May 04, 2005

Potter Releases 'Bureau Innovation Project' Report

Announces Twenty Major Recommendations

Soon after taking office in January, Mayor Tom Potter announced what he called the Bureau Innovation Project, a process to study the operation of City government with the aim of instituting reforms to improve how the City functions.

Early this afternoon, the Mayor's office released the results (pdf) of that study, and announced the twnety recommendations Potter has identified as the most major and pressing ones for be pursued.

1. Develop a Citywide Strategic Plan in Collaboration with a Community Visioning Process by March 2006.
2. Establish a Joint City Council/Bureau Directors’ Implementation Team.
3. Centralize Public Communications Functions into an Integrated Public Information System.
4. Implement Changes within the Office of Management and Finance to Ensure All Internal Service Bureaus are Providing Cost-Effective Services to Their Customer Bureaus.
5. Design and Implement a Citywide Employee Development Program within the Bureau of Human Resources in Collaboration with All City Bureaus.
6. Establish Labor Management Committees within Each Bureau and Improve Employee Relations.
7. Direct All City Bureaus to Work Collaboratively with Their Employees and with Each Other to Develop Improved Customer Service Polices and Procedures.
8. Redefine and Revitalize the Office Of Neighborhood Involvement.
9. Develop Improved Public Engagement Procedures.
10. Identify Options to Better Coordinate the City’s Planning and Development Efforts.
11. Evaluate and Implement Cost-Savings from Combining the Accounting, Budget and Finance Functions within the Bureaus of Water and Environmental Services.
12. Reorganize and Centralize Maintenance Functions within the Bureaus of Water, Environmental Services, Transportation, Parks and General Services, Eliminating the Need for the Bureau Of General Services; Consider Options to Share Maintenance Responsibilities with Portland Public Schools and Other Jurisdictions.
13. Undertake a Complete Review of the City’s Contracting Procedures.
14. Centralize Requests For All Travel Authorizations, Providing Citywide Standards and Oversight For All Out Of Town Travel.
15. Appoint an East Side Big Pipe Project Oversight Committee of Community Stakeholders to Report Directly to the City Council.
16. Implement and Incorporate Procedures and Policies of Managing for Results in All Aspects of City Governance.
17. Collaborate with the Portland Development Commission to Determine Common Goals, Clarify Roles and Responsibilities and Improve Public Involvement.
18. Develop a Comprehensive Sustainable City Government Partnership and Set Specific Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Practice Goals, Objectives and Performance Measurements to be Used by All Bureaus in Budgeting and Decision-Making.
19. Identify a Process to Expedite Decision-Making for All City Permitting Functions, Identifying Inter-Bureau Problem Solving Teams at All Levels Of Operation.
20. Appoint a City Charter Review Commission by October 1, 2005.

In total, the report itself comes to something like 120 pages, so we haven't even really begun to wade into it. But for those who might have already seen it, or readers who will be making their way through it, we figured we should open a thread to discuss it. In addition to the report itself, various pieces of supporting material have been made available on the Mayor's website as well.

The recommendations will be formally presented to members of City Council and to bureau directors at a public session tomorrow at 11:30 AM, in Conference Room C at the Portland Building, located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue.

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