MINUTES
COUNCIL OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA
SPECIAL CALLED MEETING
MARCH 15, 2011
The Special Called Meeting of the Council of Columbus, Georgia was called
to order at 9:00 A.M., Tuesday, March 15, 2011, in the Council Chambers on the
Plaza Level of the Government Center, Columbus, Georgia. Honorable Teresa
Tomlinson, Mayor, and Honorable Evelyn Turner Pugh, Mayor Pro Tem presiding.
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PRESENT: Present other than Mayor Tomlinson and Mayor Pro Tem Evelyn Turner
Pugh were Councilors Mike Baker, Jerry Barnes, Glenn Davis, Berry H. Henderson,
Bruce Huff, Judy Thomas and Evelyn Woodson. City Manager Isaiah Hugley, City
Attorney Clifton Fay, Clerk of Council Tiny B. Washington and Deputy Clerk of
Council Sandra Davis were also present.
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ABSENT: Councilor R. Gary Allen was absent.
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NOTE: Councilor Glenn Davis took his seat at 9:02 a.m.
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KIRYU JAPAN:
After introducing Chris Thomaskutty, Deputy Mayor of Baltimore
Maryland, Mayor Tomlinson asked that the Citizens of Columbus to
continue to keep Japan and the people of Japan in their prayers. She
explained that Kiryu, Japan is the Sister City of Columbus. She said we
have been in contact with them, as they have recently celebrated their 90th
Anniversary on March 5, 2011. She said we had a delegation of art students
from CSU who were over in Tokyo and we asked them to go to Kiryu to
present a Proclamation from the City of Columbus. She said we do have
pictures of the Celebration.
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INVOCATION: Led by Rev. Cindy Garrard ? St. Luke Church.
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JUDGE ROBERT JOHNSTON:
Mayor Tomlinson took a moment to recognize the passing of
Judge Bobby Johnston. She said he has served this community for many years as
Solicitor and also as State and Superior Court Judge. She said our thoughts
and prayers go out to his family in their time of mourning.
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PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Led by Mayor Teresa Tomlinson.
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CITISTAT:
Mayor Tomlinson said maybe a year and a half ago, many people sitting at
the Council table and various capacities have had the opportunity to travel to
Baltimore, Maryland or Mobile, Alabama where there are programs such as
Citistat, which is basically a governmental assessment and auditing process
that some communities have had great success with. She said the Chamber of
Commerce has been very interested in having us gather information related to
these types of systems to see if it would be successful here in Columbus. She
then invited Mr. Chris Thomaskutty to the rostrum to better explain how the
program works.
Mr. Thomaskutty came forward expressing his gratitude to the Mayor and
Council for allowing him the opportunity to come forward to speak in reference
to the Citistat program. He said we have been using this performance strategy
to improve operations and citizen services in Baltimore. He then went on to
give a presentation regarding the City of
Baltimore.
City of Baltimore
Form of Government: Strong Mayor
Land Area: 87 square miles
Population: 630,000 citizens
Work Force: 15,000 employees
Operating Budget $2.4 billion
CitiStat Background
Modeled after a similar program in New York City, the Baltimore City Police
Department initiated weekly ComStat meetings to improve crime-fighting
efficiency.
CitiStat represents the extended application of the same basic principles to
the management of all municipal functions.
Building the CitiStat Room and utilizing ?off-the-shelf? software limited our
initial start-up costs to just $20,000.
What we ARE?
What we ARE NOT?
.
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CitiStat Tenets
Accurate and timely intelligence shared by all
?
Rapid deployment of resources
Effective tactics and strategies
Relentless follow-up and assessment
CitiStat Tenet 1: Accurate and Timely Intelligence Shared by All
3 Regular Sources of Data
1. Motorola CSR 311
2. CitiTrack Report
3. CitiStat Template
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CitiStat Tenet 1: Accurate and Timely Intelligence Shared by All
CitiStat Memorandums
Every meeting a comprehensive executive brief is prepared for each Department.
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CitiStat Tenet 2: Rapid Deployment of Resources
Duration Times - ?48 Hour Guarantee?
Mr. Thomaskutty explained that if an individual calls 311 and to report
a
pothole anywhere in the City, the pothole would be filled within 48 hours
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Measurement is the means, not the end. Use the data to make decisions.
Risk Management--Worker?s Compensation
Employee Injuries ?Occurring? by Fiscal Yea
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CitiStat Tenet 3: Effective Tactics and Strategies
Look for ?Benihanas??
2006 Mowing Contract:
School System and City Parks was both paying same vendor with different
contracts.
Used data to prove need for joint bidding to reduce overhead and improve
contract specs.
Resulted in improved service and savings of approximately
$300,000.
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?Hidden? Benefits of CitiStat
Promotes smooth transitions of power. Flattens learning curve for a new
executive.
Enables the Executive to ?turn the ship? quickly. Lots of productive face time
with department heads and staff.
Leadership development. Excellent training for future leaders.
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CitiStat Evolves ? CleanStat
Most issues are not confined to a single City agency. Requires collaboration.
CleanStat unifies operating and enforcement teams from six different agencies.
Recycling tonnage up 53%
80% increase in sanitation enforcement citations.
Finally obtaining convictions in Court for illegal dumping.
What gets measured gets done?
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CitiStat Evolves ? GunStat
Staff meeting based on shared goal?targeted enforcement and prosecution of
felony gun crimes. Shared purpose, not same boss.
BPD, BCPD, State Police. State agencies. City SAO, USAO.
Tear down barriers and identify opportunities for collaboration.
Collaborative meetings require greater effort to coordinate the agenda.
Relentless follow-up is essential to move agenda forward.
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CitiStat Evolves - GunStat
Unprecedented data sharing.
Actionable data.
Mandatory releases
Under 25
Out for less than six months
With 2 or more federally significant convictions
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After making his presentation, Mr. Thomaskutty opened the floor for
questions.
Mayor Tomlinson expressed her appreciation to Mr. Thomaskutty for his
presentation and requested that City Manager Isaiah Hugley speak briefly
regarding the position of the City of Columbus in comparison to the City of
Baltimore.
City Manager Isaiah Hugley said we do have 311; in fact, in 1997 we became
the first 311 non-emergency Center in the State of Georgia. He said citizens
could dial 311 or 653-4000 in order to speak with a representative who would
assist in addressing their concerns. He expressed that every phone call is
recorded and stored for quality control purposes. He said once a citizen calls
with a service order, it is entered into our database and the records are kept
for many years. He said on a quarterly basis we provide the Mayor and Council
with a record of all of the calls, which are listed by type and separated by
districts. He indicated that 94% of the calls received are related to the
Public Services Department. He advised that the Citizen Service Center would
randomly select work orders and calls the selected citizens to ensure that the
work order was completed to their satisfaction. He said the last report
depicted a 94% or 97% satisfaction rate from the work orders that were randomly
selected for follow up.He pointed out that the City does not have a department
or division that gathers information from the Citizen Service Center, the City
does not have analyst that are assisgned to various departnents to inspect the
service calls. He then advised that the process would be helpful to improve
service. He also pointed out that Columbus does not have the 48-hour standard
as it relates to potholes. He indicated that Columbus has 220 square miles with
only one pothole crew. He said if we were to do this in Columbus it may not
work exactly the same as it does in Baltimore, but there is no doubt or
question that there could be some net gain or good return on investment.
Mayor Tomlinson said she would be interested in hearing how this would
affect the budgeting process.
Mr. Thomaskutty responded by saying using CitiStat we are better informed
when it comes time for the budget. He said in the early days it was not a
perfect match; we would develop our budget using the mechanics of CitiStat. He
said in the last two years we have moved to a model called Outcome Budgeting.
He said in the last two years we have tried to simplify what we do by breaking
down what we do in terms of services. He said we are very early into the
Outcome Budgeting process but he feels the future for municipalities is a
combination of leadership management strategy of CitiStat and the Outcome based
budgeting model.
Councilor Thomas asked Mr. Thomaskutty, what kind of software is used with
the program>
Mr. Thomaskutty said we only use Excel and Off-The-Shelf GIS.
Councilor Thomas then asked Mr. Thomaskutty, have any of the departments
had to add staff in order to compile the necessary data that is presented?
Mr. Thomaskutty said we have a staff of four plus one investigator and
said we started with two and has had as many as seven. He explained that each
analyst has a portfolio of three to four agencies. He said each agency has its
own internal staff meetings and said they have internalized the process to
where they are using the stat approach to manage their own agency.
Councilor Henderson asked Mr. Thomaskutty, if the idea was taken citywide
when it was first imported from New York to Baltimore, or was the focus on one
key service department.
Mr. Thomaskutty responded by saying he was not there in the beginning but
he does know the process that was taken. He said the Mayor gave the direction
he wanted and gave the ComStat approach that he wanted applied to city agencies
within 60 days. He said CitiStat was started without a Call Center and said it
was started with the trash department (Bureau of Solid Waste). He then said in
the following months more agencies were added.
Councilor Huff said the Police Chief is present along with the Marshal and
the Sheriff. He said in the stats relating to crime reduction, what kind of
team was put together to collect data as far as all of the different entities
working together?
Mr. Thomaskutty said our Police Department has been using a ComStat
process for a long time. He said the Police Department has an internal ComStat
meeting every other Thursday and a Police stat meeting every other Wednesday.
Mayor Pro Tem Turner Pugh asked Mr. Thomaskutty was recycling mandatory.
Mr. Thomaskutty said no. He said the reason that it jumped so much is
because there were different days for paper recycling and co-mingles but once
the switch was made, we went to single stream.
Mayor Pro Tem Turner Pugh asked Mr. Thomaskutty, how often is garbage
collected and what is the garbage fee?
Mr. Thomaskutty said garbage is collected once a week and the garbage fee
is a part of our general tax base so there is not an itemized enterprise fee.
Councilor Woodson said she is interested in knowing how the City of
Baltimore runs their landfill.
Mr. Thomskutty said we have two types of disposal. He said we take a
significant amount of trash and burn it in the incinerator, which generates
steam and a private utility uses the steam to heat most of the downtown
buildings. He then said we do have a landfill, which we plan to expand in the
future.
Mayor Tomlinson said one of the things regarding CitiStat that intrigues
her is the ability to look at the budget differently. She said if we had this
kind of data system it would allow us to pinpoint the things that are returning
value to the citizens.
Mr. Thomaskutty said the data system allows much more transparency for
operations. He said he feels that it is very wise to figure out ways to
incorporate the performance data into the budgeting process.
Councilor Thomas said there are some departments that may be difficult to
determine what kinds of things we need to be looking at to make some of the
economies that have been discussed. She said for example, the Finance
Department, Engineering Department and also the departments that are ran by
Elected Officials and said she is wondering what kind of relationship does
CitiStat have regarding those departments?
Mr. Thomaskutty said he would image a good approach would be to use the
GunStat approach. He said it would be helpful to sit down and discuss shared
goals and objectives with those particular departments and subsequently let the
process follow.
Mayor Tomlinson said Mr. Thomaskutty would be staying for a little while to
tour the Citizen Service Center as well as meet with some of the Department
Heads, which we greatly appreciate. She then asked Mr. Thomaskutty, what would
he advise to any political body to consider as the starting point?
Mr. Thomaskutty said you have to do the executive buy in; the executives
have to be involved. He said it is understood to be the method by which the
Chief Executive wants to manage the city. He said he would encourage the City
of Columbus to just get started and don?t let the perfect be the enemy of the
good. He said he would also like to encourage the City of Columbus to keep it
simple. He said we should be focused on management principals and performance
deficits that are so clear that we don?t need a fancy computer. He said we
should be able to convey simple terminology using a chalkboard. He said early
on we did not do a base line survey to figure out where the citizens were in
terms of their perception of city services. He said he would recommend that a
base line be established before getting starting. He said create the
environment that would encourage Department Heads to make change.
At this time Mayor Tomlinson expressed her appreciation for Mr.
Thomaskutty coming forth with his presentation.
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With there being no other business for the Council to discuss, Mayor
Tomlinson then entertained a motion for adjournment. Councilor Henderson so
moved. Seconded by Councilor Woodson and carried unanimously by those ten
members of Council present for this meeting 10:31 a.m.
Tiny B. Washington, CMC
Clerk of Council
The Council of Columbus, Georgia
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