Washtenaw Avenue in Michigan Planning Magazine!
Government and Education Efficiency and Effectiveness
Action OutcomeAchieve efficiencies in governments and school systems through shared services, regionalized services, and structural change. Redeploy the savings to important community assets needed to retain and attract companies and talent to the region. Status
Action ChampionsDavid Behen, GDI Infotech Action ManagerKyle Mazurek, Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce For information contact Kyle Mazurek at kyle@annarborchamber.org. |
Vision
Change the way government works in the Ann Arbor Region to optimize front line services, improve customer responsiveness, and maximize efficient and fair use of tax revenues.
Action Description
Local government’s ability to provide basic services and develop important community assets is currently limited. The downturn in the economy is one cause, however, the inefficiency in our current government structure is also a major cause. Local governments and school districts need to find ways to realize economy of scale in service delivery so that scarce funding can be redeployed to important quality of place assets. As we cannot easily change the form of government we have today, any attempt at providing regional services will go a long way in achieving efficiencies and allowing the redeployment of public funding toward other important community needs. As a catalyst to restructuring how we work, the private sector should be invited to assist in the review of efficiencies and effectiveness and to help generate new ideas.
Washtenaw Intergovernmental Collaborations Catalog
Action Team
Jesse Bernstein, AATA Board
Todd Campbell, City of Saline
Debra Christein, LTI Information Technology
Doug Fuller, Washtenaw County Road Commission
Steve Gill, Washtenaw Community College
Scott Graden, Saline Area Schools
Bob Guenzel, Washtenaw County
Jeff Irwin, Washtenaw County
Ed Koryzno, City of Ypsilanti
Bill Miller, WISD
Mark Ouimet, Washtenaw County
John Petz, Domino’s Farms
Steve Puuri, Washtenaw County Road Commission
Rick Snyder, ARDESTA
Brenda Stumbo, Ypsilanti Township
| Action Steps | Timelines | |
|---|---|---|
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1. |
Convene a small group of public and private sector stakeholders to discuss outcomes and to develop actions steps NOTE: the group may want to take on government 1st and education 2nd. |
March 2009 |
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2. |
SPARK and County ETCS to develop a “public servant” retraining initiative to assist displaced employees in employment transition. | February – March 2009 |
| 3. | Identify “Best of Class” benchmarking and the most likely candidates for shared and regionalized services. This includes estimating community benefits from efficiencies and recommended short term and longer term candidates. | March – June 2009 |
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4.
5.
6. |
Develop an inventory of all government services and current reality of cooperation (including why efforts succeeded or failed). Develop a report to present to the affected government/education entities, including: recommended actions, benefits, tasks and resources needed to move on the recommendations. Engage local units of government in dialogue to understand what current cooperation they see is working, what is not working, and what collaborations they would like to see in the future. |
July- August 2009 |
| 7. | Present to the affected entities to validate the draft recommendations (presentations to businesses, governments, education etc.) and gain acceptance of recommendations. Make initial presentation at IMPACT 2009. | September 2009 |
| 8. | Form action implementation teams around each approved efficiency recommendation. | November 2009 |
Metrics and Reporting
- Amount of tax dollars saved
- Successful transition of talent and resources in redeployment
- Satisfaction with services (% of satisfaction by customer service surveys; % of satisfaction by participating governments)
- Amount of funds redeployed to enhance community assets
