Consultant presents draft Public Works efficiency study with 75 recommendations; commissioners back implementation plan

A consultant’s draft efficiency evaluation of Dunedin’s Public Works department — containing 75 recommendations across facilities, fleet, public services and solid waste — was presented to the City Commission, which voiced broad support for staff to move forward with implementation steps and asked for follow-up details on key items.

Sue Bartlett, the city’s Public Works director, said the study was the product of a six-month review that included extensive staff engagement and on-the-job observations. “The employees had a lot of feedback,” Bartlett told the commission, and staff will work with the consultant to incorporate commission input before the report is finalized.

Harry Loric, principal of LA Consulting, said the project team surveyed employees, rode with crews and reviewed existing systems to produce a draft report. “We have 75 recommendations that … we’ve met with all those people … and they accepted all 75,” Loric said, adding that employees helped shape implementation ideas. Loric emphasized the study was aimed at improving operations, not auditing for fault.

Key recommendations presented by the consultant include: - Establish a formal work-planning, scheduling and performance-measurement system so staff can compare plan versus actual and calculate unit costs and productivity. - Reconfigure or replace parts of existing databases (the presentation cited local Naviline and Tyler systems) so managers can extract usable data instead of maintaining parallel spreadsheets. - Update overhead and equipment rates used for internal cost calculations; staff currently apply an overhead factor the consultant said is understated compared with the department’s actual loaded costs. - Identify and divest underused equipment and vehicles; the consultant identified multiple vehicles with very low annual usage and recommended selling some surplus units and optimizing fleet size. - Reassess pricing or participation for solid-waste collection in unincorporated areas, where the consultant estimated the city is undercharging relative to cost; one estimate in the presentation put the potential additional revenue at roughly $166,000 if full cost recovery were applied. - Improve tracking and cost recovery for public-works support provided to special events and to other departments.

The consultant provided conservative financial estimates in an accompanying letter: a one-time software or system purchase to deliver the recommended work-planning and asset-management functions was estimated at about $150,000 plus recurring maintenance; consultant-assisted implementation of core business-improvement activities was estimated at roughly $135,000. The draft quantified a range of possible savings: a modest improvement scenario (4%) would yield roughly $912,000 in savings; a broader set of changes produced higher totals in the consultant’s model, with a gross total cited in the presentation of about $2.1 million and a first-year net of roughly $1.7 million (the consultant described its assumptions as conservative).

Commissioners asked implementation questions and budget implications. Commissioner Walker and others stressed sequencing, software feasibility and the need to avoid creating a new “beast” of administrative burden. Commissioner DeGard urged regular reporting so the commission can monitor progress. City Manager Jennifer (last name not specified in the transcript) said staff will return with detailed implementation steps for major items, and multiple commissioners said they support proceeding with those detailed plans.

Public comment was limited; staff noted that employees who participated in the study generally supported the recommendations. The commission directed staff to continue working on implementation planning and to report back with timelines, fiscal impacts and communications plans for affected residents and staff.