Friday, November 6, 2009 10:34 PM CST
NIU draft report looks at efficiency, some city manpower changes
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — The Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies analysis of Mattoon city government sums up its objective in one passage:
“The goal of the analysis is to help the Mayor, Council and staff maximize the City’s many assets by identifying areas where change may be beneficial, or where alternative approaches are seen as a means to positively affect service and program delivery.”
But as William Shakespeare once wrote: “There’s the rub.” How can a city facing financial and management challenges that have “slowed innovation and deferred strategic thinking” change its focus for better efficiency and long-term planning?
The 121-page draft report now being reviewed by city officials and management staff includes many recommendations for the different departments and the management plan for the city. It states Mattoon city government “is functioning at a stable level.”
A copy of the draft report was submitted anonymously to the Mattoon Journal Gazette and Charleston Times-Courier this week.
City elected officials said they are not daunted by the challenges outlined or the many recommendations in the draft study so far. But they also realize some actions might be postponed due to lack of revenue.
“Overall, it was very well done. Some of the goals are well thought out. Some of the recommendations are excellent but with the current state of the economy there is a question if we can afford them,” said Commissioner Randy Ervin.
But one encouraging trend in the NIU analysis is using the resources and staff available now to become more efficient in serving city residents, Ervin said.
“The study talked about how to be efficient with the staff we have now,” Ervin said.
Here are a few of the recommendations from the draft, which could be subject to change in coming weeks as the city and analysis team works toward a final version of the report.
n The position of assistant city administrator should be created, at the right time, to provide professional support to the administrator and serve as the city’s human resource director, as well as lend support to the city’s land use and community development needs.
n Consider a change in the engineering department to free up the public works director from some everyday tasks on engineering that reduce long-range planning and department-wide responsibilities.
n Additional manpower could be made available to the parks/lakes and cemetery department by utilizing outside contractors. This could include a private concession at Lake Mattoon to provide income to the city, or privatizing cemetery maintenance operations with more detailed bidding documentation with specific performance criteria.
n The city should conduct citizen surveys to include police department services for measuring satisfaction with the department and its programs. This survey could also be provided to the business and professional community.
n Currently, Mattoon Fire Department has an excellent incident reporting system, but more information — response times, numbers of firefighters responding to certain calls or delays due to simultaneous calls being handled, etc. — is needed to have a positive effect on future staffing requirements for the fire department.
In addition, the report recommended adoption of a pager system as a more efficient method to call out additional shifts of firefighters when needed.
Mayor Dave Cline said the recommendations and data provided by the report will be beneficial to city leaders.
“Going in, we didn’t want any preconceptions of what to expect,” Cline said. “We’re going to have to decide what information is best applied to the city.”
But it will be several weeks before the city has the final version of the report after reviews and any requests for amendments are submitted to the NIU analysis team. For now, the council members and city staff are working individually with the help of the interim city administrator. But Cline foresees a public meeting that includes all involved parties to work out the final details of the report.
“I think we would have a meeting to discuss it. It would be important to meet as a group. And we have to be open with it, too,” Cline said.
Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869.
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Rohn Gordon wrote on Nov 6, 2009 12:54 PM:
But it will be several weeks before the city has the final version of the report after reviews and any requests for amendments are submitted to the NIU analysis team=====================
Ok so that means what we want how we want or nothing???????
How can the city have any requests for amendments??? I thought it was a study to see what we needed, not what we anted. I can see that this was another giant waist of money. "