Managing Change: A Letter to City Employees from Mayor Dewey Bartlett
September 8, 2010
Dear City of Tulsa Employees:
KPMG, an independent firm of efficiency experts, has completed its
analysis of City of Tulsa services and delivered a final report. We
now have a long-term road map for our city. Our work begins
today.
While I won't go into every detail in this note, please know
that KPMG took a very systematic approach in evaluating our
services. Their objective: Identify strategic opportunities
to reduce costs, generate revenue and enhance efficiencies to help
the City sustain the delivery of core services. (View the Executive
Summary).
The management team members, working with our 3,900 employees,
can begin to determine which recommendations we should implement.
This report is a collection of opportunities that need to be
weighed, measured and evaluated. There are no mandates; no hard and
fast rules on the direction we have to take. That's why we need
everybody's help to figure it out.
I appreciate your perseverance as we try to find ways to balance
the needs of our customers with the reality of greatly diminished
budgets. I believe we will continue to face reductions in our
resources while our needs and demands increase, and it's our duty
to make responsible decisions. Thanks to the generosity of the
Tulsa Community Foundation, we were able to pay for a study,
without using taxpayer dollars, to create this roadmap that gives
directions for how we can best deliver core services to the
citizens of Tulsa given declining resources. In going through this
process, there is one thing that has become crystal clear to
me: We have great employees, but we have outdated or
inefficient processes, systems and programs. You are being asked to
work within those systems or processes, and it's time to take a
hard look at how we can change things to help you perform and
create a city that can effectively deliver core services.
Below are a few key findings from the study:
- 61% of our services are not mandated (some may be strategically
aligned or provide critical support)
- Of the total services provided, 69% of service should be
benchmarked for cost-effectiveness
- 61% have no basis to determine if the service we provide is
competitive with other private or public organizations
- Only 12% of services possess measurable objectives, goals or
performance measures
- Many administrative processes are manually intense, with
multiple levels of manual approval
There are many, many other things to digest in this report. To
give it the full attention it deserves, the steering committee has
appointed Preston Doerflinger, City Auditor, to head up the
newly-created Management Review Office. It will be Preston's job,
along with a specially-selected team, to work with employees to
take us through the evaluation and implementation phase. Going
forward, they will continue to look for new opportunities to
improve efficiency and effectiveness.
What will be the outcome? While we have a roadmap, we have not
yet decided which routes we will take. We will need to investigate
the options further as a team. There are opportunities to
discontinue services that are not "core" to our mission. We can
explore other alternatives like outsourcing certain functions,
centralizing services or using "managed competition" to allow
internal providers to bid against external providers for the most
efficient and effective service delivery. Managed competition
actually gives City employees a chance to show what they can do
with the right systems and processes in place. It's just one
example of the creative solutions that smart cities are undertaking
in order to cope with smaller budgets. We've already experienced
the pain of significant lay-offs earlier this year. My plan is to
position ourselves so that we don't have to go through that process
again.
Thanks again to those of you who provided survey answers that
gave KPMG a deeper understanding of departmental processes and
services you deliver in your department. Not everyone received a
survey. They were extensive tools filled out by the individuals in
the departments who have the most knowledge about the services.
There will be more opportunities to comment and provide feedback as
we move ahead to evaluate the recommendations and implement the
best options to meet our goals. With the 457 surveys and an
exhaustive review of 20 departments, KPMG revealed and assessed
1,512 services in the City of Tulsa. Quite frankly, that is a ton
of services. As a result, this extensive effort took longer than we
first expected. The anticipation is over because TODAY we have the
final report, and we can begin to review, evaluate and dig deeper
into the recommended service changes.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the need for urgency. If
this year's $12 million shortfall wasn't enough, next year we are
faced with an additional $18 million hole in the City's budget. The
KPMG Study, in my opinion, is a terrific gift to our city. It is a
road map that will not only allow us to weather the storm, but a
blueprint to future prosperity when the economy recovers.
I hope you will be supportive of our efforts as we wade through
the study and evaluate our options. If Preston or members of his
team ask for help, I encourage you to lend a hand. Together, we
will figure out the pathway to our future. You are an integral part
of helping to determine that path.
Sincerely,
Mayor Bartlett
