Little-Known Program Gets Job Done Right and Saves City a Bundle

Some guys get all the great assignments.

John Gavares spent this spring riding with city of San Diego Park and Recreation maintenance workers, taking detailed notes as they cleaned public bathrooms and collected litter.

“Any time they changed activities, I would write down that that occurred,” Gavares said. “For example, if at 9:29 they stopped picking up litter and went in to clean the restroom, I’d write that that occurred. And then at 9:52, if they finished cleaning up the restroom, I’d write that down too.”

All in a day’s work for Gavares, a project manager in the city’s Organization Effectiveness Program, a little-known agency charged with saving taxpayers $1 million annually--a goal the program has far exceeded.

In its eight years of operation, the unit credits itself with saving the city $14.4 million by streamlining procedures, reducing staff, encouraging efficient use of equipment and expanding services without additional expense.

“The goal is not to criticize or to ding (the manager of a department),” said Trudy Sopp, the program’s director. “The goal is to say ‘Is there a way to restructure this place?’ Because we know you’re not going to get more staff.”

But productivity improvements are only half the organization’s job. The city program is the only one in the United States to merge efficiency experts and personnel training specialists in one agency.

The result is, in effect, a full-time consulting firm for the city’s more than 9,000 employees that works to improve performance and helps boost morale by providing a confidential outlet for frustrations and difficulties with managers.

The program’s 10 staffers are pledged not to reveal the names of employees who complain about superiors, workload or departmental problems. Perhaps more importantly, managers know that deficiencies found in OEP reviews are not held against them or relayed to their superiors for use in evaluations.

“People tell Trudy things they wouldn’t tell me or their spouse,” said City Manager John Lockwood. “They know she’s there to help them and they know she’s going to take that information and help make the organization more effective.”

Highly Sensitive

“I welcomed them,” said Fire Marshal Jim Sewell, who used OEP staffers to help design new fire inspection procedures. “They frame it in an educational way. . . . I want people to tell me how we can improve our program.”

Still, OEP’s role of intervening in the affairs of the city’s various agencies is highly sensitive, and was viewed with suspicion by department heads when the program was established eight years ago. Lockwood, then assistant city manager, didn’t like the idea.

“I felt it was an interference,” he said. “Here was one more group of people running around telling other people how they should do their work.”

Suspicions still linger. During a review of the city’s library system, an OEP staffer failed to bring the customary coffee and muffins to a task-force meeting.

“The rumor the next day was that Trudy and her team were using behavior modification on the task force,” Sopp said. “They would bring muffins and coffee when they were doing a good job and would withhold them when they weren’t.”

Today, however, Lockwood’s greatest headache with OEP is the two-year waiting list for help from its staff. “My biggest problem now is that, without exception, the department heads are competing for their services,” Lockwood said.

Those services include Gavares’ suggestions of 36 different areas where the Park and Recreation

Department might improve, resulting in an 8% increase in efficiency. Following workers into restrooms resulted in a suggestion to place chained trash cans in Mission Bay Park bathrooms.

More importantly, Gavares helped the department devise a computerized scheduling system for workers that gave them specific assignments at precise times. In the past, workers scattered about the city were allowed to choose from a range of tasks, resulting in overlap and some jobs left undone, Gavares said. Crews were also given walkie-talkies to put them in closer touch with supervisors.

Another OEP success was establishing a unit that saved the city’s Water Utilities Department $4 million in lost revenue by fixing industrial water meters and cracking down on theft of water from hydrants, said Michele Moomaugh, a six-year OEP employee who has formed a private consulting firm with another former staff member.

The agency has simplified paper work in the city attorney’s office, revamped inspection procedures in the Building Inspection Department, saved the Police Department $185,000 in computer costs, and improved productivity in the mail room.

In all, the organization has completed 140 large-scale reviews and 625 short-term projects. But not all are designed to improve efficiency. In June, the agency surveyed 3,000 people using Balboa Park and learned, to no one’s surprise, that safety was of paramount concern.

OEP suggested issuing walkie-talkies and uniforms to groundskeepers, who previously wore whatever they wanted to work.

“You never used to see a parks employee,” Gavares said. “Now you see them. And you can go to them to help you.”

Because OEP is an in-house agency, it is also more efficient than private consultants, said Rick Ross, a San Diego-based private management consultant who works frequently with city governments.

‘Understand the Jobs’

“The people really understand the jobs and the tasks and the culture of the organization,” Ross said. “When I come in from the outside, I’ve either got to learn that or I’ve got to be lucky. It takes some time, and you can really step on some tender toes.

“(They) also know the informal network, know who to call to really get things done,” Ross said.

Unlike private consultants, OEP staffers also are around to help implement the changes they suggest.

“A private consultant will come in and do their little bit and then they’ll leave,” Moomaugh said. “When they leave, who’s going to manage and work those changes?”