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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution - 1287 - Agreement - CM&P Inc - Manpower Utilization Studies - 12/16/1982DGV/mck RESOLUTION RESOLUTION 1287 - 12/16/82 WHEREAS, the City of Lubbock has solicited proposals for a comprehensive manpower utilization study of selected City departments; and WHEREAS, proposals by various consultants have been reviewed by City of Lubbock staff and the best proposal identified; NOW THEREFORE: BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LUBBOCK: THAT the Mayor of the City -of Lubbock BE and is hereby authorized and directed to execute for and on behalf of the City of Lubbock an agreement be= ween the City of Lubbock and Cresap, McCormick and Paget,: Inc., of Washington, D.C., for comprehensive manpower utilization studies of selected City depart- ments, which agreement is attached hereto and which shall be spread upon the minutes of the Council and as spread upon the minutes of the Council shall constitute and be a part of this Resolution as if fully copied herein in detail. Passed by the City Council this 16th day ecembqT 1982. BI11<McAZLIST9k',. MA OR ATTEST: Evelyn Ga fga, City ec y -Treasurer APPROVED AS TO CONTENT: Jim -Flagg, Deputy C nager APPROVED AS TO FORM: 0 G. Vandiver, Assistant City Attorney RESOLUTION 1287 -,12/16/82 CI?Y cr('RETAPY-TREA91HRER THE STATE OF TEXAS X CONTRACT FOR MANAGEMENT/ COUNTY OF LUBBOCK MANPOWER UTILIZATION STUDY THIS AGREEMENT entered into this 16 day of December, 1982, by and between the.City of Lubbock, hereinafter called "City" and Cresap, McCormick and Paget, .Inc., hereinafter called "Consultant". WITNESSETH: WHEREAS, the City. has heretofore solicited requests for proposals for a comprehensive management/manpower utilization study, which request is attached hereto as Exhibit A and made a part hereof for all purposes; and WHEREAS, the Consultant has responded to such request for proposal, which response is attached hereto as Exhibit B and made a part hereof for all purposes; NOW THEREFORE, THE PARTIES HERETO AGREE AS FOLLOWS: 1. Purpose. The major objective of this study is to improve the productivity of the following departments of the City: Parks and Recreation Streets Fire Library Water and Sewer Maintenance Operations Utility Collection Office Health Productivity is defined by the parties hereto as, first, doing the right thing, and, second, doing such things better for the same cost or else doing the same thing for less cost. 2. Duties of Consultant. A. The Consultant shall begin work within thirty (30) days of written notification to proceed. The Consultant will meet with key officials to discuss tentative conclusions and recommendations prior to preparation of a definitive written report. B. A preliminary report shall be submitted to the City of Lubbock by March 15, 1983. The final printed report shall be submitted to the City within one hundred twenty (120) days foll.ow.ing commencement of,the:Study. . C. The Consultant, near the end of the study, will consult with the City and review the findings and evaluations noted. If the City determines that additional observations and data collections are necessary, the CONSULTANT shall perform same. D. The CONSULTANT shall consult with the City at any time desired by the City during the observation and data collection period. E. On the basis of the City's requirements and the data obtained, the CONSULTANT shall prepare a draft report of recommendations indicating clearly the consideration involved and the alternate solutions available to the City: The report will contain the data relied on the reach conclusions and rationale for the recommendations. It will contain a structured management improvement plan, listing each recommended step and identifying the priority, timing and responsibility for accomplishment which should be observed for each step. The final project report should also identify apparent problems, prioritize such problems by their significance, identify the operational or management revisions necessary to correct those problems, indicate alternative models to accomplish the proposed revisions, design programs to support implementation of approved models. F. The CONSULTANT shall be available to assist in implementation for twenty (20) working days during the following two (2) year period. G. The CONSULTANT shall prepare seventy-five (75) copies of the formal PROJECT report and submit to the City within oa:e hundred twenty(120) days following commencement of the study. The finalized copies of the PROJECT report shall then be delivered to the City by the CONSULTANT either in person or by mail, whichever is desired by the City. H. CONSULTANT shall also develop performance measures for each department/ section studied which accurately reflect the service levels.desired, the quality of the work performed, the costs per unit of service and which are useable for the determination of proper staffing levels. 1. CONSULTANT shall develop a Management Reporting System that will enable management to measure the department's performance against predetermined performance measures, goals and objectives on a monthly and quarterly basis. J. CONSULTANT shall perform all tasks as set forth in the Objectives and Scope of Project section of the City of Lubbock Request for Proposals attached hereto as Exhibit A. K. CONSULTANT shall make oral presentation of the results of the study to the City Manager, City Council, Directors, Department Heads and other employees and groups as necessary to achieve full understanding of the implications of the study's recommendations. 3. Compensation. The City shall pay Consultant not more than $149,000, with payment to be made by the City each.thirty (30) days based upon the Consultant's submitted and approved invoice, with final payment to be made upon submission and acceptance of the final report by the City. 4: Ownership of Materials. All material developed or acquired by the Consultant for work done under this contract shall be the property of the City. All such material shall not be released to the public by the Consultant prior to the termination of this contract without express written consent by the City Manager. 5. Assignment of Interest. The Consultant shall not assign any interest in this Contract and shall not transfer any interest whatsoever in the same without prior written consent of the City Manager. 6. Independent Contractor. The Consultant shall be in all respects an independent contractor and shall accept sole responsibility for the actions of its employees and shall be responsible for all materials and services secured, subcontracts entered into or liabilities incurred in the performance of this agreement. Consultant shall have full responsibility for payment of all employee benefits required by law for his employees. 7. Hold Harmless. The Consultant shall hold the City harmless from any and all suits, actions or claims brought on account of any injuries or damages sustained by any person or property as a result of Consultant's negligence and from any contest over infringement of patent, trademark or copyright resulting from Consultant's performance under this Contract. 8. Duties of City. The City agrees to make available to Consultant all records and data on file that will assist the Consultant in the performance of services under this Contract. City further will make available appropriate personnel to assist the Consultant with regard to such records and data. Such personnel will be made available for a total of 50 person days of effort. 9. Amendment of Contract. This Contract may be amended or extended only upon written agreement of the parties. The City reserves the right to add or delete departments listed in Section 1 above based on the current needs of the City or on the recommendation of Consultant following an initial review of the departments listed. An increase or decrease in the compensation paid Consultant wi!ll:'be based on the change in the number of departments studied. 10. Termination. This Contract may be terminated by either party hereto upon thirty 30 days written notice to the other party. Such notice shall not be given until the other party has had thirty (30) days in which to correct such matters as may be complained about by the other party in writing. Termination under this section shall require that the City pay Consultant for such services prior to the date of termination as have been received by the City and found to be acceptable by the City Manager. t a' r EXECUTED this 16th day of December , 1982. CONSULTANT• B : Evans, Vice President ATTEST: C lJ tqx-� �� - 4 Secretary CITY OF LUBBOCK: . ILL McA STER, MAYOR ATTEST: "elynGa City e rry- Treasurer APPROVED AS TO CONTENT: Jid Tagg, Deputy Manager APPROVED AS TO FORM: %a Donald G. Vandiver, Assistant City Attorney CIYY SECRETARY-TREASURER E REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT/MANPOWER UTILIZATION STUDY OF SELECTED CITY OF LUBBOCK DEPARTMENTS The City of Lubbock, Texas is requesting proposals from professional consulting firms to undertake a Comprehensive Management Analysis of several major City departments including: Parks and Recreation Fire Water and Sewer Maintenance Operations Health Streets Library Utility Collection Office The City of Lubbock reserves the right to add or delete departments based on the current needs of the City, and to negotiate an increase or decrease in the proposal cost as submitted by the consultant. The analysis should include, but not be limited to: 1. Observe areas of management outlined above. 2. Identify opportunities for improvement in organization, administration, or operations that can lead to increased productivity. 3. Determine specific way in which opportunities for cost containment caw,be achieved while maintaining City services , that are adequat� in every respect. 4. Formulate alternative management and/or operational models to support proposed revisions. 5. Design programs that support implementation of approved model into agencies management and operations. 6. Develop a Management Improvement Plan that includes specific actions to be taken, staff responsibility, time frames for implementation, cost of implementation and cost reductions or other improvements possible. P. Request for Proposals for Comprehensive Management/Manpower Utilization Study of Selected City of Lubbock Departments Page 2 7. Be available for twenty working days to assist in the imple- mentation of alternatives during the following two-year period. 8. Make oral presentation.of the results of the study to the City Manager, City Council, directors, department heads and other employees and groups as necessary to achieve full under- standing of the implications of the Study's recommendations. The major concern of the City of Lubbock is the efficient and effective use of the available resources, particularly employees, resulting in improved delivery of services to the community. As the cost of providing public services continues to rise, the City of Lubbock desires to provide a high level of service at the lowest possible cost. To reach this goal the City realizes it must identify the highest priority services and perform those in the most efficient manner possible. The contract award for the Comprehensive Management Study will be based on the proposal the City of Lubbock feels best meets the needs as previously stated. Criteria for Selection The City Manager, Larry J. Cunningham, will establish a Proposal Review Committee to evaluate each submission in order to determine which one best meets the intent of the request for proposal. Consultants may be asked to make an oral presenta- tion of the proposal submitted in order to assist the City in its selection. The consultant that is selected will meet with the Project Monitoring Committee. This committee will have the authority to reject or retain any or all consulting personnel 'assigned to this project by the consultant selected. Objectives and Scope of Project: The city of Lubbock's major objective in this study is to improve the producti- vity of the departments listed. The City of Lubbock views productivity as first doing the right thing, and second, producing more and better services for the same money, or producing the same services for less money. in order to meet this overarching objective, the City recognizes that consultation can be a benefit. The City is continually exploring. ways to improve operational effec- tiveness and certain in-house capabilities are available and will be placed at the consultants' disposal as outlined in this Request for Proposal. The areas listed below are areas of concern that the City believes should be examined. The list is in no way an attempt to limit the study, but an indica- tion of areas the City believes major effort will need to be expended. The consultant should expand on them as he determines necessary to prepare a Comprehensive Management Survey. Request for Proposals for Comprehensive Management/Manpower Utilization Study of Selected City of Lubbock Departments Page 3 In addition to examining these areas, the consultant should conduct a system study of each department which involves identifying and defining the total management system of the departments. The consultant should also identify apparent management and operational problems, prioritize them by their signi- ficance, identify changes necessary to correct those problems, formulate alternative models to accomplish proposed changes, design programs to support implementation of approved models, and be available for implementation and assistance. The areas of concern currently identified are: 1. Examine organizational structure. 2. Administrative and management procedures including: A. Departmental planning and policy formulation function. B. Implementation of policies and practices. C. Department communication of policies and practices; adequacy and timeliness of information flow at all levels of the department. D. Management reporting capability. E. Overall effectiveness. F. Evaluation of manpower deployment. 'G. Evaluation of organization operations. H. Adequacy of supervisory function. 3. Evaluation of -work distribution; i.e., time of day, day of week. 4. Development of performance standards that would -indicate the time required by qualified staff, working at a normal pace, to perform a task. 5. Evaluation of crew sizes. 6. Evaluation of records and reporting systems. 7. Examination and definition of the need for specialized ranks and units. 8. Needs for in-house training and methods of providing. Request for Proposals for Comprehensive Management/Manpower Utilization Study of Selected City of Lubbock Departments Page 4 9. Determine adequacy and uti.lization of physical facilities. 10. Examine equipment and material resources utilization and adequacy. 11. Examination of work distribution and flow and identify ways to better balance and simplify work. 12. Manpower utilization and management includl.ng;: planning, developing, scheduling, monitoring and evaluating manpower resources. 13• Workload for each of the organizational units. Consultant Organization The consultant should provide a business organization description which briefly details history, purpose, resources and current activities. in addition, the consultant should briefly describe similar comprehensive management surveys previously completed by the consulting firm, as well as current related projects. Such descriptions of projects and surveys should particularly include those cities whose population is between 100,000 and 300,000. Consultant Endorsement The consultant s'hould include any and all endorsements from agencies, organizations and/or individuals that will positively reflect on the agency's ability to effec- tively complete the Comprehensive Management Study. Proposed Project Organization 1. General --The consultant shoul.d conciselydetail the total organizational structure he plans to use to support the com- pletion of the Comprehensive Management Study. ,.The consul- tant should include an organizational diagram and description which will briefly explain any interface between the consul- tant's home office,.local team and City management. 2. On -Site --The consultant should comprehensively describe planned, on-site organization, detailing personnel, area of responsibility and consultant decision-making structure. • Request for Proposals for Comprehensive Management/Manpower Utilization Study of Selected City of Lubbock Departments Page 5 Support Resources The City of Lubbock will make available to work on the study certain City employees who can assist the consultant in appropriate ways that would not jeopardize the objectivity of the consultant team. It is believed that this arrangement will serve the City's interests by moderating the costs of the consulting effort, and by providing experience to the selected staff members that will make them more valuable to the City later in conducting in-house evaluations of operating activities. Responding consultants should indicate ways in which City staff members would be utilized, and indicate the number of person -days of effort that the consultant would feel appropriate to plan to use these individuals. The consultant should detail those resources other than personnel that it will request from the City which are needed to successfully complete this study. Project Experience of Proposed Staff This section should briefly detail previous similar project exper.ience which specifically supports the project team position assignments. The project team should have members or the consultant should have other resource per- sonnel who have had experience in the operational areas identified. Consultant Management Methodology The consultant should briefly describe the methodology currently utilized by the co6sulting firm to attain management decisions. Examples would be: benefit -cost, cost-effectiveness,.maangement by objective/result, management by exception, etc. Operation/Implementation Plan 1. Plan of Work --The consultant should provide a narrative detailing its plan to accomplish the results it mentions*in the other sections of its proposal. Basic mention should be made of time percentages devoted by various staff members to the successful completion.of the project. This should be supported by the personnel utilization section. The narrative should also include a chart which should visually depict the plan of work. 2. Personnel Utilization --The consultant should develop an allocation chart indicating the following information: A. Proposed project staff. B. Areas of responsibility. C. Percentage of time devoted to project. Request for Proposals for Comprehensive Management/Manpower Utilization Study of Selected City of Lubbock Departments Page 6 2. Continued D. Percentage'of time on site. E. Number of persons/hours devoted to project. 3. Alternative Change Facilitation Models --The consultant should identify for each department its familiarity with change faci- litation models. It will detail the advantages and disadvan- tages of at least three potentially useful models for imple- menting necessary management and operation revisions. 4. Supplemental Information and Proposed Format Alternatives --The consultant is encouraged to include any supplemental informa- tion which is felt to be unique, or which enhances the ability of the consultant to successfully complete the project. The consultant is also encouraged to .furnish alternative format for the completion of the Comprehensive Management Survey. 5. Proposed Project Management Information System --The consultant should describe its proposed management information which will provide the City of Lubbock.with progress reports from the consultants. Budget and Preliminary Benefit -Cost Narratives The consultant should furnish a proposed budget which includes all necessary travel pe; diem, materials,.supplies, printing, and personnel pay with fringe benefits, equipment and other items required to conduct the analysis. The budget should also include provisions for providing the City with 75 printed copies of the analysis and recommendations. Summary The consultant should: 1. Identify apparent problems. 2. Prioritize them by their significance. 3. Identify operational or management revisions to meet those problems. 4. Formulate alternative models to accomplish proposed revisions. Request for Proposals for Comprehensive Management/Manpower Utilization Study of Selected City of Lubbock Departments Page 7 5. Design programs to support implementation of approved models. 6. Be available for implementation assistance. 7. Provide a schedule for the completion of project and for making a preliminary report and final report to the City of Lubbock Consultants are encouraged to visit -the depratments prior to submission of a proposal. Deadline for receiving proposals is November 15, 1982, 4:00 p.m., central time, in the office of Floyd Nesbitt, Director of Purchasing. Questions related to the Request for Proposals should be directed to Mr. Jim C. Blagg, Assistant City (Telephone: AC 806--762-6411, extension 2001) Method of Evaluating Firms Firms submitting proposals will be evaluated by the Review Committee, based primarily, but not exclusively, on three criteria: 1. Personnel qualifications. 2. Methodology --Firm's technical capabilities and approach to meeting the needed requirements listed in the Request for Proposals. 3. Experience of Firm --Firm's experience in this type of study and other types of management and organizational studies. Costs and project will also be considered, but will not necessarily be a deter- mining facfor in the selection. A PROPOSAL TO CONDUCT A COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT STUDY OF SELECTED CITY DEPARTMENTS CITY OF LUBBOCK, TEXAS November 12, 1982 7 - - Cresap, McCormick and Paget �. Management Consultants 1675 I STREET. N.W.. WASHINGTON. O.C. 00006 • Telephone [002} 463-2800 Washington New York* Chicago* San Fro ncleco London• Melbourne November 12, 1982 Mr. Jim C. Blagg r Deputy City Manager City of Lubbock Lubbock, Texas Dear Jim: We are pleased to.submit this proposal to undertake a compre- hensive management study of several selected departments of the Lubbock city government. It is based on your request for proposals of October 14, 1982, and my discussions with you, Mr. Larry Cunningham, and representatives of each of the units to be studied in Lubbock on October 29. A preliminary assessment indicates the probability of substan- tial savings accruing to the City of Lubbock as a result of this study- cost reductions that can be made without diminishing the quality of services provided citizens - or even opportunities to enhance the quality of services while simultaneously reducing costs. We propose to use essentially the same techniques in pursuing this study as we have used in other studies we have accomplished for the City of Lubbock, the results of which you are, of course, aware-. We believe that our wide experience in serving local governments throughout the United States and our familiarity with the Lubbock environment specially qualify us to undertake this study and produce substantial results. We welcome the opportunity to use appropriate Lubbock city staff members to assist in the study effort. This will benefit the City by: - Reducing the cost of the study - Providing valuable training to the staff involved, who will thereafter be able to use the techniques and con- cepts they learn in other areas of the City government Mr. Jim C. Blagg -2- November 12, 1982 - Allowing the staff members to gain insights which will enable them to better assist the department studied to implement the approved recommendations which flow from the study. We consider transferring these skills to the staff persons involved to be an important part of our work with the City in this project, and are sure that we can utilize them effectively in ways which will in no way jeopardize.the objectivity of the study effort. Outlined in the proposal are our understanding of the objec- tives and scope of the project, the approach we would take, qualifications of Cresap, McCormick and Paget Inc., resumes of staff likely to be assigned, and a statement of timing and cost. Should we have not interpreted your requirements precisely, we will be pleased to modify this proposal so as to meet them explicitly. As you know, I would be personally involved in all key aspects of the project, and be directly accountable to the City for the quality of the results. I would be pleased to return to Lubbock to meet with the selection committee or others, elaborate on any aspect of the proposal answer questions, or do anything else which might be helpful in its consideration. Please call if there are ques- tions, or if you want me to visit Lubbock. We would be delighted to again serve the City of Lubbock in this important project. Vice President and Director of Local Government Services i No Text 0 I - BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES AND APPROACH This first section of the proposal sets forth background information on the selected city departments, and the objectives and approach of the proposed management review. BACKGROUND The City of Lubbock, Texas has a population of approximately 180,000, which represents substantial growth over the past decade. This growth has placed increased demands on all City services, and the City government is now undertaking a study of selected departments to enable them to serve the public effectively and at minimum cost to local residents. The following City departments or department units are tentatively identified for inclusion in the study: - Fire - Health - Library - Parks And Recreation - Streets - Utility Collection Office - Water And Sewer Maintenance Operations. The number of employees in the selected departments ranges from approximately 280 in the Fire Department to less than 50 in the Library. On the basis of our recent interviews with representatives of each department to be reviewed, we believe that significant opportunities for improvement in services and cost savings exist. The next section presents our understanding of the study's objectives and scope, and the following section describes our approach to completing the work required. t r Flo OBJECTIVES NNW AND SCOPE The primary purpose of the proposed project is to improve the effectiveness of the organization, management, and operations of the departments selected for study by the City of Lubbock. The specific objectives of the study would be to: - Determine the extent to which the objectives, responsi- bilities, and duties of each department are being effec- tively fulfilled - Assess the efficiency and effectiveness of each depart- ment's management and operations - Identify opportunities for improvement in each selected department that will result in either increased oper- ating performance or reduced costs - Develop specific, practical, and implementable recommen- dations to permit the City to take advantage of these opportunities for improvement as quickly as possible - Prepare a definitive written report outlining the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the study and the facts and rationale on which they are based, and structure Management Improvement Plans for each unit studied indicating what should be done, when, and who should be responsible for accomplishing each action step - Make oral presentation of the results of the study to the City Manager, City Council, directors, department heads, and other employees and groups as necessary to achieve full understanding of the implications of the study's recommendations. In conducting the study, we would focus on developing answers to specific questions, such as the following: - How does each selected department's programs relate to its purpose? Are the needs of City government being adequately met by the activities of the departments? - Are each department's programs effectively established, managed, administered, and operated? - To what extent does the current organizational struc- ture of each department fit the programs and services offered by it? 1-2 - Does each department have an appropriate level and mix of staffing? Are all selected departments able to recruit, train, and retain appropriate staff? 4 - Are each department's management policies, practices, and procedures effective and efficient? Are work activities properly planned, controlled, and monitored for both quality and timeliness? - Do the departments have suitable facilities and equip- ment to perform their regional tasks effectively? The scope of the study would be comprehensive in nature, involving all aspects of each department's mission and role, responsibilities, organization and staffing, management, and operations. APPROACH TO THE STUDY Our philosophy in providing consulting services is that every client engagement is unique. While we have extensive experience with local government agencies, we have no preconceived notions regarding a single "best" way to organize or manage their opera- tions. In conducting this study, we would use a variety of ana- lytical techniques to develop an objective assessment of each selected City of Lubbock departments. We would interview a wide variety of people, including the City Manager, the Deputy City Manager, Assistant City Managers and department heads responsible for the departments to be studied, selected staff members at all levels in each department, the Mayor, members of the City Council, and others. We would assemble materials such as budgets, policy manuals, organization charts, staffing tables and schedules, and work plans. In assembling materials and collecting data, we would expect to use available City staff members extensively. After reviewing this information, we would identify the oppor- tunities for improvement and would confirm our findings through �" additional interviews. We would then develop a set of practical recommendations, sufficiently detailed so that they could be 7 implemented effectively. These recommendations would reflect the strengths and weaknesses of each department and the needs of the City's residents. We would organize our approach to the study of the selected departments into four major tasks, as described in the paragraphs that follow. �- 1-3 F METHODOLOGY This part of the proposal contains a description of the various tasks that would be involved in the study. Task 1 - Orientation And Analytical Overview Our initial task would be to gain an overview of each selected department and to establish the groundwork for success- ful completion of the project. We would launch the study through an initial conference involving the CMP study team, the City Manager and Deputy City Manager, each appropriate Assistant City Manager and department head, and other key persons. At this meeting, we would review the study approach and timetable and would discuss the central issues pertaining to this project. If requested, we would prepare a draft bulletin which could be issued to employees explaining the study objectives, introducing the study team, and soliciting the support and cooperation of person- nel in each department. We would also begin to assemble background information con- cerning each department's organization and operations. For example, we would assemble planning documents, capital and operating budgets, organization charts, staffing rosters, policy manuals, workload statistics, management reports, each Depart- ment's planning program, and other reports and materials. Task 2 - Intensive Fact -Finding R During this second task, we would conduct interviews and would review data to deepen our understanding of each selected department's programs, organization, management, and operations. Interviews would be conducted with each appropriate Assistant Village Manager and department head. We would also interview the Mayor and selected members of the City Council. These discussions would focus on an overall review of the direction, plans, and perceived operational strengths and weaknesses of the departments being studied. We would then undertake a reconnaissance of each unit within all selected departments. The reconnaissance would involve inter- views with the head of each unit as well as other key persons within it. We would also assemble and begin to analyze a broad range of specific data relating to the operation of each unit, including such matters as levels and trends in workloads, staffing schedules, summaries of systems and procedures, performance measurements, and budgetary justifications. We would propose to use available City staff members to assist us in collecting data and documents. Among the data we anticipate using City staff [ members to assist us with the followings fire incident I frequencies, fire vehicle run frequencies, fire inspection routes r I-4 �i r and workload distribution, health clinic patient volume data, library circulation and patron statistics, park maintenance ser- vice frequencies, recreation program attendance patterns, street maintenance schedules, crew workloads and work backlog, collection volume and procedural flow for utilities bills, and meter reader and maintenance crew workloads. We would anticipate using approx- imately 50 person days of effort from City staff members to assist in data collection and analysis. The fact-finding would be comprehensive in scope, covering all substantive activities of each department. Task 3 - Analysis And Formulation Of Conclusions And Recommendations t As the fact-finding aspect of the study concludes, we would subject the secured information to intense analysis and would develop definitive conclusions and recommendations regarding management and operations in each particular area of inquiry. We would first define the strengths of each department, as identified in our fact-finding. The bulk of our effort, however, would focus on conclusions involving improvement opportunities. We would identify specific opportunities with appropriate ratio- nale and support. We would formulate specific recommendations designed to capitalize on the opportunities for improvement. The recommendations would be practical and capable of being imple- mented by available personnel, would take full advantage of existing technology, and would use realistic timetables. We would then assign priorities to the recommendations. Finally, we would prepare a Management Improvement Plan for each department that cover the study recommendations. Each plan would present the recommendations in order of overall implementa- tion priority, identifying what should be done, by whom, over what time span, and with what resources. They would also summarize the costs and benefits that should be expected to ensue. Task 4 - Preparation And Presentation Of Final Report The results of our analysis of the selected departments would be summarized in the form of a written report on the outcome of the study. This comprehensive report would serve to document the objectives and scope of the study and the methods used in com- pleting it, to highlight the strengths observed, to detail the significant conclusions and improvement opportunities, to present the facts and rationale on which they are based, and to detail the recommendations. The study report would also include the Manage- ment Improvement plans discussed above. Throughout the project we would work closely with you, the City Manager, and with key department heads. We would provide 1-5 i regular progress reviews, and, when our findings and recommenda- tions are in tentative form, we would review them with selected officials to obtain knowledgeable reactions before preparing the definitive written report. At the conclusion, we would present the study results orally in appropriate forums, such as before City Council, and to appro- priate employee groups to assist in achieving full understanding and acceptance of the results of the study. We would be available for up to 20 person days in the two years following completion of the study to assist in appropriate ways with implementing approved recommendations. We will supply 75 printed copies of the study report to the City. ASPECTS TO BE STUDIED Because of the diversity in size and function of the organiza- tional units of government to be studied, the approach to issues would be somewhat different for each of them. In general, however, the inquiries into each unit would cover the following aspects. Mission, Goals, And Objectives We would determine the extent to which the unit's mission has been defined or perceived by its leaders, whether the mission is appropriate, and the degree to which it is uniformly understood, both by those units and by others. The units' goals and objec- tives would be similarly examined for appropriateness and for I relevance to the mission. The study would also determine the degree to which the unit has been able to meet the expectations set for it with the resources provided and would,isolate any factors that limit its ability to do so. Also determined would be whether the unit is charged with functions that might more appropriately be handled by another unit .and whether it should be assigned functions now being carried out elsewhere or not being performed at all. Organizational Structure And Management Systems The organizational structure would be analyzed to see whether k it is designed to best promote achievement of the unit's objec- tives, whether it adequately fixes responsibility and accounta- bility for results, and whether it accommodates personnel develop- ment and career growth. Management systems and techniques in use sl . would also be studied, including the methods used to measure ,. results, to reward good performance, and to detect and correct shortcomings. Planning, Budgeting, And Financial Management The processes for planning to meet future requirements and demand for services and for budgeting both capital items and operating expenses would be examined. In revenue producing units, we would examine the relationships between receipts and expendi- tures, the process for determining rates and charges, and the manner in which accounts are handled and cash managed. Processes for reviewing actual performance against budget and for taking action to correct variances would be assessed for adequacy. Purchasing, Contracting, And Control Of Inventories And The study would examine the methods for forecasting material requirements, for determining specifications for equipment and supplies, and for the purchasing, receipt, storage, issue, and use of material. This effort would include a review of inventory control techniques and the manner in which warehousing and physical handling of equipment and supplies is carried out. Also studied would be the procedures for contracting for services, including methods for determining which services are to be performed in-house and which are to be contracted. Operational Methods The manner in which daily operations are conducted, including crew size and staff/equipment mix; the manner in which work is programmed, scheduled, and coordinated with the availability of equipment, tools, and materials would be observed carefully. Adequacy of supervision and quality control of work performed would be considered. The degree to which modern technology is applied and whether equipment with the potential for increasing productivity and reducing costs is acquired and used would receive careful evaluation. Staffing And Personnel Management The study would determine whether the numbers of people employed and the skills and experience they possess are appro- priate to the tasks performed. The procedures for determining job specifications and for recruiting, selecting, employing, training, motivating, compensating, rewarding, disciplining, and discharging employees would be evaluated. 7 I-7 0 TPhysical Facilities And Logistics The physical facilities under control of each unit would be tl reviewed for adequacy of purpose and location and to see whether they are used to maximum advantage and are maintained adequately. Any needs for additional facilities or modification of present ones would be identified. Office equipment, telephone and radio communication, employee transportation, and other logistics functions would be examined. Careful attention would be given to the number of fire stations and the appropriateness of their location. Communication And Flow Of Information All of the systems (both manual and any that are computer - supported) for collecting, recording, storing, retrieving, manipu- lating, analyzing, and using the variety of data related to the unit's transactions and work would be evaluated to see whether the information produced is what is needed for management purposes and whether and how it is used. Both internal and external informa- tion systems would be analyzed for reliability, relevance, and usefulness, and any needed changes would be identified. �. Public Relations rThe unit's capacity for both listening to the public and t keeping the public informed would be reviewed to see whether improvements are indicated. F I-8 No Text II - FIRM QUALIFICATIONS This section summarizes our experience in conducting studies of local governments throughout the United States. Cresap, McCormick and Paget Inc. (CMP) is one of the larger general management consulting firms in the nation, with more than 100 persons on its consulting staff. The firm, which has been in business for 36 years, maintains offices in Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Melbourne, and Sao Paulo. We are a member of the Association of Consulting Management Engineers and subscribe to its professional and ethical standards. Our clients include federal, state, and local government agencies of all types and a substantial number of the world's leading corporations and institutions. They represent a broad range of types and purposes: automobile, airframe, chemical, steel, and electronics manufacturers; airlines and railroad shipping companies; department and specialty stores and other retail stores; banks and trust companies, and stock brokerage and investment banking firms; universities, colleges, schools, hospitals, trade associations, private foundations, and religious and charitable institutions. In industry and business, we have worked for one out of every eight firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange. We also have served 12 of the 13 major Federal Government departments; performed studies for the governments in all 50 states; and conducted management improvement projects in more than 150 cities and counties during the past few years. We believe that our unique combination of in-depth and broad experience enables us to bring to this study a wealth of back- ground and expertise that will contribute substantially to successful results. In a very recent development, CMP has decided to merge with Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby (TPF&C), a leading international organization of management consultnts and reinsurance interme- diaries. The merger will take place on January 1, 1983, at which time CMP will become the General Management Consulting Division of TPF&C. This merger should enable us to serve our clients more effectively by adding to the strength and depth of our management consulting capabilities. The following paragraphs contain brief descriptions of repre- sentative local government projects completed by our staff. These projects demonstrate our extensive experience in projects that require skills and knowledge directly related to the type of work 7 required by the City of Lubbock. We have highlighted our exten- sive experience in conducting fire department studies, because we consider it to b unique among management consulting firms. COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROJECTS City Of Nashville And Davidson County, Tennessee We have performed and are continuing to perform management reviews of government departments for the City of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. The series of studies is aimed at identifying opportunities for reducing costs, without diminishing the quality of services offered to citizens. To date, we have completed or are working on studies of 17 different departments, including police, fire, public works, finance, health, hospitals, codes administration, libraries, parks and recreation. We recently completed a comprehensive management evaluation of the Nashville and Davidson County Fire Department. The depart- ment, with almost 1,000 positions, provides fire suppression, emergency ambulance, and rescue services to all areas of Nashville and Davidson County. The study has focused on the issues of the number, staffing, and location of fire suppression vehicles; the frequency of fire inspections; and the organization of the fire and medical communications sections (which are separate opera- tions). As part of the study, we have also examined the possi- bility of more closely integrating the operations of the fire suppression and emergency ambulance functions as a means of improving the level of emergency medical service provided to citizens. The study of the finance department included a review of its organization, management, staffing, and operational practices and led to recommendations that included a 15 per cent reduction (through attrition) in permanent staffing. The project covered the accounting, budgeting, tax collection, purchasing, treasury, investment, and property administration functions. The study of the personnel department also involved organization and staffing issues. A subsequent study assessed the personnel systems used by the city -county government. In our study of the public works department, we identified ways to reduce costs by about $4 million annually through improved management techniques, better work planning, more effec- tive use of personnel, and more modern equipment. An opportunity to increase revenue by almost $1 million annually was also identified. The police department study identified serious weak- nesses in criminal investigation operations, outlined a means of dramatically increasing the number of street patrols, while ir"" II -2 1 reducing the number of police needed by more than 10 per cent, and identified numerous other significant opportunities for improve- ment. Cameron County, Texas CMP completed a management analysis of the entire government of Cameron County, Texas. In conjunction with this effort, we reviewed the goals, functions, staffing, and operations of each county department, from the sheriff's department to the finance department to the public works department. Specific recommenda- tions for improvements in county operations were outlined, with a specific timetable for their implementation and with the individ- ual responsible for implementation. CMP also aided Cameron County in implementing the recommendations.. Charlotte -Mecklenburg County, North Carolina We completed a major management analysis of local government productivity and the supporting organizations of the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. This project was performed by CMP for the local government Productivity Task Force, a 25 -person group composed of executive officers of the community's major business and academic organizations. This comprehensive study encompassed all aspects of the opera- tions of both governments (except the school system). Accord- ingly, the study encompassed the major city and county operating departments of police, fire, public works, and community develop- ment; the major city and county administrative departments of finance, budgeting, personnel, data processing, internal audit, law, and public information. Our review also included the joint departments of utility, purchasing, and land planning; the county departments of tax supervisor, tax collector, registrar of deeds, libraries, and social services; and the city departments of parks and recreation and transportation planning. In each of these departments, we identified opportunities for improvement that could be achieved without reducing either the level or quality of service. The study recommendations included a specific program to enable the two governments to realize savings of $9.5 million annually, and presented the specific actions necessary to effect these improvements. The recommendations were presented publicly and were endorsed, in their entirety, by the task force. College Park, Maryland The objectives of our work for College Park were to develop recommendations on organization and management that would enable it to achieve the most efficient and effective blend of services II -3 w and ensure maximum responsiveness of the city government to the needs of the citizens. The study included analyzing and developing recommendations for the following areas: organiza- tional structure, revenue sources and resources, management procedures, planning and budgetary procedures, administrative practices, and interaction with federal, county, and state govern- ments. Fort Collins, Colorado The major objective of CMP's management audit of Fort Collins was to strengthen all departmental functions, including management systems for planning, control, and evaluation. We also analyzed the organizational structure of the city government and determined staffing requirements and manpower levels. The study was also intended to assist the city in developing a capital improvement program. CMP's recommendations specifically addressed the coordi- nation of the capital development project by the city government. Earlier, we conducted an in-depth study of the Fort Collins police department. Gainesville, Florida. We were retained by the Gainesville, Florida, City Commission to study the organization and management of the city government. The primary study objectives were to identify areas where the effectiveness and efficiency of the existing city government organization and management systems could be improved and to make specific recommendations in areas found to be deficient. A question of key importance was whether the two primary city organ- izations, a general organization and a utilities organization, should be combined under a single manager. The study resulted in recommendations to restructure the existing city organization into three major operating groups in order to integrate utilities with the general government, to achieve opportunities for merging similar functions then performed by the two city organizational units, and to provide meaningful and clearly defined management responsibilities at a level below the city manager. We also evaluated the city government's key management systems, such as budget development and control, purchasing, rpersonnel, fleet management, and comprehensive planning. our evaluation resulted in a redefinition of the majority of these systems to make them more responsive to city management needs and operating conditions. The study recommendations were accepted by the city commission and are being implemented. r- 11-4 k r r r I Minnetonka, Minnesota For the mayor and city council of Minnetonka, a suburb of Minneapolis, we completed a management reconnaissance of all aspects of the city government, including its overall structure, the suitability of'its management and operating techniques, and its manpower requirements by function and department, currently and for the immediate future. This study was designed to ensure that the Minnetonka city government seizes every opportunity to achieve efficient, responsive government at the least cost to the citizens. Particular attention was devoted to an appraisal of the role and responsibilities of the city manager; financial planning and budgeting, purchasing, accounting, and information systems; and cash management. Prince Georges County, Maryland In a study for Prince Georges County, Maryland, CMP examined alternative approaches to the organization of the administrative structure of the county government. This engagement included a detailed analysis of staffing and facilities requirements. We analyzed the current departmental structure, operational require- ments, and the impact that growth would have on those require- ments, based on population trends, densities, and other factors. We recommended general layouts for the central facility and satellite service centers, each with proposed staffing tables and space requirements. We also completed a separate study for the county which was a comprehensive review of the organization and operation of its data processing function and the actions that should be taken to improve its effectiveness. Town/Village Of Harrison, New York We performed a management study of the government operations of Harrison, a suburb of New York City. The study focused on improving productivity and reducing costs without impairing the quality of services provided to Harrison's residents, businesess, and institutions. Although productivity was the focus of the study, the organization, administration, and operations of each town/village department were evaluated. Because the police and public works operations are the major users of town funds, atten- tion was focused on these operations. We identified opportunities for saving almost $1 million annually. Yuma, Arizona For Yuma, we completed a comprehensive organizational and management study of all city government operations, including police, fire, and public works. The study was designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of city government 11-5 r i services through �*" ment of a revised �� we also developed fication of city the use of improved work methods and the develop - organizational structure. As part of the study, a new salary structure and evaluated the classi- government positions. MULTIDEPARTMENT MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT PROJECTS Lubbock, Texas CMP conducted a comprehensive management analysis of the Lubbock, Texas, police department. Adoption of our recommended plan of action permitted the City of Lubbock to achieve a marked and needed increase in the capacity of its police department, with the addition of only seven positions to the department instead of a planned 44, and to achieve operational improvements. A revised organizational structure, a new plan of deployment, changed operational techniques, and some additional equipment made this possible. Later we also conducted studies of the Lubbock municipal courts and of the City's personnel system, and we developed a new plan of classification and compensation for city employees. Appleton, Wisconsin CMP has performed four major studies for the City of Appleton, p Wisconsin. Our comprehensive management analysis of the Public Works Department was designed to identify means of achieving operational improvements and of reducing costs without lowering service levels. We recommended a restructuring of management information systems to tighten control and designed personnel management programs to foster a higher level of measurable performance. We also recommended specific operational improve- ments for the sanitation, street and vehicle, and building main- tenance divisions. Implementation of our recommendations for the police depart- ment improved the quality of safety and public services furnished to the citizens of Appleton; increased overall productivity; provided the department with a continuing ability to anticipate, plan for, and respond to future changes; created a new, highly distinctive, and visible image; and improved department morale based on pride in professional performance. Substantial improvements in Appleton's fire department were stimulated by our recommendations for the redeployment of resources to permit faster fire attack and more effective fire suppression activities, to strengthen training, to expand and improve the inspection program, and to augment manpower with advanced equipment. II -6 r We also studied the parks and recreation department. All of �+- our studies led to substantial reductions in costs. Dade County, Florida We have performed a number of study projects for Metropolitan I. Dade County. All of these studies have been concerned with the provision of more effective government services at minimal cost to the taxpayer. These studies encompassed public works analysis, data processing, and general county management. The most recently completed project involved the development of a government center to house county, city (Miami), and state government offices. This center was designed to enable the various levels of government to offer the maximum of services for each other. Such coordination and cooperation meant that the physical space for each function could be reduced (sometimes drastically - for example, the need for only one jail instead of three). In addition, joint effort and practical processing enabled a significant reduction of costs and the elimination of overlapping services. Edina, Minnesota For Edina, Minnesota, we completed a management reconnais- sance of the department of public safety. The study was designed �IJJ to examine the need for fire, police, and building inspection services in Edina, to determine the adequacy as well as delivery and management of these services, and to make recommendations for ' achieving realistic improvements. The study covered all major aspects of each of the departments involved. Recommendations were made that included a reorganization of the police department, a strengthened training program, and increased communication support for the fire department. Other recommendations were made in the areas of personnel evaluation, promotion policies and procedures, and administrative support. The results were approved in principle by the Edina City Council rand the major recommendations were implemented. Greenville, South Carolina We performed a management and operations study of the Greenville department of public works and of the police depart- ment. After a comprehensive review of all facets of the public works department's activities, costs, and mangement, we proposed major revisions in its existing methods of operation. We recom- mended that the city contract for its street resurfacing and for sewer and street construction, because it would be more economical than performing those functions with its own work force. r To improve productivity, we recommended the acquisition of more sophisticated equipment. To increase the technical capabil- ities of the department, we recommended its reorganization, the appointment of a qualified engineer as its director, and the upgrading of certain positions. We also recommended that the department discontinue certain activities and improve the planning of others to significantly reduce operating costs. As a result of our reconnaissance of the police department, (I evening -shift police patrols tripled, day -shift patrols doubled, midnight -shift patrols increased by 30 per cent, and the number of detectives increased by 50 per cent. Many other improvements were made, and the marked increase in police productivity was achieved by adding only one police officer and three assistants to the department. The city council voted unanimously to adopt all of our study recommendations, with full support of the chief of police and the city manager. Richmond, Virginia For the Richmond bureau of police, we conducted a comprehen- sive organizational and operational analysis. Study findings indicated that a major deterrent to increasing the effectiveness of the bureau was an overspecialized organizational structure. This situation contributed to reduced levels of field enforcement activity and to unacceptably low levels of performance, as measured by complaint response time and criminal case clearance and conviction data. The implementation of our recommendations resulted in substantially improved police protection for the city, with a modest reduction in police personnel. A broad range of improvements in patrol configuration, deployment and operations, and the management of bureau investigative personnel have sub- sequently been undertaken in a major effort to strengthen the productivity of the police force. Further, significant increases in clearance rates for felonies have been achieved. South Milwaukee, Wisconsin We completed a study of the organization and operations of the South Milwaukee fire and police departments to determine the extent to which each department had been able, within the resources available, to meet the expectations set for it and to identify any factors that had limited its ability to do so. In particular, we determined whether the best interests of the city would be served by combining the fire, emergency medical service, and police departments into a single public safety organization, or whether some form of cooperative effort, short of full consoli- dation, would be suitable. We determined adequate staffing levels and developed specific recommendations for taking advantage of opportunities for improvement found in both departments, with emphasis on increasing productivity. FIRE DEPARTMENT PROJECTS Fairfax County, Virginia CMP recently conducted a comprehensive mangement and organiza- tional study of the large suburban fire and emergency rescue department of Fairfax County, Virginia. Our study recommended a new organizational structure that provided greater supervision to fire crews at fire scenes and greater continuity between vehicle crews and their responsible chief. Recommendations included deferring the addition of a station, adopting new station staffing arrangements based on variations from station to station in the number of alarms received, and establishing central flying squads. The study also upgraded the rescue vehicles in the county to provide a higher level of service, and recommended the initiation of a patient transport fee. North York, Ontario For the City of North York, a suburb of Toronto with a popula- tion of 560,000, we conducted a comprehensive management study of all fire department operations. The study evaluated the number and location of fire stations and vehicles and recommended adding several stations to better use the available staffing and vehicles. In addition, significant changes in fire protection operations were proposed to increase significantly the frequency of fire inspections. Tampa, Florida We conducted a comprehensive study of the Tampa fire depart- ment and its 629 personnel, 18 fire stations, 20 engine companies, five aerial ladder companies, and six paramedic units. Signifi- cant improvements in the utilization of personnel and other efficiencies resulted from this project, including an innovative plan for coordinating emergency medical service and fire opera- tions to increase productivity. LConcord, New Hampshire For the Concord fire department, we completed a comprehensive [ management evaluation of the nearly 100 positions, three fire stations, and 12 pieces of major fire -fighting equipment. This fire department also operates an emergency medical service. Recommendations included integrating emergency medical services more effectively with other departmental operations, deemphasizing some aspects of unnecessary and expensive administration, stream- lining the organizational structure and staffing, consolidating alarm and dispatch functions and systems, and improving certain personnel management practices. r• 11-9 r Michigan City, Indiana We examined the staffing, equipment, and facilities of the Michigan City Fire Department to determine whether adequate fire protection services could be provided more effectively and at less cost to the citizens. After analyzing the organization, operations, and administration of the fire department, we developed a Management Improvement Plan to seize the oppor- tunities for improvement that we identified. Specific recommenda- tions for increasing productivity and strengthening the readiness and fire -fighting ability of the department were formulated. Bay City, Michigan For Bay City, we conducted a comprehensive management study €I of the fire department. Our work involved an examination of the €I administration and enforcement of fire and building codes and the working relationship between the city's building inspectors and fire departments and the fire marshall's division of the Michigan State Police. r 7 II -10 7, SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT CLIENTS The following list of local governments we have served is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to reflect our wide and varied background and experience in conducting successful studies for local government clients: Counties Cities Bay County, Michigan Appleton, Wisconsin Brown County, Wisconsin Bay City, Michigan Cameron County, Texas Buffalo, New York Caroline County, Maryland Charlotte, North Carolina Charleston County, South Carolina College Park, Maryland Chesterfield County, Virginia Columbia, South Carolina Cook County, Illinois Concord, New Hampshire Dade County, Florida Dallas, Texas Fairfax County, Virginia Delray Beach, Florida Franklin County, Ohio Edina, Minnesota Harris County, Texas Falls Church, Virginia Hennepin County, Minnesota Fort Collins, Colorado Jefferson County, Kentucky Gainesville, Florida Larimer County, Colorado Hampton, Virginia Lebanon County, Pennsylvania Harrison, New York Los Angeles County, California Kenosha, Wisconsin Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Los Angeles, California Monroe County, Illinois Minnetonka, Minnesota Montgomery County, Maryland Monroeville, Pennsylvania Nashville and Davidson County, Nashville, Tennessee Tennessee New York, New York Rock Island County, Illinois Niles, Illinois St. Mary's County, Maryland North York, Ontario Santee-Wateree Regional Planning Old Brookville, New York Council, Sumter, South Carolina Palo Alto, California San Bernardino County, California Richmond, Virginia Sumter County, South Carolina Santa Rosa, California Yakima County, Washington Stockton, California Troy, New York White Plains, New York Windsor, Connecticut r 7 m III - PROJECT ORGANIZATION AND STAFFING This section discusses staffing for the proposed project and presents resumes of the consultants. CMP's staff includes more than 100 full-time professional consultants who are both general- ists in almost every facet of management and specialists in particular fields. Bill G. Evans, Vice President and a Director of CMP, would be in charge of the project, would participate throughout and be fully accountable for its results. All members of the study team would be drawn from our full-time staff and would be thoroughly versed in local government operations. Because of our other commitments and requirements for scheduling, it is difficult at this time to specify precisely the members of the study team. The paragraphs that follow present biographical sketches for Mr. Evans and for representative members of our staff who are likely complete the study team. Bill G. Evans Mr. Evans has more than 14 years of experience consulting for state and local governments and serves as the firm's Director of Local Government Services. He has participated in or directed management studies in more than 100 cities and counties in 30 states; most of these studies involved the overall government or major operating activities, such as police, fire, and public works departments. He is familiar with all aspects of local government organization and operations. He directed the three previous studies that CMP performed for the City of Lubbock. Mr. Evans is officer -in -charge of our mangement studies for the Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. He also led our productivity study of the governments of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which produced a plan to reduce the operating budget by $9.5 million annually, with no reduction in the level of service. Among the many governments Mr. Evans has served are: Yuma, Arizona; Metropolitan Dade County, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Gainesville, Florida; Cook County and Chicago, Illinois; Fort Collins and Larimer County, Colorado; Richmond, Fairfax County, and Williamsburg, Virginia; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Garden City, Troy, Harrison, and Old Brookville, New York; Appleton, Racine County, and Brown County, Wisconsin; Hennepin County, Edina, and Minnetonka, Minnesota; Lubbock, Texas; and Greenville, South Carolina. 7 7 Mr. Evans has also conducted studies at the state level for Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming, and he has served trade associations, hospitals, universities, community action agencies, foundations, and private corporations. Mr. Evans is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the U.S. Command and General Staff College. In his military service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit for outstanding service in designing management information systems for the Secretary of the Army. He is a Certified Management Consultant. Charles F. Hendricks Mr. Hendricks, a Principal, has led and conducted a number of management studies for local governments. He has also directed and managed several studies of federal departments and agencies, leading corporations, and other public- and private -sector organi- zations. Mr. Hendricks directed a study of career development prac- tices for the Maryland State Police and developed a new personnel system for the West Virginia State Police. He also served as engagement manager for our study of the Nashville and Davidson County police and fire departments. Mr. Hendricks served as the principal consultant on our management studies forWilliamsburg, Virginia, and Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He was project director for our classification and compensation studies of the States of Maryland and Connecticut; Hampton, Virginia Beach, and Falls Church, Virginia; Gainesville, Florida; Washington County, Maryland; Metropolitan Dade County, Florida; and the Lubbock, Texas. Other clients he has served include the Office of Personnel Management, CBS Inc., ARA Services, Inc., BA&W Inc., Blue Bell Inc., and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Before joining CMP, Mr. Hendricks was a principal with Fry Consultants Inc. and was a member of the consulting staff of Price Waterhouse & Company. He also served on the Army General Staff, where he conducted weapons system and cost analysis studies. Mr. Hendricks holds a B.A. degree from Rutgers University and an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of the University of 1 Pennsylvania. He is a Certified Management Consultant. Ted P. Becker Mr. Becker, a Managing Consultant, concentrates on operations and management improvement studies for local government clients. He served as project manager of our comprehensive management studies of the Nashville, Tennessee, fire department and the Brown 7 T County, Wisconsin, sheriff's department. He also recently completed studies of the building inspection department and the General Hospital of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Currently Mr. Becker is serving as project manager for a study of the Spokane, Washington fire department, and a compre- hensive study of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts government. Mr. Becker was the primary on-site consultant in our study of the North York, Ontario, fire department and has worked with the Fairfax County, Virginia, fire and rescue services on signifi- cantly revising the organizational structure and supervisory responsibilities within the division of field forces. He was'the primary consultant for our study of the Windsor, Connecticut, police department and participated in our study of the Nashville police department. Mr. Becker was involved in our comprehensive productivity study of the Harrison, New York, Town/Village govern- ment, where he focused on the areas of police, finance, and general administration. For a study of the Long Island school districts, Mr. Becker identified improved operating procedures that significantly reduced costs in the areas of administration, building maintenance, custodial services, bus operations, and cafeteria operations. Formerly Mr. Becker was a budget analyst for Arlington County, Virginia, where he focused on the areas of public works, capital improvement programming, and productivity improvement projects. He also served on the staff of the International City Management Association, where he was part of the productivity improvement staff. Mr. Becker holds a B.S. degree from Ohio State University and an M.P.A. degree from Cornell University. William R. Westwood Mr. Westwood, a Senior Consultant, specializes in planning, organization, and operations analysis for public -sector clients. Currently, he is leading our study of Head Start Program support services for the City of Chicago. He was the principal on-site consultant in our studies of the Mesa, Arizona, police department and the Brown County, Wisconsin, sheriff's department. Mr. Westwood is project manager for our study of the Nashville and Davidson County Department of Parks and Recreation, and he was a primary consultant on studies of the Nashville Traffic and Parking Department and Nashville Bordeaux Hospital. He was also involved in our study of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Fire and Rescue Services. He recently assumed the management of a study of the Nashville Department of Water and Sewerage Services. Before he joined CMP, Mr. Westwood consulted with the City of San Francisco, where he participated in the design and presenta- tion of training programs and served as the liaison between III -3 r F computer systems technicians and users of an automated performance reporting system. Mr. Westwood previously worked as Director and Assistant Director of the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens, Social Services Program, in the City of Chicago. Mr. Westwood holds a B.A. degree from New College, an M.A. degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University. �. Marilyn A. Alexander Ms. Alexander specializes in operational studies for state and local governments. She was the primary consultant for our study of the Nashville and Davidson County Department of Parks and Recreation. Currently she is working on our study of the city government of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Recently, Ms. Alexander was one of the principal on-site consultants reviewing the opera- tions of the Nashville Social Services Department. She studied several of the major services provided by the department, including a review of the management, level of need, and suita- bility of each service. She was also part of the team that conducted a comprehensive mangement review of the Illinois State Library. Prior to joining CMP, Ms. Alexander had several years of experience in planning, organizational development, and general and financial management in both the private and public sectors. Her experience also included work on a broad range of human. resources issues with the U.S. Department of Labor, Public Employee Labor Relations Division. Ms. Alexander has extensive experience with international organizations, and has worked on a health care implementation and coordination project for a public - sector organization in the Netherlands. Ms. Alexander holds an A.B. degree from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of the University of k Pennsylvania. Ray N. Brown Mr. Brown has an extensive background in local government, both as a consultant and as a city administrator and assistant city manager. Currently, Mr. Brown is participating in our studies of the Nashville and Davidson County Department of Parks and Recreation and of the police department in Abilene, Texas. As a management consultant for an accounting and consulting firm, he performed more than ten studies for local governments. In the area of public safety, he was responsible for developing a five- year fire education and training plan for the State of Georgia Fire Academy. r "" 11 For DeKalb County, Georgia, he performed a resource manage- ment study of the Purchasing and Roads and Drainage Departments. He performed similar resource management studies of the Parks and Recreation and Finance Departments for the City of Boca Raton, Florida. For New Castle County, Delaware, he reviewed the mainte- nance function of numerous departments. Mr. Brown was formerly Assistant City Manager and then City Administrator for the City of Lancaster, South Carolina. In these capacities, he was responsible for managing the entire city's government services, including the public utilities. Major accomplishments during his time in Lancaster included managing a capital improvements program for wastewater facilities and establishing and directing a comprehensive community develop- ment project. Before serving in Lancaster, Mr. Brown worked at the Institute of Government, University of Georgia. Mr. Brown has an A.B. degree and an M.P.A. degree from the University of Georgia. Katherine E. Leser Ms. Leser concentrates on operational and organizational studies for public- and private -sector clients. Recently, Ms. Leser completed a comprehensive study of selected departments in the Village of Niles, Illinois. In this project'she evaluated the organization, administration, and operations of the village government activities and developed recommendations to improve the flow of information and services. Currently, Ms. Leser is involved in a study of support services for the Head Start Program in the City of Chicago. She is also participating in a study of the Nashville Department of Water and Sewerage Services. Previously, Ms. Leser worked for three years in college admin- istration as an admissions counselor at Gettysburg College and as the Assistant Dean of Students at Swarthmore College. Ms. Leser also conducted a study for the Village of Mt. Prospect, Illinois, on the feasibility of integrating police and fire services into one public safety department. Included in the evaluation were extensive projections on population and community needs, and organizational development plans for the village government. For the University of Chicago's Laboratory School, Ms. Leser helped to develop a student recruitment and retention program for the admis- sions office. Ms. Leser holds a B.A. degree in economics from Swarthmore College and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Chicago, where she concentrated in finance, marketing, and industrial organization. �,., III -5 ft Edward B. Sickle CI Mr. Sickle specializes in management and productivity studies for local governments and private industry. He participated in our comprehensive study of the Nashville and Davidson County police department., The study focused on manpower utilization and ll improving the effectiveness of police operations. Mr. Sickle also served as part of our team that recommended a.new organizational �";' structure for Fairfax County, Virginia, fire and rescue services, 7� and served on the team of consultants that evaluated the opera- tions of the Nashville fire department. Prior to joining CMP, Mr. Sickle was a systems consultant for the Management Information and Consulting Division of Arthur Andersen & Company. He directed a variety of systems planning, design, and installation engagements for public- and private - sector clients. He has experience in helping organizations define their information and system's needs, prepare hardware and soft- ware specifications, and select and install the appropriate equip- ment to meet those needs. Mr. Sickle received a B.S. degree from the University of Kentucky and an M.B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University. i r,. III -6 f No Text pew i IV - TIME AND COSTS We are prepared to begin the study within approximately 30 days of notification of our selection and to complete the study within four months. Should there be a need to complete the study sooner, we would do so by altering staff assignments. r- Our normal practice is to submit monthly invoices for professional time actually spent on a project and for direct study expenses, at our cost, which cover travel, lodging, report preparation and printing, and miscellaneous out-of-pocket expenditures. We would agree to complete this study to our high professional standards for a total charge (for fees and expenses) not to exceed $149,000. r CITY OF LUBBOCK A MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT STUDY OF SELECTED CITY DEPARTMENTS June 1983 r F. Cresap, McCormick and Paget division of TOWERS. PERRIN, FORSTER & CROSBY 18751 STREET N. W.. WASHINGTON, DC 20006 (202)463-2800 June 20, 1983 Mr. Larry Cunningham City Manager City of Lubbock 916 Texas Avenue Lubbock, Texas 79457 Dear Sir: We are pleased to submit with this letter our report on the management study of the organization and operations of seven departments of the City government of Lubbock and of the Urban Renewal Agency. The study was conducted over a five-month period in early 1983. The report contains observations on each unit's organization, operations, and management. Opportunities for improvement are identified and are followed by specific recommendations. A Man- agement Improvement Plan that summarizes the major recommendations and suggests priorities, specific dates, and implementation responsibility is also presented. We urge the adoption of the recommendations as a means of improving the cost-effectiveness of City government in Lubbock. We wish to acknowledge the excellent cooperation we received throughout the study from you, the Deputy City Manager, the Assis- tant City Managers, the department heads, other City employees, and members of the City Council. We wish to draw particular attention to the valuable contributions of Richard B. Mays, Sheila D. McMillan, and Jay L. Singleton, City employees who worked closely with the CMP study team. Their assistance enabled the study to address major issues more thoroughly than would have been possible otherwise. We look forward to working with you in implementing the study recommendations and we hope to assist the City of Lubbock whenever our objectivity and experience may be needed. Very truly yours, Com, /1,& 4wott -W-0. ?Asv- CRESAP, McCORMICK and PAGET CITY OF LUBBOCK A MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT STUDY OF SELECTED CITY DEPARTMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I INTRODUCTION Objectives And Scope I-1 Approach I-2 Arrangement Of This Report I-2 II EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Fire II -1 Parks And Recreation II -2 Streets II -2 Water And Sewer Operations II -2 Utility Collections II -3 Health II -3 Library II -3 Urban Renewal II -4 Plan Of Action And Staffing II -4 III FIRE A - Overview III -1 B - Fire Suppression III -3 C - Fire Prevention III -24 D - Personnel And Training III -27 E - Vehicle Maintenance III -35 IV PARKS AND RECREATION Background IV -1 Observations IV -7 Recommendations IV -14 Chapter V STREETS Background Observations Recommendations VI WATER AND SEWER OPERATIONS Background Observations Recommendations VII UTILITY COLLECTION Background Observations Recommendations VIII HEALTH Background Observations Recommendations IX LIBRARY Background Observations Recommendations X URBAN RENEWAL Background Observations Recommendations XI PLAN OF ACTION Next Steps Management Improvement Plan APPENDIX Page V-1 V-3 V-6 VI -1 VI -4 VI -7 VII -1 VII -5 VII -7 VIII -1 VIII -8 VIII -11 IX -1 IX -7 IX -11 X-1 X-6 X-7 XI -1 XI -1 CITY OF LUBBOCK A MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT STUDY OF SELECTED CITY DEPARTMENTS TABLE OF EXHIBITS Following Chapter Page III -1 Current Organization III -1 III -2 Fire Station Locations And First Due Response Areas III -2 III -3 Minimum Staffing Of Vehicles III -3 III -4 Current Location Of Staffed Vehicles By Station III -5 III -5 Emergency Alarms By Type III -7 III -6 Distribution Of Planning Areas With High Call Volumes III -8 II1-7 Average Annual Alarm Volumes, By Hour Of The Day, For A Five -Year Period III -8 III -8 Vehicle Response Times III -8 III -9 Planning Units With High Average Response Times III -10 III -10 Areas With Estimated Response Time Greater Than Five Minutes III -10 III -11 Recommended Station Realignment III -15 III -12 Comparison Of Fire Department Wage Data In Lubbock And Other Major Texas Cities III -37 III -13 Comparison Of Fire Department Salaries With Those Of Diesel Mechanics In Lubbock III -38 III -14 Recommended Three -Tier Maintenance Plan III -41 III -15 Comparison Of Recommended Current Staff, By Position III -41 . F it Following Chapter Page IV -1 Current Organization IV -1 IV -2 List Of Parks And Acreage By District IV -2 IV -3 Current Organization Of Parks Maintenance IV -3 IV -4 Recommended Organization IV -14 V-1 Current Organization Of Paved Street Maintenance V-1 V-2 Current Organization Of Unpaved Street And Alley Maintenance V-2 V-3 Proposed Weekly Work Schedule Form V-9 VI -1 Present Organization VI -1 VI -2 Current And Proposed Alignment Of Unit Responsibilities VI -4 VII -1 Current Organization Of Utility Collection VII -1 VIII -1 Current Organization VIII -1 VIII -2 Department Of Health Budget VIII -1 VIII -3 Inspections Conducted By Environmental Health Sanitarians VIII -3 VIII -4 Laboratory Tests Conducted VIII -4 VIII -5 Number Of Patients Seen, By Clinic VIII -7 VIII -6 Typical Clinic Staffing Patterns VIII -7 VIII -7 Representative Questions About Clinic Services To Be Addressed In The Five Year Plan VIII -11 IX -1 Current Organization IX -2 IX -2 Recommended Registration Procedures IX -14 IX -3 Recommended Procedures For Notifying Patrons Of Overdue Materials And Fines IX -14 Chapter X-1 x-2 X-3 Following Page Current Organization X-2 Staffing Trends (FTE) X-3 Urban Renewal Program Work Measurements, By Agency Year Comparison Of Total Budget Costs With Administrative And Field Costs By Agency Year Recommended Organization Management Improvement Plan X-5 X-6 X-8 XI -1 No Text I - INTRODUCTION This report presents the results of a comprehensive management @. study of eight selected units of the Lubbock City government. For each unit, observations are made on all facets of current opera- tions and functions, and recommendations are offered in each area of operation. Key recommendations are summarized in the Manage- ment Improvement Plan. This introductory chapter briefly reviews the objectives and scope and the methodology of the management study; it also sets forth the arrangement of this report. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE The objectives of the study were to: - Determine the extent to which the objectives, responsi- bilities, and duties of each department and agency are being effectively fulfilled - Assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the manage- ment and operations of each department and agency . - Identify opportunities for improvement in each area that will result in either increased operating performance or reduced costs - Develop specific,.practical, and implementable recommen- dations to permit the City to take advantage of these opportunities for improvement as quickly.as possible - Prepare a definitive written report outlining the find- ings, conclusions, and recommendations of the study and the facts and rationale on which they are based, includ- ing a Management Improvement Plan for each unit studied, indicating what should be done, when, and who should be responsible for accomplishing each action step - Make an oral presentation of the results of the study to the City Manager, the Mayor, City Council, department heads, and other employees and groups as necessary to achieve full understanding of the implications of the study's recommendations. t The scope of the study included the eight units listed below: - Fire - Parks and Recreation - Streets - Water and Sewer Operations - Utility Collection - Health - Library - Urban Renewal Agency. Annonaru The study team used a range of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods in conducting the study. Interviews were held with the City Manager, the Deputy City Manager, the Assistant City Managers, all department heads of the units being studied, and numerous other City employees and public officials. In all, more than 150 employees and public officials were interviewed. The study team thoroughly reviewed a range of documents and data in each area of City government under study, including bud- gets, cost proposals, staff reports, grant information, staffing schedules, state laws, and job descriptions. Extensive data were collected in all units, including items such as fire response times, number of emergency calls for service, lab tests completed, inspections made, softball teams supported, number of meters read, and number of books circulated. Members of the study team observed City government operations in a wide variety of settings and visited numerous City work sites, including parks, the main and branch libraries, all fire stations, and the Department of Health's clinics and laboratory. ARRANGEMENT OF t. THIS.REPORT D This report is arranged in 11 chapters and an appendix, as presented below: r I - Introduction (this chapter). II - Executive Summary - outlines the major conclusions and recommendations f the study. III - Fire - presents an evaluation of the Fire Department, and offers recommendations. IV - Parks And Recreation - discusses the City's Department of Parks And Recreation, and presents recommendations to increase its cost-effectiveness. V - Streets - reviews the current staffing and procedures of the ty's street unit, and presents recommendations. VI - Water And Sewer Operation - presents observations and recommendations on the water distribution and sanitary sewer activities of the City government. VII - Utility Collection - discusses the utility collection activities of the City government, and presents r.ecom- ,. mendations. VIII - Health - describes the current activities of the Depart- ment of Health, and outlines suggested changes. IX - Library - presents observations and recommendations on the City's library system. X - Urban Renewal - discusses the operations and staffing of the Urban Renewal Agency, and presents suggested im- provements. XI - Plan Of Action - sets forth the steps involved in.imple- menting the recommendations contained in this study. Appendix - presents a sample firefighter performance evaluation form. r �• 1-3 C No Text D II - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This chapter briefly summarizes the major conclusions and recommendations of this management improvement study. FIRE The Fire Department responds to an average of just over eight emergency alarms daily; of these, fewer than two involve fires in buildings. Firefighters spend an average of ten minutes of their 24-hour shift involved in fire calls. On average, the first responding engine takes 3.8 minutes to arrive at the scene of fire. An engine reaches the scene of the fire alarm within five minutes on 87 per cent of the calls, a relatively high level of service. However, several of the outer areas of the City can expect a greater than five minute response, given the current location of stations. To improve response times to these areas, Stations 4 and 5 should be relocated, a new Sta- tion 14 should be added in the southern part of the City, and the new Station lA should be constructed as planned. Station b should be staffed only by an aerial, along with Stations 1, 4, and 5 (resulting in an increase of one aerial). The Department's manpower squads should be discontinued, the staffing on aerials increased to five, and the Department's stan- dard response to a structure alarm reduced from 15 to 12 fire- fighters. Engine crews should conduct fire prevention inspec- tions, and aerial crews should assume rescue responsibilities. The boosters and the hose truck should not be regularly staffed, district chiefs should not be assigned full-time drivers, and the relief system should be revised. Together, these changes will re- duce the fire suppression staff by 30 positions, from 259 to 229. One investigator/inspector should be added to the Fire Mar- shal's office to conduct additional arson investigations, and aid engine crews in conducting inspections. The promotional process should be revised to include the results of annual performance evaluations, and the in-service training of firefighters should be improved, in part by the addition of one lieutenant to the train- ing division. The Department should also institute a physical fitness program. Finally, the Department's mechanics should receive diesel engine training, and a pay increase, and vehicle drivers should perform more routine maintenance. PARKS AND RECREATION The plan of organization of the Department should be changed, upgrading a position to create a second Assistant Director, and consolidating the cemetery advisory board with the Department's advisory board. Two supervisory positions, one in indoor recrea- tion and one in parks maintenance, should be discontinued. Eight year-round parks maintenance positions should be replaced with 16 seasonal employees. Cemetery fees should be increased to the level charged by other cemeteries in the City. The construction crew of 12 positions should be discontinued, and all capital work contracted out. Recreation programs should cover their costs, swimming lesson fees should be increased, and the boxing super- visor upervisor position discontinued. Several adjustments should be made in job titling and pay scales for selected positions.. Employees living in park residences should pay higher rents and their own utilities, and should have specific additional tasks, such as park security, to offset the housing benefit. STREETS The Department should prepare an annual street repair and maintenance plan to focus repair activities on streets that need it most. Street cleaning, storm sewer and cistern maintenance, and alley and unpaved street blading should be scheduled according to the varying needs of different locations, rather than.uniformly throughout the City. Six year-round employees, in seal coating, pothole patching, and mowing, should be replaced by eight seasonal positions. The concrete construction, pothole patching, and crack seal crews should be reduced a total of three positions, and per- manent pothole patching mix should be used in the winter. The caliche pit should not be assigned a full-time position. WATER AND SEWER OPERATIONS The Department should reorganize to align similar functions, such as lift station and pump station maintenance, for greater flexibility in the use of staff. Internal work management sched- uling and tracking should be improved, and priority should be . placed on preventive maintenance. one rodding vehicle should be replaced by a water jet vehicle. The Department should carefully evalute on the basis of cost all decisions about whether to contract out construction pro- jects. The construction crews should be decreased by two posi- tions, and two additional trucks should be purchased to allow . 11-2 greater flexibility in crew size. When the City's new control system for the water operation is installed, three pumping main- tenance staff and one dispatcher position should be discontinued. UTILITY COLLECTION Utility bills should be mailed sooner after the meter is read, particularly through changes in the data processing batching pro- cedure. Utility Collection should attempt to shorten the billing cycle even further by requiring meter readers to turn in their cards each day, rather than the following day, and by purchasing automated meter reading equipment. Meter reader routes should be changed to balance the workload better. Residential water meters should be read and billed bimonthly, reducing the number of bills mailed by over 180,000 annually, and reducing the meter reading staff by five. The five bill collector positions should be dis- continued, and the unit reorganized to require one less supervisor than currently. HEALTH The Department's five-year plan should be revised to focus on clinical services to be provided in the future, the area of the Department where the greatest growth is possible. Administrative staffing should be reduced by two positions. Several changes should be made in environmental inspection procedures, including inspecting some establishments less frequently, having the super- visor spend more time in the field, reducing the time inspectors spend in the office from two hours to one hour daily, and letting inspectors take home their cars so they can report directly to the work site in the morning. Together, these changes will allow the inspection staff to be reduced by two positions. Five year-round vector control workers should be replaced by eight seasonal em- ployees._ LIBRARY The library should revise its branch expansion plans to open a branch in the northwest part of the City in the near-term, and in the southeast and the southwest in the long term; a branch library cannot be supported in the northeast part of the City. Branches should be staffed by library assistants and clerical help, not graduate librarians, and should initially occupy rented space. The number of reference librarians at Mahon Library should be reduced by two, and the library should consider Sunday hours. Significant changes should be made in procedures for registration and overdue notification. 11-3 i URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY The relationship of the Urban Renewal Agency to the City government should be clarified, and City staff should have over- sight responsibilities. The Agency's staff should be signifi- cantly reduced, from the current level of 15 full-time equivalent employees to 8 full-time equivalent employees. PLAN OF ACTION AND STAFFING Implementing the recommendations presented in this report will allow the reduction of 96 permanent positions, result in hiring 32 more seasonal workers, and lower the operating budgets of the units by approximately $1.4 million annually. Implementation will require a one-time capital expenditure of approximately $1.4 million, of which all but $387,000 is for the fire stations. All recommended staffing changes, however, can be made before the new fire stations are constructed. Chapter XI contains a detailed, step-by-step plan of action II for implementing the recommendations of this study. 11-4 k No Text III- FIRE This chapter is organized into five major sections. The first section provides an overview of the Fire Department. The second section deals with fire suppression. The third section presents information on fire prevention. Personnel and training issues are addressed in the fourth section, and vehicle maintenance is the subject of the final section. A - OVERVIEW This section describes the principal characteristics of the City of Lubbock and its Fire Department, and reviews the current administrative structure of the Department. CITY OF LUBBOCK Lubbock is located in the heart of the south plains area of west Texas, and is recognized as the center of the area because of its network of airlines, highways, and railroads. The City is located in the center of Lubbock County and is bordered by several smaller cities and towns. Lubbock achieved significant industrial and residential growth because of its location, a rapid influx of new industry, a vast amount of irrigated cropland, its well-established cotton market, and the growth of the Texas Tech University campus within the City's boundaries. The City's population has also grown rapidly because of these factors, increasing approximately 25 per cent since 1970 and almost 150 per cent since 1950. Lubbock currently has a population of approximately 180,000. The City has greatly expanded its land area through annexa- tion, increasing from 2 square miles in 1910 to 74 square miles in 1970. Since 1970, the City's land area has grown 22 per cent, to 90.5 square miles. Several potential areas of annexation are be- ing studied by the City at present; the areas being considered most strongly are located south and west of the current bound- aries. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND STAFFING Exhibit III -1 presents the current organizational structure of the Fire Department. The Department is divided along functional lines into administrative, suppression, and prevention units. r C A C a A u 0 • • i n CD t1Y • • i � L9% L j v M—M C C Of A++ u4- aw- L u J G U- EXHIBIT III -1 r Senior administrative staff report to the Fire Chief. The sup- pression force - including the training division - reports to the Deputy Chief of Suppression. In addition to the Deputy Chief of Suppression, the senior administrative staff include the Deputy Chief of Administration, who supervises communications and mainte- nance, and the Fire Marshal, who supervises a staff of investiga- tor/inspectors. The Deputy Chief of Suppression is responsible for the opera- tion of all 11 existing Department stations (a twelfth station - lA - is under construction at the Department's training site) and the training division. Each fire station is housed in one of two districts; District One contains five stations and District Two has six stations. Three district chiefs are assigned to each dis- trict, one per shift for the three assigned shifts. Exhibit III -2 illustrates station locations, district boundaries, and stations' first due response areas. The Lubbock Fire Department has 280 authorized positions, of which 268 are sworn; all positions except mechanical maintenance personnel, secretaries, and dispatchers are sworn. Furthermore, all positions in the Department are full-time positions. The Department's staff size grew significantly from 1976 to 1978 (243 to 277 positions) but has remained virtually unchanged since that time. EXPENDITURES The cost of operating the Fire Department has increased sub- stantially since 1979, as shown in the table below: Fiscal Year Budgeted Expenditures ($000 1983 $8,168 1982 7,588 1981 6,793 1980 6,032 1979 5,516 Expenditures increased over 46 per cent during the period, with an annual compound growth rate of just over 10 per cent. Personnel costs during this period averaged about 92 per cent of the total budget. Other expenses (including supplies, maintenance, capital outlays, and other changes) constituted the remainder. About 87 per cent of the 1983 budget figure of $8.168 million is allocated to suppression. u EXHIBIT III -2 LUBBOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT FIRE STATION LOCATIONS AND FIRST DUE RESPONSE AREAS Fire Stations with Aerials B - FIRE SUPPRESSION This section describes the organization, staffing, and opera- tions of the Fire Department's suppression force, discusses the community's demand for fire service and the Department's capacity [ to meet that demand, and presents observations and recommendations for improving the deployment of staff, vehicles, and fire sta- tions. BACKGROUND This section provides background information on the organiza- tion and staffing of the suppression force, the number and loca- tion of stations and vehicles, and the number and types of fire r alarms in the City. Organization And Staffing The fire suppression force is by far the largest group in the Department. Of the Department's 268 authorized sworn staff posi- tions, 259, or 97 per cent, are allocated to fire suppression. The fire suppression force is organized into three shift groups, each of which is on duty for 24 hours every third day. *" Every shift is headed by two district chiefs, each of whom is res- ponsible for all suppression activities and personnel in his own district during the shift. The district chiefs' headquarters are Stations 1 and 12. Reporting to the district chiefs are station officers (normally lieutenants,.with the exception of captains in Stations 1, 4, 9, and 11), who are responsible for supervision of in -station and firefighting activities of the crews at their respective stations. Each station officer supervises one to six vehicle crews, depending upon the size of the station. Station officers are dispatched to all structure fire alarms; they also respond to selected alarms that appear to be difficult to manage or life-threatening. Exhibit III -3 portrays the minimum staffing requirements for each vehicle type in the Department. Pumpers, snorkels, and squad vans are each assigned one or two firefighters over minimum, to increase the likelihood that minimum staffing will be maintained without resorting to the use of overtime. The most recent addi- tions.to the Department's staffing organization were the manpower squads (or squad vans). Manpower squads, formed in 1977, are assigned four to five firefighters equipped with firefighting gear and breathing ap- paratus who travel in a van throughout their respective dis- tricts. Their primary function is to perform business inspections Lubbock Fire Department MINIMUM STAFFING OF VEHICLES Vehicle Type Pumper or Engine Aerial Booster Truck Hose Truck Squad Van District Chief Vehicle EXHIBIT 111-3 Minimum Staffing(a) 3 2 2 1 3 2 (a) For all vehicles except pumpers and snorkels, having fewer staff than the minimum withdraws the vehicle from service. 0 I within their districts; in 1982, manpower squads conducted 5,402 inspections of businesses and other buildings within the City. Their secondary function is to provide additional manpower to structure fires in their districts to help bring such fires under control more quickly. Work Schedules All firefighters are scheduled to work an average of 56 hours a week. Firefighters work alternate rotations of 24 hours on duty and 48 hours off duty. Shifts for the suppression force begin at 6:00 p.m. and extend to 6:00 p.m. the following evening. The Deputy Chief of Suppression is the only member of the suppression force who works a standard five-day week. A firefighter is scheduled to work 122 shifts per year, or an average of 10 shifts per month. The shifts actually worked by an individual will be less than 122 because of vacation, illness, holidays, personal days, and other leave. In 1982, members of the suppression force worked an average of 103 shifts, or 8 to 9 shifts per month. The primary system for providing essential manpower to cover absences, sick days, and vacations is to withdraw booster trucks, hose trucks, and squad vans from service, in that order. As absences are identified after the initial role call, the district chiefs take these vehicles out of service as necessary and assign the personnel from these vehicles to more essential vehicles, such as pumpers and snorkels, at stations where the vacancies have occurred. Daily Activities Firefighters spend relatively little time responding to emer- gency-alarms mer- gencyalarms and fighting fires. A sample of dispatch records for 1982 showed that suppression personnel assigned to all emer- gency fire vehicles in Lubbock were involved in a fire call an average of 10 minutes per 24 hour shift. The other 99 per cent of the firefighter's time is spent on other activities, including: - Cleaning and minor maintenance of stations, vehicles, and equipment - Attending training sessions on a range of firefighting topics, which are led by either the station officer or one of the Department's training personnel - Completing improvement projects to enhance the appear- ance and utility of the stations III -4 - Testing, painting, and maintaining water hydrants - Conducting building and pre -fire planning inspections - Resting and preparing meals. Fire Stations The Lubbock Fire Department currently has eleven stations, with one additional station nearing completion. The two most recently completed stations (12 and 13) have been constructed largely in accordance with a fire station location plan that was developed by the City in 1968; that plan also called for the clos- ing of Stations 2 and 3, which have been closed in the recent past. Fire Response Vehicles The Department currently staffs 28 vehicles, as follows: - 12 engines (also called pumpers) - 3 aerials, of which 2 are snorkels - 4 booster trucks - 2 hose trucks - 2 squad vans - 2 district chief vehicles - 3 crash trucks (at the airport). The Department also has five engines, one aerial, and a 3,000 gallon tanker that are not staffed but are held in reserve to replace front line vehicles temporarily out of service with mechanical difficulties. Exhibit II1- 4 indicates the location of the staffed vehicles by station. Emergency Alarm Response Vehicles and their crews are dispatched by the Department's dispatchers in response to emergency alarms. One civilian dis- patcher is on duty a all times. Under the Department's written policies, vehicles ae dispatched as noted below: III -5 Lubbock Fire Department CURRENT LOCATION OF STAFFED VEHICLES BY STATION EXHIBIT III -4 District Hose Airport Chief Station Engines Aerials Boosters Trucks Squad Vehicles Vehicles 1 2(a) 1 1 1 1 - 1 4 1 5 1 - - - - - 6 1 7 1 - - - - - 8 1- 9 1 1 - 1 - - - 10 1 - - - - - - 11 1 - - - 3(b) - 12 1 - 1 - - - 1 13 1 - - - - - - Total 12 3 4 2 2 3 2 (a)One engine will be moved to the training site, station IA, when construction is completed there. (b)Includes Two Walters Crash Trucks and an International Crash Truck. Number Of Firefighters Alarm Type Response Dispatched Structural fire Two engines, one aerial, 15 to 20 one hose truck, one booster truck, one squad van, one district chief vehicle Large structural Three to four engines, two 20 to 25 fire (such as aerials, two hose trucks, hospitals or two booster trucks, two schools) squad vans, one district chief vehicle Second alarm, .Addition of one engine, 18 to 30 structural fire possible addition of one booster truck and one squad van Mutual Aid The Fire Department dispatches vehicles to adjacent cities or towns only under specific circumstances. If a request is received by the City Manager from a neighboring city or county for vehicle assistance to help fight a fire that is beyond control, the City Manager may request that the Fire Chief send firefighters and vehicles to assist. Otherwise, the Lubbock Fire Department does not routinely send vehicles outside its City boundaries. Emergency Alarms The Fire Department received 2,939 calls for service in 1982, or an average of just over 8 calls per day. This call volume represents a 27 per cent decline since 1977, when 3,716 calls were Trash fires Two boosters or one engine 3 to 4 and automobile fires Automobile One engine, one hose truck, 4 to 7 wrecks and one district chief vehicle Medical emergen- One engine, one district 4 to 6 cy calls chief vehicle Service/investi- One engine or one booster 2 to 4 gation calls truck Mutual Aid The Fire Department dispatches vehicles to adjacent cities or towns only under specific circumstances. If a request is received by the City Manager from a neighboring city or county for vehicle assistance to help fight a fire that is beyond control, the City Manager may request that the Fire Chief send firefighters and vehicles to assist. Otherwise, the Lubbock Fire Department does not routinely send vehicles outside its City boundaries. Emergency Alarms The Fire Department received 2,939 calls for service in 1982, or an average of just over 8 calls per day. This call volume represents a 27 per cent decline since 1977, when 3,716 calls were A4 received. The following table shows the number of alarms received for the past 5 years: Number Of Year Alarms 1982 2,939 1981 2, 67 6 1980 3,144 1979 3,126 1978 3,251 Almost half of the alarms received by the Department in 1982 were actually for fires; the remainder included false alarms, first aid and rescue calls, service calls, and public service calls. Exhibit III -5 presents a detailed distribution of all 1982 calls. Of the 1,495 fires in 1982, only 29 per cent (or 437) were building fires. Expressed another way, the Department responded to an average of 1.2 building fires daily in 1982. The remaining 1,058 fires were grass, vehicle, or rubbish fires. The table below presents the major causes of fires in Lubbock in 1982, on a percentage basis. Cause Of Fires Per Cent Smoking and Matches 15% Incendiary 14 Incendiary - Juvenile 14 Backfire 8 Hot Ashes And Coals 7 Electric Short -Auto 5 Children - Matches And Fire 4 r Other or Unknown 33 Total 100% jMajor Fires Although Fire Department data are relatively limited, few of the fires in 1982 can be classified as major. Two thirds of all I building fires were confined to the room of origin, while another 25 per cent were confined to the floor on which they started. Only 9 per cent, or roughly 40 fires, spread throughout an entire building or extended to an adjacent building. Almost all major fires were controlled by the first alarm dispatch - only three Lubbock Fire Department EMERGENCY ALARMS BY TYPE (-19-8-2T— Type 982 Type Of Alarm Fires Building Fire Grass, Vehicles, And Rubbish Fires Total Fires False Alarms Malicious False Alarms Nonmalicious False Alarms Total False Alarms First Aid And Rescue Service Calls Out On Arrival Spills And Leaks Nonemergency Miscellaneous(b) Total Service Calls Public Service Calls(c) Total Alarms Alarms (a) EXHIBIT 111-5 Per Cent Of Total Alarms 437 13% 1,058 33 1,495 46 123 4 530 16 653 20 79 2 223 7 303 9 297 9 141 5 964 30 62 2 3,253 100% (a)Some alarms recorded in more than one category, so total is greater than actual alarms received. (b)Includes calls for stuck elevators, downed wires, assisting police, and similar situations. (c)Includes calls for nonemergency situations ranging from lockouts to cats in trees. fires went to a second alarm that required the dispatch of addi- tional vehicles. Injuries And Deaths In 1982, no citizens lost their lives to fire in Lubbock, which was a marked change from the six or more deaths that had occurred annually for the previous several years. Citizens did sustain 16 fire -related injuries over the year. No firefighters died while fighting a fire in 1982, and only one was injured fighting fire. Three firefighters, however, lost their lives in 1979 in one fire because of breathing apparatus malfunctions. No fire fighters have perished since then in the line of duty, although an average of two firefighters per year have sustained injuries. Distribution Of Fire Calls And Alarms Fire and other emergency calls are not evenly distributed across the City, but vary on the basis of population density, quality of housing and commercial stock, and other demographic factors. Exhibit III- 6 shows the location of planning areas with high call volumes in 1982. Over 80 per cent of all calls, and all but one of the high-volume call areas, were within the City's Loop last year, with particularly high.volumes concentrated near the City's central district, around Stations 1 and 4. On average, about eight alarms calls were received citywide each day in 1982; however, the number of calls varied signifi- cantly from day to day. Data on daily variation in alarms were not available from the Department for this study, but the consul- tants' review of a small data sample indicated a variation from zero to 15 calls per day. A review of five years of alarm call data revealed that the number of alarms received varies signifi- cantly by hour of the day. As Exhibit III -7 reflects, the heaviest period of alarms occurs from noon to 8:00 p.m., and the lightest periods occur in the early hours of the morning. Response Time A sample of 1982 calls indicates that the average response time for the first responding engine (the first engine to arrive at the scene of the alarm) was 3.8 minutes. As Exhibit III -8 shows, 87 per cent of the first responding engine took five minutes or less to reach the fire scene, and almost 98 per cent arrived at the scene in eight minutes or less. The exhibit also i LUBBOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT EXHIBIT 111-6 DISTRIBUTION OF PLANNING AREAS WITH HIGH CALL VOLUMES 1982 LU95OCK OLTRANALTIONAL INARPORT I I I M., 4TH IT Ell. lit IOOPftl 12 UND IT LEGEND: 0 Fire Station Location 60 To 99 Fire Calls 100+ Fire Calls First Due Areas I I EXHIBIT III -7 O O O O G ? O coN 00 %O •S N i tl-0L OL -6 i 6-8 ; g -L L-9 s Q 9-5 , 5-h £-Z ' Z-1 � l-ZL m C to M a r - m Lai CL Zn o CU CL.W L� C= -Y LLJ O U 7 W J > EXHIBIT III -8 E W a a c C .i OCi O O O G1 O O O to r � r a W N r ►C- O � N M M z co pCp�� s�44 C m C0 + a et N n z N co mC r cu � V N N M R+ m C C N L a A r m I Z"' al � o m m d 651 wt r u V O �- N N u C 6i C s a n O m %C %0 oma. U) %0 .- O z W � a.t °= s a L N fyA w . I N r O i Z r O O� r d d NIt U1 •b' M E C Ir C M tr F+ I ON � y1 N Ifs z m Y m OE ..CI Y Lr pm m �- G • i +1 u m m 4) m •.i (w G7 is � v v nma•1 m to z co CL. -•+ u In dm m CL a tr .. EXHIBIT III -8 shows that aerials averaged 4.1 minutes to respond to calls, and that the two hose trucks, in their capacity as rescue vehicles, required 4.5 minutes on average to respond. This longer response time results from the fact that each hose truck responds in its entire district, or about one half the City. OBSERVATIONS Fire Stations Are Generally In Good Condition And Appear To Be Well -Maintained City management and the Fire Department have established a mutually beneficial arrangement to maintain and repair fire sta- tions. The City provides the Department with materials and sup- plies for repair and upgrading, and Department personnel donate their labor and skills to renovate and repair the stations. Because of this arrangement, several older stations, notably Sta- tions 4 and 5, have been renovated, and firefighters have been able to maintain newer stations in excellent operating condition. Firefighters do considerable repairs and maintenance, including painting, floor laying, and building redesign and renovation; occasionally, more difficult jobs such as air-conditioning repair and plumbing are contracted out. As a result of this arrangement, the City has saved the money that would be needed to hire outside contractors to do major improvements and firefighting personnel have been able to create more comfortable and well maintained sta- tions. The Number Of Vehicles And Firefighters Responding To A Structural Fire Is Very H The number of vehicles and firefighters that the Department sends to structural fires exceeds the number required to provide excellent service and protection. The Department's written poli- cies"provide for 7 to 13 vehicles and 15 to 20 firefighters to be dispatched to the scene of a structural fire. A survey of all calls for five sample months between December 1981 and September 1982 indicates that an average of more than 15 firefighters responded to each structural fire during this period. This level of response is uncommonly high for a first alarm structural fire. A more typical response in other jurisdictions is 3 to 4 vehicles (including two engines and one aerial) and about 12 firefighters. Many fire departments dispatch as few as eight firefighters to a first alarm structural fire, with addi- tional firefighters being dispatched as the situation warrants. In Lubbock, the higher number of vehicles and firefighters is dispatched because the Department wants to field the maximum force y 1. available, and then to withdraw it if it is not needed. The Department also delivers an unnecessarily large number of staffed specialty vehicles, such as hose trucks and booster trucks, to structural fires. Sending these specialized functions to a structural fire entails delivering additional staff members as well. Pumper Response Times Vary Substantially By Geographic Area The consultants' review of available data indicates that. several areas of the City are not within a five minute response by a first due pumper, which is the generally accepted standard in Lubbock. Exhibit III- 9 highlights the planning units that had average response times greater than five minutes in 1982. As the map illustrates, most areas with longer response times are located outside Loop 289 in nearly every direction. Response time is primarily a function of station location. r The current number and location of fire stations in Lubbock, } therefore, largely accounts for the response time pattern apparent gg in Exhibit III -9. The construction of Station 13, and the immi- nent completion of Station 1A, address response time problems in northern and western directions, respectively. However, the lslower responses to the northwestern, northeastern, and southern sections of the City beyond Loop 289 are likely to continue. Retaining A Pumper At Station 6 Appears Unnecessary To determine where pumpers should be located, the consultants developed estimates of five minute response time areas from each existing station. These estimates are based on the pumpers' esti- mated travel time on major thoroughfares at modest speeds, and may be somewhat conservative given Lubbock's wide streets and gener- ally uncongested traffic patterns. Exhibit III -10 illustrates the areas of the City that are estimated to receive a five minute emergency response from the existing station patern, not including the existing Station 6. This estimation procedure indicated a significant overlap of response time areas into Station 6's first due area. In fact, as the exhibit shows, only one very small area within Station 6's boundaries is not also within another station's estimated cover- age, even given the conservative estimating procedures that were used. This finding essentially validates a recommendation from the 1968 station location plan referred to previously, which had suggested that Station 6 be closed once Station 9 was con- structed. The low volume of calls handled by Station 6 (only 203 EXHIBIT III -9 LUBBOCK FIRE OE►MITRENT PLANNING UNITS WITH HIGH AVERAGE RESPONSE TIMES 1982 i F111 LV�DOCII I ITIZATIOIUL AIRPORT 4 LEGEND: Planning Units With Average Response Times Greater Than 5 Minutes y`_ Planning Units With No Alarms LV�DOCII I ITIZATIOIUL AIRPORT 4 tl00 i7 LU DOCK HIM DEPARTMENT AREAS WITH ESTIMATED RESPONSE TIME GREATER THAN FIVE MINUTES (STATION 6 EXCLUDED FROM ESTIMATES) /10 iI EXHIBIT III -10 11 // / LEGEND: ® Estimated Response Time Greater Than Five Minutes . 4NA O M/f[ANAl'a' L Ir AIAiOAT O t iI EXHIBIT III -10 11 // / LEGEND: ® Estimated Response Time Greater Than Five Minutes I first due responses in 1982) is one more indicator of its ques- tionable value as a first due pumper location. The Current Relief System Is Inefficient The Department's system for maintaining a manpower pool to provide backup for firefighters who are absent is not efficient. Currently, relief manpower is achieved through establishing two staffing levels, a "regular" staffing level and a "minimum" staff- ing level, for each vehicle. Priorities are then assigned among vehicles. When manpower is needed to staff front line vehicles, such as engines and aerials, at the "minimum" level, lower prior- ity vehicles are then taken out of service, or personnel are requested from inspection squads, who then work with fewer person- nel. This system has resulted in periodic manpower shortages. As previously noted, firefighters in the Department work an average of 103 of the 122 shifts they are scheduled for each year. Therefore, to ensure that all positions are filled each day, the Department must provide approximately 1.2 firefighters for each position assigned to a vehicle. The Department's policy, however, is to assign more than the required number of personnel to its front line vehicles and only minimum personnel to its lower priority vehicles. This policy reduces the flexibility of district chiefs in reassigning fire- fighters, and it increases the number and complexity of changes that must be made to achieve the desired staffing arrangement. Also, the current plan implies that two staffing levels are equally appropriate for the front line vehicles; as a result, some firefighters expressed confusion about the proper staffing for pumper and aerial staffing. Booster Trucks Do Not Require Full -Time Staffing The Department currently staffs four booster trucks to provide a rapid response (with a high pressure, low volume water flow) to a select group of fire calls. Two major purposes of the boosters are to handle trash and dumpster fires in alleyways that are too narrow or congested for a pumper, and conflagrations at wooden roofed housing projects, where mobility is needed to prevent the fire spreading to nearby structures. While the value of booster trucks in these situations is documented, the need to retain a full-time crew for each of the four trucks, at an annual cost to the City of nearly $610,000, is questionable. Staffing the booster trucks full-time presupposes that a pumper crew must remain at the station when a "booster truck fire" call comes in, in case a "nonbooster truck fire" call should be received. In r fact, with an adequate station location plan, only due pumper crew, who could staff either a booster pumper, should be necessary at each station. a single first truck or a The Department Has Alternatives To Retaining Its Hose Trucks The Department currently staffs one hose truck full-time in each of the districts. These trucks carry additional hose for highrise buildings or other special circumstances, and also serve as the Department's only rescue vehicles. To that end, they are equipped with "Jaws of Life", pumps, pneumatic tools, power gener- ators, hand tools, water vacuums, and other emergency equipment. Hose trucks are dispatched to all vehicular fires and most struc- tural tructural fires. The functions now performed by the hose truck are readily assumable by other Department vehicles. Furthermore, assigning rescue responsibilities to a larger number of vehicles positioned throughout the city could reduce the response times to accidents, which is currently the longest average response time (4.5 minutes) among all the Department's first due capabilities. Other Units May Be Able To Perform The Same Services As Manpower Squads At Less Cost The Department's manpower squads perform building inspections and provide extra manpower at the scene of a fire. These roles, however, may be more efficiently and consistently assumed by fire- fighters assigned to regular firefighting vehicles or by full-time investigator/inspectors. Rigorous inspection is an important strategy for reducing fire and fire losses in nonresidential structures. Lubbock's record in this area is excellent over the past five years. The number of fires in buildings has declined every year from 1977 to the pre- sent, totaling only 426 in 1982. The number of buildings (381) in which a measurable loss occurred in 1982, was the lowest total in the past ten years. However, duplication of effort exists between the station squads, who initiate and update pre -fire plans, and the manpower squads, who visit many of the same buildings to complete inspec- tions. Members of the manpower squads have received more exten- sive training in inspection work, but this training could also be provided to station personnel, who could conduct fire inspections simultaneously with pre -fire planning visits. While inspections are their primary responsibility, manpower squads also provide additional manning at the fire ground. The s r r primary disadvantage here is the small number of squads - two for the entire City. Their response time from one end of a dis- trict (where they are conducting an inspection) to the other end (where a fire occurs) could exceed twenty minutes, and this factor greatly limits their potential contribution to the suppression of a fire. Assigning additional personnel to front-line vehicles, particularly aerials, could reduce the response time needed to deliver additional staff to structure fires, without inappropri- ately diminishing the number of firefighters at the fire scene. District Chiefs Do Not Require A Full -Time Driver Each district chief has a full-time driver assigned as an aide. The driver acts as a chauffeur for the district chief, sup- posedly allowing him to study building and hydrant maps en route to the fire scene. At the fire, the driver also cuts off electri- city, water, gas; helps lay hose; delivers supplies; and distrib- utes oxygen. He also assists the district chief on emergency medical service runs. The driver position, however, is fundamentally an anachro- nism, and expensive to the Department. Years ago, the driver did serve as a valuable communications link at the fire ground, before portable radios became available. Drivers' salaries at that time were very low, reflecting both the training required for the posi- tion and the attractive security of the job. The driver therefore was a relatively inexpensive perquisite for district chiefs and for the City. Now, however, portable radios are reliable and affordable and provide excellent fire ground communications. other tasks performed by the driver could readily be performed by other firefighters, who usually arrive at the fire scene first anyway. Thus, the chauffeur's role is the only one of value remaining, and arrangements can be made to provide a district chief with a driver to fire scenes without requiring a full-time driver position. The present cost to the City of retaining the driver jobs exceeds $175,000 annually. The Department's Pre -Fire Planning Process Lacks Consistency Pre -fire planning involves a fire crew visiting a commercial, industrial, institutional, or high rise residential building and completing a plan that describes the unique features that fire- fighters would need to be aware of if they were fighting a fire in the building. Pre -fire planning is important to fire crews be- cause it familiarizes them with the interiors and special problems of different buildings in their first due response area. r The Department's current pre -fire planning process has several shortcomings. First, many fire crews conduct few pre -fire plan- ning inspections. The pre -fire planning effort varies signifi- cantly among different stations and shifts. In some stations the approach is methodically planned: priority.buildings are identi- fied, goals are set, and building visits occur regularly. At other stations, a minimum amount of effort is directed towards this activity. Responsibility for planning and scheduling visits rests with station officers and district chiefs, but there is no rigorous monitoring of performance to ensure consistent and thorough work. Second, in many cases where fire crews regularly conduct pre fire planning, its implementation is unsystematic. The Department furnishes inadequate guidelines on what types of structures should be pre -planned, and whose responsibility it is to coordinate the planning. As a result, individual station officers usually deter- mine which structures in their area should be pre -planned, often without consulting their district chiefs. District chiefs do not always accompany fire crews on pre -fire planning visits, and they do not receive copies of the pre -fire plans completed by crews in their districts. Also, the three district chiefs in each district do not always coordinate pre -fire planning across shifts, with the result that pre -fire planning is occasionally duplicated for the same structure. Finally, the Department has not adopted proce- dures to ensure that all pre -planned buildings are visited regu- larly so that the plans can be updated. Third, no firm procedures specify what should be done with .. pre -fire plans after a visit has been made. For example, pre -fire plans are not transcribed onto formal planning sheets to provide a uniform product from the various formats used by different indivi- duals. The quality and detail of current plans vary from meticu- lously prepared drawings to rather hastily scribbled sketches. After the plans are developed, they are often put in a file cabi- net and neither reviewed nor refined until a subsequent inspection a year or two later. Because of this filing procedure, prepared plans are not available to crews at the fire scene and the crews must rely on their memories for information contained in the written plan. Officer Performance Is Not Formally Evaluated After Major Fires The Department has detailed written guidelines on how a fire should be fought; however, because of the differing conditions from fire to fire, the first arriving officer and district chief must make significant judgments, especially at a major fire. The Department has no requirement for a post -fire critique of the per- .formance of officers and crews. As a result, the opportunity to review the fire, identify problems, and learn from the experience is often wasted. RECOMMENDATIONS The Current Relief System Should Be Revised Relief firefighters should report to Stations 1 and 12 every morning to be assigned to fill vacancies. The district chiefs should manage each relief firefighter's development, collect appraisals from their varying assignments, and provide direction. This guidance is particularly important for new firefighters. One firefighter should be assigned to the relief pool for each five positions assigned to a vehicle. Planning relief pool size with this factor should generally eliminate the need for the pre- sent practice of withdrawing vehicles from service. In an emer- gency, if staff levels fall below minimum manning levels, addi- tional firefighters should be called in for overtime duty. Mini- mum Departmental manning levels and the personnel implications of this recommendation are described in a later recommendation in this section. The Department Should Revise Its Station Locations And Assigned Functions To reduce response times to as many outlying areas as pos- sible, and to better balance the workloads among the pumpers, the Department should plan to move Station 4 and Station 5, build Sta- tion 14, remove the pumper from Station 6, complete station 1A, and formulate plans to build Station 15 on the City's western edge. The recommended changes are illustrated in Exhibit III -11. This proposed station location plan assumes that Lubbock will not annex additional land in the immediate future, but that devel- opment will continue in the western, southern, and southwestern parts o -f the City. The rationales for each proposed change are discussed below. Station 4. This station should be relocated to the northwest, in the vicinity of Cornell Street and Detroit Avenue. At its pre- sent location, the station's first due area overlaps much of the five minute response areas of Stations 1, IA, 5, 7, and 8. A two -bay station at the new location would continue to provide excellent service to Texas Tech University, as well as enabling more rapid response to neighborhoods north and northwest of the Loop highway. EXHIBIT III -11 LUBBOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDED STATION REALIGNMENT Station To Be Relocated '� Station To Have Aerial Station 5. When the construction of Station lA is completed, a substantial portion of Station 5's first due territory will be within the five minute response areas of Stations 1, 1A, and 10. Station 5, therefore, should be relocated to the northeast, in the vicinity of the Ken Bozeman School. A two -bay station at this location would provide less than five minute service to more areas in the northeast, especially outside Loop 289. Station 14. A two -bay station should be constructed in the vicinity of 98th Street and University Avenue. Although this sta- tion would be situated on the current outer fringes of the City, a station at this location would serve a dual function. First, it would provide five minute response time to the far southern part of the City, which is at present the most poorly served area in the entire community. Second, it would anticipate protection for the expected expansion of the City through annexation to the south and southwest of present boundaries. The volume of construction in this area strongly indicates the potential for annexation in the near future. Station 6. This station currently houses a pumper and a squad vehicle. Its pumper duplicates coverage in the central part of Lubbock that is amply provided by Stations 1, 4, 7, 8, and 9. In light of these facts, the pumper at Station 6 should be relo- cated to Station 14 when that construction has been completed. t Additional plans for Station 6 are.discussed later in this sec- tion. Station IA. The construction of this station should continue as planned adjacent to the Department's training site. In addi- tion to furnishing the training staff group with limited part-time assistance, firefighters at that station would be able to provide less than five minute response time for an area of the City just north of the Loop highway that cannot be served well by Station 11. Station 15. The City should continue to evaluate, but not implement as yet, the construction of a two -bay station in the vicinity of Upland Avenue and 34th Street. Low population density in that area does not warrant the construction of a station now or in the near future. However, in the longer term, a station should be constructed there to provide better service to areas not ade- quately covered by Stations 8, 12 and 13. Implementation of this recommendation would result in an in- crease of two fire stations, to a total of 13, in the near term. y i New stations should be designed to accommodate no more than two vehicles and their crews. Stations lA and 14 should be as- signed only one engine, but they should retain additional room to allow flexibility for locating other vehicles, including aerials, as required by changes in geographic and demographic factors. This room would also be available for storing the Department's reserve vehicles. The total capital cost of reconstructing Sta- tions 4 and 5 at new locations and constructing Station 14 is estimated at $1,050,000, which represents an annual cost, at an estimated interest rate of 10 per cent, of $78,750 over the esti- mated 40 -year life of the stations. The Department's Manpower Squads Should Be Discontinued The two main functions of the Department's manpower squads - to perform business inspections and to provide additional manpower to fire sites - could be more effectively achieved.in other ways. Firefighters are capable of performing inspections in their.first due areas. This practice would make efficient use of'their time and help acquaint them further with buildings in these areas. Second, the use of squads to bring additional manpower to a fire site is unnecessary, because other, better -positioned vehicles such as aerials could deliver the required manpower more rapidly. This proposal is discussed in more detail later. The Department's Booster Trucks Should Not Be Staffed The Department's four booster trucks, currently located in Stations 1, 4, 8, and 12, should not continue to be staffed full- time by firefighting personnel. The Department should take several actions to ensure that this step has no negative effects on the Department's capabilities to respond to fires and other incidents. First, booster trucks should be maintained at stations in areas that have the highest concentration of alleyways inacces- sible to engines. Firefighters at each station should identify alleyways in the station's first due area that are normally inac- cessible to pumpers. When an alarm call for a trash or alley fire is received, a booster truck manned by a pumper crew should be dispatched, accompanied by an engine from an adjacent district. Alternatively, a pumper should be driven as close to the fire as possible - either part way up the alley or in front of the house - and a small hose line should be extended from there to extinguish. the fire. Seasonally, the boosters should be temporarily rede- ployed to stations where the response area has the potential for large grass fires and wooden roof conflagrations. r Second, the City should adopt an ordinance that would require all wooden shingles and other roofing materials to be coated with a fire retardant material. The consultants have contacted several other cities that have problems with high winds and wooden roofs, all have adopted such ordinances and have banned untreated roofs. Similar ordinances have been proposed in Lubbock, but none have been adopted to date. Passage of such an ordinance would sub- stantially decrease the risks of rapidly moving roof fires, which would reduce the demands on booster trucks as well. In developing its model ordinance, the Department should contact the cities of Dallas, Texas, and Anaheim, California, since both cities studied the issue in depth before passing their present laws. The Department Should Discontinue Staffing Hose Trucks The Department should transfer the functions provided by hose trucks to other Department vehicles, by moving rescue responsibi- lities to aerials and providing additional hose to other vehicles within the Department. First, rescue equipment from the hose trucks should be transferred to the Department's aerial vehicles, and the aerials should be used for rescue missions. The use of aerials as rescue vehicles would provide quicker and more respon- sive service, since the aerials would be situated in four rather than two stations around the City (discussed in more detail be- low). Two additional sets of rescue equipment would need to be purchased for installation on.two of the aerials. r Second, the additional hose and miscellaneous equipment that the hose trucks provide at fire scenes should be carried on the Department's pumpers. The cost of implementing this recommenda- tion would be the acquisition of two complete sets of rescue equipment for two aerials. This one-time cost is estimated to be $10, 000 to $12, 000. The Department Should Purchase Another Aerial In lieu of retaining its manpower squads, the Department should purchase a fourth aerial vehicle. This vehicle would serve the dual role of responding to structural fires in its vicinity and functioning as a fourth emergency/rescue vehicle. The pro- posed vehicle should be a 100 -foot ladder truck; the vehicle will cost an estimated $225,000. D All four aerials should be staffed by an officer, a driver, and three firefighters. With the additional manpower, the vehicles would provide excellent emergency rescue service and would bring adequate manpower to the scene of a fire, as the Department's squad vehicles do at present. The four aerials should be located at Stations 1, 4, 5, and 6. To accomplish this alignment, the aerial at Station 9 should be moved to Station 5, and Station 6 should acquire the new aerial. The relocation of Station 4 and 5 should distribute aerials properly in the City, especially when the SQUIRT vehicle (a modified pumper with some aerial capability) at Station 10 is taken into account. The District Chiefs' Full -Time Driver Positions Should Be Discontinued Rather than having full-time drivers, each district chief should designate someone at each fire station to drive him to the fire ground. The district chief should pick up this designated driver on his way to the fire scene. The designee should be a regular member of an engine or aerial company and, upon arrival at the scene, should join with other firefighters in the suppression effort. In most cases, this approach would allow the district chief to review pre -fire plans en route to the fire. In some cases, the district chief would drive himself to the fire scene, a standard practice in many other fire departments. Since all pumpers should be carrying updated pre -fire plans, the first officer on the scene should arrive with an understanding of tacti- cal alternatives, and the district chief should rarely have to, modify the original organization of the fire ground. Maintenance of files and reports and performance of other routine driver duties can readily be absorbed by other station personnel. Also, instead of sending the district chief, his driver, and a engine to emergency medical calls, the Department should send only an engine crew. The training staff and the Red Cross should train pumper crews so that they can handle most emergency medical serv- ice calls until the City's regular emergency medical service can arrive. This training could enhance each firefighter's emergency medical skills and extend a valuable backup support service throughout the community. Suppression Staffing Should Mirror The Realignment Of Vehicles And Stations The distinction between "regular" and "minimum" staffing should be abolished, and specific staffing standards should be established and adhered to consistently. These.standards are: r r Number Of Vehicle Type Personnel Engines 3 Aerial 5 District Chief 1 Each shift should fully staff 12 regular engines (including 1 at the airport), 1 modified engine at the airport, 4 aerials, and 2 district chief vehicles. Each shift should also assign drivers to two crash vehicles at Lubbock International Airport. This recom- mended staffing would provide 63 personnel per shift, four fewer than the current minimum staffing of 67 per shift. In addition, a relief squad of nine firefighters and four drivers should be assigned to each shift. At the beginning of each shift, seven relief staff should report to Station 1 and six staff should report to Station 12 for assignment by the district chiefs. The Department's experience indicates that this relief squad, plus a small amount of overtime, should enable the Depart- ment to attain its recommended staffing level consistently. The total number of sworn suppression personnel should be 229 (includ- ing the Deputy Chief), or 30 fewer than the present staffing level of 259. These reductions should be achieved by a modest decrease in the recommended (formerly, minimum) staffing level, and by a substantial change in the method of handling relief assignments. Implementing this recommendation should save the City approxi- mately $675,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. The Department's Standard Response To Alarms Should Be Modified The current practice of deploying vehicles and manpower that are rarely necessary should be curtailed. This deployment philo- sophy requires excessive manpower, creates unnecessary wear on equipment, and may cause confusion at the fire ground. The Department's standard response to alarms should be as follows: III -20 r Type Of Dispatched Call Structural Fires High risk structural fires (Public schools, Texas Tech, hospitals, industrial buildings) Trash fires and automo- bile fires Automobile wrecks Medical emergency calls Service/ investigation calls Response Manpower Two engines, one aerial, one district 12 chief vehicle Three engines, two aerials, one district 20 chief vehicle One engine or booster 3 truck One engine, one aerial 8 One engine 3 One engine 3 This response.pattern would enable the Department to continue to provide a very high quality of service to Lubbock.citizens, but it would not require the manpower currently assigned to the Department. The Pre -Fire Planning Process Should Be Strengthened The Department's pre -fire planning process should be improved in several ways. First, complete fire inspections should be con- ducted at the same time that a building is pre -fire planned. This practice would avoid the duplication of effort noted earlier, and would help firefighters become more familiar with all structures in their first -due areas. Second, the Department should develop guidelines for the pre - fire planning process and should assign responsibility for their implementation to the district chiefs. Guidelines should be developed for two types of pre -fire plans. The first type, an in- formational tool, should be completed for a wide cross-section of buildings but should be confined to information about the number and location of exits, types and locations of water connections and standpipes, and so forth. This informational plan should be completed by fire crews in conjunction with their fire prevention inspections. The guidelines for these plans should define what ,., types of buildings and other Specifications for completing pared by station officers and uniformity of effort. areas should be pre -fire planned. the pre -fire plans should be pre - district chiefs to ensure greater The second type of pre -fire plan should incorporate tactical approaches for containing major fires at strategic locations. These approaches should be prepared by the district chiefs, who should assume equal responsibility for completing them within each district. Strategic locations should meet at least one of the following criteria: have high-risk characteristics, such as high flammability; represent high potential loss, like the central business district; or present unusual strategic problems, such as the airport. These tactical plans would be fewer in number than the information plans discussed above. They would include the correct positioning of equipment, firefighter assignments and man- power requirements, and the most effective lines of attack. The Department should also increase the value and use of pre - fire plans by developing standardized forms for entering informa- tion, enclosing them in plastic, cross-referencing them by loca- tion and special problem characteristics with tabs, and entering them into a loose-leaf book. The book for each station should be reproduced and carried on all vehicles in that first due area and adjacent areas. The book would then be readily available for use by crews at a fire scene, and it would enable crews performing the building's next pre -fire planning or inspection visit to review and update the plan. Finally, the Deputy Chief for Suppression should assign to each district chief specific areas to be pre -fire planned and inspected. District chiefs, in turn, should assign their station officers responsibility for all plans and inspections of facili- ties in their first due areas. Each district chief should monitor the progress of the pre -fire planning and inspection efforts of the crews on his respective shift, and should also ensure that all plans completed by his crews are copied and shared with appro- priate neighboring crews and the other shifts. FireFighters Should Conduct Most Fire Inspections In Their First Due Areas To take up the work currently performed by manpower squads, firefighters should begin performing fire inspections. These inspections should be limited to the same structures covered by the manpower squads - commercial buildings, residential high-rise buildings, and other structures where the inspection process is relatively straightforward. More complex buildings, such as III -22 I factories, schools, and hospitals, should continue to be inspected by the certified fire investigator/inspectors. On the basis of the fiscal 1983 estimate of 5,600 inspections to be performed by the manpower squads, reassigning this responsibility to the pumper crews would require each crew to inspect one to two structures per day, on average. Pumper crews would travel to inspection sites in their engines and would respond immediately to all fire calls in their first due areas. Crews should be thoroughly trained, in.the same way that manpower crews have been trained, to conduct inspec- tions. One particular advantage of this change in responsibilities is that it would allow firefighters to spend more time at possible fire sites and to become more familiar with the buildings in which fires could occur. As mentioned earlier, a building's pre -fire plan should be completed or updated when the inspection is made, thereby increasing the frequency of pre -fire planning visits from every several years to one or more times annually. In contrast to procedures outlined above, single unit residen- tial inspections should be conducted only in those instances where the homeowner or tenant contacts the Fire Department and requests such an inspection. Formal Critiques Of Officer Performance Should Be Prepared After All Major Fires The Fire Chief should require a formal critique by the on -duty district chief of the performance of officers and firefighters after fires requiring the use of water from a hydrant. If appro- priate, the Deputy Chief of Suppression should complete a similar critique of district chief performance. These critiques should focus on helping Department members to improve their firefighting knowledge and skill. The evaluations should be viewed funda- mentally as an educational exercise designed to reinforce the for- mal training personnel have received. At a minimum, attendance at the review session at which the critique is made should be required from the first responding sta- tion officer and the district chief. The Deputy Chief of Suppres- sion, the district chief, all captains or lieutenants at the fire, and the first arriving officer should all attend the reviews, if possible. Also, other firefighters that participated in the fire should be encouraged to attend the session. In addition, the head of training should attend the reviews to identify areas that need emphasis in future training courses. III -23 D 7 C - FIRE PREVENTION This section briefly describes the Fire Marshal's office, pre- sents observations on its performance, and offers one recommenda- tion for improving service. BACKGROUND The Fire Marshal's office includes six people: - The Fire Marshal - The Deputy Fire Marshal - Three investigator/inspectors - One secretary. The office has several responsibilities. Most staff time is spent conducting investigations or inspections. Because each of the sworn officers is a dually certified investigator and inspec- tor, there is considerable flexibility in assignments. However, one investigator/inspector focuses essentially on investigations, and the other two primarily do inspections. Other staff activi- ties include speeches to student groups, carbon monoxide testing, and responding to citizen complaints of alleged fire code viola- tions. Inspections Manpower squads, discussed in the previous section, conduct the majority of business inspections. Office inspectors conduct periodic inspections of all warehouses, hospitals, schools, long- term care facilities, and nurseries. The inspectors examine newly constructed or reconstructed buildings before issuing occupancy permits; they also test fire safety devices, such as sprinkler systems. Finally, they conduct followup inspections at businesses where manpower squads have identified particular hazards or have encountered difficulty enforcing regulations. Investigations Investigations of possible arson are the office's other major priority. No arson convictions had been achieved in Lubbock prior to 1979, but there have been 47 since then. In 1982, for example, office investigators indicted 18 people and convicted 13, result- ing in the clearance of about 30 per cent of all suspected arson III -24 r felonies. This achievement compares favorably with other juris- dictions. OBSERVATIONS The Fire Marshal's Office Is Effective In its Fire Prevention Efforts The Department's success in limiting property damage and loss of life is partly attributable to its ability to inspect most high risk structures frequently and to prosecute suspected arson- ists vigorously. The Fire Marshal's office provides these serv- ices effectively. By averaging at least 100 certified inspections and 150 hours of investigative work per month, investigator/in- spectors are reducing the likelihood of fires and the damage or loss for the fires that do occur. Office personnel are widely perceived by the suppression workforce as capable, .and excellent cooperation appears to exist between firefighters in suppression and prevention. I III -25 The Current Staffing Level Limits The Office's Capabilities Staffing of the Fire Marshal's office has remained the same for the past 14 years. However, the office's workload has ex- panded with the growth of Lubbock and the Department's more aggresive posture towards arson investigation. As a result, some work that could be done by office personnel remains untouched. �.., For example, because staffing is low, arbitrary loss limits have been established for pursuing arson investigations. Thus, small fires, even if intentionally set, are not carefully examined. Some young offenders therefore may not be deterred before they commit more serious arsons. Also, the amount of public education that the office can accomplish is very limited. Awareness of fire prevention techniques and emergency safety mea- sures among Lubbock residents is not as high as it could be if more staff time were available for this task. RECOMMENDATION One Investigator/Inspector Should Be Added To The Fire Marshal's Office The new position should focus on arson investigations of the estimated 40 per cent of all set fires that currently are not pur- sued; he should also devote time to public education. In addi- tion, the new position should work with fire crews to help them develop the skills needed to conduct fire inspections. The new I III -25 inspector/investigator should attain dual certification in inspec- tions and investigations to retain staffing flexibility within the office. Increasing the office's size would improve its already effective prevention efforts. The cost to the City for this position would be approximately $23,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. III -26 r 9 D - PERSONNEL AND TRA4NING This section describes personnel and 'raining activities, pre- sents conclusions about their adequacy, a d offers recommendations for improvement. BACKGROUND This section presents background information on the Depart- ment's personnel and training activities. Personnel responsi- bilities are discussed first, followed by training duties. Personnel Both the City's Personnel Department and'the Fire Department's senior managers play key roles in various personnel -related activ- ities. Hiring. Whenever a firefighter vacan screened and selected on the basis of Cit potential recruits must submit an applica zenship, education, police record, eyesig ments. Next, all applicants complete a w test the applicant's judgment, reasoning, stincts, mechanical aptitudes, and readin who successfully complete the written exa physical agility test. This test compris designed to determine the candidate's ove perform the routine duties of a firefight carrying, large suction hose removal, rop hose carry and climb, and hose coupling. After completion of this exam, the ca the physical agility and written exams ar all grade. That grade plus the applicant points establish the candidate's standing This list remains in effect for one year. school, each candidate undergoes a thorou provided by the City and a final screenin y occurs, recruits are guidelines. First, all ion and meet age, citi- t, and driving require- itten exam designed to understanding, in- ability. Third, those ination must then take a s six trials that are all physical ability to. r; these include weight pull, ladder climb, didate's test scores for combined into an over- s veteran's preference on an eligibility list. Before starting recruit h medical examination interview. !"' 111-27 Performance evaluation. The performance is evaluated monthly for the first year of of new service. firefighters This evalu- valuation ationcovers such qualities as the firefighter's skills, per- sonality, and character, and includes an assessment of the quality and quantity of work performed, attitude, capacity to learn, and ability to get along with other people. After this first year,. !"' 111-27 r i district chiefs conduct informal reviews concerning problems with an individual's performance. At one time, a more formal perfor- mance evaluation system was used to evaluate a firefighter every six months. This approach was discontinued, however, because personality conflicts and other personal dynamics apparently reduced the objectivity of the ratings. Promotions. Vacancies are filled first by posting a promo- tional opportunity notice within the Department. This notice describes the required experience, application procedures, and salary range of the vacant position. All candidates must have two years' experience in their current position and must take an exam prepared specifically for the available position by the City Per- sonnel Department.. In addition to exam scores, up to 10 extra points are granted on the basis of the candidate's seniority. The Fire Chief has the option of selecting one person from the top three scorers to fill a position. If he does not pick the top scorer, the Fire Chief must prepare an explanation. Discipline. Disciplinary procedures can be instituted by the Fire Chief, the Deputy Chiefs, or the district chiefs, and can be prompted by such infractions as poor attendance, incompetence, in- subordination, or violations of rules. Specific actions that may be taken include reprimands, employee suspensions, demotions, or dismissals, depending on the nature of the charge. A person being disciplined may appeal by meeting with the Fire Chief, the City's Personnel Director, and the City Manager, in that order, to dis- cuss grievances. In 1982, disciplinary actions resulted in one employee being disciplined and two employees being fired. Training Training activities include recruit training, routine in-serv- ice training programs at fire stations, and specialized classes held either at the Department's training site or at individual stations. The training division is staffed by two officers, one holding district chief rank and the other holding a captain's rank. The training officers are housed at the Department's train- ing site on Municipal Drive, which features multiple outdoor set- tings as well as a classroom. Settings include a large fire pit, a butane tank, a smokehouse with a maze, a burn house with an iron roof, a drill tower with a standpipe, and an oil storage tank. k The center also has a large classroom with stage; video projection k equipment; a large array of training manuals, films, and slides; and detailed files documenting the training of individual fire- fighters. Because of its diverse training opportunities, the center is used by other west Texas fire departments for special- ized training. III -28 Training officers prepare, coordinate, and implement a wide range of training courses for suppression staff. Each training category is discussed briefly below. Recruit Training. A new recruit attends an intensive 14 -week orientation and training program to prepare for assignment to the Department. Included in this training are suppression activities outside and in the classroom that are designed to teach the use.of proper firefighting techniques. Recruit training is conducted primarily by training officers, with occasional assistance from other officers for specialized topics. In 1982, two recruit training classes graduated 31 new firefighters. In-service training. Each month, training officers formulate an in-service training schedule for each station. The schedule outlines the station drills and the number of hours to be spent on each drill; it also identifies reference manuals to be used in training. Training topics are designed to broaden skills in fire suppression, fire prevention, emergency medical service, and fire ground leadership. In-service training is the direct responsi- bility of each station officer and the indirect responsibility of the appropriate district chief. Each station officer fills out monthly training reports detailing the actual hours of instruction provided in each activity and sends the report to the training division. The training officers prepare summaries of these re- ports for the Fire Chief. In 1982, in-service training was sche- duled for an average of about 14 hours per firefighter per month, including more than 11 hours in the fire station and more than 2 hours at the training site. Specialized classes. In addition to preparing in-service classes for firefighters, training officers sponsor specialized classes that are usually conducted at the training center. Many of these classes include drills and practice on firefighting equipment, while others present slide shows or films on new fire- fighting techniques. Examples of these classes include an officer training workshop; films describing the handling of hazardous materials; and a session on salvage and overhaul techniques. OBSERVATIONS Promotional Procedures Do Not Ensure Selection Of The Most Qualified Individuals Because a performance appraisal system is not part of the pro- motional process, job performance is not viewed as.an important component of career progression. Instead, an undue emphasis is placed on studying procedural manuals and memorizing facts and v figures regarding fire suppression techniques. While this 9 9 9 PP approach reflects rigid adherence to the tenets of Texas law, it .does not recognize the opportunity to reward'job performance in a meaningful way. Test -taking ability becomes the sole basis for determining firefighters' promotional potential. Current Performance Evaluation Methods Are Inadequate A formal appraisal system does not exist for sworn Department personnel, except new recruits. The lack of a system for evaluat- ing performance regularly causes several problems. First, defi- ciencies are difficult to identify, diagnose, and correct. Se- cond, it is hard to sanction or reward an employee on the basis of documented performance. Third, without a recognized evaluation system, personal prejudices and other subjective factors can enter into personnel decisions. A review of the previous performance evaluation system and discussions with personnel throughout the Department suggest that a major problem with the discarded system was the inadequacy of the employee performance rating form. The form failed to specify how areas of firefighter performance were to be evaluated, thereby forcing a supervisor to guess at the quantity and quality of a firefighter's work. Consequently, major variances often occurred in how different evaluators rated the performance of firefigh- ters. Without objective, established criteria, some persons eval- uated all firefighters generously, while others closely scrutin- ized each candidate, ranking some high and others low. The exces- sive amount of subjective judgment in the previous evaluation sys- tem permitted its misuse and lead to its eventual discontinuation. The Training Division Has Improved Its Efforts In The Past 18 Months Since he began work in January 1982, the senior training officer has upgraded the Department's training programs and formu- lated and scheduled several activities on both the station and Departmental levels. For example, he has updated training exer- cises and classes that are intended to provide a breadth of basic and advanced firefighting skills. Particularly notable have been the division's expansion of the officer's training program develo- ped by the National Fire Protection Association; an updating of the division's libraries; and improved coordination of in-service training programs. In -Service Training Remains Incomplete Though the designated frequency and content of in-service training programs are adequate, implementation of these programs III -30 is unsatisfactory. Delegation of training responsibility solely to station officers, with no verification of instructional quality, results in substantial variation in the quality of train- ing. Practical applications of classroom sessions are periodic- ally omitted, and cancellations are not uncommon. Consequently, some firefighters receive high quality in-service training and others do not. Because training officers spend most of their time developing Departmentwide training programs and conducting sessions at the. training site, they can provide only perfunctory monitoring of in-service training. Discussions with sworn personnel indicate that, as a result, only about 25 per cent of the scheduled in- service station training actually takes place. This percentage does vary from station to station. The Department Does Little To Encourage Physical Fitness Firefighters lead sedentary lives interrupted by periods of frenzied activity requiring them to climb steps and ladders and to carry heavy weights in smoke-filled areas. A number of Department personnel commented on the need for firefighters to be in top physical condition. In spite of this awareness, the Department has no required physical fitness program, nor does it encourage voluntary physical fitness efforts. RECOMMENDATIONS Annual Performance Evaluations Should Be Completed For All rs A formal written performance appraisal should be completed for each Department staff member by his or her immediate supervisor. A sample performance appraisal form is presented in the Appendix. one part of the form, which would be applicable to every Depart- ment member, should incorporate personal qualities like depend- ability and judgment. A job skills section, which would differ for each level of the organization, should be developed for fire- fighters, drivers, lieutenants, captains, district chiefs, and other personnel. (In the Appendix, the sample job skills section shown is for the firefighter level.) In each job skills section, some evaluation.categories should pertain to skills at the level above the person being evaluated. For example, firefighters should be evaluated not only on their ability to test hydrants, lay hose, and fight fires, but also on their knowledge of the driver position, since a firefighter may have to fill in for a driver in an emergency. I r 11 To ensure the evaluation form's usefulness to the Department, training and evaluation guidelines should be provided to all supervisors. Consistency among evaluating officers will be furthered by having a second -level supervisor review all evalua- tions completed by his or her subordinates. For example, each district chief should review all evaluation forms prepared by com- pany officers in his district. The evaluating officer also should review the performance appraisal with the individual evaluated. Performance Evaluations Should Be Incorporated Into Promotional Procedures To ensure that the most capable firefighters are identified and selected for promotion, the Department's promotional proce- dures should be changed. First, to motivate and reward a fire- fighter for on-the-job efforts, promotion procedures should include the most recent three years of performance assessments. Annual completion of performance appraisal forms must be closely supervised by district and Deputy Chiefs to ensure that all ques- tions are answered completely and impartially. This supervision should prevent a recurrence of the biased reporting characteristic of the previous appraisal system. The recommended relative weights of the criteria that should be included in promotional decisions are exhibited in the follow- ing table: Current Recommended Reporting Promotional Criteria Weights Weights Written examination 65 90 Performance evaluation 20 - Seniority 10 10 Personal interviews within the Department 5 - Total 100 100 Persons Eligible For Promotion But Not Promoted Should Be Notified And Counseled Individuals who are passed over for promotion should be in- formed of the reasons personally, and in sufficient detail to enable them to begin a personal improvement program to rectify shortcomings. The supervisor should specify, as clearly as pos- sible, the performance that would warrant promotion at a later time. Also, the individual should be given the supervisor's assessment of the likelihood that further improvements are pos- sible. III -32 This discussion should provide each individual with a clear assessment of potential advancement and areas where improvement is warranted. Formal notification should also reinforce the percep- tion that promotional decisions are not made capriciously and that legitimate reasons existed for choosing other candidates. The Department Should Ex es Career Development To enhance the skill levels of firefighters, a policy of rotating personnel every few years between less and more active stations,, as well as between those with and without aerial trucks, should be established. Moreover, attempts should be made to expose officers to a range of training, administrative, and field positions. While officers should hold positions long enough to learn them thoroughly, they should not normally remain in the same administrative position for more than four or five years. This periodic rotation would help develop a core of officers who are well trained in various Departmental functions and who can serve as senior managers. However, this policy should not be absolute; if, for example, an officer who is a capable instructor wishes to remain at the training center, he should be allowed to do so. The In -Service Training Of Firefighters Should Be Improved Several actions should be taken to improve the quality and frequency of in-service training at stations. One position should be added to the training division. This position should be at the lieutenant level and should be assigned full-time to upgrading in-service training by assisting station officers. Tasks should include developing outlines of training courses to guide station officers through a topic; preparing visual aids and other presentation materials; and developing hypo- thetical situation descriptions for station officers to use as case studies. The new training division employee should also monitor in-service training received by -each company to see that sufficient training is completed and that a proper balance between practical and classroom training is maintained. The lieutenant also may present specialized topics personally. The cost of this addi- tional position would be approximately $26,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. Primary responsibility for ensuring that all companies receive daily training should be assigned to district chiefs. Each district chief should sign every station's monthly training report before it is forwarded to the training division. III -33 i A - Training should be a required activity on every shift, including weekends and holidays. Adopting this require- ment would increase the amount of in-service training each firefighter receives by about 30 per cent. - Training in the stations should be scheduled for the morning. Currently, training is offered in the after- noon in many stations, which is the busiest time of the day for emergency alarms. If an afternoon training ses- sion is interrupted by an alarm, there is often insuffi- cient time remaining to complete training; morning ses- sions could be rescheduled in the afternoons if morning alarms occur. The Department Should Institute A Physical Fitness Program In order to upgrade the physical condition of firefighters, the Department should require all station crews to engage in an organized program of exercise each day. The exercise program should be the responsibility of the station officer, just as in- service training is now. The Department should assist in implementing the program by providing exercise guidelines to build the strength and endurance of its employees. Also, to further encourage the conditioning of firefighters, the Department Should purchase selected equipment such as weightlifting sets, jump ropes, and exercise mats, to be installed in each station. The cost of this equipment is esti- mated at $35,000 to $40,000. In addition, the training division head should explore the possibility of obtaining group membership rates at Lubbock's YMCA to increase the fitness level of em- ployees. III -34 r 11 E - VEHICLE MAINTENANCE This final section discusses maintenance section and presents recommendations for change. BACKGROUND the operations of the vehicle opportunities for improvement and The vehicle maintenance section maintains all Department vehicles, miscellaneous fire equipment, and fire stations. The section is supervised by the Deputy Chief of Administration, and consists of four civilians: a chief mechanic, two mechanics, and a service person. The chief mechanic supervises the other members of the section, and plays a major role in the Department's vehicle purchasing decisions. Responsibilities Section personnel perform most repairs on Department vehi- cles, and also carry out major maintenance and repair work on all stations and firefighting equipment. The section operates inde- pendently of the City's centralized vehicle maintenance and repair facilities. Vehicle repair work takes place in the Depart- ment's administrative office building on Sixth Street. Mechanics' responsibilities include rebuilding and testing pumps, hose repair, welding, rebuilding transmissions and engines, repairing rear axles and drive trains, and rebuilding nozzles. The mechanics also build booster trucks, receive and prepare new trucks, calibrate gauges, and check the Department's trucks thoroughly every time maintenance is performed. In addition, mechanics perform some repairs on building heating and cooling systems, lawn mowers, and other mechanical devices. They contract out major body work, rebuilding of alternators and starters, and major diesel engine work. The service person is responsible for fueling trucks, light maintenance of trucks in their stations, cleaning buildings and trucks, and general yard work. Work Schedule And Operations All four members of the maintenance section work five eight- hour days, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The chief mechanic is on call at all times in case of major vehicle wrecks, two -alarm fires, and III -35 other emergencies. lem and determines two mechanics are mechanic. Upon receiving a call, he evaluates the prob- whether other mechanics are needed. The other on call every other week to back up the chief Drivers inspect their trucks daily in the stations. They fill out a repair report when a problem is discovered and send it to the maintenance section. In certain cases, drivers whose trucks have serious problems will first notify the chief mechanic of the problem and send the report later. When the vehicle is brought into the shop, a repair order is opened and a record is kept con- cerning the vehicle's problem. The chief mechanic daily assigns priorities to the repair orders that have been received. First priority is for major repairs such as engine, steering, or brake problems. During periods of heavy workload, minor repairs receive low priority, and vehicles with minor repairs remain at their respective stations until mechanics become available. Longer-term preventive maintenance is also performed on vehi- cles. Once a month, each driver checks his truck in detail and submits a report to the maintenance section. Every six months the truck is brought in for preventive maintenance, which includes changing oil and grease, checking pumps, and inspecting fan belts, tires, lights, and sirens. Once a year, each vehicle is tuned, thoroughly inspected, and road tested. Weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports on the condition of vehicles are also prepared. These reports include statistics on fuel use, mileage, vehicle repairs, vehicle repair costs, hours spent in the shop, vehicle C� downtime, and the results of vehicle performance tests. !'P OBSERVATIONS The Vehicle Maintenance Section Generally Performs Vehicle Repair Work Promptly The consultants' review of scheduled and completed repairs, as well as discussions with vehicle crews, indicate that most major jvehicle repair work is completed promptly. A sample of shop tl'r repair statistics indicates that vehicles were out of service 309 times in 1982, but 80 per cent of the orders were acted on in one day or less, with another 12 per cent completed within three days. Only 8 per cent of the repairs took longer. The Mechanics Lack Training To Work On Diesel Engines With the exception of the chief mechanic, personnel lack the necessary skills to perform sophisticated engine repair work on III -36 1 the Department's diesel truck engines. Although the chief mechanic has some diesel skills, he is not thoroughly trained in l major diesel repair work. Consequently, his on-the-job training of new mechanics includes only limited instruction on the repair of diesel engines. 0 This limitation is significant because all 11 vehicles that. have been put into service since 1974 have been diesel powered trucks. As a result of the general deficiency in diesel training, much diesel repair work has had to be contracted out, incurring extra expense to the City that could be avoided if mechanics had appropriate training. This expense will grow as the diesel vehi- cles age and develop more mechanical problems, and as the number of diesel powered vehicles increase. The Department's Mechanics Are Underpaid Compared to other members of the Fire Department, other fire department mechanics in Texas, and mechanics in the Lubbock area, the Department's mechanics are underpaid. After mechanics join the Department and begin to increase their mechanical skill levels through on-the-job training, they often become more marketable. Because their salary potential with the Department is limited, many mechanics have left the Department for higher.paying posi- tions elsewhere - seven mechanics in the last eight years and six service persons in the last five years. To determine whether mechanics are underpaid, the consultants conducted a brief salary survey of other major fire departments in the state and of diesel mechanics in the City of Lubbock. Data from the survey of major Texas fire departments are presented in Exhibit III -12. Reviewing the data yields several observations: - Lubbock has a single slot for mechanics that encompasses a whole range of skills, while other departments separ- ate mechanics into Mechanic I and Mechanic II positions. - The monthly wage scale is significantly less for Lubbock's mechanics than for those at other departments in the state. - For other departments the following relationships occur: o Mechanic I salaries start lower but eventually equal. the higher range of firefighter salaries. o Mechanic II salaries begin lower but eventually exceed the upper range of fire equipment operators. III -37 EXHIBIT III -12 Lubbock Fire Department COMPARISON OF FIRE DEPARTMENT WAGE DATA IN LUBBOCK AND OTHER MAJOR TEXAS CITIES Position Equipment Mechanic Mechanic I Mechanic II Master Mechanic Firefighter Fire Equipment Operator Lieutenant Monthlv Salar Other Texas Lubbock Fire Departments(a) $1166 to 1640 - $1258 to 1603 1428 to 2070 1446 to 1740 1808 to 1881 1952 to 2054 1433 to 1855 1747 to 2233 1417 to 1658 1721 to 1810 1932 to 2011 (a)Represents the average of available salary data for similar positions in Amarillo, Dallas, Wichita Falls, San Antonio, Abilene, and E1 Paso. r o Master mechanic salaries start lower but eventually exceed the upper salary level of Lieutenants in other departments. Furtherlore, as presented in Exhibit III -13, Department mechanic salaries, except at the entry level, are below the aver- age for "experienced" and "very experienced" diesel mechanics in Lubbock garages. The Maintenance Section Does Not Have A Systematic Performance Evaluation Process The chief mechanic assigns jobs and rates the daily perfor- mance of his mechanics by maintaining a daily job sheet. The. mechanics sign the sheet and log their daily activities at the end of a workday. Thus, the chief mechanic keeps a running tabulation of jobs that have been completed or are pending (for example, those awaiting the ordering of parts). This approach, however, does not provide an effective process to evaluate each mechanic's performance and productivity can not be evaluated against previously established job performance standards. Vehicle Maintenance Records Are Incomplete Complete records of maintenance costs by vehicle are not available in some cases. The costs of some repair parts and sup- plies are allocated to specific vehicles, but most labor costs are not. Consequently, the true costs of maintaining each vehicle are not known, and the stated costs of maintaining a vehicle are dras- tically understated. This is particularly distorting for repairs such as minor engine tuneups, which require extensive and recur- ring staff time but relatively few parts. Finally, no complete record of all maintenance actions or repair orders for a vehicle is compiled for easy reference. The lack of records makes vehicle replacement decisions more difficult. Because true maintenance costs are not known, it is difficult to determine with any precision when a vehicle is no longer cost-effective to maintain. Instead, when replacement is contemplated, heavy reliance is placed on the chief mechanic's impressions of vehicle maintenance problems. While these impres- sions are often accurate, they should not be the sole basis for making major capital expenditure decisions. Drivers Perform Little Vehicle Maintenance Although drivers currently do some basic maintenance work, including changing bulbs, changing hoses, and tightening belts, III -38 EXHIBIT III -13 Lubbock Fire Department COMPARISON OF FIRE DEPARTMENT SALARIES WITH THOSE OF DIESEL_ MECHANICS IN_ LUBBOCK Entry level Mechanic Experienced Mechanic very Experienced Mechanic Monthly Salary Lubbock Average Fire Department Other Salaries(a) $1166 $1144 1600 1870 2054 2112 (a)Data derived from a telephone survey of Cat Diesel Engineering, Cummings Diesel Engineering, Furr's Inc., Stewart and Stevenson Services, Inc., and Diesel Injection Services of West Texas, Inc. �i they could perform additional maintenance work on their trucks. Drivers do not change the oil or the various filters on their vehicles, and vehicles must be taken to the repair shop for minor maintenance that could easily be completed in the station. If drivers performed this minor maintenance, vehicles could be out of service for a shorter period of time, travel time would be re- duced, and the trained mechanics at the repair shop could devote their time to more serious repairs. RECOMMENDATIONS The Department's Mechanics Should Receive Formal Diesel Training The City of Lubbock should provide incentives to the Depart- ment's mechanics to attend formal instruction and training ses- sions in the maintenance and repair of diesel trucks. One prom- inent diesel truck manufacturer regularly sponsors courses that train individuals to service diesel vehicles skillfully. This manufacturer regularly holds free diesel repair classes in Dallas; attendees pay only for transportation and hotel accommodations in Dallas. The Department should arrange for each of its mechanics to attend these training sessions, and the City should obligate funds to pay the required costs. Mechanics' Salaries Should Be Increased Mechanics' salaries should increase to levels comparable to the salaries of other diesel mechanics in the City. By establish- ing higher salaries, the Department should be able to attract and retain skilled mechanics who would otherwise leave. These mech- anics should offer increasingly efficient service as their skills and experience develop. Besides raising salaries, the Department should create an extended career path by designating two distinct mechanic posi- tions (Mechanic I and Mechanic II) that reflect the different skill levels for beginning and experienced mechanics, respec- tively. Job titles should be established by the City's Personnel Department to reflect these modifications. The annual cost of implementing this recommendation should not exceed $9,000. The Department Should Implement A Work Management System The section supervisor should implement a work force manage- ment system that defines daily or weekly work objectives for each mechanic and provides a means for him to review each mechanic's accomplishments and the time required.to perform them. A typical work force management system includes the following elements: III -39 D 9 - Labor estimation standards for the accurate estimating, budgeting, and scheduling of individual projects A procedure for establishing work priorities and estimating total manhour requirements - Standards for assessing the quality of completed work - A method for measuring productivity - Budgets and schedules. Comparing estimated hours to the time actually required should provide valuable information to evaluate the productivity of each mechanic. The Department Should Keep More Detailed Vehicle Repair Records The Department should keep a complete permanent log for each vehicle recording the number, type, and cost of repairs. The cost of repairs should include the cost of labor as well as the cost of parts and supplies; the repair order form should be modified to allow hours worked to be recorded. The cost of each repair should then be calculated and logged.by the chief mechanic. Implementa- tion of this recommendation would provide the Department with accurate cost information that should allow vehicles to be com- pared according to their per mile maintenance costs when vehicle replacement decisions are made. The Department Should Adopt A More Systematic Approach To Vehicle Replacement The Department should more systematically compare the cost of replacing a vehicle with the cost of retaining it for an addi- tional year. In particular, the Department should consider alternatives to replacing older pumpers with relatively few mech- anical problems, given the relatively low cost of body rebuild- ing. Ultimately, using its analyses and records, the Department should adopt more detailed guidelines regarding the expected life of pumpers and aerials. On the basis of these guidelines, a five-year projection of vehicle replacement costs should be pre- pared and submitted to the City Council to assist it in future financial planning and to provide a plan against which actual j� vehicle replacement requests can be compared. This projection lI: should be updated annually. III -40 ft Drivers Should Perform Routine Maintenance To free more of the Department's mechanics' time to make major repairs on fire apparatus, the routine maintenance tasks for each vehicle such as oil changes, filter changes and lubrication should be allocated among the three drivers assigned to that vehicle. Each driver should record and report all maintenance performed to the chief mechanic, who should prepare and maintain a schedule for each vehicle, showing when routine maintenance is needed. Larger repairs (including most diesel repairs) and overhauls should re- main the mechanics' responsibility. Selected repairs should con- tinue to be contracted out. Exhibit III -14 summarizes a proposed three-tier maintenance plan. A comparison of recommended and current Fire Department staff, by position, is presented in Exhibit III -15. Together, the recom- mended changes described in this chapter would result in a .staff of 28 fewer uniformed employees than currently, with annual sav- ings in salaries and fringe benefits of approximately $617,000. d III -41 !I EXHIBIT 111-14 Lubbock Fire Department RECOMMENDED THREE-TIER MAINTENANCE PLAN Tier Responsibility 1 Drivers 2 Department Shop 3 Outside Mechanics Maintenance Task Daily maintenance check sheet, oil changes, filter changes, lubrication, and bulb replacement Steering repair, brakes; overhauls, conversions, tune-ups, and minor elec- trical repairs Automatic transmission overhauls, extensive welding/bodywork, and valve jobs EXHIBIT 111-15 Lubbock Fire Department COMPARISON OF RECOMMENDED AND CURRENT STAFF, BY POSITION Current Recommended Change From Staff Staff Current Uniformed Positions Fire Chief 1 1 - Deputy Chief 3 3 - District Chief 7 7 - Captain 14 14 - Lieutenant 36 37 +1 Driver 87 85 (2) Firefighter 120 _93 (27) Total Uniformed Positions 268 240 (28) Civilian Positions Chief Mechanic 1 1 - Mechanic 2 2 - Serviceman 1 1 - Dispatcher 5 5 - Secretary 3 3 - Total Civilian Positions 12 12 - Total Positions 280 252 (28) No Text n IV - DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION The activities, staffing, and operations of the Department of Parks and Recreation are examined in this chapter. Following a brief background section, specific observations and recommenda- tions for improvement are enumerated. tl BACKGROUND The organization of the Department of Parks and Recreation is shown in Exhibit IV -1 on the following page. Operations and activities of the Department are assigned among four major organi- zational units: planning and development, parks maintenance, in- door recreation, and outdoor recreation. Each of'these units is discussed in detail in the sections below. Overall management of the Department is the responsibility of the Director and the Assistant Director. A fiscal administrative assistant, a program development coordinator, and three clerical staff persons provide additional administrative support. Budget And Staffing The Department's approved operating budget for fiscal 1983 was over $4.3 million, which represents a 7 per cent increase over fiscal 1982. The approved budget is broken into major program 'f categories, as follows: Category Fiscal 1983 Budget Parks Development $ 191,915 Parks Maintenance 2,464,592 Indoor Recreation 1,065,262 Outdoor Recreation 607,987 Total $4,329,756 Administrative costs for the Department are incorporated into the four categories. For example, the Director's salary is included in the parks maintenance budget, and the Assistant Director's salary is part of the indoor recreation budget. The Department is funded for a total of 117 full-time posi- tions in fiscal 1983. There are 13 additional full-time equiva- lent positions in parks development, and their salaries are partially paid through external grants. Seasonal laborers and Y1 9 ; . . . . . . EXHIBIT IV -1 kk� ■ �j� � -§ © §2 §$ �_ . 7 § .� T2 \ § �}k! W. | k �jeC, ;g )§fa & § . § . W. Aw= | ..Z �.._ 46 . LU k --- ! § , _>6 c 2 W40m kk�s§ j} . §§���0os j � . 2` • - - . 9z2 �. - -Ss �j� � -§ © §2 §$ I I outdoor recreation staff are hired during the summer months to assist in park maintenance and to conduct summer recreation pro- grams. Additional part-time staff are employed as assistant supervisors and instructors for community, senior, and specialty centers. The total part-time staff group budgeted for fiscal 1983 equals about 39 full-time positions. Planning And Development. Planning and development activities for the Department are the responsibility of the planning and development superintendent. The division is staffed by 15 personnel; in addition to the super- intendent, an assistant planner and landscape architect provide technical planning, designing, and drafting expertise for proposed park improvements. A construction crew foreman oversees the work of an 11 -person construction crew whose activities are primarily grant -funded. Grant funds partly support other unit personnel as well. Construction activities performed by the crew range from the installation of playground equipment at an estimated cost of $3,000, to the construction of drainage channels at a cost of over $200,000, to the complete renovation of the Meadowbrook Golf Course at an estimated cost of over $700,000. Some park develop- ment and construction activities are contracted to outside con- struction firms when specialized expertise or equipment are needed. Parks Parks maintenance crews are responsible for maintaining Department facilities and properties, and for preparing athletic playing fields and tennis courts for use by the public. Although the Department controls almost 3,000 acres of land in 73 parks and areas, parks maintenance crews actually maintain a much smaller total area. Exhibit IV -2 lists parks and their acreages by dis- trict; the acres listed do not include the golf course, which has its own maintenAnce staff. Also, a substantial amount -of acreage in the Canyon Lakes Project area is left in its natural state, requiring little attention. Only the areas developed for athletic fields, picnic areas, and other public uses are actually main- tained. Parks maintenance personnel have classified parks into four maintenance groups, and general maintenance guidelines for each classification have been devised. Class A parks are park proper- ties in visible areas that require the highest level of mainte- nance; they are well -landscaped, include a complete irrigation IV- 2 EXHIBIT IV -2 Page 1 of 3 Lubbock Parks And Recreation LIST OF PARKS AND ACREAGE BY DISTRICT Park Acres Maxey District Tech Terrace 18.0 Indiana Ave. Medians 1.1 Preston Smith 4.3 Frank Higginbotham 23.1 George Mahon 15.2 J. B. Maxey 80.0 Dr. C. J. Wagner 8.9 C. W. Ratliff 4.8 A. B. Davis 8.5 Buster Long 22.7 Leroy Elmore 43.8 Jack Stevens 19.0 50th & Memphis Median 3.2 Vicksburg Triangle 0.1 McCullough Substation 2.0 George W. Dupree 3. 5 Wheelock 1.5 Radio Control Airport 10.0 Jan Jennings 46.2 Nursery 14.5 Horizon West 4.8 West Wind 11.0 Berl Huffman Athletic Complex 114.0 Brownfield Triangle 0.2 Whisperwood Median 4:9 Total Maxey District 465.3 EXHIBIT IV -2 Page 2 of 3 Park Acres K. N. Clapp District Garden and Arts & Clapp 94.5 Tennis Center 13.4 University Avenue 6.0 McCrummen 2.2 Stumpy Hamilton 6.6 W. A. Carlisle 4.5 Mose Hood 14.2 Rollie Burns 3.0 Lou Stubbs 8.0 Copper Rawlings 2.5 Bryan Kastman 16.0 A. M. Leftwich 28.8 David Casey 9.2 0. W. Ribble 21.0 16th & Ave. X Triangles 0.1 Earl Crow 10.5 Bill & Ann Miller 34.5 Jack Lewis 8.4 N. B. Mccullough 23.2 Berry 9.1 Water Reservoir 24.8 50th & Elgin Medians 0.3 Lowrey Field 4.5 Total Clapp District 345.3 Park Mackenzie District Aztlan Area Ernest Butler Park Canyon Rim Park Clayton Carter Park J. A. Chatham Park Civic Center Judge Walter Davies Park Estacado Field Park Guadalupe Park Guadalupe Strip Park Greenfair Manor Park Helen McLean Hodges Park O. D. Hollins Park Mackenzie State Park Quirt Ave. Median Pioneer Park Erskine & Zenith Park Site Bill Rodgers Park Will Sedberry Park Mae Simmons Park Clovis Road & University Booker T. Washington Park George C. Woods Park Yellowhouse Canyon Lakes Yellowhouse Canyon Park Total Mackenzie District Cemetery District City of Lubbock Cemetery Acres 28.0 6.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 .16.0 6.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 24.0 13:1 6.4 549.0 5.0 4.2 70.0 8.8 5.0 98.3 0.3 3.5 11.7 710.0 400.0 1,983.3 160.0 EXHIBIT IV -2 Page 3 of:3 r F system, and contain well-developed turfgrass that must be main- tained. The Garden and Arts Center and the Civic Center areas are 1 considered Class A parks. Class D parks require the least main- tenance and are typically designated as natural areas. Yellow - house Canyon Park, for example, is a Class D park where native lgrasses, wildflowers, and trees have been cultivated. Newly acquired park properties often are classified as Class D for an interim period until vegetation is established and a higher level rl of maintenance can be sustained. Class A parks, requiring the highest maintenance, account for only 7 per cent of all park acreage, while two thirds of all parks are Class B and Class C parks. Almost 26 per cent of all acreage .is designated Class D, and receives little maintenance. Administration. All parks maintenance activities are overseen by the superintendent of parks. As indicated in Exhibit IV -3, four supervisors report directly to the superintendent. One supervisor is in charge of the urban forestry crew, while a second supervisor is responsible for the activities of the specialty crew. Management of the three districts and the cemetery are divided among the other two supervisors, who schedule and oversee the work of the foremen and crews, inspect park grounds, offer training programs, and perform day-to-day administrative tasks. A budget of approximately $2.4 million supports the activities of the parks maintenance unit in fiscal 1983. The full-time, per- manent staff totals 79 budgeted positions. Park Maintenance. Park maintenance crews report to one of three work stations and are assigned to work in any of the park areas in that district. Park maintenance activities are seasonal, coinciding largely with the growing season from April to October. Workloads for tasks such as mowing and athletic field preparation increase during the prime outdoor recreation season from May through August. Specialty Crew. General maintenance of Department buildings, other structures, and park equipment is the responsibility of the 11 full-time skilled trades persons and other crew members that make up this unit. Their duties include carpentry, painting, some heating and air conditioning repair, electrical work, automotive repair, and plumbing services. The type and number of structures maintained are listed in the following table: IV -3 FIF H Z W t/� Z N uj cc 2 im. W p� v O i2 Z N cc W 0..zCL � N W 1C V O Z N aza. N EXHIBIT IV -3 T C 3 _ t V N V � v L•-4.0 CUN d tU V C m v C .— C L sv G V•— c E -c L ••— 2 •— O m •- IT m m ++ ULLS WN • V v 1 L ++ C O L NQH L� 41 L WL. N t1 id V 3 D Oma•— m VML V 4n m a m M V - 4 L G C m� W c Atto-- - E 111 •m C %D Z 0 x Cl r- 3 4) �t=i1 E�vmE 41 • • L V L NQH L� WL. Q 1— W D. N la E 41 41 V L •— m M qtOn 12 E.O E • C m� cc Lu aza 41 c� 3 4) �t=i1 E�vmE 41 Z m v L V L NQH L� WL. Q 1— W D. N la E � • r, Park Structure Number Community Centers 6 Swimming Pools 6 Senior Citizen Centers 3 Party Houses 8 Offices 2 Overseer Homes 6 Pressbox/Concession Buildings 21 Restroom/Shelter Units 17 Maintenance Buildings 5 Storage Buildings 13 Pump Houses 9 Miscellaneous Use Buildings 13 Total 109 In addition to structures listed above, parks amenities such as open air shelters and water fountains also require regular main- tenance. Structural repairs to picnic shelters, party houses, rest - rooms, and other park facilities are performed by the carpenter. An automotive repair shop with a staff of three services all vehicles and equipment for the Department. Special projects, such as setting up for particular events, are handled primarily by the 2 -person support crew; additional parks maintenance staff assist with these projects as needed. As with other activities, special project demands increase during the summer months. Indoor Recreation Community, cultural, and senior citizen center programs make up the Indoor Recreation unit, which is supported by a super- intendent of indoor recreation. There are 27 budgeted full-time staff members responsible for overseeing the indoor recreational programs. 1t Community centers. The Department operates six community centers, located throughout Lubbock. Community centers offer neighborhood children, teens, and adults a convenient setting for organized and free play, structured programs, and classes. Some special programs and classes attract residents from outside the immediate neighborhoods. Community center staff members organize activities such as team sports and simple crafts, develop schedules for classes, and supervise all participant activities occurring in the centers. R 7 IV -4 Staffs also maintain informal contact with citizens and community organizations to learn what programs are desired. Most centers have a large meeting/all-purpose room, along with several smaller class and game rooms. Activities at each community center are planned and overseen by a community center supervisor, who is also responsible for supervision and management of staff. Most supervisors are as- sisted by an one or two permanent part-time staff members with the title of assistant center supervisor. Community center supervisors report to the assistant recrea- tion supervisor. The assistant recreation supervisor and the recreation supervisor for community centers are responsible for aiding the directors with program planning, staff management, com- munity relations, and various administrative tasks. They also function as a communications link between the center staffs and the superintendent of indoor recreation. Special centers. The Department maintains and staffs the gar- den, arts, and pottery centers. Renovations are in progress at the fine arts center and Lubbock Theater Center. The garden and arts center offers flower shows, art displays, handicraft exhi- bits, and musical recitals, as well as workshops, demonstrations, and classes. Space is made available to approximately 30 organi- zations, clubs, and guilds for business meetings. During fiscal 1981, for example, 80 classes were conducted, 532 business meet- ings were held, and 56 art and flower shows and demonstrations were presented. Classes, workshops, demonstrations, and facility tours are Tffscheduled throughout the year at the pottery center. Professional and student potters use the gallery to display their work to the general public and program participants. Equipment and kilns are made available to class participants and past pottery center students. 0 D The fine arts center is being renovated to become a multi -use art center through a grant from the Lubbock Council for the Arts. When completed, the fine arts center will offer a complete photo- graphy lab with four darkrooms and a large gallery for shows and art classes. Adjacent to the fine arts center is the Lubbock Theater Center, also being renovated. Performance and rehearsal space for drama, music, and dance productions will be available to Lubbock area organizations. Senior Centers. The Department operates six senior centers as part of its senior citizen program. A wide variety of recrea- tional, cultural, administrative, and educational activities are IV 5 11 offered. Funding is provided through•a Title III nutrition grant, an information and referral grant, a transportation grant, dona- tions, and City funds. Programming for senior centers includes a mix of classes, crafts, lectures, field trips, dances, and open recreation. Over 80,000 meals were provided through the nutrition grant during fiscal 1982. The recreational supervisor for senior programs is responsible for overall management of the senior centers and the senior citi- zen program. This position, as well as two center directors and a building maintenance worker position, are City -funded; the sal- aries of the directors at the four other senior centers are paid with nutrition grant funds. Four additional positions - a secre- tary, a driver, an administrative aide, and a part-time site manager - are all grant -funded. Outdoor Recreation A superintendent of outdoor recreation heads this division, overseeing a recreation supervisor and an assistant recreation supervisor who direct athletic programs and aquatic activities. The tennis center manager also reports to the Superintendent. Programming for the unit is largely seasonal, and part-time recreation specialists are hired for particular athletic programs. Among the division's major activities, the softball program has been the most popular during the past several years. Cur- rently, about 500 teams participate in one of the Department's spring or summer sessions. Fees of $195 per team for the spring season and $175 per team for the summer season brought the Depart- ment more than $92,000 in fiscal 1982. A typical season lasts between 10 and 12 games, so each team pays about $17 per game to participate. The outdoor recreation division employs umpires and scorers for league and tournament games. Seasonal park maintenance workers, assigned to the outdoor recreation division, are respons- ible for manicuring and lining each playing field prior to a sche- duled game. Although the Department provides fields for league and tournament games, softball teams are expected to make their own arrangements for practice fields. The aquatics program includes five well as a small youth pool in Mackenzie offer lessons and recreational swimming IV -6 l! large outdoor pools, as Park. The large pools and are open extended T, I I hours and weekends from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The Department provides supervisory and lifeguard staff for the -swim- ming season. During fiscal 1983, over $36,000 accrued to the Department in summer recreational swimming fees. The daily admission fee struc- ture is shown in the following table: Pool Adult Fee Teen Fee Child Fee Maxey .90 .75 .60 K. N. Clapp .90 .75 .60 Rodgers .75 .60 .50 Woods .75 .60 .50 Mae Simmons No admission fee charged Total attendance and income data for each pool during fiscal 1983 are presented in the table below: Pool Total Attendance(a) Income(b) Maxey 28,525 $19,967.60 K. N. Clapp 14,259 10,128.50 Rodgers 8,365 4,536.95 Woods 2,995 1,604.00 Mae Simmons No figures kept None Total 54,144 $36,237.05 (a)Does not include family, pass, or learn -to -swim attendance figures. (b)Includes fees and lessons, but does not include $3,265 income from private parties. In addition to the softball and aquatic programs, the outdoor recreation unit offers basketball, volleyball, track, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, and boxing programs. Recreation staff members organize leagues and schedules for basketball and volleyball teams, hire seasonal referees and attendants, collect team fees, and maintain the facilities where games are played. Special activities sponsored by outdoor recreation staff include raft races, running races, and kite flying contests. OBSERVATIONS The Department Is Pursuing A Number Of Practical And Innovative Programs The Department is developing several new programs and proce- dures such as.the urban forestry program, the vehicle inventory IV -7 system, and a program evaluation process. The variety of programs_ and classes offered to the community has increased as well. The urban forestry program emphasizes the Department's commitment to developing a horticultural program. The vehicle inventory system being instituted by parks maintenance personnel will enable the Department to track vehicle maintenance and repair records, evalu- ate vehicle conditions, and standardize equipment retirement and purchasing. Also, the Department is formulating a program evalua- tion process by which they can effectively review both proposed ` and existing programs. The training, experience, and enthusiasm that Department staff bring to their responsibilities contribute significantly to the attractiveness and relevance of the Depart- ment's programming efforts. The Organization And Advisory Structures Of The Department Need Revision Both the top management structure and the Department's advi- sory board structure need revision. The current top management organization.of the Department is inappropriate. The one -over -one reporting relationship of the Director and Assistant Director is of questionable value, as it creates an additional management layer between the four superintendent positions and the Director. Also, the designation of the superintendent of parks position on an equal level with the other superintendents does not reflect the additional responsibilities of the position. The superinten- dent of parks manages a significantly larger staff and budget than the other superintendents; the activities of the section have a major operational impact on the entire Department. The position title does not currently reflect the level of authority and responsibility. Finally, the recent consolidation of maintenance activities for the City of Lubbock cemetery under the Department's park main- tenance responsibilities has not been reflected in the advisory board structure. Separate advisory boards for the Department and the City of Lubbock cemetery continue to require the time and attention of the Director, which leaves less time to manage the Department. Some Supervisory Positions In The Department Appear Unwarranted Two supervisory positions within the Department cannot be justified on the basis of heavy workload demands or a need to reduce excessive spans of authority. The assistant recreation T IV -8 IT 71, supervisor for community centers position within the indoor recreation division is unnecessary. Previously, the responsibil- ities of this position included supervision of the Department's summer playground program, but that program has been eliminated. Oversight of the maintenance crew assigned to upkeep of community. center facilities was considered as a responsibility to be added to the position, but these duties have been assumed effectively by a senior maintenance worker. The second overstaffed situation involves the urban forestry supervisor position and a specialty crew supervisor position, both of whom cannot be justified on the basis of present workload and staffing. The urban forestry crew supervisor has a crew of three, and the specialty crew supervisor oversees 11. The two district supervisors, on the other hand, manage crews of 29 and 41. Work performed by the urban forestry and specialty crews does not war- rant two separate supervisors. IAlthough the move to new maintenance facility headquarters for the specialty crew and the development of a new urban forestry program may justify the need for two supervisory positions in the fi short term, expected long-term workloads and projected unit staf- fing levels do not appear to require both positions. The Park Maintenance Staff Is Not Fully Productive Year -Round During the growing season from late March to mid-October, the parks maintenance crews have enough work to remain fully produc- tive, on the basis of the consultants' observations and perceived workloads. At times during the summer months, the workload exceeds maintenance crew capabilities. For the six-month period from October to March each year, however, the staff of 78 persons has far fewer parks maintenance or landscaping projects. The crews repair equipment, park benches, bleachers, and picnic tables, and perform small construction projects during the winter months and on other days throughout the year when inclement weather prohibits much outdoor work. The urban forestry crew and specialty crews, on the other hand, have significant year-round tasks, such as working in the greenhouse and the nursery. Park maintenance crews have not been trained to assist the urban forestry or other specialty crews, which would enable some park maintenance personnel to be rede- ployed during inclement weather or winter months. No summary records have been compiled on the park maintenance staff's winter activities that would indicate the volume of work produced. Determining whether the crews are fully productive 12 F IV -9 17 months per year, therefore, is difficult.. However, available information indicates that this large group of employees is not assigned appropriately during the winter months, and all opportun- ities have not been taken to reduce underemployed personnel. Formal Quality Standards For Park Maintenance Are Imprecise Guidelines developed for parks maintenance activities are too vague to provide the division with measurable quality standards for mowing, pruning, spraying, irrigating, and maintaining facili- ties. Crews now operate according to general benchmarks, such as the guideline that parks should be mowed every two weeks during the summer, and "as needed" otherwise. Need is undefined, and the frequency or level of effort expended is not considered. In the absence of explicit policies or measurable criteria, the superintendent of parks has no formal means to establish or justify suitable performance standards. As a result, clearly defined goals are lacking, priorities are not established, and the division cannot objectively assess its performance in the area of parks maintenance. More importantly, predicted performance stan- dards are not available to determine appropriate staffing levels and deployment. h Labor -Intensive .Park Maintenance Activities Have Been Reduced By Using Herbicides Park maintenance crews have reduced the time required to main- tain certain park areas by using a variety of herbicides. Conse- quently, the expensive, time-consuming task of trimming by hand or with small, motorized trimmers is minimized. Herbicides can be applied quickly around trees and shrubs, beneath fences, and along walkways and other structures, and the effects last longer than trimming. Less toxic herbicides must be used to eliminate weeds or grasses around trees, requiring two applications per season; more powerful chemicals can be used around fences and structures, and require only one annual application. Cemetery Fees Are Too Low The fees currently charged by the City of Lubbock Cemetery are lower than those of the other cemeteries within Lubbock, as shown in the table below. IT C11 Charges Service Fee - Grave Site Service Fee Weekends j City of Lubbock $200-$400 $150 275 $ 200 350 Resthaven 325- 790 Peaceful Gardens 300- 500 200 250-300 The City of Lubbock Cemetery is undercutting fees charged by other cemeteries, while operating at a loss of over $144,000 per year. This figure does not reflect the labor costs of an additional crew of seven park maintenance workers, who are assigned to the Mackenzie District but are actually working at the cemetery; the labor costs and fringe benefits for these seven positions are approximately $81,000. As a result of this deficit, Lubbock tax- payers are substantially subsidizing the cemetery fees being charged. I.' The Benefits Of Retaining A Large, Full -Time Construction Crew Appear Doubtful The Department has not determined the actual costs of main- taining its own construction crew to perform planning and develop- ment projects. Down time, overhead costs, and benefits are typi- cally not considered when evaluating the cost of retaining the crew. In fiscal 1982, approximately $62,000 in City funds was allo- cated to planning and development activities; this figure includes $33,500 of capital expenses. The budget does not include the direct and indirect labor costs of the construction crew, esti- mated at $226,000. The costs of the construction crew are attri- buted to a particular construction project wherever possible. Down time, unscheduled time, and indirect labor costs for com- munity development fund projects are absorbed by the City. No figures are available to indicate the City's costs. In the past, additional funds from other sources have been transferred into the planning and development budget to handle expenses. Records have Inot been kept on projected and actual costs of key maintenance and construction projects. 91 The availability of the construction crew, and the need to keep it active, have usually eliminated subcontracting as a viable alternative. Subcontracting has been used only to a limited degree, primarily when the skill level of the crew has not been seen as adequate for a given job. Projects are usually scheduled to correspond with available crew time. Formal comparisons are IV -11 F11 rarely made between the cost to subcontract and the actual cost to perform the work in-house. Moreover, the tangible and intangible costs of construction delays are not projected. As a result, work on projects such as the softball complex has been delayed, antici- pated costs were exceeded, and other City department crews were called in to provide costly but unbilled assistance. In addition, softball teams were inconvenienced, less than maximum use was made of available facilities, and public reaction was negative. Selected Recreational Programs Are Not Self -Supporting The Department has begun to evaluate the costs of conducting recreational programs, and it has taken promising preliminary steps toward developing cost recovery practices. Fees are charged for recreational programs such as softball, basketball, track, volleyball, and swimming. In some instances, fees provide suffi- cient revenue to cover the costs of the programs; fees for soft- ball and basketball, for example, cover at least those costs directly attributable to the programs. The tennis program covered direct costs in fiscal 1982 for the first time. j' Some other recreational programs are clearly not recovering J their costs. The Golden Gloves boxing program offered by the Department, for example, provides facilities and a supervisor to all interested participants. Although the program is under an independent operating authority, no fees are charged, so that all operating costs are borne by the Department. In particular, the supervisor's salary appears to be an inappropriate Department expense. Fees charged to participants in the summer track program i cover only the costs of track meet entry fees, sanctioning, and awards; no other costs, such as the salaries for coaches, are recovered, and participants last season numbered fewer than 80. The aquatics program generated revenues in fiscal 1983 of almost $40,000. Salary costs alone, however, totaled almost $60,000; chemical and maintenance and repair costs were an additional $25,000. Thus, less than half of the program's direct operating costs were recovered through fees. The inability to determine costs accurately has made program pricing and promotion difficult. More importantly, the Department has failed to address the problem of programs that are clearly not self-supporting or to develop a policy concerning programs that it is willing to subsidize. If it does not improve its ability to calculate the total costs of programs, the Department may forego significant opportunities to adjust its fee structures to reflect costs. I 71, IV -12 0 H Procedures For Determining The Need For Communit enior Centers, And S al Activity Centers Are Centers, ncomplete Five criteria apparently exist for assessing the need to open and maintain community, senior, and special activity centers: population, geographic distribution, the availability of capital and operating funds, the presence of an existing building, and political and community influence. The Department has not devel- oped more formal procedures, guidelines, or criteria to justify the opening of new centers, assess the appropriateness of the mix of centers being provided, or justify the continuance or closing of existing centers. Available data on center activities is of limited value. Attendance figures vary widely among centers, depending on the classes being offered, the location, and specific programming. The lack of adequate evaluative procedures hampers, the Depart- ment. Several community centers and senior centers are being con- sidered for potential closing or consolidation. The Department is considering opening a crafts center and is evaluating the success of the pottery program. The fine arts and theater arts centers are opening in the near future. In each instance, the Department lacks specific guidelines and criteria to evaluate program success and determine appropriate financial tradeoffs. Some Job Titling Is Not Consistent, And Selected Pay Scales Do Not Reflect Skill Requirements Or Responsibility Levels The job titles and corresponding salary classifications for several positions in the Department do not reflect the skills, job requirements, and responsibility levels associated with the posi- tion. Two staff members are currently classed in lesser positions but working at jobs requiring higher job responsibilities. The acting program coordinator retains the title and salary of a com- munity center director, and the responsibilities of an assistant recreation supervisor in outdoor recreation are being filled by an individual classed as a senior maintenance worker. The permanent part-time position of assistant community center director is currently rated at an hourly rate of $2.89. The Department has had difficulty in finding qualified people to be in charge of community center activities at such a low wage, and in keeping people who are hired into the position. Among the senior center and community center supervisor posi- tions, salary classifications vary, although the responsibilities of each position are similar. Discrepancies do not appear to IV -13 R� result from differences in the number of positions or size of the center managed. The Department Is Not Deriving Full Benefit.From Employees Living In Park Residences Currently, the Department maintains six park residences in five parks. Employees and their families living in these houses pay only nominal rents, such as $35 to $50 per month, with one house renting for $140; utilities are paid by the Department. The financial benefits derived by employees from these arrangements, however, are not considered when setting salary and benefit levels. Moreover, the Department has not established clear-cut responsibilities for these employees, such as providing security at night for surrounding parkland facilities. As a result, the Department is missing opportunities to enhance park security eco- nomically or to reduce personnel costs by recognizing the full benefits afforded employees. RECOMMENDATIONS Changes Should Be Made In The Department's Organization t'I And Advisory Board Structure A recommended organization chart for the Department is pre- sented in Exhibit IV 4. As the exhibit indicates, a second assis- tant director position should be created from the superintendent of parks position, to be titled Assistant Director of Parks; the existing Assistant Director's position title should be changed to Assistant Director of Recreation, to signify the division of responsibilities. The recommended change in titles should better reflect the equal levels of responsibility attributable to these two positions. The superintendent of indoor recreation and the superintendent of outdoor recreation should report to the Assistant Director of Recreation. The superintendent of planning and development should report to the Director; this position provides executive -level staff support to the Director for all the Department's planning and development activities. j Also, the Department's advisory board and the City of Lubbock cemetery advisory board should be consolidated to reflect the con- solidation of operations. One member of the cemetery advisory board should become a member of the Department's board, to repre- sent the cemetery board's interests and retain the experience of its members. TtIV -14 W H � Q � Q N H � O 2 O oQC d 2 W O[ 0. W O 92 ZWV NWOQ. y W 4A N W W W V, u z L'i W S i - z 00 W O CcW OW. O W Ifl F F- IA 2 co us 1 Y 1 L czs N u 0. 41 UJ Z a Iz4 oc2 v ~W = g am o+ u 6 Y U V t L0. UD Y C V L 0.1& a.0 O Y o u O yOz ^v O2• z d CE1 1-u» « 0. m Y cu > O VI coo 0e. C La ia e • W CL WW W 0.O C ♦ cn IR F F- 2 co us 2a czs N u 0. N UJ Z a 41 ~W = g am L • C a e a Y Y ate— I to L0. UD 1A C0t 0.1& — as u yOz 00. aQ Q Q J 0. O N t, EXHIBIT IV -4 Y io u O O A z — 0- N W d Y 4 W L OC N u 0.' • u c a .t L N !- ZCD N CL ♦� L N 12 Q— a uU% �• L— Y C� LM e N C a i O M C L L • tL 0. 2= ♦ Y Y C • C 3s S u E c o s L Li W F.@ 0. 1"A u-� 3 c — i N C�Yu u p O ii+ L— i.-. E ye az— CL1p W R� : W� a 0.2_0. V Y Y Oy N x :F LS 1 1 La W c �„ 1 V co cgqcL�M a W T i v L • v 0. 2 O. L �cn uEu2CEy v Y Y Y S 2a N u ON N 29 Y ate— I to _ Nv 4J au y21 O L y 0. O N OCN C Ncii> ♦ L �tm 1A Cii OL Z U's0 1— d'W Y W C L W O O u • Q N u N 10 i u c a .t L N !- ZCD N CL ♦� L N 12 Q— a uU% �• L— Y C� LM e N C a i O M C L L • tL 0. 2= ♦ Y Y C • C 3s S u E c o s L Li W F.@ 0. 1"A u-� 3 c — i N C�Yu u p O ii+ L— i.-. E ye az— CL1p W R� : W� a 0.2_0. V Y Y Oy N x :F LS 1 1 La W c �„ 1 V co cgqcL�M a W T i v L • v 0. 2 O. L �cn uEu2CEy v Y Y Y S T 7 Selected Staff Responsibilities Should Be Consolidated Within parks maintenance, the number of supervisors should be decreased from four to three by consolidating oversight of the urban forestry crew and the specialty crew. While their functions are distinct from one another, the size of either unit is too small by itself to justify a separate senior -level supervisor. Responsibilities of the other two parks maintenance supervisors are substantially greater. The position of assistant supervisor for community centers within indoor recreation should also be eliminated, given the duplication of duties between this position and the recreation supervisor responsible for community centers. Responsibility for facilities maintenance should continue to be assigned to the senior maintenance worker rather than the assistant supervisor. Under this arrangement, community center directors would report directly to the supervisor of community centers. They should also have some responsibility for overseeing maintenance of their facilities. The senior maintenance worker should continue to provide general direction, such as determining working hours and assigning staff. He should assist in delivering supplies to all the centers and should conduct brief inspections while on site. However, the facilities maintenance staff should also be accountable to the director of the center where they have been assigned. Center directors should provide daily guidance concern- ing the work to be completed or deferred. Discontinuing these two positions will reduce annual expendi- tures for salaries and benefits by approximately $42,000. The Proportion Of Part -Time To Full -Time Park Maintenance Workers Should Be Changed The workload for parks maintenance crews is heaviest during the peak growing and activity months of the year. In the winter months, there are few weeds to spray or cut, and less grass to mow or irrigate. Park maintenance staffing should reflect this sea- sonal variation in workload as closely as possible. The number of park maintenance workers should be decreased by eight full-time positions, a reduction of approximately 10 per cent. This de- crease should be achieved by reducing the number of workers in the Mackenzie and cemetery district by three, in the K. N. Clapp dis- trict by two positions, and in the Maxey district by three posi- tions. I V-15 I To meet peak workload demands better, additional seasonal help should be hired during the summer months. Primary responsibili- ties of seasonal crew members should be picking up trash and mow- ing grass or weeds. The wage rate paid to seasonal employees should be about $4.50 per hour, to ensure that the Department is able to hire individuals with the necessary skills to operate its. equipment. Sixteen seasonal employees should be hired for about 20 weeks, from April through August. Eight seasonal employees. should be assigned to the Mackenzie and cemetery district, and four employees each should be assigned to the Maxey and K. N. Clapp districts. This change would result in a staffing level for parks main- tenance of 70 full-time employees, plus a total of 44 seasonal employees during the summer months. The 44 seasonal employees translates into approximately 14.4 full -time -equivalent workers. The reduction in the number of full-time park maintenance worker positions should result in annual salary and benefit savings of $92,000. Offsetting these savings is the cost of hiring the addi- tional seasonal employees, approximately $58,000, for a net annual savings of $34,000. Funds would also be needed for additional mowing equipment to be used by the seasonal employees; the esti- mated one-time cost is $25,000. By increasing the number of seasonal workers, the workload for parks maintenance workers should be smoothed, staffing levels should reflect actual workload, and the maintenance effort should be improved. To make better use of their time, full-time park maintenance workers should be trained to assist the urban forestry and specialty crews during winter months and inclement weather. This additional training should increase the overall skill level in the unit and provide greater flexibility in the deployment of park maintenance workers. Specific Park Maintenance Requirements Should Be Defined For Established Maintenance Levels The Department should develop specific, measurable criteria that reflect its park maintenance standards. Maintenance guide- lines for each park should include specifications of: - Areas within parks to receive high, medium or low levels of grooming - Frequency by season, determined r of parks maintenance in accordance with to be appropriate T IV -16 activities for each area, the grooming level - Types and frequency of specialized maintenance duties, such as operating and maintaining tennis courts, softball fields, and soccer fields - Labor hours required to provide maintenance activities at the recommended frequency level - Distribution of labor hours by park area, park, and district. Specific maintenance requirements f developed by supervisors in conjunction detailed guidelines should provide park clearly defined goals and be the basis tion of crew workloads for all seasons. with scheduled maintenance work over ti ment to modify its schedules and identi Cemetery Fees Should Be Increased or each park should be with their foremen. These maintenance crews with for a realistic determina- Also, comparing actual me would enable the Depart- fy problem areas. The Lubbock Cemetery should increase its fees to bring them more in line with other area cemeteries. The Lubbock Cemetery serves as a burial place for indigents, and the costs associated with these burials should continue to be borne by the City. The City should not, however, be subsidizing the burial costs of Lubbock citizens who can afford to purchase grave sites, nor should the City be undercutting the fees charged by private ceme- teries. The charges for a burial site should be increased by $100, the service fees should be increased by $50. The increased revenue from these changes should be $40,000 to $50,000 each year. The Lubbock Cemetery should not be expected to be a pro- fit-making enterprise, but more of the maintenance costs for the cemetery should be recovered from fees. The Construction Crew Should Be Discontinued The 12 positions assigned to the construction crew should be discontinued, and the Department should use outside contractors to perform construction projects. Bids should be solicited from con- tractors for each proposed project to ensure that bids are compe- titive. The superintendent of planning and development should be responsible.for evaluating the bids, selecting the contractor, administering the contract, and overseeing the actual construction work. No net savings from discontinuing the construction crew can be clearly identified, but several operating improvements will re- sult. By using outside contractors for its projects, the Depart- ment will gain increased flexibility. Projects can be scheduled IV -17 Most Recreation Programs Should Be Offered On A Self -Support- ing Basis Recreational activities generally should be offered only on a self-supporting basis. The administrative costs of indoor and outdoor recreation personnel should be incorporated into activity cost calculations, as these staff members offer supervision, coor- dinate programs, work with community groups, volunteers, and sea- sonal staff, and provide program and staff continuity. An effort should be made to allocate these costs among activities in propor- tion to the time committed to each one. Once program costs.have been determined and participation levels have been estimated, a fee structure to cover these program costs should be developed and reevaluated periodically. Automating program cost calculation would provide the Department with more timely information and would enable Department staff members to track historical changes in costs and to anticipate future cost and fee trends. The Golden Gloves boxing program and the summer track program are examples of programs that the Department should review care- fully to determine whether continuation is appropriate. Because the benefits of the boxing program accrue to a relatively small number of people, the boxing supervisor position should be discon- tinued, unless a boxing fee structure can be developed to fully cover his salary. Savings from discontinuingthis position would be approximately $18,600 annually in salary and benefits. The total aquatics program should be evaluated carefully, in light of the failure of revenues to match even direct operating costs. Admission fees should be examined and anticipated main- tenance and repair costs for all pools should be estimated to determine whether the Department can continue operating all pools. Regular maintenance work should be contracted out, and the position of full-time pool maintenance worker should be elimi- nated, with net annual savings of approximately $5,000.. The fee structure for swimming lessons, now equal to the cost of daily admission to the pool, should be increased to cover all direct costs. Students should sign up in advance for a series of lessons to be offered at a single fee. A deposit of at least one half the session fee should be paid at the time of enrollment. F IV -18 without the need to keep the Department's construction crew util- ized. Down time and cost overruns will be borne by the con- tractor, rather than the Department. In addition, the total con- struction costs for each project can be determined before the rr start of the work. Most Recreation Programs Should Be Offered On A Self -Support- ing Basis Recreational activities generally should be offered only on a self-supporting basis. The administrative costs of indoor and outdoor recreation personnel should be incorporated into activity cost calculations, as these staff members offer supervision, coor- dinate programs, work with community groups, volunteers, and sea- sonal staff, and provide program and staff continuity. An effort should be made to allocate these costs among activities in propor- tion to the time committed to each one. Once program costs.have been determined and participation levels have been estimated, a fee structure to cover these program costs should be developed and reevaluated periodically. Automating program cost calculation would provide the Department with more timely information and would enable Department staff members to track historical changes in costs and to anticipate future cost and fee trends. The Golden Gloves boxing program and the summer track program are examples of programs that the Department should review care- fully to determine whether continuation is appropriate. Because the benefits of the boxing program accrue to a relatively small number of people, the boxing supervisor position should be discon- tinued, unless a boxing fee structure can be developed to fully cover his salary. Savings from discontinuingthis position would be approximately $18,600 annually in salary and benefits. The total aquatics program should be evaluated carefully, in light of the failure of revenues to match even direct operating costs. Admission fees should be examined and anticipated main- tenance and repair costs for all pools should be estimated to determine whether the Department can continue operating all pools. Regular maintenance work should be contracted out, and the position of full-time pool maintenance worker should be elimi- nated, with net annual savings of approximately $5,000.. The fee structure for swimming lessons, now equal to the cost of daily admission to the pool, should be increased to cover all direct costs. Students should sign up in advance for a series of lessons to be offered at a single fee. A deposit of at least one half the session fee should be paid at the time of enrollment. F IV -18 The deposit should be nonrefundable except under extraordinary circumstances. As a result of these changes, pool managers should be able to plan their staffing requirements more precisely to ensure that instructors are fully utilized. The Department should develop policy guidelines regarding what programs and activities it is willing to subsidize - for example, programs that offer life-saving skills, such as swimming lessons. Subsidies also could be provided to programs in their introductory phases, or to special events that appeal to a wide audience, such as the Santaland presentation. In any event, clear, consistent criteria should be established to distinguish programs eligible for temporary or permanent subsidies. Adequate Guidelines For Determining The Number And Distribu- tion Of Community Centers, Senior Centers, And Special Activity Centers Should Be Developed Guidelines should be established to assess communities' rela- tive needs for centers. Criteria for opening, maintaining, or closing a center should include: community population and age � mix, ongoing costs of center operations (including physical main- tenance and staffing costs), proximity to other Department -sup- ported centers, availability of reasonable alternative programs, and perceived level of community interest and importance. The Department should use criteria such as these and others they develop to assess existing centers' performance routinely. Centers should be considered as a group; an overall balance should be maintained between the three types - community, senior, and specialty centers - but centers should be evaluated across types. In particular, these criteria should be used to assess the performance of the Copper Rawlings community and senior centers, which have had only limited participation. Also, the criteria should be used to evaluate the success of the pottery center, to trade the benefits of that program off against the wider appeal of a crafts center, and to assess the potential community interest in a fine arts and theater arts centers. If the Department's assess- ment of these and other centers does not demonstrate either a clear need or satisfactory performance on at least one criterion, the center should be closed. Decisions to open new centers, such as the crafts center or the theater and fine arts center, should be based on all appropriate criteria, which should bring con- tinuity and rigor to the review process for alternative sites. u " IV -19 I Adjustments Should Be Made In Job Titling And Pay Scales For Selected Positions The pay scales and job titles for several positions within the Department should be adjusted to reflect skill requirements or responsibility levels. In particular, the acting program coordi- nator position should be made permanent, at an annual cost of approximately $32,000. An assistant outdoor recreation supervisor position should replace the senior maintenance worker position, which is an inappropriate title for the work requirements. r Also, the hourly rate for an assistant community center director should be increased to enable the Department to attract and retain better qualified individuals. A wage rate roughly equivalent to that of a senior citizen program aide (currently at $3.35 per hour) should be considered. Also, parity should be established among the center supervisors, given their roughly equal responsibilities. The total additional expenditure to institute all these recommended changes should not exceed $5,000, not including the cost of adding the program coordinator. �^ The Department Should Modify Its Current Policy Regarding iI Park Residences Rental charges should be reviewed annually and adjusted to Treflect reasonable local market values for comparable rental units. Employee -tenants should be responsible for paying all utility costs associated with park residences; the Department should save approximately $8,000 by adopting this alternative. Employees living on park property should be responsible for }�- maintenance of grounds surrounding their residences. Addition- ally, they should be assigned specific responsibilities for park security. These responsibilities might include closing playing field gates daily at dusk and driving through the park property after closing time to be sure all persons have left the premises. The Department should compensate employees appropriately for per- forming these tasks. ui 0 IV -20 No Text 0 u V - STREETS This chapter discusses the Street Department's maintenance and reconstruction activities in Lubbock. General background is pre- sented first, followed by specific observations and recommenda- tions for improvement. BACKGROUND The City Engineer supervises street maintenance and recon- struction, in addition to his oversight responsibilities for City engineering services. As Superintendent of Streets, the City Engineer has organized maintenance services into two major operat- ing units: Paved street maintenance, which also includes concrete construction activity and storm sewer maintenance - Unpaved street and alley maintenance, which also includes paved street cleaning. The paved streets operating unit is budgeted for 34 positions, and the unpaved streets operating unit is budgeted for 25, for a total of 59 personnel, in addition to the City Engineer and an adminis- trative support group of three. Paved Street Maintenance The paved streets staff group of 34 maintains the condition of nearly 700 miles of concrete and asphalt paved streets and alleys; provides snow and ice removal; cleans storm sewers and cisterns; and performs concrete construction for various City projects. Two equipment maintenance personnel support this operating unit. Exhibit V-1 presents the current organization of the operating unit. The fiscal 1983 budget for these functions approximates $1.6 million. A section supervisor heads the operating unit and is respon- sible for planning daily activities and directing staff; he also performs administrative tasks such as preparing time cards, daily records of work activity, and personnel evaluations. Two other supervisors assist the unit supervisor in these duties; a field supervisor oversees seal coating, hand crack sealing, permanent and temporary patching, and equipment maintenance; a foreman is the working supervisor of the concrete construction crew. Routine scheduled maintenance of paved streets consists of patching potholes, refinishing pavement cuts made by utilities and 7 0 L V EXHIBIT V-1 • other construction firms, and cleaning storm sewer catch basins. Permanent patching is done by a four -person crew, and temporary patching is done by a two -member crew plus other maintenance per- sonnel, depending on seasonal and scheduled priorities. The con- crete construction crew completes pavement cuts, and two vactor operators work to keep the City's small storm sewer system and its cisterns free of debris and dust. Preventive maintenance efforts include crack sealing and seal coating. Sealing cracks in the streets with a nonporous material prevents moisture seepage and subsequent pavement buckling; a four -person crew applies this material. Seal coating places,a new layer of asphalt on a street to delay the street's deterioration; the City employs one 11 -member crew to seal coat residential and collector streets, and it contracts with private firms to seal coat thoroughfares, the most heavily travelled streets in Lubbock. In addition to its street -related work, the concrete construc- tion crew assists other City departments when needed. For ex- ample, this crew played a major role in constructing the City's new softball.complex. Routine unit work generally originates on the basis of his- torical activity patterns, verbal orders issued by the Superin- tendent, or telephone complaints from citizens. In determining how work is to be completed, a priority system has evolved. The first priority is to ensure safe conditions for the public; the second priority is to support the activities of other City depart- ments; and the third priority is to continue normal section opera- tions. Historically, unit crews used informal methods to keep track of pending work, to set priorities for pending projects, and to account for the cost of the material andmanpower required to perform the work. However, the Superintendent and his administra- tive staff group have now developed methods to record the work patternsand work volume of this unit. iF Unpaved Street And Alley Maintenance This operating unit includes 15 staff members who maintain the 430 miles of alleys and 50 miles of unpaved streets in Lubbock, and a 9 -person group that sweeps and cleans streets. Exhibit V-2 illustrates the organization of unpaved street, alley, and street cleaning maintenance activities. A section supervisor oversees the combined unit, and a field supervisor presides over each function. Unpaved street and alley maintenance is performed by blading the streets and alleys period- ically and by adding a limestone material known as caliche to T V- 2 1 EXHIBIT V-2 <J . LL 0 zzw 0 Q W '.t z a N LU Z i tQ.7NQ c H cr— v 0 ^ Y CA i� M v I— Q W C m zap � c yL 3 wzJ (YQ nN F -z W OLA0.0 E O: = J WUJ ' ^v V U cc ti W W Q H W L IQ +a 0 NCL N 3 N C ` L r fi Lu Z O Z WCM p N W LU WZ N V W W Nt=n ~nW.0 N IT v d . O U L L +1 C . L C T E in 0 0 L 0 " CL Z u O L C 3 I L 40+ M 0 O n N 41 0 0 ion N nN W L 6MIC L L J W LI) d m 0 41 0 W W I Cf— L�p Gd LL d CL 1= 2 F- G� d N O N 4+ L 44- M 0 0 0 3 3 41 m N LL J I 9 depressions in the roadways. Blading activity is assigned by quadrant to four crew members; a fifth blade operator heads a special projects crew whose primary service area is south Lubbock. Three dump truck drivers and two front loader operators support the blading activity, with one front loader operator assigned to the City's caliche pit. Blading is scheduled monthly for most unpaved streets and alleys. About $510,000 is allocated for unpaved street and alley maintenance in fiscal 1983. Street cleaning is performed to maintain the appearance and safety of Lubbock's streets. Five sweeper operators and a three- member disposal crew, overseen by a field supervisor, provide street and municipal parking area sweeping and other cleaning services, such as dead tree limb trimming and traffic accident cleanups. One sweeper operator works at night to clean the down- town business district and Texas Tech University area, taking about one month to complete this cycle once. The other four olierators work as a group during the daytime, and proceed from neighborhood to neighborhood, leaving accumulated debris at designated locations for clean-up by the disposal crew. The day- time crew's objective is to sweep each Lubbock street at least annually. The fiscal 1983 street cleaning budget is approximately $265,000. OBSERVATIONS The Department Has Begun To Track Workload And Cost Data Accurately Over the past year, the Superintendent of Steets and his administrative staff group have established tracking systems to record activities completed and the resources required to complete them. For example, the labor, equipment, and material costs asso- ciated with a specific crack sealing or street sweeping project can now be computed, since each direct cost is now associated with a specific project number reflecting a Departmental service. Ini- tially, this information is being accumulated manually to build an historical data base and to review seasonal and annual activity trends. In the future, the information may also be used for work planning and scheduling. The Department's ability to collect use- ful information about the services it performs and their costs will be a useful tool for improving the effectiveness and effi- ciency of work completed and for evaluating the performance of individual staff members and crews. V- 3 Maintenance Requirements Are Not Defined Systematically. The Department does not target its resources on projects with the greatest need for maintenance. Instead, work is assigned on the basis of incomplete information on street conditions or re- peating historical work patterns that do not take account of cur- rent urrent needs. For example, street cleaning crews are routed to clean each residential section once a year, rather than striving to provide a uniform level of cleanliness on all City streets. Storm sewers are cleaned once a year rather than servicing the cisterns most in need of cleaning. All unpaved alleys and streets are bladed once a month, without apparent regard to need. These procedures are not based on a systematic assessment of street and alley conditions, using standard criteria for determining the degree of deterioration and the speed with which it has occurred. The Department attempts to extend its knowledge of street con- ditions by assigning some work crews to patrol for problems when their workloads are light. This procedure, however, does not en- able the Department to develop a comprehensive file on street and alley conditions. As a result, resources are expended on projects that do not always provide the highest or most immediate benefits. The Department's efforts in this area did improve somewhat in the spring of 1983, when the need to project costs for street repairs became critical due to the severe winter storm damage that. occurred in early 1983. A more comprehensive evaluation of condi- tions was undertaken, and more complete recommendations were made than had been the case historically. It is not clear, however, that the Department will repeat this thorough approach in the future. Staffing Levels Are Not Varied With Seasonal Workload Demands Department activities vary significantly by season. For example, the amount of streets seal coated by the Department's crew ranged from zero in January, February, March, and April of 1982, to 157,153 square yards in August 1982. The number of square yards crack sealed in 1982 ranged from 26,668 in February to 131,378 in August. Even the miles of streets cleaned varies significantly, from 665 in October 1981 to 11,106 in April 1982. Of the 24 discrete activities the Department engages in, only 12 are being conducted in December and January of each year, while all 24 occur in May and 23 occur in June. In short, the Depart- ment's range and volume of activities differ substantially depend- ing on the time of year. 0 V- 4 T k Staffing levels within the Department, however, do not reflect these workload variations. In fact, no part-time or seasonal employees are assigned to the Department. The Department attempts to offset this situation by encouraging employees to take leave and vacation time during off-peak periods, by assigning personnel whose workloads are light to assist crews whose workloads are heavy, and by directing crews to patrol for work when they are not busy. These procedures are partially successful, but they do not enable the Department to staff its work in the most effective way. A significant amount of productive time is usually lost in the winter months, and substantial overtime expenditures ($46,560 budgeted for fiscal 1983) must be allotted to meet peak season workload demands. �+ Expertise and experience are needed to perform a number of IDepartmental jobs, which precludes the use of seasonal employees in some job categories. Other job categories, though, do not entail these constraints, and could be filled by part-time or sea- sonal employees as effectively as by full-time workers, at signi- ficantly lower cost. The Department has not examined these alter- natives thoroughly. 0 Some Crew Sizes Are Too Large During the course of the study, several instances were ob- served where crew sizes were larger than necessary. The patching crews of three and four persons were observed, when the work could have been performed more efficiently by two persons. Repair of paving cuts requires a variable crew size depending upon the size of the cut, but the concrete construction crew assigned five per- sons regardless of the cut's size. The crack seal crew has four assigned crew members, although the work only requires a crew of three. Because maximum production and efficiency result from consis- tently performing work with the minimum crew size that is safe, these larger crews reduce productivity. While adding personnel to a crew may increase production, this increase usually is not pro- portional to the increase in crew size. For example, increasing a patch crew from two to three persons may permit additional pot- holes to be filled, but that additional productivity will not be 50 per cent, which is the increase in crew size and cost. Crew sizes are excessive, in part, because the Department has hired full-time personnel to handle most peak workload demands. When these demands do not exist, the Department needs fewer crews, with the result that minimum -size crews are combined into larger, less productive units. V- 5 I The Winter Pothole Filling Procedure Is Inefficient The Department's crews fill potholes with temporary patching materials in cold months, and then refill the hole in warmer months with permanent patching materials. The Department has not explored the use of an all -season, permanent patching material that would eliminate this need to duplicate work. Although the all -season material is somewhat more expensive, it results in sub- rTstantial labor savings because holes must only be filled once. The Caliche Pit Does Not Require A Full -Time Operator No clearly documented need exists for a full-time operator at the caliche pit, but one person is assigned to that position. Dump truck drivers could fill their vehicles with caliche when necessary, using the front loader at the pit. The Department Fails To Recover The Full Cost Of Services Provided To Others Pavement cut repairs and other work performed by the concrete construction crew are potential sources of additional Department income. The reimbursement schedule for pavement cut repairs implemented in August 1982 is based only on the direct costs of work completed. Department personnel estimate that additional indirect costs amounting to 34 per cent of direct costs are incur- red, ncurred, but none of this amount is included in the schedule rates. This omission will result in the loss of approximately $6,800 in fiscal 1983, according to the Department's revenue estimate. Also, the Department maintains a "no charge" policy for con- struction work for other City departments, regardless of whether the other department is funded as an expenditure department or as an enterprise department. Since enterprise departments serve only their customers and not the whole City population, the effect of the no charge policy is to subsidize the enterprise departments and their customers with tax revenue intended to benefit all Lubbock citizens. This subsidy cannot be estimated on the basis of available information, but the Department is missing an oppor-. tunity to derive additional revenue for itself by not charging for the full cost of construction. RECOMMENDATIONS The Department Should Prepare An Annual Street Repair And Maintenance Plan The Department should conduct an inventory of each street sec- tion to prepare the plan, using existing street facility records, 7 V- 6 I W engineering drawings of street cross sections, and visual inspec- tion of street sections. This inventory should be conducted primarily by Street Department supervisory personnel. The inven- tory would identify the following, at a minimum, for each street section: - The street section number - Description and length in miles - The year of construction - The surface and shoulder type and width - The traffic count on the street - The number and types of sign posts, markings, manholes, catch basins, and so forth. Developing this information in a computer -readable format would ultimately simplify updating and listing. Once the inventory is complete, quality standards should be developed on the basis of explicit goals for the level of service to be provided. For example, the goals of the Department for cer- tain types of streets might be to (1) protect the investment of the City; (2) reduce or eliminate street hazards; and (3) provide a safe, smooth surface without significant defects. The goals should recognize the overall priorities and financial resources of the City, as different resources will be required to provide vary- ing levels of maintenance. Once the goals have been developed, specific quality criteria should be established for grading street and alley surfaces. Examples.of such criteria are: broken pavement edges; potholes or similar defects that should be repaired; ponding at a depth greater than one inch; surface bleeding that represents a signifi- cant hazard; and so forth. These criteria should be tied directly to the specified service level goals, and each criterion should be assigned a weight (for example, one to five). Such weights should reflect the perceived importance of the goal to which the criter- ion is related. For example, if safety is a primary goal of the City street maintenance effort, the criteria related to that goal should be assigned a higher weight than criteria linked to other, less important goals. Each street section should then be evaluated on the basis of the quality criteria. To ensure uniformity, simple judgments, V-7 like "good," "fair," and "poor," should be used in evaluations. The Superintendent should take steps to ensure that persons charged with this evaluation are thoroughly familiar with the meanings and implications of the criteria used. When the evaluation has been completed, an overall street sec- tion ranking should be developed. The ranking would establish priorities for particular street sections to receive reconstruc- tion, repair, or maintenance. A numerical value should be assigned to the evaluation (for example, zero might be assigned to a street section rated as "good" on a criterion, one might equal "fair," and two might equal "poor"). That value should be multi-. plied by the weight assigned to the criterion. A listing of the street sections on the basis of overall rankings should then be - prepared. Using street section rankings and work standards, the Superin- tendent of Streets and his section supervisors should review each street section to prepare a plan for the repair and maintenance activities to be carried out during the coming year. Although the plan should rely on rankings, the Superintendent should be able to adjust them on the basis of his own judgment. The plan would sum- marize the street sections that should be repaired and the activi- ties (for example, reconstruction of an intersection orlowering of a manhole) that are needed to repair them, as well as the esti- mated cost to complete the repairs. The number of street sections to be included in the plan should be constrained by the overall estimates provided by the City budget for street repair and main- tenance for the coming year. The plan thus developed should shape the Department's budget request for street repair and maintenance. Following the City Council review and approval of the street repair and maintenance budget, the plan should be revised as required, and specific pro- ject orders should be developed, using planning and scheduling procedures described later in this chapter. Routine Maintenance Should Be On The Basis Of Observable Need Street cleaning, storm sewer and cistern maintenance, and alley and unpaved street blading should not be scheduled according to the arbitrary standards currently in place. Instead, the Depart- ment should determine where problems of cleanliness or deteriora- tion are likely to occur most frequently, and it should assign its maintenance crews primarily to these areas, while establishing second -level priorities for the periods when work slackens. C V-8 For example, the concerted cleaning of catch basins should follow periods of high winds, and periodic cleaning efforts should be confined to locations that, for reasons of design or location, are not effectively self-cleaning. Also, the Department should adopt a "level of cleanliness" approach to its street sweeping work. Streets should be swept only when a predetermined volume of debris or dust accumulates. Using this approach, some streets in Lubbock would be swept quite frequently. Others may not be swept for several years, but the overall appearance and cleanliness of streets would be enhanced. Finally, alley blading should be intensive following rainstorms, which do damage, but it should diminish during periods of dry. weather. Certain sections of the City with documented problems should receive more attention than others, as well. Providing service in accordance with needs would reduce time spent in unproductive activity and would enhance the overall appearance of the community. The Department Should Use Its Workload And Cost Data To Plan And Schedule Work The database that has been established over the past year should be used to develop work standards and units of work and to estimate repair and maintenance resource requirements. In con- junction with these standards and estimates, the Department should institute a project planning and scheduling procedure. The Super- intendent of Streets.should assume primary responsibility for im- plementing this procedure. Two forms will be needed, a project order form and a weekly work schedule. The Department's special project estimate sheet should serve as a format for the project order form, which should be used for all work requiring at least two labor hours. When a complaint or request is received, a project order should be completed on the basis of estimated labor, materials, and equipment requirements. The completed order should include pertinent information regarding the source of the request, the location and nature of the work, and the project priority, as well as a plan, developed to the detail appropriate for each project, of how the work is to be accomplished. A copy of the form should be forwarded for ordering required materials and scheduling equip- ment. Project orders should be assigned priorities by the Superin- tendent. Emergency orders, of course, would receive immediate consideration. Other project orders would be ranked and forwarded for weekly scheduling on a format similar to that illustrated in Exhibit V-3. Section supervisors should establish the schedule of V-9 11. 0 4J w r. a � a 4goA �+ w aai cvn ca OI' CCA a x x w u w 00 3 .o a a w a cn 0 a 0 a a EXHIBIT V-3. A �a u a w « A b V a n Ir 7 ,C • H � v L CG ,o u W L. N v v c � . vc �v 3 u Ld A o � A v v 3 W .o � « u roa c 0 •• W v .r .o b > a Je La 01 L 3 c v 0 V d 0 v b .. v v 0 . u E 3 �= H c '0 z v a W �i work to be completed in the upcoming week. Additional sources for the weekly schedule would be annual plan work and projects that had not been completed in the prior week, assuming that priorities assigned to these are higher than outstanding project orders. Crew foremen should be responsible for ensuring that projects are completed on time and within the resource estimates initially established. Section supervisors should discuss discrepancies between projected and actual resource use with the foremen to determine the problems encountered. Project orders that cannot be completed should be backlogged, and the Superintendent's staff group should inform persons requesting work of the likely time delay in completing it. Seasonal Employees Should Be Hired To Meet Peak Workload Demands Three areas where seasonal workers could benefit the Depart- ment most are the seal coat crew, pothole patching, and mowing operations. At least three of the current year-round positions on the seal coat crew should be filled instead by seasonal employees, who should be hired for about five months (May through September) during the crew's peak work period. During the other months of its operation, if additional crew members are needed, the crew should borrow full-time employees from task areas that have less work. Four seasonal employees should be hired to patch potholes, and two full-time patching positions should be discontinued. Each seasonal employee should be assigned to a full-time employee, creating four two -person patching crews. Seasonal employees should work about six months (March through August). During the remainder of the year, full-time employees should work as two 2 -member patching crews. This arrangement should reduce overtime expenditures somewhat by increasing the number of personnel avail- able during the period of greatest service demand. Finally, the vacant mower operator position should be discon- tinued, and a seasonal employee should be hired to provide weed control and mowing service during the summer. These recommenda- tions would enable the Department to reduce its full-time work force by six positions while adding eight seasonal employees and increasing its ability to address fluctuating work requirements. Savings to the city from adopting this recommendation would be approximately $67,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. V-10 D I I Some Crew Sizes Should Be Reduced As discussed in the previous recommendation, the size of patching crews should be two persons, rather than three or four, under normal working conditions. The Department should acquire the necessary equipment and vehicles to enable four two -member patching crews to work simultaneously. One-time costs for equip- ping these crews are estimated at $20,000. The crack seal crew should be reduced from four members to three, and the crew's work techniques should be modified some- what. "Backpack" style air compressors should be used to clear the cracks of debris before they are sealed. These compressors should improve the productivity of the crew, even with its reduced size. Depending on the Department's analysis of future workload demands for this service, one seasonal employee could be hired and two crews of two persons each could perform these activities dur- ing peak periods. The one-time cost of the compressors is esti- mated at $5,000, and savings from reducing the crew.size by one should be approximately $15,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. Finally, the two vacancies on the concrete construction crew should not be filled, since the crew provides a very high level of service with its present crew size of five. Discontinuing these two positions should save the City an additional $28,000 annually in salaries and fringe benefits. Also, the section supervisor in charge of paving cut repairs should oversee crew assignments more closely to ensure that only the number of crew members necessary. are assigned to a specific repair project. The planning and sche- duling procedure recommended above should assist the section supervisor in this effort. Pothole Patching Procedures Should Be Changed. All potholes should be patched with permanent materials. Dur- ing the colder months, when "hot mix" asphalt will not settle pro- perly, the patching crews should use all -season permanent patching mix. While this mix is more expensive, it would enable crews to avoid filling the same potholes twice, as current procedures often require. The resulting increase in crew productivity should allow more potholes to be filled in a shorter time period with superior material, thus reducing street hazards and citizens' inconveni- ence. The Caliche Pit Should Not Be Assigned Full -Time Staff Blading activities should be changed to enable dump truck drivers to fill their own vehicles with caliche,. rather than V-11 9I assigning a front loader operator full-time to the caliche pit. This modification would slightly delay the transport of caliche to work sites, but proper work scheduling and timing would reduce such delays to a minimum. Savings from discontinuing the front loader operator position would be approximately $17,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. The Department Should Seek Full Cost Recovery For Pavement Cut Repairs And Enterprise Fund Work it Documented indirect costs that support pavement cut repair work should be incorporated into the charges for that work. Also, the Department should initiate charges for work done on behalf of enterprise -funded departments. Customers of these departments should pay for services rendered, rather than spread- ing those costs among all taxpayers. V-12 i I 4 1: is s i VI - WATER AND SEWER OPERATIONS This chapter discusses selected activities of the Water and Sewer Operations Department. Specifically, all Department respon- n sibilities except treatment staffing and procedures are eval- uated. The first section of the chapter presents background on the Department; the following sections discuss observations and recommendations for improvement. BACKGROUND The Water and Sewer Operations Department maintains Lubbock's water distribution and wastewater collection systems. Addition- ally, the Department operates and maintains wastewater treatment, well field, and water production facilities. The Superintendent of Water and Sewer Operations is responsible for administering and supervising all Department functions. Exhibit VI -1 presents the organization of the Department. Each of the four operating units is discussed separately below. Sewer Collection Sewer collection unit staff members maintain and repair sewer manholes, clean sewer collection lines with rodding and water jet cleaning equipment, and maintain 19 wastewater lift (pumping) sta- tions. Six crews of two persons each perform these -services, along with a mechanic who maintains the lift stations. Two crews maintain manholes, two crews clean the collection lines with rod- ding equipment, and two crews clean collection lines with water jet trucks. The unit's fiscal 1983 budget slightly exceeds $600,000. Routine maintenance consists of raising or lowering manhole covers to the street level, rebuilding deteriorated manholes, and installing shims to keep manhole covers from rattling when traffic passes over them. Collection line maintenance requires the inser- tion of a mechanical device or highly pressurized water into sewer lines to rid them of debris such as gravel or roots that have accumulated and could cause backups in the line. The lift station mechanic performs daily preventive maintenance tasks, such as oil- ing and lubricating pumps and ensuring their proper operation, on many of the 19 lift stations in the wastewater collection system. Construction And Maintenance The primary purpose of the construction and maintenance unit is to repair water and sewer line breaks that occur in the City's approximately 1,000 miles of sewer lines, 3,000 fire hydrants, 0 z m na Z O 0 o W ..z O Q C CD W W 0 N O Z ac a W W iii a W s � Y a. 0 m m J EXHIBIT VI -1 C L C!/ m O c c 0) " rp 3 to L Ca 1- ctiGCN Z tt7 " 01 � 0 •- � � O E Z L C L E L Q — E 0? •- 0 O 01 IZ i iLAJ � m c� 4) u 4) N 3u p >E ME— .- = Q c I- W CL cc_N 3 3 m 3 C. 12. 0) i+ .0 Q) = N eq Cl V V O 0) V 3 a u S • ! ! • 3 to L v 3 11 i iLAJ L �C 3 1 V OCL L C eq WV L +� N IQ p - N 4J V tm 7 C. z> d .0 m E 3 O c (D 0) O Q GG u E u• 0) 01 13 Oer- L N W - �-• 0) O u �. L L. .L t71� C N r. C7 N - M J C v 01 Ci v C v Q L C C4 i.i i I ?� a� 3 me w O s tar CEi W � W N L d C 01 LX: u L V L U N L - i d W E 0 L .- 4J 01 C 01 0 �+ 4- -HO 1--o L .0 U L C .0 0 M.M 1-0 M 4- L .0 N W F- 01 E 0 •- E cn c E o E C. m v E N C 4• g N 4- 0 C. 4J M 07 L 01 01 id 0 N 4J a+ W E�HE��J a+�0ioN0i Z O_ E a-,+ v N I= p 1- Q • • • • • • • W Q � • LLJ uja W O 0) LU 33 a J3: N W p u .. N z L C.) 4+ Ln C N •14 Q C v v O W Z V a d O^ L Q) L ra to O N Q ar M -0 C .0 to v 41 W 1= H Q L L E i 4U7 L H .0 N rnE �3 L L 'Zt cr v 3c� Wcj>u • ! • to 'O -• u ayi tin •m C tJf u C N �.. c.•. m.-. u lOv 4J v v v �+ c V d aci 24 Z R O O ++ R •H O V.- W L V L C L C {r . p u • • .0 1Q in 01 c E c E M E 41 y 2f L v > W W I 01�J J� 01S 41 N 01 ^I VOL) p m L 3 L 3 0 3 A L41 L� L N 3 C h 3 N N v v J o W R7 0) N 3 N 1 1 1 1 4J and 35,000 water line valves. The unit, with a staff of 38, also constructs some water and sewer lines, replaces clogged water lines in older sections of the City, exercises water line valves, and taps large water lines supporting water system construction projects. Organizationally, the unit also houses an equipment maintenance crew that repairs Department vehicles and has recently begun to assist in lift station maintenance. Although this crew is budgeted within the unit, it is actually supervised by the Superintendent directly. The unit's total fiscal 1983 budget is nearly $1,000,000, but over $350,000 is returned to the City for its construction work, leaving a net budget of over $740,000. Essentially, six construction crews perform the bulk of con- struction and maintenance work. Generally, crews have five members, although crew size varies slightly according to the size of a project. Each crew is assigned one large truck and one back- hoe. Crew assignments are determined somewhat informally, depend- ing on emergency calls or other priority projects that have been identified. Construction work is most often assigned by the water utilities engineering group and usually takes precedence over rou- tine maintenance work. The present backlog of work is about three months and includes 13 water and 9 sewer construction projects. Construction work currently accounts for about 60 per cent of the work backlog, with routine maintenance requirements making up the remainder. Metering And Customer Service The metering and customer service unit, which is staffed by 24 employees and has a fiscal 1983 operating budget of nearly $560,000, maintains the proper operation of commercial and resi- dential meters in the City. The unit also taps water lines for residential construction projects, repairs commercial meters, replaces commercial and residential meters ten or more years old as part of a systematic change -out program, and provides after- hours water meter reading and customer connect and disconnect services for Lubbock Power and Light (LP&L). Water taps are assigned by the Municipal Permits Department and follow a "first requested, first assigned" installation priority, unless travel time for the tap crew can be minimized by a different sequence. Meter servicemen are assigned to any of seven geographical areas constituting the entire City; areas are determined primarily by attempting to equalize the number of meters and trouble calls. Servicemen do follow-up work on LP&L water meter reading and serv= ice problems, investigate and evaluate "water on the street" or water line break complaints, and assist in replacing residential water meters to support the ten-yearresidential meter change -out VI- 2 program. Water meters must be replaced occasionally because their accuracy decreases as their operating parts deteriorate. Ten to fifteen years is a typical replacement interval. The Department also is replacing old, large, commercial meters, which previously were owned by customers, with meters owned by the City. As with the residential meter change -out pro- gram, increased accuracy is the primary reason to replace the older meters. The large meter crew changes out these meters, after a foreman obtains approval from and schedules the time of replacement with the property owner. Water Production The water production unit, with a budget of approximately $560,000, operates and maintains the City's pumping system, which distributes between 22 and 32 million gallons of water per day (depending primarily on the season of the year). Unit personnel also maintain the City's wells, both locally and in Bailey County, which generate approximately 16 per cent of the water used in Lubbock. Most of Lubbock's water comes from the Canadian River Project and is treated at municipal facilities. The Assistant Superintendent in charge of water production provides technical assistance to the Superintendent and directs the activities of the unit's 23 other staff members. Two other supervisors who report to the Assistant Superintendent oversee water production and pump- ing and control operations, respectively. Water production re- quires nine persons to maintain the Bailey County wells in good operating condition, to drill new wells, and to ensure that local production sources are performing properly. Pumping control and operations currently employs 15 persons to perform its duties. Five control room operators monitor and record system water pressures, reservoir levels, and daily water use; they also operate various combinations of pumps at 11 local pump stations and the pumps at the Bailey County Reservoir to maintain the system's pressure as water demand varies through the day and night. At least one operator is on duty at all times. Seven pumping maintenance crew members, who also work shifts around-the-clock, check pump station and chlorinator operations and maintain the appearance of pump stations. On night and even- ing shifts, crew members also evaluate the seriousness of water leaks and connect or reconnect water customers to the Lubbock sys- tem. Mechanical maintenance personnel routinely replace submersible pumps that are inefficient because of a low water table or damage from sand in the water. Finally, supervisors perform nonroutine FT j' VI- 3 r and emergency maintenance on the system's electrical components, such as pump motors and controls, instrumentation (such as flow meters), and the telemetry system (which transmits pump station and reservoir conditions over telephone lines). 1 OBSERVATIONS I The Current Organizational Structure Does Not Align Similar n Skills And Abilities fl Although the water and sewer distribution system is maintained reasonably well by Department personnel, staff members are not organized logically to perform their assigned tasks. In parti- cular, work has not been divided into treatment operations, on the one hand, and distribution system maintenance, on the other. The current organizations of sewer operations and water production units are two examples of this problem. Both units have staff members who repair pumps and perform other mechanical maintenance duties, but separation of the units results in sewer lift stations being maintained by a single person, while the water pumping sta- tions have seven assigned personnel. Thus, lift stations have deteriorated while water pumping stations continue to function t Ii well. D Fortunately, senior -level personnel have recognized this and similar problems and have proposed modifications to the organiza- tional structure. This proposal is offered in somewhat revised form as Exhibit VI -2. While some inconsistencies remain in the proposed structure - for example, pump and lift station mainte- nance staffs are joined with treatment operations personnel - it is a significant improvement over the present organization. Until the Department reorganizes itself along task group lines similar to those proposed in Exhibit VI -2, work efforts in selected areas either will be inadequate or will be duplicated. Elements Of A Work Force Management System Are Not In Place The Department does not have the information needed for sche- duling and performing its project work productively. This defi- ciency is most apparent in scheduling work construction, but it encompasses all nonroutine and selected routine work performed by Department personnel. The Department has begun to assemble a his- torical data base to record hours and costs attributable to parti- cular projects, but its efforts lag behind similar data collection that was begun in the Street Department more than one and one-half years ago. VI- 4 r Lubbock Water And Sewer Operations CURRENT AND PROPOSED ALIGNMENT OF UNIT RESPONSIBILITIES EXHIBIT VI -2 CURRENT PROPOSED Water Production Process Operations • Well production in Bailey • Well production in Bailey County, including trans- County mission line • Pump system maintenance • Pump system maintenance • Pump system operation • Pump system operation • Lift station maintenance • Mechanical and electrical maintenance • Treatment operations Construction And Maintenance Process Maintenance • Construction and maintenance • Mechanical and electrical maintenance • Valve maintenance • Treatment system main - Metering And Customer Service tenance • Customer service • Equipment maintenance • Taps • Preventive maintenance scheduling and records • Meter maintenance Pipeline Maintenance • Dispatch and records • Construction and main - Sewer Operations tenance of pipes • Collection service • Miscellaneous projects • Lift station maintenance • Taps • Collection maintenance • Meter maintenance (manholes) • Collection maintenance • Treatment operations (manholes) • Treatment system maintenance • Valves Administration Customer Service • Payroll • Customer service • Budget • Collection service • Training • Dispatch and records • Maps and records • Maps and records g Mans ementpdmnistation, Management, Planning • Planning • Payroll • Management • Budget • Equipment maintenance • Training • Planning u 7,11 r Only minimal information documenting actual labor hours and costs associated with a -project is available. Without this infor- mation, monitoring of productivity is very difficult, and esti- mates of staffing requirements and completion dates become subjec- tive. Until the Department upgrades its work force management in- formation system, it will not be able to develop rigorous schedul- ing and staffing plans. Preventive Maintenance Efforts Are Improving But Remain Incomplete In recent months, the Superintendent has assigned personnel to refurbish components of the distribution system, such as lift sta- tions, that have fallen into disrepair. Completion of this major 1 upgrading work is intended to establish a benchmark maintenance level from which a preventive maintenance program can be devel- oped. Furthermore, staff time currently committed to the major refurbishing can be redirected to the preventive program as appro- priate. However, the Department has other preventive maintenance needs that are not addressed by this process. In particular, the sewer distribution system requires regular attention to avoid major blockages and recurring damage. At present, sewer line maintenance is divided evenly between preventive work (the pres- surized water trucks) and reactive work (the rodding trucks). This division does not reflect the maintenance requirements of the sewer line system, nor does it take full advantage of the avail- able technology represented by water jet trucks. Another example of preventive maintenance need is the valve maintenance program. Valves must be exercised periodically to prevent mechanical freez- ing and to delay deterioration. The commitment of a single small crew to this task fails to guarantee that a large portion of Lubbock's valves will be exercised regularly. Other items that have not received adequate preventive maintenance include instru- mentation and control systems and reservoir structures. Decisions About Contracting Out Construction Are Not Based On A Formal Comparison Of Costs Or On Other Established Criteria. At one time, Department labor costs made in-house construction an attractive alternative to "prevailing wage" contractor costs. However, given the fact that present City wage levels are similar to those for contractors, deciding whether work should be con- tracted out or done by City crews has become more difficult. Yet, the Department remains without clear criteria for making these determinations. "j` VI- 5 0 Two types of construction are nearly always performed by the Department's own crews. First, they construct small, short exten- sions of water and sewer lines in subdivisions. This work, which amounts to about 20 per cent of all subdivision installations, is unattractive to contractors because of high start-up costs. In contrast, the Department charges a uniform installation price per linear foot, regardless of the extension's length, as required by ordinance. The City's price, therefore, is usually lower for these small jobs. Second, City construction crews build exten- sions to newly annexed properties or to lots platted prior to 1953. Most of this work is also relatively small-scale, and the Department handles much of it for the same reasons that it does selected subdivision jobs. On occasion, however, crews also undertake work that could be appealing to contractors. These projects are assigned to City crews apparently as relief from the complicated work that charac- terizes their typical projects. However, no clear criteria exist to evaluate these decisions. In fact, all assignments are deter- mined informally, each based in part on perceived contractor interest, the Department's work backlog, the immediacy of need, and other tangible and intangible factors. The Department does not formally compare the costs of contracting out these projects �{ with the costs of completing the projects with City crews. I Construction Crews Are Sometimes Too Large, And Crews Are Hamnered By Inadeauate Eauipment R Department crews are somewhat constrained by their vehicle and equipment allocations. For example, five -person crews are dis- patched to minor leak problems because there are not sufficient vehicles to break the larger crew into two smaller crews and send them to different.locations. Also, exclusive reliance on smaller backhoes limits the ability of crew members to complete large con- struction projects as efficiently as possible. The combination of inadequate equipment and insufficient work force management techniques constrains the Department from assign- ing the proper crew to each job. The resulting inefficiencies limit the Department's ability to increase its maintenance effort and to complete construction in a timely manner. The Anticipated Upgradin, Changes In Shift Staffin; Of Control Equipment Will Allow Two staff groups will be affected by the impending moderniza- tion of.monitoring and control equipment that operates the water j" VI- 6 r II III distribution system. The first group comprises the pumping..main- tenance crew persons who work around-the-clock to ensure accurate pump station operations, since the present automatic system has a history of serious reliability problems. With a reliable control system in place, the need for staffing maintenance crew members around the clock on a regular basis is reduced. These crew members also do water turn -ons and turn-offs after regular LP&L hours and respond to some customer complaints, but these duties. are not usually time -critical and could be handled by an on-call crew member. The control room operators and daytime dispatchers, part of the Superintendent's administrative staff, make up the second group affected. On other shifts, operators also serve as dis- patchers, but the Department feels the daytime call volume is too great to be managed by the operator of the present control sys- tem. Accordingly, the day shift is staffed by a dispatcher in addition to a control room operator. New controls will reduce the operator's workload, however, making it possible to use a diffe- rent staffing configuration. Authorized But Unbudgeted Department Positions Are Unnecessary The Department currently is authorized about ten more posi- tions than it is budgeted to fill. No apparent need exists for these positions, but their retention raises expectations within the Department that the actual staffing level may be increased in the future. These expectations have no basis in fact, and the relatively stable Department workload strongly indicates that no staff additions will be needed in the foreseeable future. Accord- ingly, retaining the unbudgeted positions on the staff roster is misleading. RECOMMENDATIONS The Department Should Reorganize Along Clear -Cut Lines Of Responsibility Distinctions among operations, maintenance, and customer serv- ice functions should be clearly drawn, and organizational units should be staffed accordingly. The reorganization presented in Exhibit VI -2 should serve as the basis for discussion, but it must be examined thoroughly and tested against the above distinctions before it is approved by the Water Utilities Director. A key benefit of reorganization should be the alignment of staff members with similar skills in a single operating unit. Though workload data are unavailable to substantiate further staf- fing recommendations on the reorganization, some consolidation of VI- 7 r r staffing may be feasible. Functions that should be combined and examined for consolidation opportunities include: - Lift station and pump station maintenance - All mechanical and electrical maintenance - All pipe -related construction, including water line taps and manhole reconstruction. By reorganizing itself, the Department should be able to serve the public more effectively and to establish a basis for perform- ing its duties more efficiently. The Department Should Adopt A Work Force Management System Water and Sewer Operations should implement a work force man- agement and productivity system for construction, repair, and maintenance activities. The recommended system would provide a framework for effective estimating, scheduling, reporting, and controlling labor costs. A useful system should have at least four elements. First, an accurate estimate of staff hour requirements for each project should be developed, based on standards of optimum crew sizes and task completion times. These estimates should be adjusted by his- torical averages of crew sizes and task completion time. Second, daily work schedules should be required of supervisors and foremen to ensure that crews of the right size are assigned to each pro- ject. Third, staff hours, expenditures, and actual construction progress should be compared weekly with documented estimates of standard hours and expenditures required to complete that amount of work. Last, supervisors should take timely corrective action when actual staff hours or expenditures significantly or consis- tently exceed estimates to attain specific project milestones. Installation of a project -oriented tracking system would improve work scheduling and estimating, resulting in fewer unplanned de- lays or long work backlogs. Priority Should Be Placed On Preventive Maintenance As the Department reorganizes and as personnel complete their major upgrading of below -standard facilities, an opportunity will emerge for developing a significant preventive maintenance pro- gram. The Superintendent should prepare for this opportunity by Ni IT VI- 8 I compiling a systematic inventory of preventive maintenance re- quirements throughout the water and sewer operating system. The inventory should include major capital equipment; key distribution system elements such as pumps; and locations or isolated facilities that present recurring problems, such as sections of antiquated or awkwardly angled pipe. Once the inventory is complete, workload requirements should be determined, and a master schedule should be developed to over- see and monitor work completion. Crew members should record pre- ventive work completed, and this information should be forwarded to an appropriate supervisor or the Superintendent for review. Historical records should be kept of preventive and regular main- tenance for each piece of equipment, facility, or location,to ascertain whether preventive efforts have reduced the need for other maintenance work. An Additional Water Jet Vehicle Should Be Purchased One specific change in assignments that would increase the Department's overall and preventive maintenance capabilities would be to remove one rodding vehicle from service and reassign its crew to a water jet vehicle similar to the two already in serv- ice. If root infiltration of sewer lines reaches a level that requires the use of the second rodding vehicle, the crew can temporarily return to rodding. However, operating three high pressure water vehicles should enable the Department to eliminate nearly all problems with sewer backups. Also, as crew members from assortedmaintenance units become available, they should assist in valve maintenance work to upgrade the preventive effort there, thus reducing the number of emergency valve repairs. The one-time cost of an additional water jet vehicle would be approxi- mately $40,000. The Department Should Adopt Formal Criteria For Undertaking Construction Work The primary criterion should be the amount of high-priority backlogged maintenance work, which should always take precedence over new construction for Department crews. Since priorities for maintenance work are assigned informally at present, criteria for this work should also be established. For example, damage that poses an immediate threat to the health, safety, or property of Lubbock citizens should be a high priority and should be repaired within 24 hours. If the backlog of high-priority maintenance work is minimal, the second criterion should be the internal cost of construction VI- 9 r versus the likely contractor cost. These estimates are readily calculated for all major work, but they should be extended to the work now typically done by Department personnel. The Department should determine how many linear feet of construction it does annually in its two categories of small jobs, and it should deve- lop a request for bids on this total footage, describing the nature of the work in detail. It should then compare the bids received with its own fully allocated internal costs to determine whether it is in fact cheaper to retain substantial construction capability. Obviously, the determination that contractor costs are less would have staffing implications for the Department, although a substantial distribution system maintenance force would still have to be retained. Given unexpected changes in priorities, some judgment should continue to be used in allocating construction work, but the two criteria listed above should be the basis for determining a sub- stantial majority of all construction decisions. Appropriate Equipment Should Be Acquired To Support Construction Crews The construction crews should become more flexible in meeting specific job requirements. Two additional trucks should be pur- chased, at a cost of $20,000, to enable large crews to break into smaller ones for work not requiring a large work force. If crews continue to do large construction jobs, suitable equipment, in- cluding larger backhoes, should be procured to enable them to work as efficiently as possible. Though no data were available to determine whether produc- tivity improvements could result in lower staffing levels, the consultants' experience in other departments of similar size suggests that properly equipping crews and enforcing work force management provisions could reduce the construction work force by two to four persons. Reducing the crew by two would reduce annual operating expenditures in the Department by approximately $28,000 in salaries and fringe benefits. l` Staffing Changes Should Be Made When New Control Equipment Is Procured The introduction of a new, reliable control system will allow the Department to discontinue four positions. First, pumping maintenance crew members should no longer work evenings and nights, and the number of persons performing these duties should be reduced from seven to four. As similarly skilled persons such NI U VI_ 10 P it :i as the lift station mechanic and other mechanical maintenance per- sonnel are aligned organizationally with each other, the level of pumping maintenance effort would not be reduced. Evening and night calls that must be handled immediately - and this category should be limited to pipe breaks and other major emergencies - should be the responsibility of a crew member on call. On-call responsibility should be rotated weekly among all capable person- nel. In the future, other services currently available, such as water turn -ons and turn-offs, should be provided, with rare excep- tion, on a "next day" basis. Second, control room operators should assume all dispatching responsibilities, thus discontinuing the need for a day -time dis- patcher. The new control room configuration should incorporate the dispatching equipment to create an efficient, convenient operation. This reduction of four positions will reduce the Department's budget by approximately.$57,000 in salaries and bene- fits annually. Unbud eted Positions Should Be Eliminated From The Depart- ment's Staff Roster Because they are unwarranted on the basis of available work- load data and because they create inappropriate expectations among Department personnel, these positions should be dropped from the Department's list of authorized positions. r VI -11 ji VII - UTILITY COLLECTION �i This chapter presents the study evaluation of Utility Collec- tion. Following a section that provides background information, opportunities for improvement are discussed. Finally, recommenda- tions for taking advantage of those opportunities are presented. ri BACKGROUND Lubbock Power and Light, the City -owned electric company, pro- vides electric service to 49 per cent of the Lubbock population. Billing, payment processing, and collection activities for Lubbock Power and Light are performed by Utility Collection. The unit also performs similar functions for water, sewer, and sanitation accounts. Utility Collection is responsible for billing and collecting payments from approximately 34,000 electric accounts and 65,000 water accounts. The unit is organized into four sections: cus- tomer service, meter reading, billing, and collection. The cur- rent organization and staffing levels of Utility Collection are presented in Exhibit VII -1. The total budget for Utility Collection in fiscal 1983 is $1,698,000. Operating costs are shared among the four utilities, with 55 per cent of all costs charged to water, 35 per cent to electric, and 5 per cent each to sewer and sanitation. All capital costs'for Utility Collection activities are borne by Lubbock Power and Light. Customer Service Customer service personnel are responsible for direct contact with potential and current customers. The 11 customer service personnel are managed by a utility service supervisor. Staffing consists of two senior customer service representatives and four customer service representatives who are responsible for direct contact with utility customers, and five utility service workers who perform field activities. One of the two senior customer service representatives handles all inquiries about high electric and water usage bills. Cus- tomers who feel that the monthly usage fees charged to their account are excessive can discuss their account with the senior customer service representative. During 1982, 5,250 complaints were answered regarding high bills. A second senior customer service representative answers any questions about the sanitation and sewer charges reported on each monthly bill.. G a • • • 0 0 O 0 0 EXHIBIT VII -1 Requests to initiate or terminate service are handled by the four customer service representatives. The five field service workers investigate complaints, turn on meters for new customers, turn off meters for those terminating service, and investigate any locations where meters are running but no customer is on record. Each field service worker is assigned to one of five work zones and handles any service orders for that zone. The zones are reviewed each year for possible realignment on the basis of work- load and mileage driven. The workload for the five field service workers in 1982 is presented in the table below. Work Measure Total Service Orders 28,975 Re -Read Meters 1,054 Who's Using 3,917 Other 6,233 All service orders are currently being completed on the same day that they are written. Workload for the five personnel was roughly even across the 12 -month period, with August being the busiest month, and December the least busy. Meter Reading Water and electric meters are read by the 16 personnel in the meter reading section. Additional temporary meter readers are hired between March and November to cover vacation time. The City has been divided into 57 zones for meter reading. Each meter reader is responsible for attempting to read all electric and water meters in his particular zone. As each meter is read, an optical scan card is filled out. Meter readers stop by the office each morning to pick up the optical scan cards organized into the sequence in which they will be read. The number of cards assigned to each meter reader is a function of the size of the zone, and ranges from 350 to 500 on any day. Completed optical scan cards are turned in each morning as the next set of cards is collected. The cards that would be assigned to an absent meter reader are divided among the available meter readers. Meter readers drive their own vehicles to the start of their reading route. They keep the same zones from month to month to help familiarize them with meter locations. Meter reading activities are scheduled on a 21 -day -per -month reading cycle. Nineteen of those days are devoted to residential meters, which are read by one person. Two days per month are spent reading the ten driving routes of commercial accounts; these meters are read by 2 -person teams driving the routes in City -owned vehicles. The commercial accounts include apartment buildings, VII -2 schools, parks, and municipal buildings. Meters for traffic lights are read every six months. Meter readers are evaluated on the basis of performance re- ports generated by the computer system. Each optical scan card is read, and any mistakes, mismarks, turndowns, or any unreadable meters are listed by the computer. Each meter reader is rated on the number of unreadable meters in his assigned zone each month. During 1982, meter readers read over 1 million water and electric meters; translated into a daily workload measurement, this figure means that each meter reader reads an average of 300 meters each day. (( Billings The billings section consists of eight personnel. managed by a Supervisor. Four cashiers process all payments received by mail, and accept payments from walk-in customers. The other 'four-per- sonnel our per- sonnel are clerical: two handle high -low calculations (consump- tion volume above or below parameters built into the computer sys- tem), another clerk serves as history clerk for all accounting records, and the fourth rereads meters. Approximately 90 per cent of all customers pay their bills by mail; the remaining 10 per cent of customers either pay in person or at one of the drop boxes available in convenience and grocery stores. During 1982, over $53 million in water, sanitation, sewer, and electric account collections were received: $16,093,712 Water, sewer, and sanitation receipts 37,261,060 Electric receipts $53,354,772 Total receipts Prior to billing, two clerks examine any accounts whose con- sumption volume caused the computer to reject the optical scan card. These accounts are scrutinized for potential misreadings and compared with the past 12 months' consumption history. Any potential misreadings are forwarded to the meter reader, who rereads the meter and reports a new consumption figure. No bills are sent out until rereads have been completed and all accounts in the zones can be billed. As a result, the time between reading a customer's meter and mailing the bill frequently exceeds one week. Collections A due date for payment is printed on each bill. If payment has not been received by the time the next month's bill is sent, the customer is issued a reminder notice stating that the account 7 r must be paid within five working days or service will be discon- tinued. At the end of 30 days, during which time bill collectors will attempt to collect payment, service is discontinued. Re- cently, collections personnel have begun to notify customers by telephone prior to disconnecting service for failure to pay. The fee for reconnecting discontinued service is $6 during regular office hours, and $15 after hours. Four bill collectors work a normal schedule, while the fifth collector works from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. weekdays and 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. The bill collector working even- ings picks up deposits and contracts for new customers, and turns on service for delinquent customers who have paid their bill; occasionally, he will also attempt to collect from delinquent cus- tomers. Bill collectors work up to 25 delinquent accounts each day, either by attempting to collect on delinquent accounts, turn- ing off service for accounts that have not paid, or turning serv- ice back on for settled accounts. During 1982, payments were received from 8,258 customers out of a total of.18,897 accounts worked. Dollar collections totalled $463,000. Service was disconnected on 4,788 accounts, and recon- nected on 3,470 accounts. In addition to the five bill collectors and a supervisor, staffing in collections includes three clerks who answer all tele- phone and walk-in inquiries regarding overdue accounts and delin- quent payments. LUBIS System Lubbock Power and Light has developed a new Utility Billing and Information System (LUBIS) to assist in the billing and col- lection operations. Following almost ten years of systems deve- lopment activities, the system was brought on-line May 1 of this year. Utility Collection has added 3.5 full-time equivalent employees to assist in the computer transition process. The LUBIS system is designed to give Utility Collection per- sonnel access to customer service information on a timely basis, and to assist in the management of activities. The system pro- vides immediate access to customer information, both for review and update, and user control and verification of data entered into and received from the system. There are four key features to the new system: VII -4 - Immediate entry, inquiry, and update of customer data - Improved control by Utility Collection over data entry, updating, and reporting functions - Increased data entry volume of meter reading and regular payment information, with on-line edit verification and correction features — Concurrent processing of regular payments, meter read- ing, and reporting, with on-line access to all data. The new system will permit data entry, update processing, and reporting during normal office hours. It is anticipated that once the LUBIS system is completely functional, it will be possible to bill all accounts within five days of meter reading. OBSERVATIONS The Significant Improvements Made In Automating The Utility Collection Function Present Additional Challenges The development of an automated, computer-based system for utility collection activities is an innovative and important step. The LUBIS system provides Utility Collection personnel with more accurate and timely information on customer accounts. Cus- tomer service representatives are able to respond more quickly to requests and complaints from customers, because they can retrieve customer records on the terminal, and initiate service orders directly from the system. The improvements offered by the LUBIS system, however, also present challenges. The LUBIS system provides Utility Collection management with the opportunity both to increase productivity and to improve the quality of management information available. For example, improvements in cash flow should result by shortening the time between reading meters and billing customer accounts. Man- agement now estimates that all billing should be completed within five days of reading. Further improvements should allow the bill- ing cycle to be reduced to as little as two days. Potential staffing reductions should also result from the improved information processing capabilities of the LUBIS system. The system will perform final bill calculations, update files, and generate work orders automatically. An improved high -low consump- tion algorithm in the system compares present consumption with a 9 customer's consumption history, and flags potential meter misreads or exceptional usage. These tasks are now being performed manu- ally by utility collection personnel. The.exact impact of the new system on the organization, staf- fing, and management of Utility Collection cannot be determined until the system is operating relatively error -free, which will probably not be until the fall. The Time Lag Between Meter Reading And Customer Billing Is Excessive Utility Collection has not been sufficiently aggressive in reducing the time lag between meter reading and customer billing. While Utility Collection has recognized that reducing the time lag between meter reading and customer billing is desirable and pos- sible with the new LUBIS system, the potential for further reduc- tions has not been examined. Under Utility Collection's current procedures, customer bills are mailed up to eight days after meters are read. The primary reason for this delay is the batch billing process, which requires that all accounts on the same billing cycle be billed at the same time. Although most meters are read on a timely basis, the results are held for sometimes seven or more days to allow time tc recheck meters, or secure further information on meters not read on schedule. Each day of delay in the issuance of bills to all customers, including those for whom actual readings were obtained, delays cash flow and reduces interest income for the City by approximately $17,000. A Meter. Rerouting Program Has Not Been Developed And Utility Collection personnel are in the process of reviewing existing meter routes and meter reading equipment. The present route structure does not provide for continuous routing, which would minimize back -tracking by the readers, and standardize the length of time required to read each route. The need for revisions to the meter reading routes has been discussed on a preliminary basis, and studies to evaluate new technology in meter reading equipment have been under way for some time. Initial analysis indicates that significant opportuniites may exist to reduce cost and improve the productivity of meter reading personnel. F VII- 6 i JI Monthly Meter -Reading And Billing Of Residential Water,. Sewer, And Sanitation Account Customers Is Not Cost Effective The practice of reading and billing all water, sewer, and sanitation accounts each month is an expensive and unnecessary service to residential customers. Meter readers read almost twice as many water meters each month as electric meters. In addition, water meters are more difficult to read, which further increases the amount of time devoted to reading water meters. Almost two thirds of a meter reader's efforts each month are devoted to read- ing water meters. The average residential customer's monthly bill is $49 for electric service, $10 for water, and $6.50 for garbage and sewer service. Residential water bill payments are not large enough to justify the costs of monthly reading and billing by Utility Col- lection. The Use Of Bill Collectors To Collect Overdue Accounts Is An Expensive And Unnecessary Service Five bill collectors are currently involved in investigating delinquent accounts. Customers are mailed reminder notices as well as termination notices by Utility Collection personnel. Those customers who have not paid their account by the time the second month's bill has been mailed are placed on a collection list. Bill collectors are expected to call upon each overdue account customer to collect payment. Payments received by the bill collectors are merely credited to the customer's account. If payment is not received, the bill collector cuts off service and the account is turned over to a collection agency. Services can only be reinstated when the bill and the reconnect fees have been paid. Under the collection system now in place, there is no incen- tive for delinquent customers to pay their account prior to the bill collector's visit. Payment can be handed to the bill col- lector, eliminating either a visit to the office or a 20� stamp. RECOMMENDATIONS The Issuance Of Bills To Customers Should Be Accelerated Current scheduling and processing practices for meter reading and billing should be revised so that customer invoices are mailed more quickly after meters are read. In particular., data process- ing procedures should be modified to eliminate the need to hold bills ready for mailing until all other bills in the batch are prepared. VII -7 D Utility Collection should undertake a number of other steps to shorten the billing cycle even further, including: - Purchasing automated meter reading equipment compatible with the LUBIS system that provides direct data input into the system - Requiring meter readers to turn in their read cards at the end of the day, thus speeding the data processing by 16 hours compared to the present practice of turning the cards in the next morning Revising the data processing schedule as necessary to �) give a higher priority to the billing process. Implementation of this recommendation would result in poten- tial savings, which would be offset by one-time costs for possible reprogramming and equipment purchase as well as the extra expense of turning in read cards at the end of the day. While such addi- tional costs have not been detailed, they are expected to be small relative to the estimated savings. Utility Collection Should Undertake A Meter Rerouting Program To improve the productivity of meter readers, a meter rerout- ing program should be developed that provides for continuous meter reading routes. With an effective meter rerouting program, re- routing will be accomplished in a cost-effective manner, meter reading productivity will be adequately monitored, and fluctua- tions in route length and corresponding reading times can be lessened. Residential Water Meters Should Be Read And Billed Bimonthly, And Meter Reading Personnel Should Be Reduced Accordingly Utility Collection should implement bimonthly reading and billing of residential water, sewer, and sanitation accounts. Meter readers should continue to read all electric and commercial water accounts monthly, and monthly statements should be sent to all electric and commercial water customers. Every other month, residential electric customer bills should include a charge for ;water, sewer, and sanitation service based on actual water meter readings. Customers who do not receive electric service should be billed every other month. To facilitate customer acceptance of bimonthly water meter reading, Utility Collection should notify customers of the change through an insert in their monthly bill, and outline the potential cost savings to be accrued from the new procedure. VII -8 I Implementing this change should reduce the annual workload of meters read by 33 per cent, from 1,152,000 to 774,000. The de- crease in the number of meters read should result in a reduction in the number of meter readers from 16 to 11, with consequent sav- ings in salaries and fringes of $650000 annually. Further, Util- ity Collection will mail over 180,000 fewer bills each year, thereby reducing postage, supply, and data processing expendi- tures, and facilitating reductions in the billing and collection sections when LUBIS is fully operational. These savings will be. offset by a decrease in interest income due to payments being received an average of two weeks later. Annual interest income is estimated to be approximately $50,000 less than if bills were sent monthly. Total annual net savings from the recommended change should be at least $40,000 annually. The Field Activities Of Bill Collectors Should Be Discon- tinued, And Staff Reduced Accordingly Utility Collection should discontinue the use of bill collec- tors to collect on overdue accounts. The process used now to notify customers that their account is delinquent should be continued. The final notice should state that if payment is not received within five days, service will be discontinued. Instead of a bill collector, a field service worker should be sent out to disconnect service. The role of the field service worker should be merely to disconnect service, and should not be to accept pay- ment. Staffing for collections should be reduced by the five bill collector positions, resulting in a total annual savings of approximately $80,000 in salaries and fringe benefits. Utility Collection could, as a service to its customers, phone customers with delinquent accounts before disconnecting service. Customers would be told that,.unless payment is received within. five days or the customer comes in to discuss the account, service will be disconnected. I4' The Staffing Change Should Be Accompanied By A Reorganization f Of The Utility Collection Function Utility Collection should be reorganized under three super- visors. All field activities should be grouped under a utility field supervisor; billing and collection activities should be combined under one utility collection supervisor; and a customer service supervisor should oversee all customer service representa- tive positions. VII -9 n ft Two goals are achieved through this reorganization. The num- ber of supervising personnel is reduced by one through the con- solidation of billing and collection activities, with annual salary and benefit savings of $23,000. Also, similar functions are now consolidated; all field activities are grouped under one �l supervisor, customer service activities are the sole responsi- bility of a second supervisor, and all billing and collection activities are coordinated by the third supervisor. Staffing needs should be reexamined once the LUBIS system has been running for several months. At that time, further staffing reductions should be achievable in the customer service and bill- ing functions. Activities in these areas should be monitored carefully for potential realignments and reductions of staff. Job descriptions and pay scales should be revised accordingly to ac- count for any changes in responsibilities. VII -10 No Text r VIII - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH This chapter presents background information on the Department of'Health, observations regarding the operations of the Depart- ment, and recommendations for improvement. BACKGROUND This section discusses the public health services provided to citizens of Lubbock, including health clinic, vital statistic, environmental health, and laboratory services. Overview The Department of Health is headed by a part-time Health Director, who also serves as a member of the faculty at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. The day-to-day management of the Department is the responsibility of the Health Administrator. As shown in Exhibit VIII -1 on the following page, the Department is organized into four units: administration and support, environ- mental health, laboratory services, and clinic programs. Follow- ing a discussion of budget and staffing, each of the four units will be discussed separately. l.i Budget And Staffing The total annual budget for the Department is over $1.7 mil- lion; a breakdown of the budget by unit is presented in Exhibit VIII -2. The budget includes approximately $364,000 for admini- stration and support, $654,000 for environmental health, $180,000 for laboratory services, and $541,000 for clinical programs. Environmental health activities and clinic programs together account for nearly 70 per cent of the entire budget. Personnel costs are approximately 76 per cent of the Department's total bud- get. Staffing for fiscal 1983 consists of 72 personnel, not includ- ing the part-time Health Director; 11 of the 72 positions are funded by the state government. A breakdown of personnel by unit is presented in the table that follows: Wz O 4- 4- 0 �+ N � u O » N a • d ~ w • 2 Z W a°Cso z W EXHIBIT VIII -1 S r M 4- q y .2 .2 t c c L O 2 y v a M 2 a L N O � Q g C q C Y u0"1 q> L L Y Y L. L V • • • > oi» c 4- W 0 w w OC Z • • O » Wz O 4- 4- 0 �+ N � u O » N a • d ~ w • 2 Z W a°Cso z W EXHIBIT VIII -1 S YOC I c y .2 .2 t c c L O 2 u u 2 a L 4-1 C Y� Y� N Y - C � Q `N'' w W= q> L L Y Y L. L V • • • > oi» c 4- ca 10 Y� JF- d�S J J v c u YOC V 2 Lp M Lo c y O w O 2 _ O L O 2 a L 4-1 C Y� Y� N Y - C Q i `N'' w W= q> L L Y Y L. L V YOC V 2 Lp M Lo y C S L C >QQ C W I a w Y 4- • • • > y� N c 4- W IA 10 Y� f - w c u a u Cv uYi 2y M Y1 O• -Y» a .- L L L Y W H O Q L c a� v L C >QQ Ea0+c z' I a w d = av N.- y� N > C C W IA A E 0 W r-1 A x Gq O H a 4 d x 4J w b O y� A W u A w a O -r4 +) 4J la n M O RT 0 EXHIBIT VIII -2 to NLnN0Ln M %0 N r-4 r-4 Ln n r-4 Ln M O It M %D fA :5O1 M t0 r-1 N v 4J N ON %0 1-4 O M r. N Ln M c d' M Ei M .-1 ri n ri ri w r•� N M Mko 100 co 0 00NvWr•4 't U Id Lnntn�N � 'r-1 14 to b O N N N O •r4 O U @ t7) +J r -I w d' Ln U LL tr} th Id (D ..' r-1 6 /d. w m Md1d'OLn 4 O O 007nmr-1 n 0 U 0 r-4 O ap N N go -H . . . . 00 ) u O 1-I V r-4 w r-1 r 1 ca to- r -4 it O Vr,koLnM I,- 4) r -I N n M 0 r-1 4 r-1 .-•I M M 0U O W N N N 0 a O -r4 +) 4J la n M O RT 0 co to N4tNODM n r -4k01003 N $ . . . fA :5O1 M t0 r-1 N v •ri TA Ln r-1 co t0 r. N M •r4 b {A V} w N U •ri .79 to b w (L) r-1 U @ t7) +J to r-4 LII co r-1 Id (D ..' r-1 6 /d. 0-,4 0! Id 4 N ¢a 04) -r4 E-4�4 a •ri a 00 ) u Z State funded positions include one clerical position in admin- istration, five public health nurses, one licensed vocational nurse, one dental assistant, one health aide and two clerical position in clinical services. Administration And Support Staffing in the administration a ten personnel, including the Health tive assistant and three clerical st administration of the Department. than are responsible for the upkeep tion, the vital statistics registrar bers keep vital statistics. nd support section consists of Administrator. An administra- aff members assist in the A maintenance worker and custo- of the facilities. In addi- and two clerical staff mem- Vital Statistics. At present,. approximately 625 birth and death records are received and filed each month. An additional 1,000 records are sold to the public each month, either through mail -in requests or walk-in customers. Birth and death records are received from hospitals, midwives, and funeral homes within the City of Lubbock. Each vital record is assigned a number, which indicates the page number of the volume where the record is ultimately found. A separate, alphabetical file is maintained for each record received. When a particular record is requested, the alphabetical file is checked for the proper volume and page number; the record is retrieved, copied, certified, and then refiled. Environmental Health The environmental health unit is responsible for performing activities to preserve and enhance the environment, such as inspecting food establishments, enforcing general sanitation ordinances and requirements, and controlling vectors and air pol- lution. Supervision of environmental health activities is the responsibility of an acting environmental health director and two supervising sanitarians. The acting environmental health director supervises the work of the environmental control inspector and D VIII -2 �i Number Of Positions r- Unit Local Funded State Funded Total Administration and Support 9 1 10 Environmental Health 22 - 22 Laboratory Services 8 - 8 32 Clinical Programs 22 10 Total 61 11 72 State funded positions include one clerical position in admin- istration, five public health nurses, one licensed vocational nurse, one dental assistant, one health aide and two clerical position in clinical services. Administration And Support Staffing in the administration a ten personnel, including the Health tive assistant and three clerical st administration of the Department. than are responsible for the upkeep tion, the vital statistics registrar bers keep vital statistics. nd support section consists of Administrator. An administra- aff members assist in the A maintenance worker and custo- of the facilities. In addi- and two clerical staff mem- Vital Statistics. At present,. approximately 625 birth and death records are received and filed each month. An additional 1,000 records are sold to the public each month, either through mail -in requests or walk-in customers. Birth and death records are received from hospitals, midwives, and funeral homes within the City of Lubbock. Each vital record is assigned a number, which indicates the page number of the volume where the record is ultimately found. A separate, alphabetical file is maintained for each record received. When a particular record is requested, the alphabetical file is checked for the proper volume and page number; the record is retrieved, copied, certified, and then refiled. Environmental Health The environmental health unit is responsible for performing activities to preserve and enhance the environment, such as inspecting food establishments, enforcing general sanitation ordinances and requirements, and controlling vectors and air pol- lution. Supervision of environmental health activities is the responsibility of an acting environmental health director and two supervising sanitarians. The acting environmental health director supervises the work of the environmental control inspector and D VIII -2 �i four of the eight sanitarians. One supervising sanitarian over- sees the seven vector control workers and the rodent control sani- tarian. The second supervising sanitarian is responsible for the activities of four sanitarians. Each of the eight sanitarians is assigned to one of the eight inspection areas into which Lubbock has been divided. Environmental health sanitarians issue operating permits to all establishments that serve or sell food within City limits. City ordinance requires an initial inspection of the food estab- lishments; additional inspections are to be made at the discretion r� of the sanitarian. The State of Texas has no requirements for the j frequency of inspections; the recommended frequency is twice a year. The Department's own policy, however, has been to conduct inspections quarterly. Sanitarians conduct routine inspections not only of restaurants and kitchens of establishments that serve the public, but also of hospitals, nursing homes, septic tanks, day care centers, markets, and swimming pools. Exhibit VIII -3 on the following page shows the types and numbers of inspections con- ducted by sanitarians during the last four years. Between fiscal 1979 and fiscal 1982 the number of inspections performed has increased by almost 35 per cent. The number of swimming pool inspections jumped dramatically, and the number of food establish- ment and school inspections also increased. The number of child care facility and septic tank inspections increased. Notices of violations are issued for establishments not meet- ing applicable health code requirements. Follow-up inspections jj are performed for establishments not found in compliance, and may ti result in court action for uncorrected deficiencies. The vector control section is responsible for the control of air -borne vectors and rodents in the City. Activities include. spraying lakes, irrigation ditches, and other premises to reduce mosquito and fly population; investigating complaints; producing and distributing rodent bait; monitoring the prairie dog town for disease outbreaks; mixing chemicals for spraying; and performing necessary bacteriological tests to identify varieties of vectors. Of the 755 playa lakes in Lubbock, approximately 48 per cent are currently being treated for insect control. During fiscal 1982, vector control workers sprayed over 200,000 acres of land and treated over 280,000 premises for vectors. The majority of the work is performed during the late spring and summer months; cold weather reduces the need for vector control activities, and winter months are used to repair equipment and take compensation time for summer overtime work. FVIII -3 a N W 00 � O x > c U O �HW 4J M Ei O .J E RC W 04 A ON OEr U v cn x A O w w a z H EXHIBIT VIII -3 v � O G? E� $4 N +J U 0 00 t11rmr-lM0O 0 NMd1LnANC� 4 $4 U td N N Ln M 'A d' `-' M a rt3 U � N U1 •rl * -H W UW H O N d'00 W t�Or-i d' W co l- to rn iLn n 'o w O W ON r4 -i .tNdrN O d' M as rq N U b Ln co m eq �I 1�00d'ODcq000 dri C1 m N W -.i N r- t r -•I to 00 ' 0 U O 4J ldN W W 0: •H0 %AIt%Da%OO441 0%C: itCO w0 Nd'd'NLnOo Ln .rl-H r-IItwmmnd' O �1 N RS N O M 4J �to $4 V) a>1 uA or00ioi°-ten cn ab � ano C1� d' M N M N W N ko U +� cn ri k0 0: u •ri to 41 C O O 0; U O+► 4J 4? 74 ;J N r�-1 ru 9 •u La N19ri N 04 rA ^i W r••1 u O .. o ° 4 w A •-H •,A r: E 4J E Enn z rZ4 EO 3: EO 0 r- f Laboratory Services The Department operates a medical laboratory, which conducts bacteriological examination in conjunction with the inspection programs and performs various diagnostic tests to support the requirements of the Department's health clinics. Laboratory serv- ices are provided free to clinic patients. The Department receives approximately $2,000 in reimbursements for services provided on a contract basis to the La Femme Family Planning Clinic at the Texas Tech University School of Medicine. An additional $600 in revenue covers the costs of materials and supplies used in performing lab tests for children enrolled in the Head Start program. All revenues become part of the City's gener- al fund. Exhibit VIII -4 indicates the number and variety of tests con- ducted by laboratory personnel. Between 1979 and 1982, the number of urinalysis and hematology profile tests performed has increased markedly; reductions have occurred only in the food testing cate- gories. The total number of tests conducted has increased.by more than half, from 75,810 tests in 1979 to 119,950 tests in 1982. Laboratory workload is determined primarily by the number of tests requested by physicians to support diagnostic and disease prevention services. In particular, the recent assumption by the. Department of the family planning clinic, formerly operated by the state, increased the number of medical tests performed. L Clinic Programs The Department operates clinics in the fields of immuniza- tion, dental health, family planning, maternity, pediatrics, and sexually transmitted disease control. Health education and home visit programs are also conducted by nursing staff as part of 7, clinic activities. Immunization Clinic. Free routine childhood immunizations are provided to Lubbock families through the immunization clinic. Six half-day immunization clinics are conducted each week for walk-in patients. Private physicians have begun to refer increasing numbers of their patients to the clinic for immunizations. As the table below indicates, the number of immunizations has increased steadily between 1979 and 1982. State law requires immunization of all children before they enter school, which creates a peak load of activity in August of about twice the monthly average, as presented in the table that follows. EXHIBIT VIII -4 .-• N -P d d co f: W to 0% dP .-. dP (d (d 14 10MMtCl-N 01C0Nr-�D N U 14 $4a) . . . . . d'M . . . . U; CO 1.1 U ul- rl r-1Nt-1,ko N N%D0 to u it Wo M N rl aHQrl v Md'10cc) 1�1b 000, 4%0r -N O N Md'wwa,0 d'MMNO;!' in 00 I %0 Ln cn N a% 00 CD r- 0 Ln O rl m r -i 00 Ln ri 'd' r- Q1 r-1 N N 1D (4 m M rl 0 r -i r-1 r♦ Ln rl r-1 %o0Ln1 010 d'I-ODOD0)1D w r-1 V OD W O O L. cn L, W 0--1 1- l` OD I Ln %0 le %0 r-1 it rl co 0 lLn %0 01 � . . IM %.0r -Ln NN Qtr -INC � r♦ . M N d' r-1 r-1 rl C1 i-1 <C rA ld H ON %D Od't`�L1iMd1 O N U O d'OMODMO 1D%0O0r-LnM v x Q W I M Lo Ln O M W zir-1t` r1 . . . . . t`OrlMW . . . . . . �r40MLn00 d' O O r l Mr -4 r-4 rrl d'03 U N 4) 00 0 U3 m n 00 n t` %DLn k0 M 1G Ln Ln Ln 0 4-)) W Q1 1� rl rl a . V M O N d' rl %o to r-1 $4 E-4 t`) O011CV) l-ODtf1V't0%N0000 00 04 >4 r-1 r�-1 11 ...... Q1 Ln d' erlN ...... wNMcoN 0% LO r-1 r-1 lO A 0 Er x � U O O A alA 4J •r1 m 7r Ei r-1 Lr, rqo1 4 $4 r4 u u �o 0 b �>4 °� a I04 A $4 H o $ � � 4 Quo �ra ro>Ia)� v -ri rn 04 at >4 o „� x to o 5 a) 4J m u zs 4) 4-) (0 ;.l ?t?4r1�t0AA 4J U s~,�A � r-1 4 4J � N u H (d rO i cn pa E U •rl -q 5 O 0,-q A +) 0.'i rx-I r i -P4 rZ axi N 83��� U O Number Of Immunizations Yearly total Monthly average Month of August 1979 1980 1981 1982 5,416 6,214 8,907(a) 8,632 451.3 517.8 742.2 719.3 1,046 11115 1,283 1,618 (a)In 1981 a measles vaccine was required for all school.age children vaccinated prior to 1968, accounting for part of the increase in immunizations. Normally, one nurse is needed to staff the clinic; during late summer, an additional two or three nurses are assigned to handle the number of patients. Dental Clinic. Dental services are provided to children between five and 18 who meet the Department's financial guide- lines. Services are provided free of charge to all eligible patients by appointment only. Senior citizens are seen on an emergency basis for extractions only. Two state -paid dentists treat patients at a total of six half-day clinics each week. One dentist is scheduled for each clinic session, along with a dental assistant and a dental aide. Family Planning Clinic. Family planning clinics are conducted four half -days each week. Each patient receives a complete exam- ination performed by a physician or nurse practitioner. Nurses who provide information and counseling on various birth control methods. Three additional clinic sessions are designated as pill. pick-up clinics, when patients can come in to refill prescriptions for contraceptives. A state-run family planning clinic was recently closed in downtown Lubbock, and its patients referred to the Department's clinic. Five state -paid staff members, including a nurse practi- tioner, two nurses, and two clerks, were added to the Department's clinic staff at that time. Maternity Clinic. Four half-day maternity clinics are held each week. Maternity clinic activities include extensive family' medical history interviews, pregnancy testing, counseling, routine physical examinations, and discussions on nutrition and general health. One clinic each week is reserved for teenage mothers. Pediatric Clinic. The pediatric clinic is conducted two morn- ings each week and is open to the babies of teenage mothers who r either received prenatal care through the Department of Health, or received no prenatal care. The clinic program emphasizes periodic .. VIII -5 �I r checks to determine the general health and well-being, nutritional status, physical growth and development, and emotional and social { development of infants from birth through 18 months. The goals of the pediatric clinic are twofold: - To promote the child's health by treating any illnesses ttt present and referring to other agencies as appropriate - To educate the parent(s) in proper health care and parenting skills. 71 � Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic. The sexually transmitted disease clinic operates solely on a walk-in basis, and numbers are assigned to patients to assure confidentiality. Clinics are held every afternoon and one evening. An examination and appropriate lab tests are performed. Patients receive counseling, and are encourged to identify sexual contacts. Two communicable disease investigators attempt to locate sexual contacts and encourage them to come to the clinic for treatment. As the table below indicates, the number of patients receiving treatment for a sexually transmitted disease has remained fairly constant during the last four years. 1979 1980 Number Admitted To Service 1,907 1,422 Number Receiving Prophylactic Treatment 321 387 Number Of Positive Or Suspicious Findings 1,459 1,566 Per Cent Increase (Decrease) 1981 1982 1979-1982 1,870 1,634 265 273 11599 1,443 The number of patients admitted to service represents the num- ber of diagnosed cases of sexually transmitted disease. The patients receiving prophylactic treatment are those individuals who had contact with persons known to have venereal disease, but whose own tests were negative. Those patients with positive or suspicious findings did not actually have a venereal disease, but exhibited symptoms that could have been caused by a sexually transmitted disease. VIII -6 Clinic Patients And Staffing. A total of 30 clinic sessions are held each week. The number of patients seen by clinic staff has increased from over 12,000 in 1979 to 17,000 in 1982 (not including the immunization clinic). As Exhibit VIII -5 indicates, the annualized per cent increase in the total number of patients seen is 11.3 per cent. Specifically, the number of pediatric and. family planning patients has increased dramatically during that time; the dental and sexually transmitted disease clinics have shown little change in the number of patients seen; and the number of maternity patients has increased slightly. Typical staffing patterns for each type of clinic are shown in Exhibit VIII -6. With the exception of the immunization and dental f clinics, each clinic is staffed by a physician and at least one public health nurse. Nursing staff rotate assignments among the various clinics, depending on particular areas of interest and workload demands. Health Education. The Department of Health conducts a wide variety of health education program. Each clinic session includes a formal presentation as well as the one-to-one education between nurse and patient. Programs provided to the public include pre- sentations on venereal disease, child health care, birth control, pregnancy and prenatal care, and diabetes. Health topics of local ------- concern are discussed on a weekly television show developed by clinic staff in conjunction with a local station. Food sanitation training, nutrition education programs, and a number of health fairs, special programs, and in-service education for Department of Health staff are also provided. Home Visits. Home visits are provided by eight community health nursei77 Each nurse is assigned to one of eight geograph- ical areas with a roughly equivalent population in need of home visitation. Each community nurse is assigned to.staff the nursing office and the various clinics for 2-1/2 to 3 days each week. The remainder of the nurse's time is used to visit homes, hospitals, and other agencies, and for completing the necessary charting and administrative work. The purpose of a home visit is -,to assess the physical, social, and emotional needs of the family, to educate the family in healthy living habits, to help solve health-related problems, and to refer the family to other appropriate health or social welfare agencies. Home visits are made using either one of two City -owned vehicles or a private vehicle. r-4 ro z a w W W O U) Clq +J azo W H ri a Ha a dP ^ a N Ln r -I r -I M M O ra in V O d' •� N r -I m m r4 O N co r -I a a 9 z0 .rq ro a ro ro it to 3 b �l O O QI D� ii rd •a rnH r♦ •rt bw ro rl a •rl N •rl 0 $4 vp a Q) R, A O u1 l Id a g .N U +J .,4 W r. -rl a H U cd A v v EXHIBIT VIII -5 a ^ A Ln in V O N �0 NJ cam• m m I` O m 0 O r-1 N r -I d' O r-1 r-1 N d' N r- r- ro r•i M N N e0 4J U 0o 0 w O W H •rl r -I r-1 Ln Ln r -I •rl H d' cn co M Ln ol N 0 w a) m v co U1 O d' c"1 r -I Ln >f •rl >j a d-% 1-1 N v r -I l0 c+) +1 "4 r.1 ?i 0 41 ro ro ro r -i ro -r♦ 41 r -I O r -I N a% ch eT 10 t0 �0 ch � d0 ( N O N r-1 %0 M 2: N d' Ln N r-1 N co r -I a a 9 z0 .rq ro a ro ro it to 3 b �l O O QI D� ii rd •a rnH r♦ •rt bw ro rl a •rl N •rl 0 $4 vp a Q) R, A O u1 l Id a g .N U +J .,4 W r. -rl a H U cd A v v EXHIBIT VIII -5 a m a 0 ro a 4J U 4� .,i •rl r -I •rl U � � E rtl U >f •rl >j a d-% 1-1 $4 r -I •r4 b +1 "4 r.1 ?i 0 41 ro (o ro r -i $l O -r♦ 41 O •r♦ a H +1 a A can w 2: N co r -I a a 9 z0 .rq ro a ro ro it to 3 b �l O O QI D� ii rd •a rnH r♦ •rt bw ro rl a •rl N •rl 0 $4 vp a Q) R, A O u1 l Id a g .N U +J .,4 W r. -rl a H U cd A v v EXHIBIT VIII -5 Lubbock Department Of Health TYPICAL CLINIC STAFFING PATTERNS Clinic Immunization Dental Family Planning (a) Maternity Pediatrics EXHIBIT VIII -6 Sessions Typical Staffing Per Per Week Clinic Session 6 1 Public Health Nurse 6 1 Dentist 1 Dental Assistant 1 Dental Aide 4 1 Physician 1 Nurse Practitioner 1 Public Health Nurse 1 Clerk 4 1 Physician 2 Public Health Nurses 1 Licensed Vocational Nurse or Health Aide 1 Clerk 2 1 Physician 1 Public Health Nurse 1 Licensed Vocational Nurse 1 Clerk Sexually Transmitted Disease 6 1 Physician 1 Public Health Nurse 1 Licensed Vocational Nurse (a)Does not include pill pick-up clinics, which are held three times a week and are staffed by one public health nurse and one clerk. Because of limited staff time, priorities have been estab- lished to guide community nurses in determining who should receive a home visit. The four basic priorities are: - Prenatal patients who are considered high risk medical- ly, who have missed two or more appointments at the clinic, or who are under the age of 16 and have not kept their initial maternity clinic appointment - Infants and children of adolescent parents referred to the home visit staff by the pediatric clinic - Follow-up investigation of all vaccine -preventable diseases, as well as such diseases as rabies, meningi- tis, and encephalitis - All patients referred from outside health-related sources. Nursing staff estimate that each community nurse spends, on average, approximately eight days in the field each month. As shown in the table below, the number of home visits has decreased during the last two years. Heavier clinic schedule demands have limited the amount of time available in which to conduct home visits. The development of priorities to determine who should receive home visits has also contributed to the reduc- tion. Number Of Year Home Visits 1982 2,055 1981 4,424 1980 6,251 1979 5,011 OBSERVATIONS The Department's Five Year Health Plan For The Scope Of Future Service Has Not Been Well Defined Although the move to new facilities and accompanying expansion of examination rooms has already been approved, the Department does not have an adequate long-range plan to describe its opera- tional and staffing needs and priorities over the next several VIII -8 t:C years. The five year plan recently developed by Department man- agement provides a thorough history and description of Depart- mental operations. However, several key issues are not addressed, such as: - Departmental goals for the next one, five, and ten years, both for individual sections and for the Depart- ment as a whole - The desired services to be provided -through the new facility, in relation to community needs and financial capabilities - The optimal mix of clinics within either the Depart- ment.'s present or projected capacities Priorities for capital expenditures and new programs. The existing five year plan does not ensure that these and other issues have been adequately examined and that the direction of the Department is soundly based. The Administrative Staff Of The Department Is Too Large The budgeted administrative staff of the Department appears to be greater than needed for supervisory and clerical support. Specifically, the responsibilities and workload of the administra- tive assistant are not sufficient to warrant the position. The administrative assistant is responsible for overseeing the three personnel in vital statistics, the building maintenance worker, and the custodian; maintains purchasing and personnel records; and performs special projects. These responsibilities are not suffi- cient, in magnitude or amount, to require the efforts of an.admin- istrative assistant, especially since the Department now has a full-time Health Administrator. Similarly, the workload in vital statistics does not require two clerical staff in addition to the registrar. Vital statistics personnel currently handle a daily average of 70 requests for birth and death certificate copies (including multiple copy requests) by phone, mail, or walk-in. Personnel also file ap- proximately 30 birth and death certificates each day. The com- bined workload of 100 certificates each day does'not require three full-time personnel. Environmental Health Supervision Is Not Appropriate Currently, a supervising sanitarian is serving as the acting environmental health director. Four of the eight sanitarians have VIII -9 C.I. 'i been ass'igned to one of the supervising sanitarians, and the other four report directly to the acting director. The separation of f supervisory responsibilities is confusing and unnecessary. The acting director is responsible for managing the activities of the entire unit, in addition to supervising the day-to-day work of four sanitarians. Furthermore, the supervising sanitarian position has become more of an office position than a field position. For example, the supervising sanitarian reviews individual inspection forms completed by each sanitarian on a daily basis. The current organization and assignment of supervisory personnel fails to con- tribute to the efficiency of the inspection activities. Environmental Health Staffing Levels Do Not Reflect Workload Demands �.. The quarterly inspection of establishments by sanitarians and the use of full-time vector control workers year round result in an inefficient use of personnel. Sanitarians are expected to con- duct routine inspections of food establishments every three months, regardless of either the previous inspection ratings or the type of establishment. For example, restaurants and conven- ience stores are inspected with the same degree of frequency. In addition, sanitarians spend too much time in the office, rather than in the field. Sanitarians now report to the office in the morning and afternoon, an arrangement that is neither efficient nor necessary. Inspection work is conducted by being in the field and performing on-site inspections, and is not enhanced by being in the office. Also, the bulk of the sanitarian's paperwork is already being completed in the. field. The additional trip to the office consumes time that could otherwise be spent either conduct- ing inspections or responding to.complaints. The seasonal vector control workload does not justify the pre- sent number of full-time vector control workers. Seven vector control workers are currently employed year round, even though the majority of the work is conducted during a six-month period. Winter months are spent repairing and servicing equipment, taking accumulated compensation time, and preparing for the upcoming months' activities. a The failure to schedule sanitarians and vector control workers so as to use their time more productively has meant increased POW operating costs for the Department, and unnecessary downtime for personnel. i RECOMMENDATIONS The Existing Five Year Plan For The Department Should Be Revised The Health Administrator should initiate a planning process to address the following critical concerns: - Departmental and section goals for the next one, five, and ten years The intended services to be provided in the foreseeable +I future, based on a consideration of community needs, the City's financial capabilities, and likely support from state sources - The appropriate number, mix, and hours of clinics - The scope and depth of programs and support services to be offered - The specific steps that will be needed to implement this plan, the timing for the steps, and the persons respon- sible for their accomplishment. The strategic plan should have a time horizon of five to seven years, and should guide major capital and operating fund obliga- tions for that time period. The health plan devised by the Department should provide a basis for the strategic plan. Emphasis should be placed on long-range needs and the periodic review of performance. Exhibit VIII -7 presents some sample ques- tions about clinic services to be addressed in the strategic plan. The plan should be reviewed by the Health Director, the Health Advisory Board, and the City Manager's office, modified as appro- priate, and approved. Administrative Staffing Should Be Reduced The current workload and responsibilities of the administra- tive assistant position and one of the two clerical positions in vital statistics does not warrant the current staffing level, and the positions should be discontinued. The recent hiring of a part-time Health Director should relieve the Health Administrator of some responsibilities, so that he can provide whatever staff supervision is necessary. The two administrative secretaries who report to the Health Administrator should assume responsibility for purchasing and personnel functions and special projects. EXHIBIT VIII -7 Lubbock Department Of Health REPRESENTATIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT CLINIC SERVICES TO BE ADDRESSED IN THE FIVE YEAR PLAN o What patient population is served by the Department's clinics? - Geography - Income - Age - Race • What other sources of health care for the same patient population are there in Lubbock? - What services do they offer? - What services do they not offer? - Where do they have excess capacity? o How do patients find out about the clinic services offered by the Department? - Are patients referred from other medical providers? • What patient population groups are growing or shrinking? - How should services be changed to best meet their needs? • Are trends in clinic utilization up or down? - What factors underlie the present trends in utilization? • What populations are either unserved or underserved by the current health system? • What types of services do the staff and patients think need additional emphasis? Staffing in vital statistics should be reduced by one clerical position, and other.clerical staff in the Department should be trained by the vital statistics registrar in processing birth certificate requests. During August and September, the other clerical staff members should help handle the increased birth certificate requests that accompany the start of a new school year. These reductions should result in annual savings of approxi- mately $43,000., including fringe benefits, for the two funded positions. Environmental Health Should Adopt A More Targeted And Efficient Approach To Inspection And Vector Control Activities The frequency of inspections of food establishments should be reduced from the present average of four times per year to an average of twice annually. The actual inspections of the food establishments should be scheduled according to the likelihood of a violation, based on past performance. Establishments should be divided into three groups, based on their performance during the previous year: - Those with a record of violations, which should be inspected at least twice as frequently, or four times a year; some repeat violators with serious violations should be inspected as often as 12 times yearly, or once a month - Those with an average record, which should be thoroughly inspected twice a year - Those with consistently excellent records, which should be checked as appropriate, but no less than once annually. Similar inspection schedules should be established for other premises and facilities visited by sanitarians. The number of visits should be a function of the need for enforcement to main- tain healthy conditions. Follow-up inspections should be com- pleted as required. The sanitarians should limit the amount of time spent in the office to no more than one hour per day each. The present prac- tice of reporting to the office twice a day, in the morning and at the end of the day, should be discontinued. Inspectors should be allowed to take their City cars home and should report directly to the first inspection site in the morning. Necessary paperwork should be completed in the field, following each inspection. Each sanitarian should be given a pager, so that they can be reached in the field and can call in for messages. Such measures should increase the net available time to follow-up with violators, thereby increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Further, the supervising sanitarian should spend half his time in the field conducting inspections. In particular, he should concentrate on repeat violators and follow-up inspections. The environmental health director should be responsible for reviewing most inspec- tion reports and completing other paperwork, to free the supervis- ing sanitarian to spend more time in the field. The recommended changes in the scheduling of inspections will reduce the number of inspections by approximately 40 per cent. Because of the reduction in the volume of inspections and the { increased field workload of supervising sanitarians, the number of sanitarians should be reduced by two positions. Savings from -+ this change will be approximately $45,000 annually in salary and fringe benefits. The number of inspection areas should be reduced to six to correspond to the number of sanitarians. Environmental health should continue its practice of assigning sanitarians to a partic- ular area. The areas should be reviewed yearly to ensure that workloads are relatively well-balanced, and area assignments should be rotated annually to promote objectivity and prevent any bias or oversights that might occur. Due to the seasonal nature of the current workload, the number of full-time vector control workers should be reduced from seven to two, and the use of seasonal vector control workers increased. Two vector control workers, in addition to the supervising sani- tarian and the rodent control sanitarian, should remain year-round employees to provide adequate staffing during the winter months. Additional seasonal workers should be hired on a part-time basis to handle the peak workloads during spring and summer months. Seasonal workers should be hired early enough to permit adequate training in vector control activities prior to the busy season. By hiring seasonal vector control workers for a six-month period, the Department could increase the number of staff during the busy season beyond the current level, but still reduce costs. Discontinuing five full-time vector control workers would result in annual savings of $77,000, in salaries and fringe benefits. Hiring eight seasonal workers at four dollars per hour for six months would cost approximately $33,000, a net savings of $44,000 to the Department. No Text pow IX - LIBRARY SYSTEM i This chapter considers the library services provided to the citizens of Lubbock. Following a description of library services, observations regarding organization and operations are discussed. Recommendations for improvement in these areas are then presented. BACKGROUND This section outlines the principal characteristics of the library system, covering its mission and role, organization and staffing, funding, and management and operations. (� Mission And Role In 1954, the City Council and the County Commissioners of Lubbock reached agreement on a joint proposal to provide library services. In fulfillment of the City -County agreement, the library system operates the Mahon Public Library and the Godeke Branch Library within the City of Lubbock, the branch libraries at Idalou and Slaton in the County of Slaton, and the bookmobile. Together, the Mahon Library, branches and bookmobile: - Acquire, make available, and circulate a collection of books, films, periodicals, records, and art work - Supply reference materials and services, business infor- mation, materials pertaining to state history, and genealogy information - Secure from other libraries in West Texas books and reference information not available locally - Provide library materials and special related programs and activities for children. Organization And Staffing The library system is advised by a Library Board, as required by the City -County library agreement. The Library Board consists of five members appointed by the City and four members appointed by the County, who jointly make recommendations to the City Coun- cil, the County Commissioner's Court, and the Library Director. 7 r The Library Director is responsible for the overall management of the library system. As indicated in Exhibit IX -I, on the fol- lowing page, the Assistant Library Director reports to the Library Director. Five administrative personnel report to the Assistant Library Director: the business manager, director of public serv- ices, branch coordinator, director of technical services, and the West Texas Library System (WTLS) coordinator. Each of these administrative personnel is responsible for a separate aspect of the library system operations. The responsibilities and staffing associated with each of the five organizational units are de- scribed in the sections below. . The library system is budgeted for 37 full-time and 8.5 full- time equivalent positions in fiscal 1983; eight additional posi- tions are funded by WTLS. The number of authorized library system positions has not been increased in the last five years. Administration The Library Director plans, organizes, directs, and controls the library system and represents the system in its external rela- tions. Additional administrative support, particularly in the day-to-day management of library operations, is provided by the Assistant Director. The business manager assists in the budget process, monitors expenditures, purchases equipment and supplies, and serves as liaison with various City offices. Public Services The eight reference librarians, including the director and her assistant, aid patrons in the use of the reference collection and microfilm readers, select materials for acquisition, maintain a collection of reference files, and offer various programs for patrons. Reference librarians respond to reference and reader guidance questions by telephone or in person. Three reference desks on the main floor of Mahon are staffed by reference librarians. Technical Services The six staff members in technical services classify, organ- ize, and process all books being placed in the library system's collection, and maintain the author, title, and subject catalogs. Staff members enter information about system holdings into the computerized cataloging network, prepare books for shelving, and order catalog cards. IX -2 U M • EXHIBIT IX -1 N • • • 71 Ij6 Technical services staff also prepare lists of books for pur- chase or lease, check invoices against new purchases, and process received materials. In addition to managing the technical serv- ices staff, the director of technical services oversees the circulation staff. A library assistant is responsible for the day-to-day management of the circulation staff, who check out all library materials, collect fines, reshelve books, send out overdue notifications, and staff the bookmobile. Branch Libraries The three branch libraries, Godeke, Idalou, and Slaton, are operated by eight personnel. The branches are headed by a librarian, who coordinates the operation of the branches and supervises personnel. General purpose areas are available for group meetings and activities at the branches. West Texas Library System The administrative headquarters for the West Texas Library System is located in the Mahon Public Library. The WTLS is a consortium of 26 member libraries from the western regions ofthe state. Staffing for WTLS consists of eight people, four of whom are librarians. All eight positions are funded by the WTLS. Size Of Library Collection The library system's collection included approximately 320,000 items at the end of fiscal 1982, as indicated in the table below: IX -3 Funding The library system's operating budget for fiscal 1983 totals $1,255,000. The County of Lubbock provides 40 per cent of the �I operating budget, or $486,015 for fiscal 1983. The library system's operating budget has increased 48 per cent during the past five years, from approximately $850,000 in fiscal 1979 to its current level. Total Per Cent €, Operating Increase Fiscal Year Budget Year To Year 7 1983 $1,255,125 8.4% 1982 1,157,965 14.4 71 1981 1980 1,012,616 892,804 13.4 5_4 1979 847,324 Size Of Library Collection The library system's collection included approximately 320,000 items at the end of fiscal 1982, as indicated in the table below: IX -3 7 7 Types Of M=4- ri =I c Books Records Filmstrips Microfilm Reels Newspaper and Periodical Subscriptions. Art Prints Sculpture Reproductions Size Of Collection Mahon(a) Godeke Idalou Slaton Total 246,205(b) 35,230(b) 8,228(b) 12,501(b) 302,164 5,347 432 303 297 6,379 566 566 8,146 8,146 534 51 29 29 643 313 313 38 38 (a)Bookmobile is stocked from Mahon collection. (b)Estimated. As shown in the table below, the library collection has been increasing by 12,000 items each year, at an annual cost in excess of $100,000. A significant percentage (approximately 75 per cent) of the increase has been to the Mahon collection. Hours Of Library Operation. Hours of operation vary by location, and are determined on the basis of past attendance patterns. Mahon Library is open six days each week, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, for a total of 66 hours weekly. Godeke Branch Library is open 54 hours weekly, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and from noon to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednes- day. The Idalou Branch is open Monday through Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and the Slaton Branch is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. IX -4 Items Added In Fiscal 1982 Location Number Cost Mahon 11,376 $ 94,175 Godeke 2,944 16,220 Idalou 333 2,416 Slaton 624 3,551 Total 15,277 $116,362 Hours Of Library Operation. Hours of operation vary by location, and are determined on the basis of past attendance patterns. Mahon Library is open six days each week, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, for a total of 66 hours weekly. Godeke Branch Library is open 54 hours weekly, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and from noon to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednes- day. The Idalou Branch is open Monday through Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and the Slaton Branch is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. IX -4 ft The bookmobile makes five stops within the City of Lubbock and three County stops in Shallowater, New Deal, and Wolfforth. City bookmobile stops are open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and County stops from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Circulation Circulation of the library system's materials was approxi- mately 490,000 items. in fiscal 1982, representing an increase of approximately 12 per cent over the last five years. As indicated in the table below, the circulation of books has increased 10 per cent during the last five years. Significant increases also have occurred in the circulation of films and filmstrips, and the use of interlibrary loan, while the circulation of records, art prints, and sculpture has decreased. Total 470,010 IX -5 100.0% Per Cent Types Of Fiscal Fiscal Increase/ Materials 1982 1978 (Decrease) Books 470,010 421,567 10.3% Records 9,054 10,916 17.0 Films and Filmstrips 3,175 1,733 83.2 Art Prints and Sculpture 493 944 47.8 Interlibrary Loan 6,192 2,693 130.0 Total 488,924 437,853 11.7% As the table below indicates, circulation varies considerably among the different libraries. The number of books circulated during fiscal 1982 ranged from almost 290,000 books at Mahon Library to 9,000 through the bookmobile. Per Cent Of Total Unit Number Circulation Mahon 287,209 61.1% Godeke 149,302 31.8 Idalou 10,648 2.3 Slaton 13,814 2.9 Bookmobile 9,037 1.9 Total 470,010 IX -5 100.0% Overall attendance has increased by 18 per cent during the - last five years, although attendance for Idalou, Slaton, and the bookmobile has remained relatively constant. Attendance at Godeke library has more than tripled, while the number of patrons at Mahon Library has decreased by 8 per cent. A.summary of atten- dance is presented below: Fiscal Year Attendance Unit 1978 1979 1980 1982 The total number of patrons entering library units during fiscal 1982 was approximately 290,000. Attendance is recorded 183,625 electronically at Mahon and Godeke Libraries, and is estimated a, on the basis of circulation for Idalou, Slaton, and the book- Godeke mobile. 43,871 48,981 As shown below, the number of patrons ranged from 170,000 at 96,033 Mahon Library (approximately 59 per cent of total library system patrons) to less than 9,000 at each of the county branches and the 7,168 bookmobile. The number of patrons per hour of operation ranges 6,768 from a high of 59 per hour at Mahon to less than six at Idalou, Slaton Slaton, and the bookmobile. 9,253 8,940 Number Of Number Per Hour Unit Patrons Of Operation 8,392 Mahon 171,250 59.1 5,693 96 033 Godeke , 35.6 Total Idalou 6,768 5.4 260,167 Slaton 8,815 4.4 Bookmobile 5,693 2.8 pop Total 288,559 Overall attendance has increased by 18 per cent during the - last five years, although attendance for Idalou, Slaton, and the bookmobile has remained relatively constant. Attendance at Godeke library has more than tripled, while the number of patrons at Mahon Library has decreased by 8 per cent. A.summary of atten- dance is presented below: Reference Services The library system personnel answered over 50,000 reference or reader guidance inquiries in-person during fiscal 1982. Over.85 7 IX -6 Fiscal Year Unit 1978 1979 1980 1982 1982 Mahon 186,788 183,625 187,724 179,105 171,250 Godeke 31,764 43,871 48,981 87,917 96,033 Idalou 6,439 7,168 7,284 7,254 6,768 lI Slaton 9,853 9,253 8,940 8,552 8,815 Bookmobile 9,397 8,392 7,238 81591 5,693 Total 244,241 252,309 260,167 282,419 288,559 Reference Services The library system personnel answered over 50,000 reference or reader guidance inquiries in-person during fiscal 1982. Over.85 7 IX -6 per cent of these inquiries were received by reference librarians at Mahon Library. As shown below, the number of inquiries has increased steadily at Mahon Library, has fluctuated at Godeke Branch Library, and has stayed relatively constant at both Idalou and Slaton. Library system personnel have recently begun to keep records of telephone inquiries. OBSERVATIONS. To Provide A d Services To The library system has made available to the public a large and varied collection of books, paperbacks, periodicals, reference materials, films, phonograph records, local documents of his- toric interest, and art prints and sculpture. Special attention has been focused on offering library services on a targeted basis. A number of well -attended shows, story hours, and other activities for children are provided. Family film nights, lecture series, and book discussion groups are presented. The bookmobile and Idalou and Slaton Branch Libraries provide library services to persons in outlying areas. Books and other reference materials not in the library system's permanent collection can be located and obtained through interlibrary loan. Library Branch Expansion Planning Exhibits Several Weaknesses In 1968 the library management and the Library Board commis- sioned the first of two branch expansion proposal studies con- ducted by outside consultants. In 1981, a second study was per- formed, which was the basis for the library staff study completed in January 1983. . IX -7 Fiscal Year Unit 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 Mahon 21,209 25,153 30,118 34,015 44,652 Godeke 2,973 3,797 2,675 6,202 4,902 Idalou 1,251 1,227 1,210 1,221 1,227 Slaton 2,300 1,105 1,142 943 1,217 Bookmobile 241 56 138 73 61 Total 27,974 31,338 35,283 42,454 52,059 Library system personnel have recently begun to keep records of telephone inquiries. OBSERVATIONS. To Provide A d Services To The library system has made available to the public a large and varied collection of books, paperbacks, periodicals, reference materials, films, phonograph records, local documents of his- toric interest, and art prints and sculpture. Special attention has been focused on offering library services on a targeted basis. A number of well -attended shows, story hours, and other activities for children are provided. Family film nights, lecture series, and book discussion groups are presented. The bookmobile and Idalou and Slaton Branch Libraries provide library services to persons in outlying areas. Books and other reference materials not in the library system's permanent collection can be located and obtained through interlibrary loan. Library Branch Expansion Planning Exhibits Several Weaknesses In 1968 the library management and the Library Board commis- sioned the first of two branch expansion proposal studies con- ducted by outside consultants. In 1981, a second study was per- formed, which was the basis for the library staff study completed in January 1983. . IX -7 i The most recent study divided the City into four neighborhoods t^ and established a number of criteria to be used in evaluating the ? potential branch library sites in Lubbock. The four areas were northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest Lubbock. The criteria established were: - Neighborhood populations in excess of 25,000 - Distance of three or more miles from an existing library facility (in other words, under this criterion patrons would be within one and one-half miles of a library). Neighborhoods meeting these criteria should be able to support a branch library of approximately 12,000 square feet in size, with an initial collection of 25,000 volumes staffed with professional personnel during all service hours. The 1983 study recommended the development of branch libraries in four neighborhoods. Staffing levels, programming, capital and operating costs, and site locations for each branch were identi- fied. A phased introduction of these branch libraries was sug- gested, beginning with a branch in northwest Lubbock in 1985, fol- lowed by branches in southeast and northeast Lubbock in 1987 and 1989 respectively, and ending with the fourth branch in southwest Lubbock in 1991. However, the application of the criteria to the four neighbor- hood areas and the formulation of staffing and cost estimates for branch development and operation show several weaknesses, as de— scribed below: - The northwest branch location will have a population of over 25,000 by 1985 and is located approximately four miles from the Mahon Library. - The southeast branch location would be approximately three miles from the Mahon Library and serve a popula- tion estimated to be greater than 25,000 by 1990. - The northeast branch location would be located less than two miles from Mahon Library in a neighborhood whose current population of 16,000 is expected to decline. - The southwest branch location would be located approxi- mately three miles from Godeke Branch Library in an area whose population will increase from its current level of ;,. 8,000 to 22,000 by the year 2000. 11 IX -8 r D i� Using the established criteria, northwest Lubbock currently could sustain a branch library, southeast Lubbock could support a branch library by 1990, and southwest Lubbock could be targeted for a possible third branch library in the long term. The criteria do not support establishing a branch library in the northeast neigh- borhood. Furthermore, the estimated staffing and cost levels to develop and support each branch appear excessive. Total staffing for each branch is estimated to include two librarians, two library.assis- tants, two clerk -typists, one library aide, and a half-time custo- dian, at an estimated cost of $115,000, given current salary levels. This staffing level exceeds the current staffing level at Godeke Branch Library. The Library System Does Not Maintain A List Of Registered Library Patrons Patrons wishing to check out books are not required to fill out a registration application before receiving a library card. The patron is asked, at the time of receiving the card, to present some proof of residence. The validity of the address or phone number is not checked, and no permanent record is kept of this information. The patron's name and address are written on the card; when materials are checked out, this information is included on the microfilm record of the transaction. Overdue notices are prepared from information on the microfilm. As a result, the cir- culation staff have no means of determining the total number of overdue fines attributable to a particular patron, or of prevent- ing a patron with outstanding fines from checking out additional materials. Also, the library system has no record of the number or loca- tion of its patrons, which would be useful,information for justi- fying future branch expansion plans. The Overdue Notification Process Is Unnecessarily Complex And orc As part of the overdue notification process, circulation staff check the shelves for overdue books before sending out the first overdue notice. Before the second and third notices are mailed, the shelf is rechecked. Following the third notice, staff check the shelf once a month for six months before declaring the book missing. With this system, the shelves are checked up to nine times for an overdue or missing book. IX -9 r T Because patrons are not required to complete registration applications, no record -As kept of outstanding fines against a particular individual. Patrons with overdue books and outstanding fines are not prevented from checking out additional materials. Other than the three mailed notices, no efforts are made to col- lect fines or recover books, either by library staff or by outside collection agencies. The current average price of acquiring and cataloging each book is approximately $20. By not enforcing overdue fine pay- ments, the library system incurs unnecessary replacement costs and fails to discourage chronic offenders from taking additional items out of circulation. The Staffing Level Of Reference Librarians At Mahon Library Is Excessive The reference librarian staff of eight persons provides refer- ence services to patrons at Mahon Library during all hours of operation. Three reference desks are scattered on the main floor, and three reference librarians are available most of the time; only two reference librarians are on the floor on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Each reference librarian is scheduled to spend six hours each day on the floor; the remaining.two hours is spent in the reference staff office on administrative responsi- bilities, program planning and development, and recommendations for additional acquisitions. Reference librarians spend considerable time providing very basic, general information about the layout of the library and the location of various collections. Phone requests for information are sometimes routed to reference librarians on the floor. A record of the number of inquiries is kept by.each reference librarian during his or her time on the floor. During fiscal 1982, for example, reference librarians answered 44,652 requests. Translating this figure into a workload measurement, each refer- ence librarian answered an average of five requests per hour. While requests from patrons will vary in the amount of.time neces- sary to answer fully, an average of five requests per.hour is not a sufficient workload to justify the present level of staffing. Although patronage is great enough to warrant reference librarian services at all times, the number of reference librarians on the floor at any one time is excessive. IX -10 r The Potential For Increasinq Library.Usage By Initiat u een E In examining library usage patterns and potential changes in service.hours at the Godeke and Mahon libraries, library staff have not considered initiating Sunday library hours. Library staff have conducted several usage studies to track existing attendance patterns and determine periods of heavy or light usage. These attendance figures have shown that the busiest times during present hours of operation are the leisure hours of patrons. In particular, library attendance during lunch hours, evening hours, and Saturdays is higher than during normal business hours. A November 1982 usage survey conducted by the library staff shows that the busiest days at Mahon Library, both in number of patrons and circulation, were Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. For Godeke Branch Library, the busiest day was also Saturday. Tuesday and Wednesday, the days when Godeke has evening hours, were the next busiest. In addition, hourly attendance figures for Mahon Library during a two-week period in April 1983 showed increases in attendance during the lunch hours and evening hours. Studies by the library system have focused on plotting atten- dance patterns within present hours of operation rather than on �) questioning whether existing hours are appropriate and respon- sive. Despite the strong correlation between leisure time and .�. library usage, Sunday hours have not been considered recently, nor have patrons been polled on whether Sunday hours would be desir- able. RECOMMENDATIONS Plans For Library Branch Development Should Be Reexamined The existing library branch development plans should be re- examined. The criteria for evaluation developed in the branch library report appear appropriate, and are acceptable to library management. These criteria should be applied consistently to any proposed branch library location site. Using these criteria, the northwest branch should be developed first, followed by the south- east branch. Further expansion will probably be in southwest Lubbock. 'Any additional sites not meeting the criteria may be considered important for socio-economic or cultural reasons; a decision to establish a branch library in one of these areas should be made by City Council in light of its priorities, per- ceived need, and alternate uses for the funds. IX -11 I Each branch should be staffed by tant and one clerk -typist during all library aide should shelve books and as necessary. A part-time custodian Operating costs for personnel should year. one full-time library assis- hours of operation. A provide assistance and relief should also be employed. be approximately $50,000 each Leasing an existing facility should be explored as an alterna- tive to expending construction and development costs of $850,000 for each branch site. Leasing would allow greater flexibility and lower capital costs, without detracting from the level of services being provided to the Lubbock community. Additional staff should not be needed at Mahon to develop a branch library system. Responsibility for branch development activities should be assigned to the Director. The.branch coordi- nator should participate fully in the planning for branch develop- ment, and should be responsible for the day-to-day management of any new branches. Changes Should Be Made In Procedures For Registration And Overdue Notifications The registration process should be changed to require patrons to complete a simple registration application that includes a valid address and phone number. The branches and Mahon Library should be responsible for receiving applications for registration (including assisting patrons in completing the application) and issuing a temporary registration card. Circulation staff at Mahon should receive the application information and complete the pro- cessing of card issuance. A single form should be used for the application. A recommended sequence of steps in the registration process is presented in Exhibit IX -2 at the end of this chapter. Procedures for processing overdue notices and fines should be simplified and more rigorously enforced. The circulation staff should continue to be responsible for completing a multicopy form for materials that are two weeks overdue. Subsequent copies of the form should be sent out, if necessary. Circulation.staff should maintain records of overdue materials and fines, due, and clear all records when materials are returned and fines are paid. The use of a collection agency to collect fines and replacement costs for unreturned materials should be seriously considered, particularly when the dollar value of the materials or fines exceeds $ 50. The overdue notification process reducing the number of notifications tion, the current policy of searching IX_ 12 should be simplified by from three to two. In addi- for overdue materials every month for six months before declaring the items missing should be discontinued. A shelf check should be performed only before the first and second notices are mailed, and before the patron's name is turned over for collection. A recommended sequence for the processing of overdue notices and fines is presented in Exhibit IX -3 at the end of this chapter. The Number Of Reference Librarians At Mahon Library Should Be Reduced A staff of six reference librarians - two less than the cur- rent staff - should be able to meet the current demand for refer- ence and information services. A maximum of two reference librar- ians should be assigned to the floor at any one time. Phone re- quests for information should be routed to one of the reference librarians on the floor. General information, such as a floor plan and basic literature about the collection, should be placed in a,prominent location just inside the entrance to eliminate many of the general information questions raised by patrons. Patrons should be encouraged to consult with the reference librarians about any questions they may have. The six remaining reference librarians should be adequate to maintain two reference librarians on the floor during all hours the library is open.. Reference librarians should continue to spend no more than six hours each day on the floor. Time for reference librarians to devote to office work, program scheduling and development, and acquisition activities should be continued. The recommended reduction in staffing should save approximately $44,000 annually in salaries and fringe benefits. The Library System Should Modify Its Hours Of Operation The library system should expand weekend hours of operation to include the hours of 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. The expanded hours should be implemented on a six-month trial basis at the Godeke Branch Library. The six-month period should include both summer and fall months to determine whether demands for library services are seasonal. Attendance and circulation figures should be kept by blocks of time (morning, afternoon, and evening hours, for example) to evaluate potential changes in patron usage. At the end, of the six-month period, the attendance and circu- lation figures should be examined and evaluated for possible read- justments. A sample group of patrons should be asked for their reaction to continued Sunday hours. To justify the implementation IX -13 of permanent Sunday hours, total attendance and circulation figures should exceed those of at least two other blocks of time measured. Any readjustments in the hours of operation should not in- crease either the total staff numbers or hours of operation per week. Instead, the expanded weekend hours should be traded off by reducing hours during the slow periods identified, with staffing adjusted accordingly. IX -14 r EXHIBIT IX -2 Page 1 of 2 City of Lubbock Library System RECOMMENDED REGISTRATION PROCEDURES • The branch at which application is made should issue a hand- written card and write the minimum needed information (for example, name, address, and temporary registration number) in a temporary registration book. - Branch staff should review the application in the patron's presence and request any missing information. • The branch should then forward the application to the Mahon Library for processing, as follows: - Check the central registration file to determine whether the patron owes fines in excess of $5 or already has a valid card (in which case a duplicate should be issued). - Send the patron a standard preprinted postcard stating the total amount of fines due, if the fines exceed $5, and indicating that a card will not be issued until the fines are paid. - Attempt to obtain any needed information missing from the application by consulting the central registration file, sending the applicant a form letter indicating which information is needed, or placing a phone call, depending on which alternative is most expedient. o The use of a form letter confirms the residential �I address, if such confirmation is needed. - Assign a registration number and prepare a card. - Type the patron's name at the top of the application, so that this form may serve as the entry in the central alphabetical file. - Type all needed information onto the numerical file card. o The two carbon copies of this triplicate form will be sent to the originating branch for placement in the branch's alphabetical and numerical files. 0 EXHIBIT IX -2 Page 2 of 2 - Place the application in the central alphabetical file and the circulation staff's copy of the numerical card in the central numerical file. - Send the two copies of the numerical card to the originating branch by way of the library system's delivery system. - Mail the registration card to the patron. o A card should be issued if the application contains at least a valid residential address and a valid phone number; circulation staff should not waste time attempting to track down additional information. EXHIBIT IX -3 Page 1 of 2 City of Lubbock Library System RECOMMENDED PROCEDURES FOR NOTIFYING PATRONS OF OVERDUE MATERIALS AND FINES • A single multicopy overdue notice form should be used for all library system materials. • Procedures for using this form in notifying patrons of overdue books and fines due should be as follows: The form should be completed once by Mahon Library circulation staff, yielding copies to be used for the second (and final) notice, if necessary, and for the central file. - Only the replacement price of overdue book(s) should be omitted when the form is initially completed; this should be entered if a second notice is necessary. - When a book is two weeks overdue, the first copy should be mailed to the patron. - If the overdue materials are not returned within two additional weeks, circulation staff should enter the value of the overdue book(s) and mail the second and final notice to the patron. If the overdue material is not returned within three additional weeks, the Circulation Staff should send a copy of the statement to the collection agency, place a red tab on the patron's application in the alphabetical registration file, and place the third carbon copy of (I the statement in the permanent overdue file. • If an overdue book is returned: The branch or circulation desk at the Mahn Library should: o Receive the final payment. o Clear the permanent overdue file. o Complete a "Notice of Returned Materials" form and mail the form to the circulation staff, thereby in- forming the unit of any unpaid balance in the fine. EXHIBIT IX -3 Page 2 of 2. The circulation staff should: o Send the patron a "Notice of Fine Due" form,.if appropriate. o Clear its records by pulling the final copy of the statement if the fine has been paid. o Inform the collection agency of the paid fine by sending it the final copy of the statement stamped "Paid in Full." No Text X - URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY This chapter presents a review of the Urban Renewal Agency. A background description of the Agency is followed by observations and recommendations for improvement. BACKGROUND The Urban Renewal Agency has a staff of 15 full-time equiva- lent personnel; its operating budget for funding year 1982-83 is $1,597,000. The Agency is responsible for the relocation of indi- viduals living in severely substandard housing and the rehabilita- tion of substandard housing in specific communities within Lubbock. The Urban Renewal Agency was established by public referendum in November 1957. Under the Texas Urban Renewal Law, urban re- newal project powers may be exercised.either by the City itself or by an urban renewal agency. One of the important powers delegated to the Agency when it was created is the right to purchase slum or blighted properties for private redevelopment and reuse. The right to purchase includes the right to use eminent domain, if necessary, in pursuit of its objectives. The City Council determines which areas are targeted for urban renewal activity, allocates Community Development funds to the Agency for urban renewal projects, and determines the relative proportion of funds to be allocated between rehabilitation and relocation activities. History Of Urban Renewal Activities In Lubbock When the Urban Renewal Agency was organized in 1957, two areas in the City were selected for urban renewal projects, a 35 -acre area called Coronado and the surrounding 380 acres called Yellow - house. Planning and funding for the Coronado project were ap- proved in 1958, but, because of legal suits pending in the Texas Supreme Court, urban renewal work was not begun on the Coronado project until 1960. Difficulties in obtaining decent living units for displaced low income families hampered urban renewal efforts. Not until 1965 was low income housing available for relocation families, through the construction of a 236 -unit multi -family housing project. The Coronado project was converted to the Neighborhood Devel- opment Program (NDP) in 1970, a program established by the 1968 Housing Act to provide annual funding for urban renewal activi- ties. Other projects were added at this time, including the Phyllis -Wheatley and the Guadalupe Areas. I Organization And Staffing The current organization of the Agency is depicted in Exhibit X-1, on the following page. For budgeting purposes, the Agency is divided into an administrative unit and a field unit. The admini- strative unit consists of six positions, with a total of five full-time equivalent personnel. The field unit is composed of ten full-time equivalent personnel involved in real estate acquisition and disposal, relocation, rehabilitation, and drafting activities. Administrative Unit. The Executive Director is responsible for the overall management of the Urban Renewal Agency. He serves as the Agency's representative to the Urban Renewal Board, and as chief advisor to the Board of Commissioners of the Urban Renewal Agency. The Deputy Director, a half-time position, serves as head of the Agency in the Director's absence, and assists the Executive Director in all phases of the Agency's operations and management. The Assistant Executive Director for Administration oversees all budgeting, accounting, purchasing, personnel, and general office management activities for the Agency. Additional support for the administrative unit is provided by a chief accountant, executive secretary, and part-time administrative assistant. Field Unit. The field unit consists of the real estate, relo- cation, and rehabilitation departments, and the,part-time drafter. 7, X- 2 Between 1971 and 1974, the NDP expended over $14 million, generated 191 new residential housing units, rehabilitated an additional 407 units, and cleared 745 substandard housing parcels. The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 consolidated several housing and urban development programs into a single block grant program, called Community Development. Community Develop- ment funds have been Total funds expended allocated to the City of Lubbock since 1975. on urban renewal activities under the Commun- ity Development Program are presented in the table below: Funds Year Expended 1982-83 403,297 (as of March 1, 1983) 1981-82 1,608,329 (as of November 1,.1982) 1980-81 1,847,420 1979-80 2,389,462 1978-79 2,039,324 1977-78 2,464,560 1976-77 2,460,645 1975-76 $2,749,637 Organization And Staffing The current organization of the Agency is depicted in Exhibit X-1, on the following page. For budgeting purposes, the Agency is divided into an administrative unit and a field unit. The admini- strative unit consists of six positions, with a total of five full-time equivalent personnel. The field unit is composed of ten full-time equivalent personnel involved in real estate acquisition and disposal, relocation, rehabilitation, and drafting activities. Administrative Unit. The Executive Director is responsible for the overall management of the Urban Renewal Agency. He serves as the Agency's representative to the Urban Renewal Board, and as chief advisor to the Board of Commissioners of the Urban Renewal Agency. The Deputy Director, a half-time position, serves as head of the Agency in the Director's absence, and assists the Executive Director in all phases of the Agency's operations and management. The Assistant Executive Director for Administration oversees all budgeting, accounting, purchasing, personnel, and general office management activities for the Agency. Additional support for the administrative unit is provided by a chief accountant, executive secretary, and part-time administrative assistant. Field Unit. The field unit consists of the real estate, relo- cation, and rehabilitation departments, and the,part-time drafter. 7, X- 2 EXHIBIT X-1 L y �► O C v w r 1 — c L N C- u P u •iP:+ c N �+ w • A � d • v = m 10 a� L LA CA4az J W m= u-0 c� E B _SEILUA • • • UA I 4C d' W PAJ o= EXHIBIT X-1 L y �► O C v w r — c Y C- r • N 41 144 Q c a. '0cc 0°c 460 4j 4a 44 = m 10 a� L LA CA4az J W m= u-0 c� B iIm r ns Es UA I 4C d' W — c Y O O — r • N 41 144 Q c o • p i a� L VW CA4az �p r u A v u_c B Qc v I Real estate acquisition and disposal is the responsibility of the half-time real estate director (who also serves as the half-time Deputy Director). Assisting the real estate director in these activities are a negotiator and an administrative assistant. The relocation director coordinates the relocation of families in project areas. Along with an assistant relocation director and a relocation counselor, the relocation director evaluates the physical conditions and suitability of housing, negotiates for real estate acquisition, assesses the displaced family's housing needs and ability to pay, and enlists the aid of other social welfare organizations and real estate agencies in relocation efforts. The rehabilitation director and rehabilitation counselor iden- tify potential rehabilitation properties, make the necessary appraisals to determine whether rehabilitation is economically feasible, counsel families whose homes are being rehabilitated, and inspect all work being done by the contractors to see that plans and specifications are met. The rehabilitation loan counselor assists in the preparation, processing, and closing of non-interest deferred payment loans, maintains necessary loan records, and approves contract payments. The part-time drafter replats urban renewal maps and analyzes costs for site improve- ments, such as sidewalk construction. Staffing Trend. As shown in Exhibit X-2 on the following page, the staff of the Urban Renewal Agency has decreased dur-. ing the last five years. The most significant reduction occurred in fiscal 1983, when the number of full-time equivalent staff mem- bers was reduced from 23 to 15. �j Rehabilitation Program The housing rehabilitation program operates in several target neighborhoods. Agency staff designate dwellings for rehabilita- tion, and provide expertise and funding for the rehabilitation work. Funds allocated to rehabilitation activities provide direct financial assistance to owner -occupants of single-family struc- tures consisting of one to four units. Non-interest deferred pay- ment rehabilitation loans are available for low and moderate income property owners to pay for rehabilitation work. Rehabili- tation loans can only be made to a specific individual in an area designated for revitalization. Rehabilitation work is performed under guidelines called prop- erty rehabilitation standards. These guidelines outline minimum design and construction criteria, and include all elements of the structure and property layout, such as site, interior space, 7' X- 3 M 00 U W ro q E-4 U 4) w to w Q ri to 2 to 0 E-4$4 44 r - A E -i a ro U UI •rl w ll; i l so o s4 n _ w M N 4) , b C ro a, rel M co r -I Ln I N co m ri N co r -I -I ,- A co m r -I �4 r♦ rd co >4 � I` d ro Co U m in r -I .rq P4 r- I - t11 LnN 4) N C1 v v v v v LO tn M d' Ln N M LD tf1l M N N M kD to( M N N M n Ln I 'd'' N (N d' Ln �D I I N EXHIBIT X-2 4) 4J r-1 r, ro cn b 44 .LJ -r-I q W s~ w ro ro N 4J > u CO o (d 4 o w 4)i � ro 5 -r) U O W --I It +► E-1 4 ro EXHIBIT X-2 r r light, and ventilation requirements. Mechanical, electrical, and. structural systems that contribute to the health and safety of the. residents are considered mandatory repair items under the stan- dards. All code standards must be met for rehabilitation plans to be approved. In areas designated for rehabilitation, Agency staff meet with interested homeowners to discuss the potential rehabilitation of the structure. Each site is inspected, and a rough calculation is made of the changes required to bring the structure up to stan- dards. The total cost of these changes is calculated and compared with the cost of new construction. A $7,500 limit is placed on the total rehabilitation costs, although the limit has been raised to $9,500 in some instances. The average rehabilitation cost is estimated at $7,200. Once a structure has been identified and approved for rehabil- itation, Agency staff solicit bids from at least three contractors willing to perform the actual work. Bids must be returned within seven days, and a decision is made by Agency staff. The con- tractor selected is expected to complete the work within 60'days of the agreed starting date. During the construction, Agency staff and City building inspectors examine the work to ensure com- pliance with City ordinances. Acquisition And Relocation Substandard housing that cannot be rehabilitated economically. is considered for the acquisition and relocation program. Funds allocated to this program are used to demolish existing structures and assist families in relocating to other housing of their choice. Neighborhood meetings are conducted by Agency personnel during the fall months to identify specific blocks for relocation effort, and to discuss the program benefits with interested families. A diagnostic survey of the area under consideration is conducted, estimating the number of structures to be acquired and the costs of relocating the families. Either tenant or homeowner families can be relocated. On the basis of total estimated costs and perceived benefits, the project areas are determined, and the individual parcels to be acquired are identified. Each family to be relocated is assigned to a member of the Agency's relocation staff, who works with the family throughout the relocation effort. An independent outside appraiser values the property before an offer is made. Only the structure is purchased; the property remains with the owner. The X- 4 r i r average purchase price for each structure is approximately .$6,000. Once the structure has been acquired, the dwelling is vacated and the family is moved to temporary housing. Instruc- tions for the demolition of the structure are issued, and the contractor clears off the property. A tenant family being relocated can choose either to move to another rental unit or to purchase a replacement dwelling. A rent differential grant of up to $4,000 is available to supplement the family's rent payments for a four-year period, should they choose to continue renting. A family can also apply for a loan to pur- chase a replacement dwelling, if the monthly income is sufficient to handle the payments. A homeowner family being relocated can either rebuild on the same property, move to another location and purchase a replacement house, or move to another location and build. If the family chooses to rebuild on the same lot, relocation personnel help design the new home, locate a builder, and assist the family in finding temporary housing during construction. Families wishing to move to another area are given similar assistance in either locating a replacement home or contracting to build a new one. Program Work Measurements The number of acquisitions, relocations, and rehabilitations completed by Agency staff during the first six years of Community Development funding are shown in Exhibit X-3. (The Community Development funding year, called an action year, begins June 1 and ends May 31 of the following year). All funds for the first six action years (through 1980-81) have been expended, and the work completed. As the exhibit indicates, the'amount of work performed has decreased over the time period. Funds available to the Agency for urban renewal activities have also decreased during the six action years. Budgeting And Finance The City receives a Community Development Block Grant to be allocated by the City Council to various community development projects. The Agency receives almost all of its operating funding from Community Development funds, with the exception of some separate payments for additional services provided to the City by the Agency. The City is responsible for monitoring on a quarterly basis all operating groups receiving Community Development funds. The monitoring process for the Agency was recently initiated by the City at the request of the Department of Housing and Urban X- 5 EXHIBIT X-3 dP b � O N 0 Ln v d' v r v b � -- w I 1n Ln GD O 0 0 ch C z O `~ W CD N C7 I u1 O Ln . r -I I- co M $4 Cr) 4 G U Gq •--I r -I i4 O .r1 !s to r -I Cid U W b .p N r -I Ri GID LO to GDI 3 W 9� ri C a O -r4 a �o 53 CID w Ia a, I` £ ON o % 4J 0 to �r- coo On w rz a �-4 Ow 3� r x �a o U �w co °' oo -rl ar 4J k W -ri �r4 %ID r4to (x� � r -i r -I r -i �y 4) � Gi O to U O $ O fIS -r1 O r. i O -r1 O 41 rti C: +) -,1 •ri U -r) 4 to b •►-I d '0 v ami ro r Development (HUD), and is designed to address all areas of the Agency's responsibility. Funds are allocated to the Agency on the basis of the action year. Each action year has separate work performance measurements to be achieved with the funds. Activities begun in one action year are expected to be completed within two years; for example, the Agency recently.closed its accounting records for year VI, which exhausted the 1980-81 funding. OBSERVATIONS The Relationship Between The Agency And City Government Has TT Not Been Clearly Defined The relationships among the Agency, the Board of Commissioners of the Urban Renewal Agency, the City Manager's office, the City Council, and the City's community development directors have not been clearly defined. The Board's supervision of Agency activities conflicts with the City government's monitoring of Agency activities. The arrangement is unsatisfactory, because no clear lines of authority and accountability have been established. The inability of the Agency, the Board, the City's community development staff, the City Manager's office, and the City Council to determine their respective roles in urban renewal activities has led to frustra- tion, anger, and resentment among those involved. Until these roles are properly defined, conflict and confusion are likely to continue. Administrative And Field Costs Are Excessive The administrative and field costs, composed primarily of per- sonnel costs, make up an excessively large portion of the total Agency costs. As total funding for urban renewal activities has decreased, administrative and field costs have not decreased pro- portionately. As Exhibit X-4 on the following page indicates, administrative and field costs have been increasing as a percentage of the total agency budget. In 1975-76, for example, administrative and field costs were 15.1 per cent of total costs; by 1980-81, this percent- age had almost doubled, to 29.1 per cent. For the proposed 1983- 84, the percentage has increased to over 36 per cent. During the' same time span, dollars expended on administrative and field costs have increased by ten per cent, while the total Agency budget has x-6 n EXHIBIT X-4 0 °1 NA I, , , CO v m o. C CO Wt .� m — r- 0 +1 &I 401 c Bu�yy U CO n .- v v Ra N CL � r � ae 04 C-4 m m Ch M 1 O Q �O � N ch 94 !6 O C3 ale I� m rl co Ch C - i K ae N Co r 40 '� Q r Y r N C4 F CO it r �•• N 3 Z co d m C V% >-r C w LM CA C3 ((( Q1 8 m d Q ale m 1.1 PN— O %O m - Cw CO Q 3 O O N C V Ch C% �— Ch N C 11 Lr% W W O N W � H at 1~� zO N r Q: Ili 0 X LJ 04 0 co ON In O1-1 C-) Z a4 ►� co �O m co 1 i t11 N N 1h d Oh r %O U*% u1 N W P %0 M 1 w � �O O I. o -a co N W ail, M M w � N M Q CVC Q ' m N Q 4- 41 .41 41 41 CN ca w cc m 13 u m m co� &j j +fie E� E 4) 14 41 decreased by 117 per cent. This continued increase in administra- tive and field costs compared to total budget has occurred in spite of the staffing reduction instituted in year 1982-83, when staff was cut from 23 to 15 full-time equivalent persons. The proposed performance measures for 1983-84 show a continued decline in the total number of property acquisitions, relocations, and housing rehabilitations. The Agency's goal for 1982-83 is 46 rehabilitations and 52 acquisitions and relocations. For 1983-84 the goal is 53 rehabilitations and only 18 acquisitions and re- locations. Despite the decline in activity, the Agency antici- pates no further reductions in staffing. The funding for year 1983-84 of almost $1.3 million represents a decrease of $332,000 from the previous year's budget - only $2,900 of this amount was eliminated from the administrative costs of the Agency. Although Agency management admit that staff members are not working at full capacity now, they are unwilling to reduce staff, citing the need for experienced staff members should more funds become available in the future for urban renewal activities. In addition to the actual rehabilitation and relocation activities performed, agency staff members devote considerable time and effort to publicizing urban renewal activities within the Lubbock community; staff members have also been quite active in state and federal housing and urban renewal associations. Because of the increased proportion of funding expended on administrative (primarily personnel) costs, fewer funds are available for direct urban renewal benefits in the field. RECOMMENDATIONS The Assistant City Manager For Development Services Should Clearly Define The Agency's Role In Urban Renewal Activities The role of the Agency in urban renewal activities should be clarified to establish accountability and responsibility for policy formulation and implementation. The Assistant City Manager for Development Services should be responsible for ensuring that the Agency's role is clearly defined. Overall policy formulation should be the responsibility of the City Council; specific questions regarding the interpretation of those policies should be the responsibility of the Assistant City Manager. The Assistant City Manager should serve as liaison be- tween the Agency and the City government, and should transmit all - policy changes enacted by the City Council and all policy inter- pretation to the Agency. Performance monitoring, as required by X-7 if r HUD, should be the responsibility of the City's community develop- ment coordinator. The.community development coordinator should also monitor Agency performance with respect to budget objectives, limits, and information reporting requirements, and recommend action to the Assistant City Manager when performance is judged inadequate. The coordinator should also work with the Agency to change their accounting structure to match other community devel- opment grant accounts. The Role Of Board Members Should Be Clarified The City government should take steps to clarify the role of the Agency's Board members. The City should make it clear to Board members that, as an independent board, members are respons- ible for monitoring and guiding the Executive Secretary in the performance of his duties. Urban Renewal Agency Board members should be responsible for establishing staffing levels, program focus, and other operating parameters within which the Executive Director should manage the day-to-day Agency operations. To aid the Board members in this role, the Assistant City Manager and the Executive Secretary should ensure that all important documents, such as HUD audit reports, are distributed to all Board members. In addition, all new members of the Board should receive an orientation briefing from both the Executive Secretary and the Assistant City Manager clearly explaining the Board member's role and responsibilities. Agency Staffing Should Be Reduced The number of full-time equivalent personnel in the Agency should be reduced from 15 to 8 and functions should be consoli- dated under a revised organization structure. A recommended organization of the Agency is presented in Exhibit X-5. Overall management of the Agency should continue to be the responsibility of the Executive Director. The administra- tion unit should consist of a chief accountant, and a secretary/ administrative assistant. The positions of Assistant Executive Director for Administration, Deputy Director, and part-time drafter should be discontinued, and the positions of full-time executive secretary and part-time administrative assistant con- solidated into one full-time position. Field activities should be organized into two departments, relocation and rehabilitation. Relocation activities should con- tinue to be the responsibility of the relocation director. A relocationcounselor should complete the necessary staffing for relocation activities; the position of assistant relocation X-8 i i EXHIBIT X-5 c ON y � N O > O � O J cc ^. y N 1 = mcc C'. W L E A V v bg Q {Z m • • so jf[4, J O C 1 M {JJ iJ .— iJ Q� c c N t 4J E N L u > a 41 t � N W p[ Ci (A � O � W W W Ci E L. 41 C 41 L N O of N Lo N Q �Ia 3 d 41 41 1- V W JJ N 1 .0 JCC V W o 0— E= .- v cc Q Q D director should be discontinued. One administrative assistant should be shared between the relocation and rehabilitation directors. Responsibility for real estate activities should be transferred to the relocation director, with the Executive Director assisting in property disposal, as needed. Rehabilitation activities should continue to be handled by the rehabilitation director. The position of part-time rehabilitation loan specialist should be eliminated. The rehabilitation coun- selor and the director should have specific caseloads assigned, and any assistance in counseling on loans and financing options or other financial arrangements should be handled as part of the case assignment. The processing of loan applications and other asso- ciated paperwork should be performed by the half-time administra- tive assistant, in addition to the regular duties of the position. The reduction in staffing should result in a corresponding reduction in annual administrative and field costs of $140,000 in salaries, and fringe benefits; and Agency staff time should be better utilized than at present. Administrative and field costs as a percentage of total Agency funds should be reduced. As a result, urban renewal funds will be directed toward actual urban renewal work rather than the retention of experienced, but not fully utilized, personnel. By consolidating functions, the rehabilitation and relocation counselors are given greater responsibility for the specific cases assigned to them. Administrative and clerical activities are con- solidated, resulting in improved efficiency. While the involve- ment by Agency staff in public relations and state and federal housing association work is important, the first priority of staff members should be Lubbock's relocation and rehabilitation activi- ties. 7 X-9 No Text XI - PLAN OF ACTION This final chapter presents a plan of action for implementing the recommendations of this management study. It also includes a Management Improvement Plan that lists recommendations, timing, priority, and responsibility. NEXT STEPS The Mayor, the members of the City Council, and the City Manager should review the report in detail to gain an understand- ing of the observations and recommendations. Any questions re- garding the study findings should be resolved with the assistance of the consulting team. Following this review, the City Council should accept the report and assist the City Manager and depart- ment heads in implementing the recommendations. The City Manager and department heads can make some of the recommended changes, but City Council action is required for other changes. Some of the recommendations can be implemented quickly; others will take longer. MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT PLAN A Management Improvement Plan, to guide the City in implement- ing the recommended improvements, is outlined in Exhibit XI -1. It proposes priorities for implementation and suggests the responsi- bility for accomplishment and a timetable for execution. In addi- tion to serving as a guide, the Management Improvement Plan can be used as a score card against which progress in implementation can be measured at periodic City Council reviews. fa EXHIBIT XI -1 Page 1 of 7 b� r r V. Z q 0 � o � � � � ani cin N v44 W N 40 y O M O 4J 04 0 O O O O O i W U 0� U. 0 W M a -r4 o v� v go u°� i 04 5 H •ri m >r >, m >1 >1 ?, >1 d j z u 41 +J +J $4 +J V •N 43 � t w a vv w uu vv w f O c� a ; >� w 4 $4 0) m a x z -� a� o rn rl a o 2 0 vi °,�' � 0 xo wo •r4 -4 A w a w +3 0)b) 54 m >1 a U 0 a z O o W ro U •.i a -•q q •� m 3o ro +J fn m O o m m9 4J CO 4J w w v p, w to m ro ro b bi b O i 4J +� ro ro rl $4 ro u 4) u O a cn s b -$ a 00 a m - i .N 43 4i 3 1 I' m M 44i m t L aU W :1o a w W z m Ox o m ox a o ro 4) 0 m IVa r. 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Remernb�r you have not only the Interest of this employee at stake, but also that of other employees in the Fire Department. Read each statement carefully, and circle the one that most nearly describes this employee. Consider only one factor at a time, and do not allow your rating on any one factor to influence your rating on the others. For any characteristic that results in an A or an E rating, a written explanation of the reasons for such an evaluation must be submitted. Specific instances should be cited when possible. Factors VIII and IX require no comments. When the employee being rated has been under the command or supervision of the person rating him (or here for less than 60 days, the person doing the rating shall write the name of the rates on the report form and forward it to the ratee's previous supervisor or commander for completion. The Immediate (first) supervisor and the supervisor's (secondl supervisor should indicate their evaluation selection.& in the appropriate column. DEPENDABILITY: Consi er how the employee applies A. An extremely conscientious. reliable worker himself (herself) to the work, the number of times late who can always be depended upon to perform to work or absent, and the amount of additional super- his (her) job with little if any additional vision required to get results in relation to the amount supervision. required for other employees performing similar tasks. (10 pointsl (Comments) (Comments) 0 B. A hard worker who displays above average dependability in the performance of his (her) duties. Occasionally may require additional supervision and direction. (8 points) C. A worker displaying average dependability In the performance of his (her) duties. Normal supervision and direction required to ensure satisfactory job performance. (6 points) D. A worker displaying less than adequate applicability and dependability, and requirine more than an average amount of additional supervision. (4 points) E. Undependable. Needs constant supervision. and exhlbits little if any sense of respon- sibility. (tl points) APPENDIX Page 2 of 6 B. Displays an above average degree of wisdom in decision-making. Judgment has proven to be reliable in most circumstances. U. JUDGMENT: Consider the wisdom of decision and A. Displays an exceptional ability to think quickly actions In the absence of detailed instructions. Also and logically in all situations. Extremely consider judgments and actions in unusual circum- competent in evaluating available options and stances. probable consequences in unusual circum- to judgment. Does not exhibit any special i stances. ability in handling unusual situations. (10 points) (Comments) (6 points) Judgment below average. Makes frequent B. Displays an above average degree of wisdom in decision-making. Judgment has proven to be reliable in most circumstances. (8 points) ! C. Displays an average capability in regards to judgment. Does not exhibit any special i ability in handling unusual situations. D. (6 points) Judgment below average. Makes frequent errors in evaluating consequences of actions. Cannot be depended upon in unusual I circumstances. - R points) E. Judgment undependable. Displays Inability to evaluate situations properly. (0 points) j (Comments) III. ABILITY TO LEARN: Consider mental ability A. Displays an extremely keen mind combined to master new routines. grasp oral explana- with eagerness to learn. Never needs to be tions and instructions. and retain information. reminded of new routines or policies. n (10 points) (Comments) t I B. Displays above average ability to grasp new Ideas and methods. (8 points) C. Displays average learning abilities. (6 points) D. Exhibits below average learning capabilities. Needs guidance and excessive repetition to learn. (4 points) APPENDIX Page 3 of 6 E. Displays an extreme inability and/or lack of desire to learn. (0 points) (Comments) IV. ATTITUDE: Consider interest in job and feelings concerning the Department in general. Also con- sider ability to accept criticism and supervision. I (Comments I F A. Demonstrates considerable enthusiasm con- cernine work, which often carries over to co-workers. Tries to make the best of any assignment. Reacts positively to construc- tive criticism. Attempts to boost the Department's Image. (10 points) B. Displays above average enthusiasm concernin: job. Accepts criticism and supervision appropriately. (8 points) a C. Seems generally satisfied with work. Does what is expected with little complaint. Rarely reacts to criticism or supervision negatively. (6 points) D. Displays below average enthusiasm concerning job. Reacts negatively to certain assignments and criticism. (4 points) E. Displays a negative attitude toward job. Usually reacts to criticism and supervision negatively. Constant complainer who often causes dissension. (0 points) (Comments) V. SAFETY HABITS: Consider employee's attention to A. Observes all safety precautions. Frequently safety precautions to protect the public, offers suggestions for Improvement. co-workers, and himself Motivates co-workers to implement safety procedures. (10 points) (Comments) APPENDIX Page 4 of 6 r B.rve etprecautions. Obse s all saf y (8 points) C. Displays an average degree of care in safety habits. May need reminding of safety procedures from time to time. i (6 points) D. Displays a below average concern for safety habits. Needs frequent reminders. R points) E. Exhibits a disregard for safety procedures. i Has endangered others while performing � duties. (0 points) P7 i t I (Comments) VI. COOPERATION: Consider extent to which employee A. Exceptionally successful in working with and works harmoniously with other employees and his assisting others. Goes out of way to be (her) effectiveness in dealing with supervisors, the cheerful and helpful. public, and other departmental personnel. (10 points) (Comments) B. Displays above average ability to cooperate with and understand the feelings of others. Often volunteers to help others. (8 points) C. Shows an average degree of cooperation and generally works well with and assists others. Usually a good team worker. (6 points) D. Cooperation must be solicited. Seldom volunteers to assist others. (4 points) E. Fails to cooperate.. Does not work well with or assist others. 0Po ints (Comments) r u APPENDIX Page 5 of 6 Second Supervisor's evaluation: VII, CAPACITY are. FOR GROWTH: Review all above A. Outstanding candidate for future development. factors, and judge employee's capacity for Given opportunity, could rise to highest and interest in advancerne nt, both in present location and for Department as a whole. positions in Departs nt. Now capable of performing at a higher level. (10 points) (Comments) B. Capable of developing beyond present level with suitable training and/or experience. (B points) 11 C. Has now reached the most suitable level of employment. (6 points) D. Barely capable of handling present level of work. 4 (4 points) PART B: JOB SKILLS (POSITION OF FIRE FIGHTER) VIII. AT THE FIREGROUND Excellent Meets Standards unsatisfactory 2 pointsl (I point) (0 points) A. Skill at preparing hydrants advancing hose, making attack on fire B. Proficiency at performing search and rescue C. Ability to react to unforeseen a..d rapid changes In fire conditions D. Ability to perform ventilation efficiently E. Knowledge of pump operation and ability to fill in for driver in event of emergency F. Industrious clean up activities after fire G. Knowledge' of fire tactics and strategy IX. OTHER SKILLS A. Care of Department equipment B. Effectiveness of dealing with the public at the scene of an accident or rescue call C. First aid skills D. Conscientous performance of routine station chores j E. Physical fitness UPON COMPLETION, ADD TOTAL SCORE AND NOTE ON FIRST PAGE X. Comments by person being evaluate regarding: First Supervisor's evaluation: Second Supervisor's evaluation: APPENDIX Page 6 of 6 STATISTICAL RECORD: (Consider only last 6 -month period.) Days Tardy Sick Days Entitled Taken Balance Days Absent without pay Vacation Entitled Taken Balance Suspension Days Deputy Chief's Signature Date r r r First Supervisors's Signature Date t_I Second Supervisor's Signature. Date Employee's Signature r, Date Deputy Chief's Signature Date r r r