Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986 - Organization and Management Studyc � CITY OF COLLEGE STATION ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT STUDY FINAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 1986 46 ,nn, Arthur Young P.O. DRAWER 18329 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78760 Number 11 TEXAS STATE BOARD OF REGISTRATION FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS (512)440-7723 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER ATTORNEY GENERAL RULES AGAIN ON COMPETITIVE BIDDING In 1984 the Attorney General issued Opinion No JM-155 which states in summary that "Article 664-4, V.T.C.S., (the Professional Services Procurement Act), does not prohibit the inclusion on a questionnaire sub- mitted to engineers or architects being considered for employment of any question designed to elicit information regarding professional fees which such engineers or architects would find ap- propriate for the project being consid- ered." Stated elsewhere in the opinion, the act "does not prohibit the inclu- sion of a question designed to elicit information regarding fair and reason- able fees or cost estimates." The Board subsequently proposed to amend Disciplinary Rule (DR) 5.4 restricting competitive bidding by en- gineers by provisions which paralleled the federal Brooks Act. On review by the Attorney General's Office, the Board was advised that it did not have the authority to make such a rule without further explanation. A request for clarification and gui- dance on the proposed rule resulted in Opinion No. JM-457, issued on March 24, 1986. This opinion recon- firmed the conclusions reached in JM- 155 that while the procurement "Act expressly prohibits the awarding of contracts for certain professional ser- (Continued on nev page) 1917 IH 35 SOUTH AUSTIN, TEXAS 78741 October 1986 (Continued from last page) vices on the basis of competitive bids, it clearly requires an agency to award such contracts `on the basis of demon- strated competence and qualifications for the type of professional services to be performed and at.%air and reasona- ble prices.' " "Therefore, the imposi- tion of fees must be one factor considered by any agency in awarding a contract for such professional ser- vices. however, it cannot be the onlY factor to be considered." Opinion No. JM-457 pointed out with respect to the Brooks Act that the state procurement act "does not con- template a bifurcated process, rather, the act requires that political subdivi- sions must award contracts for profes- sional services in a one-step process to a professional who is selected on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications.... and at fair and reasonable prices...... Further, "the rulemaking power of administrative agencies does not permit the promul- gation of rules which are inconsistent with the expression of the legislature's intent in statutes other than those under which the rules are promulgated." As a result of the strong position taken in JM-457, the Board has been advised by counsel to take no further action to modify the current provi- sions of DR 5.4 until such time as the Professional Services Procurement Act may be amended. CITY MANAGER PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER y, �• . , I ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER (MANAGEMENT SERVICES) (COMMUNITY SERVICES) I I FINANCE ' PARKS b RECREATION * Administration * Administration * Accounting * Parks * Revenue i '•.- ^_ * Recreatil n MGMT INFO SERVICES PUBLIC SERVICES i - ? "c * Street d Drainage ADMIN. SERVICES * Solid Waste * Purchasing * Garage * Municipal Court * Budget/Research _ POLICE * Administration * Operations * Support FIRE * Administration * Prevention * Suppression * EMS �..-'-.; •� - - � ice\ l '= OCTOBER 15, 1986 PERSONNEL DIRECTOR OF UTILITIES WATER b SEWER * Administration * Water Production * Water Distribution * Wastewater Collection * Wastewater Treatment ELECTRICAL * Administration * Distribution * Transmission/Tech ^ll KatS Y6'Qo54� -Low SCC-OY ogh�Zm�+O� CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS * Planning * Engineering * Bldg. Inspection * Community Development ******EXPENSE SUMMARY # m SALARY & NEW POSITIONS BENEFITS ------------------ --------- ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER - MANAGEMENT SERVICES 63744 FINANCE DIRECTOR 57376 ADMIN. SVCS, DEPARTMENT 51009 ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER - COMMUNITY SERVICES 63744 TOTAL OF NEW POSITIONS $275,873 UPGRADED POSITIONS (DIFFERENCE) ------------------------------------ ;SST TO CITY MANAGER - PUBLIC RELATIONS 1681 MISCELLANEOUS 25000 TOTAL $26,681 DELETED POSITIONS ------------------------------------ ASST CITY MANAGERiFINANCE DIRECTOR 76570 TOTAL OF DELETED POSITIONS TOTAL EXPENSE (NEW POSITIONS + UPGRADED - DELETED) 185,984 TOTAL EXPENSE (SALARY + BENEFITE) 36,000 CONSULTING FEES (3 Positions t12,0001 �1�4P IA (F 4 73.312) TOTAL $ (UTILITY FUND) r' # ( 9.562) TOTAL * (SANITATION FUND) I,1 :;"10 TOTAL GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURE ' f/OO/Deep PUBLIC INFORMATION/MARKETING ROLE: The Public Information/Marketing element should be a facilitor for the flow of information in and out of the City in a professional, efficient and effective manner. It should also develop and implement a plan to project a positive, service -oriented image to local citizens, visitors, business,and industry in order to promote citizen satisfaction and economic growth. JOB SUMMARY: The transmittal, receipt, collection, analysis and general management of City information through the municipal system and into the various publics in order to provide better service through continual two-way communications. Utilization of a variety of market strategies to promote, advertise, and sell the services and benefits of the City. JOB SCOPE: NEWS MEDIA CITIZENS COLLEGE STATION INDE- PENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT\\ TEXAS BRAZOS COUNTY -------,—_ CITY OF BRYAN A&M UNIVERSITY STATE AGENCIES X, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - CONVENTIONS & VISITORS CITY MANAGER CITY COUNCIL CITY DEPARTMENTS AND DIVISIONS \\ CITY BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS INDUSTRIAL FOUNDATION Media Citizens DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES PUBLIC INFORMATION 1. Attend workshop and council meetings providing packets and help and sitting with media. 2. Scheduling interviews or calling press conferences for Mayor, Council, City Manager, and Departments, as needed: 3. Prepare and distribute press releases and public service announcements. 4. Develop a plan for emergency or crisis reporting. 1. Work with citizens and citizen groups to communicate needs and concerns to City Council and City Staff. 2. Prepare publications for citizens, such as, brochures or flyers listing and explaining city services. 3. Prepare slide presentation for use with citizen groups to help inform and explain city services. 4. Survey citizens to identify strengths and weaknesses of city services. School District 1. Work with school district on citizen newsletter. 2. Inform district of City activities that might impact their operation. Texas A&M University 1. Inform the University of City activities that might impact their operation. 2. Encourage information from TAMU that might impact City operations. 3. Work with TAMU Information office. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES, continued. Brazos County and City of Bryan 1. Keep informed of City activities that might have an impact on their operation. 2. Receive and distribute incoming information from City Council, City Manager, Departments 1. Keep informed of activities of outside agencies that impact City. 2. Assist with news media interviews, press conferences, etc. (Perhaps training session on working with media) . 3. Plan, organize, or assist in public relations efforts, such as, City Open House, visits by state agencies, city tours, or grand openings, etc. 4. Publicity for City special events. Chamber of Commerce/ Convention & Visitors Bureau - Industrial Foundation 1. Keep these organizations informed of City activities as they relate to tourism, economic development, and business and industry. 2. Receive information from these organizatons and distribute to Council, City Manager, Departments and Committees as needed. 3. Keep information on Yearly Calendar kept by Convention & Visitors Bureau. State Agencies 1. Provide two-way information as necessary. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES, continued. Marketing 1. Identify and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of present city services and image perceived through citizen surveys. 2. Determine what image we want to project. 3. Determine what services need improvement, deletion or can be better utilized. 4. Working with an outside public -sector marketing program, as well as local organization, develop an overall market plan to: a. Improve the City's image b. Promote civic pride C. Increase the use of revenue -producing services d. Attract tourists e. Stimulate economic development Public Information Attend Deputy City Manager's staff meetings to prepare and review council agendas, so as to transfer correct information to the media. Attend City Council meetings and work sessions, sitting with the media and providing council packets for them. Call Press Conferences for Mayor, Council Members, Department Heads, as needed. Prepare and distribute press releases. Issue Public Service Announcements weekly to T.V., radio and print media. Every 6 weeks, bulk mailings to 5 state region from H.O.T.C.O.G., Chamber of Commerce, Baylor School of Economic Development and the city. Participate in drills and briefings with Emergency Management. Provide liason between Disaster Control Center and the media. Attend Hotel/Motel Association meetings. Attend Public Relation Society of America meetings. Participate in Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers ( a division of TML). Research such as critique of Rand McNally Municipal Rating Guide's Waco entry. Tourism Design marketing plan for the city, including advertising. See 86-87 Budget. Includes development of brochures, print placement, billboards, etc. Maintain records of attendance at tourist attractions, assist travel writers, respond to requests for copy and photographs from magazines. Advertising Write and coordinate marketing plan for the City of Waco. Design new city logo, business cards, city stationary, City Manager's stationary, Mayor's stationary. Design and print posters for special events. Participate in Ad Club. Department Heads `4lie� Iry Respond to needs of individual departments. Examples: City Manager - Organize schedule for visiting state agency's meeting (tours, meals). Texas Ranger Hall of Fame - Design and print brochures. Community Development - Write and design Central Business District marketing materials. Finance - Write years activity summary for city audit. Parks & Recreation - Help in selection process and uniform, patch and badge design for Waco Park Rangers. Special Events Provide support - from liason between Texas Air Expo and the Concorde to helping the Mayor string twinkle lights (at midnight) for a boat parade. We make arrangements for, offer information, chair committees, etc. for such events that bring citizens to Waco. Celebrate Waco! (City Sesquicentennial historic trade show observation) Brazos River Festival (festival and historic homes tour) "Coors May Classic" Dragboat Race Texas Air Expo (airshow) Freedom Frolic (July 4th fireworks, bands) State Little League Softball Tournament "Texas Shootout" Dragboat Race Paseo De Luz (lighted boat parade) SDBA Summer Nationals Great Texas Raft Race H.O.T. Fair and Rodeo Baylor Homecoming B.U. Parents weekend Austin Avenue Fall Festival Wild West Century Bike Ride Art Center Auction Fort Fisher Art Show and Sale (Texas Ranger Hall of Fame) Christmas On The Brazos Lake of the Lights (lighted boat parade) Support can be simply releasing Public Service Announcements to chairing committees. JlR�X dQ, l 7�na l✓_», `� \ 4 c%_ `.. 1^ w A. KA Zin A MEMBER OF ARTHUR YOUNG INTERNATIONAL 1100 Norwood Tower 114 West Seventh Street Austin, Texas 78701 September 10, 1986 Mr. William "King" Cole, City Manager City of College Station 1101 Texas Avenue College Station, Texas 77840-2499 Dear Mr. Cole: Arthur Young is pleased to present the final report of our engagement to conduct a management and organizational study of the City of College Station. We believe this study represents a significant step in achieving the City's desire to ensure that it efficiently and effectively meets the needs of the community. We believe that implementation of the recommendations contained in this report will produce significant benefits for the City. However, for the recommendations to be successfully implemented, both the City Council and City management must be committed to the process. It should be noted that some of the recommendations are long term in nature and will actually require an implementation period of two to three years. We appreciate the courtesy and hospitality extended to us by the City during this project. If you have any questions or comments concerning this report or additional Arthur Young services, please contact Mike Barron or Karl Nollenberger at (512)474-1506. Very truly yours, CITY OF COLLEGE STATION MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION STUDY TABLE OF CONTENTS Section page I. Introduction A. Study Background I-1 B. Public Sector Organization I-1 C. Issues Addressed I---5 D. Management Review Approach I-6 E. General Comments I-g II. Organization and Management Structure A. Observations on Current Organizational Structures II-1 B. Proposed Organization II-3 C. Other Recommendations II-13 III. Planning, Goal/Objective Setting and Budgeting A. General III-1 B. Recommendations 111-5 IV. Human Resources/Organizational Effectiveness A. General IV-1 B. Recommendation IV-2 V. Management Reporting and Public Relations V-1 VI. City Committees and Other Council Appointees VI-1 VII. Workload Measurement and Level of Services VII-1 VIII. Intergovernmental Cooperation VIII-1 I. INTRODUCTION A. Study Background The City of College Station has grown significantly in the past decade from a city with a population of 18,000, to a city of 53,000 residents. At the same time, the City organization has grown from 250 to 550 employees. This rapid growth of the City's organization has ceased allowing management an opportunity to review the organizational and management structures which have developed over the past few years. Additionally, a new City Manager has recently joined the City, replacing a manager who had held the position for a number of years. The organization's structure which existed was a product of and reflected the style of the previous manager. For these reasons, the City determined it prudent to conduct an organization and management review of the City's administrative organization. Arthur Young was engaged to conduct the study. This report presents the conclusions and recommendations resulting from the engagement. B. Public Sector Organizations Managing for service delivery in the public sector primarily consists of balancing the three classic concerns of public administration. Those concerns are: • Effectiveness - getting the right things done * Efficiency - accomplishing them in the right ways • Economy - limiting the use of scarce resources. Balancing these three concerns requires a coordinated policy analysis and management approach. I-1 The organization and management challenge for a City Manager who is interested in the most effective local government is to create a balance in the city organization- between appropriate centralization and disbursement of responsibility/authority to operating levels. The major emphasis of this review was on the effectiveness issue. The City Manager desired input concerning the City organization and its abilities to perform its role in a effective manner. At the same time, the issues which relate to efficiency and economy could not be overlooked as they were reviewed during this process. It has been our experience that improvements in effectiveness, although more difficult to articulate, are often the most successful in improving the overall operations of an organization. At the same time, those issues which relate to efficiency and economy cannot be discounted during this process. One of the goals of this review was to evaluate the overall City wellness. This included evaluating the effectiveness of leaders, managers and employees in translating their values and ideas into actions through effective processes of governance, management and service delivery. A city organization is a viable entity and, like its human counterparts, can be viewed as being either a healthy or unhealthy system. The three primary processes or functions that the organization provides relating to governance, management and service delive.ry were analyzed in this organization and management review in order to assess the organizational wellness. The governance process is aimed at providing a direction for the city. It involves policy leaders focusing on the future vision of the city and translating this vision into the target issues, policy directions and a budget document. Key managers within the city participate in that governance process. I-2 The management process focuses on designing a process for accomplishing the focused vision. The key activity in guiding the process design is the development of an organizational philosophy statement which reflects the values and beliefs of how the city should be managed on a daily basis. This philosophy guides every manager and employee. The service delivery process involves people providing services to the citizens or to others internally in the city organization. The departmental philosophy guides these activities. The departmental philosophy is influenced by the focused vision and the organization philosophy. It blends together the personal management philosophy of departmental managers and a service philosophy of how services should be provided. The overall soundness of the city organization is determined by how effective each of these processes fulfills its function for the city. The purpose of this organization and management review was to examine the various elements of the process and determine the effectiveness of their delivery. The quality of wellness of an organization can be found within each of the primary processes. When the governance process is experiencing wellness it has all or many of the following components: • A vision of the future • Direction and goals - targets for short term • Anticipation of issues • Tone setting on management services • Policy framework for action • Team building - partnership with each other, the community, manager and employees • Performance monitoring and evaluation I-3 • Mechanisms for community involvement - input and participation • Mobilization of support • Community leadership - inspires community The management process is well when it is characterized by the following components: • Organizational philosophy and management values expressed • Process design - consistent with values • Power - exerted and shared • Empathy - caring about others needs and feelings • Planning - strategic and work related • Self knowledge • Help and assistance - asked for and provided • Learning and change • Involvement - policy leaders and employees • Tolerance of ambiguity • Evaluation of performance • Team orientation And finally the components illustrative of wellness within the service delivery process are: • Departmental philosophy and service value • Public service through partnership • Sense of team • Quality services - consistent with values • Goal oriented actions and plans • Technical compentence - evolving • Anticipation and handling of operational problems • Discretion and responsibility • Innovation and change • Participation and involvement I-4 • Feedback and evaluation • Rites and rituals A well city is one in which the three processes of governance, management and service delivery are linked together. In our management and organizational review process, we have reviewed the City in its various roles as outlined above and evalutated the organization to determine and analyze the various elements of wellness. We feel we were able to establish candid and personal working relationships with the key City staff in a effort to determine the environment within the City of College Station. The feedback relating to the organization is being provided to the Chief Executive Officer to help him assess his organizational needs in terms of organization, management team and management processes. C. Issues Addressed The City identified a number of specific objectives to be accomplished in the organization and management review of the City government. Those objectives included: • Review of the organizational makeup of the City including span of control, staffing levels, communications and duplication of workload, • Recommendations related to the establishment of a management team for the City, • Review of the classification and compensation systems, • Review and recommendations relating to the goal and objective setting systems for the City, I-5 • A review and recommendations relating to the management reporting system of the City, including a public relations effort, • Review of and recommendations as relating to the existing level of services and workload distribution in the City, • Review of and recommendations relating to a comprehensive training and organizational development program in the City, • Review of and recommendations relating to planning processes including: comprehensive planning, strategic planning, capital improvements planning, budgeting and cooperative relationships with other local governments, • Review of and recommendations on the special functions administered directly by the City Council to include the City Clerk's Office and Municipal Court, • Review of and recommendations on the City Council Advisory Commissions interface with the city staff, • Review of and recommendations on City staff support to the City Council including management reporting systems. D. Management Review Approach As pointed out above, the project scope included the elements of effectiveness, efficiency and economy with an emphasis on the issue of effectiveness. The major thrust of the project effort was one of an overall management perspective with attention given to the particular implementation strategies 1-6 related to the management of the City. The capability of the organization in the areas of goal setting, internal planning and the ability to carry out the plans within the public process was a major emphasis of this review. Our work included efforts on -site by senior members of our firm working closely with City personnel. A personal relationship was established between the firm and the City Manager and other key department staff which was crucial to this project. We understood the City's desire that the various operations of the City be managed in an efficient and effective manner at all times, particularly considering the public sector environment which scrutinizes the activities of the City on a continual basis. During the review, our team identified opportunities to reduce overlapping, redundant or overextended responsibilities in the present organization. We identified relationships and/or circumstances that inhibit efficient decision -making. We also identified those areas that appear to function effectively and therefore should not be changed. We believe that a management study should not be merely a snapshot of one point in time nor should it be a laboriously documented analysis of each method and procedure. Simply stated a management and organizational study should consist of thorough examination of the City management system and processes - the activities of organizing, planning, budgeting, scheduling and controlling available resources to achieve the objectives. We were interested in historical performance results only as a indication of the effectiveness and capabilities of the City's systems and resources. The focus of our overall study was on access to the existing management processes in terms of indicated future I-7 performance. Our role was to bring our experience and expertise to bear on the management processes of the City and to serve as a catalyst for improvement. E. General Comments The issues and recommendations which are contained in this report reflect upon the organization and management struc- tures and processes in College Station, many of which have evolved over a number of years. Changing organizational be- havior is a process of changing individual behavior on a cummulative basis, thus requiring a more extensive effort as organizations become larger. The City organization in College Station is a large one and will require extensive efforts and resources in order to change in an appreciable manner. Many of the recommendations in this report will require two to three years to implement and refine to a high quality effort. An attempt to institutionalize the strategic management planning process and to establish organizational philosophies and values will require an effort of three to five years, depending upon the receptivity of the employees and the degree of dedication. College Station is embarking upon a major change to the organizational culture. The recommendations made in this report are, by their very nature, reflective of areas where improvements can be made to the organization. There are also many examples we could give of well managed services in the City. Overall, the services in College Station are being provided well, despite some noticeable gaps in management capabilities and organizational deficiences. These positives in the organization should not be overlooked by the readers of this report. RM The report contains many recommendations which will require financial committments by the City in order to meet the needs of the organization. Many of these recommendations will result in short-term and long-term savings which will offset the initial costs. Many of the savings are direct and can be measured, but others are more difficult to quantify the costs of an erroneous judgement due to lack of management expertise is an example of these more abstract savings. A full implementation of this report will eliminate some management level positions in departments where excess levels have been created to address individual issues. Overall the organiza- tion will be leaner and tighter for operations in the last part of the 1980's. I-9 II. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE A. Observations on Current Organizational Structures The present administrative organization for the City of College Station is illustrated on Exhibit 1 on the following page. Briefly, the present organization consists of five functions reporting directly to the City Council. These five functions are the Municipal Court Clerk and Court Operations, the City Attorney and the City's Legal Department, the Municipal Court Judge, the City Secretary, and the City Manager. All other administrative functions of the City are responsible directly to the City Manager. The administrative organization under the City Manager consists of a single Assistant City Manager and seven formal departments. These departments are Capital Improvements Administration, Public Services Administration, Parks Administration, Fiscal Administration, Police Adminsitration, Fire Administration and Utilties Administration. In addition to the these department managers, also reporting to the City Manager through the Assistant City Manager are the functions of Personnel, the Community and Teen Centers, and Printing/Mail Services for the City. This management structure evolved and was implemented under the previous administration of the City of College Station. It appears that the organization structure was established to accommodate the particular management style of the previous City Manager, and to some extent was structured around the actual personnel who were inplace at the time. The City has grown rapidly in the past decade. Its growth has been both in the terms of population and the number of City employees. During that time the population of the City CMZFM OF I ' I mavary a miL) I I I l r[ta1C oDUzr _ IMY A MOREY � — imUNICIPALl—C_ _ �Cm M I — —`— — — — — — — — — (City secretary 1 I I Citizei Service Rep l 1 10ouncil Oxordinator oQat + Legal I Personnel ASSIS1ANr CI I V mvvm Administrative Assistant I Capital I Public I Parks be{xvwaVVm* Services Administration Adninistration 'Administration J — I Recreation v�iraeruig !� streets Aquatics Planning� � Garage Maintenance Building Cemetery InspEction ]QmLrds Maim Oanmanity I I Residential Development Col lest ion • Comiercial Collection iLandfill *I IDrainage *I I I I Fiscal Police Fire Administration Administration Administration Accounting Unifon j0peratims I Bureau TmVI eastay Prevention �Investi4atirn utility Ambulance Billing ( Special _Bureau PurchasingI TLI nical Wart naee I Services Data Comnnicatio►uk Processing Jail 11 i Meter Services I utilities ** Adn inistrat ion _ I 03mnity Flectric** Center Transmission 1 Zhen Center tric**IjDiEs1terCibti��n l Printing/ Mail Library * Sanitation Divisions ** utility Divisions All Divisions without an asterisk are General Fund division. Water ** Production Water ** Distribution Sewer M Treatment Sewer ** Collection water/sewer ncinirt, �' of College Station almost tripled, while the number of City employees more than doubled. It is our observation that the rapid pace of growth which the City experienced out paced the management capabilities existing within the City. We also believe that the City's rate of growth exceeded the rate at which the organization structure was able to evolve, and the management and support systems were able to grow. We also found that there had been an ongoing attitudinal change within the City Council and the citizens of College Station. This attitudinal change could be characterized as a change from a philosophy of control of the activities in the community to a philosophy of providing the maximum service perspective to the community while still recognizing the control -oriented laws and regulations. The City administrative functions should reflect this shift in values and become more service -oriented and less control -oriented, as had been the case for the previous several years. For all of these reasons we believe that it is now appropriate to make significant changes in the organization of the City of College Station. B. Proposed Organization Prior to presenting the proposed organization, we believe that it is appropriate to discuss the rationale and criteria which were used in developing the proposed organization structure. This is important because there is no one organi- zation chart which is the perfect structure for a City. The organizational structure must reflect the needs of the orga- nization and the characteristics and operating style of the Chief Executive Officer. We believe this organizational chart for College Station can be altered so long as the over- all rationale are adhered to in the final chart. Our ratio- nale is as follows. First, the City Manager is the Chief Executive Officer of the City with all the commitments of II-3 that position both internal in the organization and external to the community. The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for leadership to the organization and strategic manage- ment. These roles require a significant time availability on the City Manager's part in order to fulfill them properly. Secondly, in order to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, the organization structure must reflect and support the City Manager's management style. If the top- level management of the City have differing management styles and philosophies, a mixed message will be communicated to the organization rather than the clear message necessary to carry out the City's service delivery within the organiza- tional philosophy. Thirdly, there are four major groups which place significant time demands on the City Manager. These are the City Council, the community at large, the City's management team, and the remainder of the City organi- zation. The proper amount of response and direction needs to be given to these groups if leadership is to be provided by the manager. A significant task in the performance of our engagement was to assess and reflect upon the particular management style of present City Manager. There are a wide variety of management styles in Chief Executive Officers in municipal organiza- tions. The styles frequently reflect the desires of the elected officials, as would appear to be the case in College Station based upon our discussions with councilmembers. The City Manager's style could best be described as participative and people -oriented. This style will be likely to involve others in decision -making and problem -solving in order to achieve ownership of the issues by parties and ultimately support of the decisions. This style is critical in service organizations that value people input. The other aspect of this style is that it requires a time committment much great- er than less particpative styles. With this management style in mind, and because of the significant time demands on the II-4 City Manager, it is our belief that the upper level manage- ment structure of the City should be streamlined to reduce the number of persons reporting directly to the City Manager and requiring periodic management guidance. Presently there are at least twelve positions reporting directly to the City Manager. We believe that this is an unworkable situation within the existing circumstances. In developing a. proposed organ iza.tiona.l. structure for the City of College Station with a streamlined senior management group, several criteria were defined which the new organiza- tion should meet. First, wherever possible the new organiza- tion should not add an additional level of management within the City. Second, day-to-day decisions management should be delegated to the Assistant City Managers. And finally, the management team within the City should report to the City Manager through the Assistant City Managers while leaving the City Manager the ability to make inquiry in the organization at whatever level required as the circumstances dictate. Our proposed organization structure for the City of College Station is illustrated on Exhibit 2 which follows this page. Our proposed assignment of functions to the various departments and divisions is presented as Exhibit 3, pages 1 through 6, following the organizational chart. Briefly, our proposed organization for the City calls for the establishment of three Assistant City Manager positions. Each Assistant City Manager would have direct responsibility for the operations of departments which report to him/her. The organization also consists of a structure of twelve City departments and thirty-three divisions within these departments. The three Assistant City Managers and the twelve Department Managers would comprise the City Manager's Management Team. II-5 MUNICIPAL JUDGE ASSISTANT TO CITY MANAGER FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS/MARKETING ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER MANAGEMENT SERVICES PERSONNEL FINANCE Administration Accounting Revenue Division H LEGAL SERVICES H ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES I Purchasing Management Information Services Municipal Court Budget/Research City Secretary CITY OF COLLEGE STATION PROPOSED ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE CITY COUNCIL CITY MANAGER ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER COMMUNITY SERVICES POLICE Administration Operations Support FIRE Administration Prevention Suppression Emergency Medical Services PARKS AND RECREATION Administration Parks Recreation CORPORATION COUNSEL ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONAL SERVICES PUBLIC WORKS Administration Streets and Drainage Solid Waste Garage PLANNING Administration Community Development Building Inspection Planning WATER AND WASTEWATER Administration Water Production Water Distribution Wastewater Collection Wastewater Treatment ELECTRICITY Administration Transmission Distribution ENGINEERING txj x H tz H �7 y EXHIBIT 3 Page 1 of 3 Departmental Functional Assignments Assistant City Manager for Management Services Personnel Department • Classification/Compensation • Worker's Compensation/Benefit Management • Training • Recruiting and Selection • *Employee Relations • Risk Management/Safety Finance Department Administration Division • Fiscal Administration • Cash Management • Debt Management Accounting Division • General Accounting - Budgetary Accounting - Financial Reporting • Accounts Payable • Payroll Revenue Division • Accounts Receivable • Property Tax Billing • Utility Customer Service • Energy Management II-7 Legal Services Department • Internal Legal Support • Litigation Management • Property Acquisition • Municipal Court Prosecution Administrative Services Department Purchasing Division • Central Purchasing • Warehousing • Central Services • - Printing - Mail - Janitoral Management Information Services Division • Data Processing • Telecommunications Municipal Court Division • Docket Management • Warrants • Collections Budget/Research Division • Operating Budget • Capital Improvement Budget • Research Projects Assistant City Manager for Community Services Police Department Administration Division • Departmental Coordination • Recruiting • Training Operations Division • Uniform Patrol • Traffic Management • Animal Control • Criminal Investigation Support Division • Dispatch • Detention • Internal Affairs • Crime Prevention • Juvenile Services • Management Information Systems • Records Fire Department Administration Division • Department Coordination • Training Prevention Division • Inspection • Fire Code Enforcement • Investigations Suppression Division Emergency Medical Services Division II-8 EXHIBIT 3 Page 2 of 3 Parks and Recreation Department Administration Division • Department Coordination • Parks Planning • Public Relations Parks Division • Parks Maintenance • Cemetery • Forestry Recreation Division • Programs • Concessions • Athletics • Aquatics • Centers - Community - Teen - Lincoln EXHIBIT 3 Page 3 of 3 Assistant City Manager for Development of Operational Services Public Works Department Administration Division • Departmental Coordination Streets and Drainage • Street Maintenance • Street Rebuilding • Drainage Tmprovements Solid Waste • Residential Sanitation • Commercial Sanitation • Landfill Garage • Vehicle Maintenance • Vehicle Replacement Planning Department Administration Division • Capital Improvement Program Development • Long Range Planning Planning Division • Zoning • Code Enforcement Building Inspection Division • Code Enforcement Community Development Division • Housing Rehabilitation • Neighborhood Revitalization II-9 Water and Wastewater Department Administration Division • Department Coordination Water Production Division Water Distribution Division Wastewater Collection Division Wastewater Treatment Division Electricity Department Administration Division • Department Coordination Transmission Division Distribution Division Engineering Department • Capital Improvement Program Administration • Maintenance Engineering The first Assistant City Manager position would be Assistant City Manager for Management Services. This Assistant City Manager would be responsible for the departments of Personnel, Finance, Legal Services, and Administrative Services. The divisions within these and the other departments are shown on Exhibit 2. The second Assistant City Manager position would be Assistant City Manager for Community Services. This Assistant City Manager would be responsible for the departments of Police, Fire and Parks and Recreation. The administration of the City's contract for library services would also be a responsibility of this Assistant City Manager. The third Assistant City Manager position would be Assistant City Manager for Development and Operational Services. The five departments reporting to this Assistant City Manager would be Public Works, Planning, Water and Wastewater, Electricity and Engineering. In addition to the three Assistant City Manager positions, we also recommend the City consider establishing the position of Assistant to the City Manager for Public Relations and Marketing. This position would report directly to the City Manager. As we will discuss later, we believe that is important for the City to strengthen its efforts in public relations with the citizens of College Station and in marketing its services to those citizens and potential visitors to the City. We are also recommending the establishment of the function of Corporation Counsel which would provide independent legal counsel directly to the City Council of the City. We envision that this function would be served on a contractual or retainer basis by an outside attorney. II-10 In the paragraphs that follow we will discuss the new organization in terms of its relationships with the present organization. Assistant City Manager - Management Services The present Personnel function will be established as an official department under this Assistant City Manager. We also recommend that the present Fiscal Administration Department be established as the Finance Department, consisting of three divisions compare to the present nine. Part of this reduction in financial divisions will be accomplished by combining the present tax/treasury, utility billing, meter services, and energy divisons into the single new proposed Revenue Division. We also propose that purchasing, warehouse and data processing be moved to the new Administrative Services Department. The new department of Legal Services consists of the present City Attorney and Legal Support Group. We realize that this reorganization of the City Attorney's funcation may require a City Charter amendment to accomplish. However, we believe that the primary responsibilities. of this department are and will be legal support to the administrative functions of the City. Therefore we believe that such an amendment is warranted. The final department under this Assistant City Manager for Management Services will be the new Administrative Services Department. This department will include five divisions. The first is the Purchasing Divison which will have responsibility for Warehousing and Printing and Mail, which were previously divisions within the organization. The second is the Management Information Services Division which is retitled from the previous division of Data Processing to reflect the broader rule that this division should play in the management of information technology in the City. The third is the existing Municipal Court Operations Division. The fourth is the Budget/Research Division. This is a new division which did not exist previously and would be responsible for the development for the City's operating and capital improvements budgets (the capital improvement budget being defined as the budget for the next fiscal year only.) It would also be responsible for special research projects as may be required. Finally, we recommend that the City Secretary function be established as a Division within the Administrative Services Department (the establishment of this division may also require charter amendment). The combination of these divisions into one department would provide better supervision of these functions while allowing for the cross -training and cross utilization of personnel to the most efficient operation of the City. Assistant City Manager - Community Services The Police and Fire Departments under this Assistant City Manager would continue to be organized generally as they are presently. In the Parks and Recreation Department we are recommending a reduction in the number of divisions from the present five to three. This will be accomplished by including the present Forestry Division as a function under the Parks Division and including the Aquatics Division as a function under the Recreation Division. Additional changes would include the transfer of responsibility for the Community and Teen Centers to the Recreation Division of the Parks and Recreation Department and transfer of responsibility for Cemetery maintenance to the Parks Division. II-12 Assistant City Manager - Development and Operational Services The recommended Public Works Department consists primarily of the present Public Services Administration Department. The principal changes include the previously referenced transfer of responsibility for cemetery grounds maintenance to the Parks and Recreation Department and the combination of the present three divisions of Residential Collection, Commercial Collection and Landfill into a new division entitled Solid Waste, and the combination of the present Streets and Drainage Divisions into a new Street and Drainage Division. We are recommending the establishment of Planning as a department within the City. This department would be made up primarily of the present three divisions of Planning, Building Inspection, and Community Development from the present Capital Improvements Administration department. We recommend that the remaining division under the present Capital Improvements Administration Department, that of Engineering, be elevated to departmental status. The Engineering Department should also play a more active role in supporting the engineering needs of the operational and maintenance departments. The final two departments under the new organization are Water/Wastewater and Electricity. The divisions under these departments correspond to the divisions under the present department of Utilities Administration. C. Other Recommendations 1. Sections 23 and 27 of the City Charter require that the City Departments be specified in the City Code. This is not presently done nor are the departments in existence in concert with the Charter (which directs the establishment of four departments unless otherwise changed by City Code). We recommend the Code be modified accordingly. 2. The City should consider retaining and enhancing the central permitting function for all City -required permits to facilitate more efficient servicing of developer and citizen needs. 3. The City should consider transferring the licensing functions presently performed by the City Secretary to the Revenue Divsion of the Finance Department. 4. It appears that in the past, additional management positions may have been created to compensate for skill weaknesses of certain existing managers, or to keep from replacing marginal personnel. We recommend that the City review the requirements for assistant manager positions in the Departments to determine if they are truly justified. II-14 III. PLANNING, GOAL/OBJECTIVE SETTING, AND BUDGETING A. General The planning and goal/objective setting process is the focal point for governance and management in the organization. The responsibility for this process lies in the hands of the governing body with substantial involvement by the upper level management of the City. The City Manager as the Chief Executive Officer in the organization serves as the organizer and facilitator of this "strategic management" process. This strategy is an effective tool for establishing the planning stage and plan execution environment necessary to operate a modern city. Strategic management is a process that includes conceptualizing a mission and setting goals, analyzing key factors in the internal and especially the external environment (e.g., opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses), developing strategies, and developing and implementing action plans. These actions are sometimes known as developing a mission statement or organizational philosophy, situation analysis, strategic planning, target setting, or action planning. Strategic management was originally developed to help corporate executives deal with an accelerating rate of change, scarcity of resources, and diversity of potential claims on these resources. Such challenges are also common to and reflected in all levels of government. They challenge the way leaders conceive and execute choices. Change sometimes creates problems, and it is often unsettling; but it also creates opportunities. Often, in crises, cities evaluate and develop a new sense of what is required to preserve and enhance their social and economic well-being. How well College Station's city management organizes to respond to change may determine whether the City declines, becomes a victim of the times, or prospers, as a master of its own destiny. Strategic management will enable City management to confront present and future prohlems. Through it priorities are set that reflect this confrontation, and will allow management to plan practical, but visionary results for the future. Strategic management entails utilizing strategic planning methodologies. Numerous studies have shown that organizations which plan are more likely to succeed, and organizations which do not plan either produce less than desirable results or fail. With today's economic uncertainty, the need for planning has never been greater. Strategic planning involves the following seven step process: • Develop a situation anlaysis which focuses on external factors which affect the organization. These include economic conditions and trends; economic development activities, such as expanding existing businesses or attracting new ones; and determining the proper enterprise mix, e.g., retail, manufacturing, visitor services, etc. • Analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in various operating functions. • Develop a baseline forecast which is based on the data developed in the first two steps and forecast where the City will be financially at the end of the forecast period, which is normally three to five years. III-2 • Establish goals which are measures of success for cities similiar to College Station. • Develop strategies or programs of action to bridge the gap between baseline projections and goals. These programs should be broken down into specific objectives for implementation by designated individuals. • Develop contingency plans or an inventory of broad responses to significant departures of conditions from the forecasts and other assumptions upon which the prevailing plan is predicated. • Develop and implement replanning procedures by which the City's process is assessed and plans are revised on a regular basis. This involves monitoring progress against the plan by means of analyzing departures from the budget, taking corrective actions, and implementing a mechanism for continually updating situation analysis data. This outline of strategic planning represents an example of the level of effort the City management must undertake to start a process that will correct past deficiencies and start a path to future accomplishments. The complexities of running the business of government eliminates the possibility of operating successfully by chance. Strategic planning establishes a road map for achieving the goals of the City. It uses many of the planning tools already in place by integrating them together into a comprehensive process for strategic planning. Exhibit 4 on the following page illustrates the strategic planning process. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PLAN CITY OF COLLEGE STATION LONG TERM FIVE YEAR TWO YEAR COMPREHENSIVE PLAN CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT TARGET SETTING S 1 PROGRAM INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCIAL TREND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM MONITORING 1-4 r PROGRAM ECONOM IC/ H ANNUAL OPERATING PROGRAM & CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET FISCAL � FINANCIAL FORECASTS to- POLICIES DEBT MANAGEMENT v THREE TO FIVE YEAR PROGRAM OPERATING PLAN FINANCIAL PLAN ANNUAL OBJECTIVES PERFORMANCE INDICATORS/ SETTING & REVIEW ACTIVITY REPORTING 12 B. Recommendations The recommendations resulting from the management review in the Planning Goal/Objective Setting and Budeting are as follows: 1. It is important that the management and policy leaders for the City of College integrate the elements of the strategic management system in their thought prooesses. These elements include the comprehensive plan, the. capital improvements program, target setting by the policy making body and the annual operating/capital improvements budget. Each of these elements of the strategic planning process should be reviewed annually within specific time tables. 2. The Comprehensive Plan for College Station, which was adopted in 1983, should be reviewed on a annual basis. Each element of the Comprehensive Plan should be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission, the City Council and other appropriate advisory bodies. Annually the City staff should update the inventory and demographic sections of the comprehensive plan, and reanalyze the policy direction in order to make recommendations to the appropriate review bodies. The review and discussion of the Comprehensive Plan should help focus attention on a vision for College Station into the future. 3. The Capital Improvements Program (CIP), which is a five year projection of the the capital improvements needs of the City (beyond the budget year), should be viewed as a planning document rather than a budgetary tool. It should be coordinated by the Planning Department. The CIP should be viewed as a method to help implement the Comprehensive Plan of the community. In addition, it should serve to help achieve the shorter term III-5 targets/objectives of the community. The impact of the CIP projects on the operating costs of the City should be clearly delineated in the document, and considered in the priority setting process for capital improvements. Criteria should be established for the annual review of the CIP by City staff, Planning and Zoning Commission members and City Council. 4. On an annual basis, the City should engage in a target/objective setting process. While it is important that the policy making body establish these targets for management to pursue, it is also important that management have an appropriate mechanism for input into those target issues. We recommended that the City Manager engage the management team in a target setting session prior to policy making body undertaking the process. The management team should also prioritize those targets into broad categories such as: highest, high, medium, low, lowest. The targets should be issues which can be addressed within a eighteen to twenty-four month period of time. The policy leaders should also undertake an annual target setting process. After the policy leaders have generated all the issues which they feel are important, the staff's issues should be provided for potential addition to the policy leaders' list. Policy leaders should also establish priority ranking of the issues for guidance to management. The final target issues and their priorities become guidance to management in the strategic management process and should be established prior to budget formulation for the City. 5. The budget recommended by the City Manager to the City Council should be one reflective of the strategic management process undertaken in the recommendations above. The budget should be more of an output or services oriented document allowing the the policy making III-6 body to make a determination of the types of services, Lhe quality of services, and amounL of services provided to the community. The existing budget document which is oriented toward input or management data, should be provided as a supplement to the budget document as background for the determination of the cost level of activities and services including in the budget. Effective budgetary presentation formats should be explored, with the most appropriate one for the City of College Station adopted well in advance of the next budget year. The City may wish to reference the Municipal Finance Officers Association book entitled Effective Budgetary Presentations: The Cutting Edge. In addition, the budgetary presentation should included at least a three year forecast of revenues and expenditures in the general operating funds and a five year forecasting in the enterprise funds. This will provide for adequate planning on the future financial condition of the City. The forecasting should take into account the strategic management process with input from the comprehensive plan, capital improvements program, and the target/objective setting process. This will provide the opportunity for management and policy makers to anticipate the future financial progress of the City. 6. Prior to the preparation of the budget, the City staff should recommend and the City Council should adopt fiscal policies for the City. These fiscal policies should be comprehensive, relating to many of the assumptions which currently go into the financial planning for the community, including a thorough investment policy. They should be clearly stated and endorsed by the policy making body as underlying assumptions for the budget making process. Establishing financial policies can help City officials view their present approach to financial management from a overall long-range vantage point, and establish financial performance goals for thie City. When financial policies are scattered among many documents, or unwritten, or developed on a case by case basis, it is likely that decisions will be made without consideration of the current policy, past policy decisions or future policy alternatives. These financial performance goals will help provide the community a stable financial picture over the long—term. 7. There should be an annual objective setting process for each member of the management team. These objectives should be consistent with the strategic management process which began with the comprehensive plan. These objectives should be agreed upon between the management team member and his or her immediate supervisor and should be a integral part of the annual performance review for those individuals. The objectives set during this process should include internal management needs of the individual's immediate org�.nization as well as those set by policy determination made at higher levels in the organization. 8. The City should compile an inventory of infrastructure needs and establish an infrastructure maintenance and replacement program. This program should include all facilities, improvements and equipment owned by the City. 9. The City should engage in an financial trend monitoring system similiar to the project completed by the International City Management Association on "Evaluating Financial Condition". The thirty-six trend indicators included in the project cover a number of areas in municipal government including revenues, expenditures, operating position, debt structure, unfunded liabilities, III-8 capital plant, and community needs and resources. Annual updating of these fiscal indicators will help provide top level management and the policy making body with concise information relating to the financial condition of the community. From this, an understanding of the financial trends of the City and community should be better understood. 10. Each activity level in the organization should identify performance indicators relating to their activity area. These performance indicators should be mutually agreed upon between top level management and the respective supervisory/management personnel. The indicators should be monitored on a monthly basis and reported to management. 11. A number of financial/budgeting related items were observed during the course of the management review which should be considered by appropriate parties. • The City should consider the use of intra-governmental services funds for the provision of internal services in the areas of vehicle maintenance, management information services, printing/mail and vehicle replacement. It is important for the City to have a true cost picture of its various operations provided to internal customers. The vehicle replacement fund is an excellent long-term funding mechanism in place of depreciation, which is not allowed in the general fund of municipal government. The replacement of vehicles can be made on a more rationale basis, as described elsewhere in this report. • The City should consider conducting an indirect cost allocation analysis for the activities provided by the general fund to the utility funds. The current III-9 methodology for cost allocation lacks sophistication and credability. Since the enterprise activities of the City are such a significant portion of the overall financial picture, it is important for the City to have a clearer understanding of the true indirect cost allocation. • The City should consider the economic and equity impact of using the electric rates for funding general governmental operations. While we are not suggesting a change in that policy, it would of value for the City to be aware of the economic burden and impact of financing services in this manner. • The City should consider the use of capital cost recovery fees for all utility related extensions. • The City should consider the use of inspection fees to recover costs of inspection in the area of utility construction by private developers. • The City should consider financing building inspection costs totally through the building inspection fees. • The City should closely evaluate the imput of the use of one-time revenues to finance a substantial portion of ongoing operations (e.g. the use of $500,000 of general revenue sharing, $561,000 of sanitation transfer and $525,000 of fund balance in the 1987 budget). This could result in a 15% reduction in General Fund services in 1988 if alternative revenues or sources of funds are not found. • The budget document should include a projection of long-term debt through the life of the bonds for the existing debt service, including future taxing needs based upon a projection of assessed value. • The budget document shoil Id include information relating to the fund balances of the operating funds of the City, how they were calculated and what the reserve policy related thereto is for those funds. A recognition of the differences in fund balances between general operating funds and enterprise funds should be clearly communicated. • The budget document should consider putting all utility related expenditures directly under the utility fund rather than having administrative transfers for activities wholly funded by the utility fund. • The City should consider the use of the Certificate of Obligation law to provide additional security for revenue bonds of the City. The Certificate of Obligation allows the full .faith and credit of the City to be pledged for the bonds, resulting in lower interest cost. • The financial report of the City does not include prior years' financial information for the purposes of comparison. A more usable document is achieved by the display of one year historical of data. • The City should consider establishing a formal policy relating to the percentage of ambulance cost recovered through fees. • The City should document all accounting policies and procedures. This will help ensure consisten accounting treatment of the various financial transactions. • The City should consider a change in the fiscal year from July 1 to October 1 to allow for a more timely and logical strategic management system, in light of elections of new council members which occur in April of each year. • The City should consider eliminating the cemetery fund from the budget document since it is a fudiciary fund similia.r to the other fudiciary funds shown in the financial report but not included in the operating budget. IV. HUMAN RESOURCES/ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS A. General The human resources and organizational effectiveness issues are the means by which the City of College Station top level management can translate their values into actions. This can be accomplished by building the City team; developing skills of managers and City employees; and addressing critical organizational problems which serve as barriers to overall effectiveness. The human resource system which results should be a reflection of the values of management and the organization. There a number of objectives of an organization in this area: • To build the capacity of the City Council as policy leaders - with an ability to focus vision and translate it into specific targets and develop specific action plans to achieve those targets. • To build more effective relations between the City Council and City Manager. • To build the capacity of the leadership team in providing direction for the City of College Station. • To develop a sense of cohesiveness among the City Council, City Manager and management team. • To focus the key values that drive the City of College Station and translate those into daily actions. • To clarify the roles, relationships and responsibilities within the City of College Station. IV-1 • To develop a trust and openness between the City Council, City Manager and management team. • To develop an ongoing process of evaluating performance of the management team as managers - the fitness of the management processes. • To identify and address problems and barriers hampering the organization effectiveness and wellness. • To increase the acceptance of responsibility by individual members of the City team. These broad overriding goals can help ensure high quality of management in the organization. B. Recommendation In the human resources/ organizational effectiveness area, a number of recommendations are made as follows: 1. The organization should undertake an extensive management development and team building effort. The City Manager should clearly delineate his management style to the management team in order to establish expectations within the organization. An organizational philosophy should be formulated for the City of College Station in order to serve as a base for activities of the City. The management team should develop personal management philosophies and explore the meaning of being value driven - what it means to have an organizational philosophy and how the management team translates the values into actions. There should to be further IV-2 exploration of the expectations of managers in the City of College Station. We suggest that team building sessions be held on the following topics: • Developing team operations and work relationships • Evaluation of management team performance • Problem identification and resolution • Relationships between the management team and the Mayor/City Council • Developing a work program and processes • Developing strategies for operationalizing the organizational philosophy •Building the capacity of department heads as team members In addition, there are management development needs among the group in the following areas: • Conflict management and resolution • Decision -making and leadership • Evaluation -personal and operational. We recommend that the City undertake a team building and management development effort on an internal basis using individuals skilled in these endeavors. 2. As a result of the environment and organizational changes, there is a need to sensitize all City employees to a service orientation. The City employee has the difficulty of providing a service orientation to the public frequently within procedures which are control oriented. The opportunities and problems of dealing with and in that environment should be examined as well as the sharing of organziational the philosophy with all city employees. There are a number of organizations which help local governments in this type of training. IV-3 3. The City should establish a comprehensive training program for City employees, including supervisory and technical training. This training program could utilize the resources available in College Station at the University as well as other resources available in the state. 4. A risk management program encompassing safety training is a critical need within the City organization. Diffusion of the responsibility for safety training to all of the operating entities has not produced an effective and coordinated program. The elements of a full risk management program need to be integrated into one functional area in order to manage the full program. 5. The Personnel department needs to be given additional resources to provide services in the following areas: • Risk management - safety training • Supervisory and technical training • Employee relations • Employee communication inter- and intra- departmental • Improvements in the recruitment and selection procedure 6. The grievance procedures for the City of College Station should be re-evaluated in light of a number of features which appear to be inappropriate, such as the involvement of the City Council in the process, the non-involvement of the City Manager in the process, the involvement of the Personnel Director as a decisionmaker in the process rather than a counselor/facilitator, and the need to refine other issues in light of the City's organizational philosophy. Additionally, a progressive discipline Iv-4 policy should be written and established to' guide management and supervisory employees in the administration of discipline on a consistent basis. The progressive discipline policy that should then become a factor in the grievance procedure. 7. In addition to the efforts already underway to have closer involvement between management and employees, the City should consider the use of annual skip level interviews. These annual interviews would occur between a supervisor/manager and employees one step removed from him/her in the organization. Guidelines for the use of the skip level interviews should be established along with a clear understanding of its purpose and value. 8. The City should continue the development of incentive systems for productivity improvements in the City. Awards should be made to employees who make suggestions which result in productivity gains to the organization. 9. There is a perception in the organization of a lack of coodinated policy by management and employees to address citywide concerns and interdepartmental communication. Ongoing efforts to deal with this perception such as the City Manager's suggestion box and an employee newsletter should be continued and expanded upon. A city employee task force to deal with the issue and make recommendations would be beneficial in order to gain their insights and ownership of the effort. 10. A review of the classification compensation system indicated the following recommendations relating to improvements of the system. IV-5 • The City should relook at the weight given to the factor rankings of the classification system in light of the organizational philosophy and values. - The evaluation committee for reclassification procedures should be a permanent committee rather than an ad hoc one for each evaluation session. The appointment to committee membership should be made for a two year overlapping terms in order to provide consistency. • The committee should evaluate all requested position classification changes (rather than just those recommended by the Personnel Director) and do so in a timely manner in order to establish credibility in the system. • New committee members should receive training in the classification system process in order to increase their capability and the quality of the system. The Personnel Department and the Committee should be sensitive to the fact that when additional higher level duties are added to a position requiring re- evaluation, the duties added may have been deleted from another position which also needs to be re- evaluated at the same time. • All position reclassifications should ultimately go to the City Manager for consideration and approval. • The classification system should address the particular problems of the Police Department relating to Lieutenants being at different pay grades and the operational difficulties which is caused by that situation. IV-6 • The evaluation/compensation program has produced a lot of confusion in the organization which needs to be addressed. This can done either by altering the system to make it more understandable or through a more extensive education process. • The evaluation system currently includes a number of attribute types of evaluation factors, in addition to the more objective types of evaluation items. The attribute types of evaluation factors item should be made as pass/fail criteria and not included in the numerical portion of the evaluation system. 11. The personnel manual of the City should be reviewed in light of the management philosophy of the City Manager that Personnel is a service department to other City departments. In addition, the City Manager's role as the Chief Executive Officer in the organization should be clarified and recognized in the manual. IV-7 V. MANAGEMENT REPORTING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS To achieve the most effective organization, a City must have a flow of information upward through the organization and outward into the community. In order to do so, every manager/supervisor in the organization should be cognizant of good communication mechanisms. The City is essentially marketing services to its community, and the success or failure of its marketing efforts frequently dictate the citizen's perception of the quality of its services. Recommendations made in the management reporting and public relations areas are as follows: 1. The City should establish a public relations/marketing function devoted totally to marketing of City activities. The City should view their activities as services provided to the community with appropriate marketing programs to support those services. These programs could include annual attitude surveys, school visits, mailings directly to citizens concerning events, neighborhood meetings and a City fair at one of the shopping centers to disseminate information relating to the City's programs. The simple distribution of a feedback survey to residents who have had a fire call to their house can produce information useful for improvement of the firefighting services. It can also have the side effect of producing credibility by the citizen in the service and a feeling that the City cares about the quality of its services. This marketing effort should be more than a public relations program and should attempt to market services in a manner similiar to other service organizations. The coordination of this effort should be located in the City Manager's office in order to take advantage of this focal point for the flow of information. An individual in this role should be allowed access to all levels of information and discussions in order to allow for the channeling of information to the appropriate locations inside or outside V-1 the organization. The position should be involved in the meetings or discussions to evaluate the information flow needs rather than in a decision making role. 2. The City management should provide appropriate management reporting on all elements of the strategic management process. There are portions of the process which need to be communicated to the citizens. For example, the comprehensive plan should involve citizen imput through such means as neighborhood meetings and surveys. Reporting to the City Council should also be improve. The City has a good Capital Improvement program monitoring report which goes to the City Council on a quarterly basis. In addition, the City should establish reporting at least on a quarterly basis relating to the targets which were established by the City Council in the strategic management process. The financial reporting to the Council should be performed on a monthly basis and should be more oriented toward the non -financial personnel. The monthly financial report should include a narrative describing the finanical condition of the community and should highlight any items which are noteworthy. In addition, the monthly financial report should include a prior year's comparable information column. It is important that the financial managers in the organization provide interpreative information for City Council and City Management review. 3. The monthly activity reporting from departments to the City Manager should be revised to produce information based upon the activities of the department and performance measurement criteria. The existing activity reports are largely a compilation of statistics and serve little valuable purpose without in-depth knowledge of the derivation of those statistics. The weekly memorandum from the City Manager to the City Council is an excellent example of a report with V- 2 information directed and packaged to the group and its level in the organization as is the Parks and Recreation monthly report. 4. On a quarterly basis, management personnel should report to their immediate supervisor concerning progress toward achieving their objectives established on an annual basis and referred to in the planning and objective/target setting section of this report. V- 3 VI. CITY COMMITTEES AND OTHER COUNCIL APPOINTEES The City Council of the City of College Station currently direct- ly appoints the Municipal Court Judge, the Municipal Court Clerk, the City Secretary, the City Attorney, the City Manager and six- teen boards and commissions. There are various legal require- ments and/or authorities relating to these appointments which will impact on changes to these relationships. We have reviewed the organizational needs without regard to the difficulty of altering these relationships from a legal perspective. In general, it is our observation that municipal organizations operate best when the City Council deals within the realm of policy -making and the City Manager deals within the realm of management issues. There is and will be an overlap of policy - making and management due to the nature of the governance and management process which requires that a close team effort be established between the parties involved in the respective pro- cesses. However, those issues which are clearly administrative or an integral part of achieving managerial goals should be re- sponsive to the City Manager. This frees the City Council to focus on setting the vision and goals for the community as well as establishing the target issues consistent with those goals, and to measure management's progress towards those targets. The City Manager must be given the necessary resources to achieve those targets and should be expected to manage all administrative functions with efficiency and economy. Assignment of responsi- bilities, delegation of authority, and allocation of resources are among the most important activities of the manager. If all of the administrative functions of the City are within the orga- nization reporting to the City Manager, he can perform these activities to the best benefit of the the entire organization. VI-1 While continuation of these reporting relationships will depend upon local priorities and conditions, a reduction of both boards and commissions and direct Council appointees could help streamline the organization. It is recommended that the following changes be made in the direct council appointed personnel and commission area. 1. The Municipal Court Clerk performs an administrative function and should become part of the administrative activities under the city management structure. The Municipal Court Clerk is included in our proposed organization chart as a division in the Administrative Services Department. Having the Municipal Court Clerk report to the Administrative Services would not impair the impartiality of the judicial decision -making process since the Municipal Court Judge is still directly appointed by the City Council. This change in reporting relationship would allow for a better supervisory and management situation as well as allowing for the potential cross utlization of personnel during peaks and valleys in the work load process. The City Attorney should be requested to determine the legal authorization for this change. 2. The City Secretary function should report to the Administrative Services Department under the city management structure. The City Secretary activity is essentially an administrative function of organizing Council minutes, ordinances, resolutions and handling elections for the municipality. In addition, the City Secretary should be designated the role of central repository of all official city records, contracts, documents, reports, etc. Currently, these documents are found in various locations around the City depending upon the nature of the document. Most of these records are referred to at some time in the City Council agenda process, making this focal point the most logical repository of records. The permit issuing duties of VI-2 the City Secretary should be transferred to the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance. Care should be taken to make sure the City Code is updated and revised on a regular basis in order to make sure all parties are aware of the policy directives of the City Council. A similiar rationale exists for transferring the City Secretary's function under the city management structure as exists for the Municipal Court Clerk. 3. The City Attorney's office should be become a department of the City, advising the City Manager and department heads on legal matters and providing prosecution duties and ligitation defense. The major portion of the City Attorney's responsibilities relate to providing services to the administrative staff on legal matters, acquisition of land and prosecution of legal issues. This change would afford the City Manager control of operations of the City and allow for the internal ability to establish priorities for the attainment of those targets established by the City Council which require input and coordiantion with the City Attorney's office. The City Council may wish to have an attorney on retainer to provie independent legal advice when they feel it would be beneficial. 4. The City Council should consider a reduction in the sixteen boards/commissions which currently serve the City of College Station. In order to have these boards/commissions provide substantive input for the City government process requires significant resources from the City staff. In any event, a clear role definition of the boards/commissions should be established to differentiate their roles in advising both the City Council and management on policy issues and administrative issues, respectfully. The board/commissions, as they currently exist, are listed below as well as whether they advise on policy issues, management issues or have some autonomous duties. VI-3 Policy and Management Management Only Semi -Autonomous Ambulance Cemetery Electrical Examining Energy Management Community Center Plumbing Appeals Community Appearance Teen Center Structural Standards Parks and Recreation Zoning Board of Adjustments Joint Zoning Planning and Zoning Franchise Advisory Library Historic Preservation The three management advisory committees could be elminated, merged with the Parks and Recreation Commission or become sub units of the Parks and Recreation Commission. The board/commissions role in advising managment needs to limited to advising on rules, regulations and other administrative policy rather than on operational issues. 5. The City of College Station's orientation handbook for new members of City Council, Boards, Commissions and Committees should be updated to included the four commissions not currently included in the document (Franchise Advisory Committee, Library Committee the Historic Preservation Committe, and the Energy Management Committee). In addition, a clear designation of the liaison between the City staff and the committees should be made so that the Boards and Commissions can have fruitful communication with the management structure. 6. A annual orientation and training program should be established for Boards and Commissions. New members should be oriented on the City of College Station organization, the duties and responsibilities of their particular board and VI-4 commission and the role that the board or commission plays, whether it be advisory to management, advisory to City Council or a semi -autonomous role. VI-5 VII. WORKLOAD MEASUREMENT AND LEVEL OF SERVICES An effective organization needs to have a means of evaluating its existing cost of providing services and distribution work required to provide those services. This information provides management with the necessary tools to make decisions relating to allocation of resources within the organization. A part of our anticipated work efforts in this organization review was to compare the workload/performance indicators in College Station to other similiar cities in order to assess the relative efficiencies of the work force in College Station. We were unable to complete this task because the City of College Station does not have adequate information systems established to measure work load distribution or compare the productivity of the organization to other cities. The City of College Station provides an excellent level of services to its citizens. The quality of services in the parks and recreation area is particularly noteworthy. Each community, through its elected representatives, must determine whether the services provided by the City are in concert with the needs and desires of its citizens. We were unable to adequately measure the efficiency of these services due to lack of quantifiable data. Our observations are that the services are being provided despite some inadequacies in management and supervisory skills in the organization. An improvement in these skills will undoubtedly increase the efficiency of the operations. Recommendations relating to these issues are as follows: 1. Work order accounting and cost accounting systems should be established for the maintenance functions of the City and for activities which are included in the indirect cost allocation system. This will provide an accurate accounting for costs of providing services within the community and provide a basis for comparison of these costs to other entities. VII-1 2. The City should establish an ongoing program for evaluating City services compared to the cost of obtaining those services through other mechanisms including the private sector. This evaluation process will heighten the need for efficiency and economy in the providing the City services as well as provide a base of comparison for those services. This function should become a function of the Budget/Research Division so that a routine evaluation takes place of each city activity on at least a five year basis. 3. There are a number of needs for additional and/or improved automation activities within the City such as in the City Clerk function, accounts payable function, etc. It is anticipated that these activities will be reviewed in the current study underway of management information services needs. 4. The garage division does not maintain any maintenance records on the City vehicles it services. The vehicle maintenance activity in the City should include a program of evaluating the condition of vehicles, providing preventive maintenance, and providing for a replacement of the vehicle based upon the comparison of maintenance costs to cost for replacement and current condition of the vehicle. 5. The city should formulate a street management program over a long term basis (five to ten years) in order to assess the quality of the existing streets and provide for the future needs for maintenance. 6. There is a need for work load measurements in most of the service activities of the City. These work load measurements should be established under the performance measurement systems. VII-2 7. The City should evaluate a central dispatching operation for the police and fire operations to determine the feasibility of integrating the two functions and the potential cost savings to be achieved. 8. The City should investigate the need for an electrical engineer within the electrical department rather than to relying on external consulting services in this area. 9. The City should have a mapping system for all electrical, water and sewer utility functions. The overall mapping system is not adequate for record purposes. The need has not yet proven critical since the information exists in the heads of long-term employees but this situation should not be allowed to continued to exist. 10. The City should review its purchasing manual in light of the service orientation philosophy of the City Manager. The purchasing manual reads more as a control document with control lying in the hands of the central purchasing agent (see specifically Section II-1 and III-3). 11. The City should establish and maintain an administrative policies and procedures manual so that clear communication of the overall policies of the City can be maintained on a on- going basis. The orientation time for new employees should be reduced through the existence of this manual. 12. The City should consider contracting with Brazos County for collection of property taxes. Since the County is willing to provide this service without charge to the City, the City could realize the financial benefit of approximately $33,000 by this action. Part of this benefit would be due to a reduction of expenditures of $20,500 which have been identified by the City staff. It is also believed that the increased availability of personnel time which was previously VII-3 dedicated to the property tax function will allow more diligent collection of other delinquent account receivables which should increase revenues by approximately $13,000 to $15,000. The transfer of the property tax collection process will result in the loss of tax certificate sales of approximately $5,000, however, not having to perform this function should also increase the availability of personnel time for the collection of delinquent revenues. The total collection of property taxes as a percent of the current levy is effected both by the efficiency and diligence of the collection effort and the demographic makeup of the fax role. If a contract is pursued with the County, the City should closely monitor the collection process to ensure adequate follow-up collections on delinquent accounts. V I I-4 VIII. INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION The City of College Station finds itself in an excellent position for intergovernmental cooperation with the City of Bryan and Brazos County. The attitude of the current elected officials and appointed officials has created an environment which will work to encourage intergovernmental endeavors where it can be shown to be beneficial to the parties. The City should choose efforts initially which are easily attainable and have a high likelihood of success. It is recommended that the City of College Station take the initiative to work with the City of Bryan and Brazos County on any of the following activities: • Establishment of a joint -training program for City employees. • Establishment of a joint -safety training program and/or risk management effort. • Creation of a joint -central dispatch for public safety funcations including the implementation of a 911 system. • Creation of a joint jail facility between the entities. • Creation of a joint data processing bureau to serve the management information needs of the communities. • Creation of a joint garage facility to serve the vehicle maintenance needs of the community. • Consolidation of the economic development groups currently financed by the City of College Station, City of Bryan, Texas A&M University and Brazos County. VIII-1