-scale safety campaign for those individuals performing operations in the public right-of-way. 7 | Page Solid Waste Has Responded Adequately to the Motor Vehicle Accident Public Works and the Solid Waste Division have begun increasing safety precautions. On September 20th, 2018 a Solid Waste Equipment Operator was struck and severely injured by distracted driver while outside of the cab collecting refuse. In response to this accident, Solid Waste has taken the following actions within their Division: • Begun collecting refuse from the pickup location in question via a pick-up truck – this limits staff exposure as the collection vehicle is not in the right-of-way; • Ordered “Slow Down to Get Around” stickers to be applied to Solid Waste vehicles; • Investigated additional blue and amber lights that will be attached to Solid Waste vehicles to increase day-time visibility; • Added safe guards to Solid Waste vehicles via the fleet replacement process; and • Identified high-risk pick up locations in order to increase equipment operator safety through the use of an attenuator truck.4 In addition, the Public Works Department, in conjunction with the Solid Waste Division and other stakeholders, have begun planning and generating traction for a large-scale, multi-organization campaign to educate citizens and promote the safety of employees who operate in the right-of- way. The Department has also developed the following proposals to generally increase the safety of all its right-of-way employees – including Solid Waste equipment operators: • Purchase two attenuator trucks to protect operations in higher speed right-of-ways (i.e. arterials and major collectors); • Replace current left-hand steer vehicles with right-hand steer to increase the safety of staff when dismounting; and • Apply additional reflectors, warning lights, and beacons to increase vehicle visibility. Given these responses, it is the opinion of our Office that Solid Waste and Public Works have responded adequately to the motor vehicle accident. Solid waste collection is an inherently high-risk function. While these actions and proposals should decrease both the Solid Waste Division’s and the Public Works Department’s safety risk, Solid Waste Equipment Operators operate in risky areas and use complex, hazardous machinery. The 2017 Audit of Solid Waste found that the Division was adequately mitigating safety risk; however, the City’s “No Fault Collection” policy and responsiveness to customer complaints increases risk to the Division’s employees. A change regarding customer service level would need strong support from both the City Manager’s Office and the City Council. 4 An attenuator truck is placed between approaching traffic and the work zone and is designed to safety absorbed the impact of a vehicle. Memorandum To: Ty Elliott, Internal Auditor From: Donald Harmon, Director of Public Works Date: November 20, 2018 Re: Public Works Sanitation Division / Audit Follow Up Report ____________________________________________________________________________________ This memorandum is to convey management responses to the Sanitation Division Audit Follow Up Report. 1. Investigate accountable routing methods – In Progress Management concurs with the follow-up recommendation. The Division is working closely with the City Manager’s Office and IT to develop and implement the best system in order to improve safety, accountability, and efficiency in solid waste operations. The City of Bryan is in the process of implementing a turnkey system that includes routing, vehicle location service and video storage on all its solid waste collection vehicles. Staff is working closely with COB to determine if their selected system is the best solution for our solid waste division. 2. Develop stronger enforcement methods for obstructed canisters. – Management Partially Concurs Management does not concur with elimination of the “No Fault Collection” Policy as it would be a serious downgrade to the City’s customer service standards. Additionally, as a university city, collections take place in a unique environment where a substantial portion of the population either relocates annually, or are new residents to the city at the start of each semester. Elimination of the policy would cause significant administrative issues and customer complaints.. 3. Develop hiring guidelines based on route balancing. – Not Implemented Management concurs with the follow-up recommendation. Staff continues to research industry best management practices to revise hiring guidelines to reflect metrics associated with route balancing and loads. 4. Institute a hierarchal promotional system for route managers. – Implementation in Progress Management somewhat concurs with the follow-up recommendation. The Division will continue working on a hierarchal system by updating job descriptions to accurately reflect position responsibilities in order to allow employees to advance through career progression based on their ability to operate different vehicles types and achieve solid waste certifications. 5. Separate residential recycling and refuse collection days. – Implemented Management concurs with the follow-up recommendation. Separating the collection days was an immense undertaking that took months to implement, including educating and responding to customers. 6. Review Sanitation’s role in the City’s construction and development process. – Implemented Management concurs with the follow-up recommendation. 7. Adjust commercial scheduling procedures to aid route balancing. – Not Implemented Management somewhat concurs with the follow-up recommendation. Staff will continue investigating best industry practices to determine cost effective and balanced commercial routing throughout the work week. Staff does make recommendations to commercial customers to smooth the workload over the week, but some customers require or are required by their management to be collected on specific days. 8. Design and communicate videos addressing safety surrounding Solid Waste vehicles to the public. – In Progress Management concurs with the follow-up recommendation. Staff is working closely with the Risk Management Division and Public Communications Department to develop educational videos with the intent of improving pedestrian and vehicular safety for all types of employees working in the City’s right-of-way. This campaign will be ongoing and involves multiple internal departments and outside local and state agencies. Memorandum To: Ty Elliot, Internal Auditor From: Alison Pond, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management Date: November 16, 2018 RE: Public Works: Sanitation Division October 2017 Audit Follow Up Report Thank you for allowing the opportunity for Human Resources to provide a formal response regarding the Public Works: Sanitation Division October 2017 Audit Follow Up Report. The extent to which Human Resources agree with the Audit Recommendation & Findings as it relates to the pay recommendations, is that cross-training drivers to operate a variety of vehicle types may increase scheduling flexibility and assist with staffing issues for the Public Works Sanitation Division. The compensation related recommendation contained within the report of instituting a hierarchal promotional system for Solid Waste Equipment Operators was not based on relative market data, salary survey findings, internal job class alignment, nor any other relative data to sufficiently support the recommendation. The audit recommendation we consider to be most practical and achievable, with the potential for the greatest impact in achieving the desired results, is to improve cross-training opportunities for the Solid Waste Equipment Operators and for the department to effectively utilize the performance pay system to incentivize and compensate accordingly, within the current pay range in which the position was recently realigned to in October 2018. Human Resources will continue to work closely with the Public Works department in relation to the position assessment, monitoring of staffing levels and/or discussing other possible measures as appropriate. If you have any questions or would like to further discuss our response to the audit report, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you.