High Performance Government Network

• Potholes can linger for weeks or months, not only causing tire damage but doing harm to the community's image.
• Use of online tools -- either forms for use by the public and inspection reports -- for some government offices continues to lag.
• Until recent months, response to local buildings in dilapidated conditions was very slow, allowing hundreds of abandoned buildings to become blights on their neighborhoods.
• Permitting of new businesses can be slow, according to some business owners. When his business closed in January, the owner of Taste of Texas said it took two years to open in Muncie compared to six months in Gas City, although city building officials said the owner didn't understand how many fire prevention steps had to be taken.

Effective government is even more important now, Richard and other officials say, since statewide property tax reform will cut millions of dollars from local government spending in the next two years alone.

In his Nov. 6 speech, Richard will talk about measures he took in Fort Wayne, including applying the Lean Six Sigma business practice, which focuses on management using statistical measures to identify and remove errors in the manufacturing process.

Six Sigma -- often combined with the Lean process used by manufacturers like Toyota -- has its critics. A 2006 article in Fortune magazine reported that of 58 large companies that adopted Six Sigma processes, 91 percent have financial performances worse than the Standard & Poor 500. The process is too narrowly focused and stifles creativity, critics say.

Nevertheless, Mayor Sharon McShurley says she believes that Richard's program can benefit local officials. McShurley, who learned about Richard's book from local business and civic leader John Fisher, said business principles can apply to government.

"I believe absolutely it can be done, no matter how limited resources are," McShurley said. "When resources are limited, it's even more important."

Pothole Process

Richard's book cites several Fort Wayne government success stories using businesslike practices, and he said he will cover some of those in his Nov. 6 talk.

One of the most interesting is how the city dealt with potholes.

When Richard took office as mayor in 2000, the city took an average of two days to repair a pothole. When he left office, the average repair time had been cut to three hours. Richard said 99.6 percent of potholes are repaired within 24 hours.

How?

Richard -- who cited the necessity for cooperation among city officials and department heads to make the plan work -- said officials "mapped" the pothole process, from the initial complaint forward, and planned ways to shorten it.

The city mounted lights on street department vehicles so work could be done at night and tripled the amount of sealing of cracks in roads. Cracks allow water to get below the road surface and freeze in winter, causing roads to deteriorate.

"Even though we were paying overtime, that paid for itself because we were getting more done," Richard said.

A key to the process was "incentivizing" creative solutions. Employees received a bonus for meeting goals, such as increasing the amount of street sweeping. At $50 and up, bonuses amounted to an extra $2,000 a year for many employees.

"All of a sudden, you've got peer support for getting it done better and faster," Richard said.
Other steps -- including reducing from 51 days to 8 days the length of time it took to approve a building permit -- encouraged business investment in Fort Wayne, Richard said.

Tough Decisions

Can high performance government work in Muncie and Delaware County?

Ryan Chasey, president of Fort Wayne-based HPG Network, believes it can. HPG received a Ball Foundation grant of $50,000 to provide six months of workshops and planning sessions for city, county and town officials in Delaware County.

"Performance as we define it involves changing the culture of local government organization," Chasey said. "For that to occur, it's important for elected officials to 'buy in' and support improving performance."

Chasey said HPG clients like the town of Fishers have adopted the HPG process.

Scott Fadness, assistant to the town manager in Fishers, said HPG is helping the fast-growing town north of Indianapolis formulate a plan for operations.

"We're in the early stages, but I wouldn't discount the value of planning several years down the road and how to improve performance," Fadness said.

"You can't say it's making government run like a business," Chasey said. "Our effort is really about making government more effective. That's different than running government like a business. Even I don't know exactly what that means. But you can apply business principles and practices to government.

"We're in a difficult time in Indiana right now," Chasey added. "Budgets are tight. That's forcing tough decisions. Let's make sure we've wrung out any waste in government before making cutting decisions."

Richard noted that improving government effectiveness works only when elected officials work together. Richard said he began his term with the odds against non-partisan success.

"I'm a Democrat and got elected by 76 votes, a lawsuit and a recount," Richard said. "Republicans control city council. But every vote we had was bi-partisan.

"I sat down with council members and got Republican business owners to talk to city council," he said. "I got re-elected in 2003, against the same opponent, by 7,000 votes.

"You have to work on it," Richard said. "You can't play the blame game. Improving performance, saving money and making government work better has no partisanship."

Originally published by The Star Press (thestarpress.com). Republished with permission.

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