HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/11/2008 Work Session
City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11,2008
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Community Room, Royal Building, 509
Main Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, February 11,2008 at 5:38 p.m., with Mayor Leiken
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow, and
Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City
Attorney Joe Leahy, City Attorney Matt Cox, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members ofthe staff.
1. Council Goal Setting.
Mayor Leiken noted that tonight was the Council's annual goal setting session. This had been a very
constructive session in the past. Staff appreciated Council providing input, direction and policy for staff
to move forward in carrying out the goals.
City Manager Gino Grimaldi presented this item. Council annually reviews the Council Five-Year
Goals, One- Year Targets and Priorities to make changes to more accurately reflect the direction of the
community. It is also a time to note the goals that have been reached and remove those from the existing
list. The meeting will be facilitated by Margo Helphand.
The agenda for the Council Goal Setting Session is as follows:
1. Convene Meeting and Welcome
2. Overview of Meeting
3. Key City Accomplishments
4. Council Goals and Priorities Review
5. Preferred Future Discussion
6. Continuous Improvement Presentation and Discussion
7. Wrap Up
Mr. Grimaldi said Council could change the agenda if they chose. He explained the proposed agenda.
Mr. Grimaldi thanked St. Vincent DePaul for the use of the community room in the Royal Building. He
noted the wonderful view of downtown Springfield from the room.
Ms. Helphand thanked the Mayor and Council for inviting her back to help with their goal setting. She
noted that this location was ideal for this work session because of the great view of Springfield and the
building was gorgeous. She said she would be moving along quickly.
Ms. Helphand again reviewed the agenda and said they would start by reviewing the accomplishments.
She said it was good to look back and reflect on the accomplishments of the City and the
accomplishments of the Council as well. Following this review, they would then look at the Council
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February 11,2008
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look at the Council goals, confirm the long-term goals, and go over the one-year priorities. She said they
would then move to preferred future exercises, looking at where the Council wanted the City to be in ten
years. The Executive Team wrote postcards from the future. She distributed those postcards to the Mayor
and Council. She said she would have the Council read those out loud shortly and summarize the
responses. Finally, they would determine how the postcards might match up to the goals for the future.
Mr. Grimaldi said the postcard exercise was a fun way to look at the future of Springfield.
Ms. Helphand asked Council to review the 2007 accomplishments and note which ones stood out to
them. She continued to summarize the agenda for the meeting.
Councilor Ralston: Getting started on the Springfield Justice Center and Jail.
Councilor Wylie: Urban renewal.
Councilor Ballew: Completion of South 42nd Street project.
Mayor Leiken: Crossing over to $IB in private sector investment in Springfield.
Councilor Lundberg: Passage ofHB3337.
Councilor Woodrow: Bob Straub Parkway.
Councilor Pishioneri: Decision to build a new fire station.
Leadership training for Councilors (Pacific Program).
Councilor Ballew: Springfield representation (Mayor and Council members) on statewide committees
and leadership. Springfield was now more of a player. '
Councilor Wylie: Successful resolution to the RiverWatch issue.
Mayor Leiken: Even though Apex withdrew from Glemyood, there was still a continued excitement of
the possibilities in Glenwood. Those interested continued to increase in number.
Councilor Wylie: The departments were providing structure and budget for successful departmental
activities. Staffwas doing well; they were creative and growing and doing great projects.
Councilor Pishioneri: City recognized the need to create a leadership program for up and coming leaders
recognizing that the City as a whole needed to build up new leaders to be successful.
Mayor Leiken: Continue great teamwork. All the councilors, and staff members, had strong opinions, but
they also got along and cooperated by leaving personal agendas out of the mix and continued to work on
the Springfield agenda. They had been fortunate, but also made a concerted effort to work towards that
goal.
Ms. Helphand said when she thought of Springfield she thought of civility as a value of the standard they
set.
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February 11,2008
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Councilor Lundberg said a reflection of that was voter support on City measures. She said there was a
level of confidence in the direction the City was taking, and the direction of staff and council leadership.
Ms. Helphand referred to the goals in the agenda packet and noted that they were established in years
past. She asked Council to look at the goals and make sure they were still the goals Council wanted to
keep. These were long-range goals and were the things to strive for.
Councilor Ballew said they were big goals and she didn't think Council had changed their mind on them.
Ms. Helphand said sometimes big goals were something to keep out in front of them to strive for.
Councilor Ralston discussed the project along I-105 and Highway 126 and said the extra lane put in
should extend all the way to the Pioneer Parkway.
Councilor Woodrow agreed and said he had brought that up to staff.
Discussion was held regarding the upcoming Highway 126 project and whether or not the extended lane
would be addressed during that project.
Transportation Manager Tom Boyatt responded to this issue. He said that when he worked for the
Oregon Department of Transportation, he tried to convince the resource manager to push the extra lane
all the way to Pioneer Parkway. The project was a safety project, so was not in the regular Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). He felt it was something Springfield should continue to
push for. He took opportunities at the staff level to discuss this. The state could get a lot of traction by
finding a small amount of resources to finish that. He explained some of the challenges in that area.
Councilor Ralston said the lane blending in from the freeway was the problem.
Ms. Helphand suggested adding the Highway 126 lane issue to the Issue Bin of priorities.
Council added Highway 126: Eastbound Improvements Between 1-5 and Pioneer Parkway to the
priorities list.
Councilor Pishioneri said there seemed to be some confusion between goals and projects. Goals were
concepts, and the issue bin was desired projects.
Mr. Grimaldi said the priorities were listed under the goals, and were items that took specific action. The
lane issue would be a priority that fit under the transportation goal.
Ms. Helphand discussed the relationship between the goals and priorities.
Councilor Ballew said one of the big goals was to attract family wage jobs. She noted Springfield's
average income and suggested making it a goal to raise everyone's income level. There were people in
Springfield that weren't doing well financially and it might be good for Council to have a goal to
improve their economic well-being.
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Councilor Lundberg said 'family wage jobs' were businesses that actually paid family wages. It came
down to what employers the City wanted to attract to Springfield. It also related to education and having
a work force that could work in higher paying jobs.
Councilor Ballew said maybe it was more of an outcome.
Councilor Wylie said the priorities were the tasks to back up the goals. That was where they could make
a change (in the priorities) by partnering with Lane Community College (LCC) for better training,
education and job readiness. The City had accomplished a number of the priorities. The tasks need
updating rather than the goals.
Mayor Leiken said Springfield was becoming more of a player. With the passage of HB333 7,
Springfield had more control of what we wanted our community to look like in the future. It took time to
adapt to the changes ofthe City. With the passage ofHB3337 and establishing our own urban growth
boundary (UGB), the City could choose and make decisions on exactly how to move forward regarding
commercial and industrial land, as well as residential. This Council was the bridge between the old
Springfield and the new Springfield. The Council would set the tone for where the future was going. He
noted that health care jobs were family wage jobs. He felt Springfield was moving in the right direction,
they just needed to be patient.
Councilor Woodrow suggested expanding Goal #4 by adding "through education and
commercial/industrial development". Enhancing the economy fit with that.
Discussion was held regarding whose job it was to educate the community.
Councilor Lundberg said the City was dependent on the school system, college or university, There were
a lot of jobs that had the potential to be higher wage jobs, but the workforce had limitations regarding
training. Some in the workforce were not as highly trained as they should be. There was a gap between
what the school was doing and what people needed to be successful. In that venue, Council had a role by
sitting on the Lane Workforce Partnership and advocating for the kinds of programs people needed to
come into a workplace setting with credentials allowing them to start at a higher wage.
Ms. Helphand said that was part of the Council being a player with these organizations. She asked if
Council wanted to add "education" to Goal #4.
Councilor Ralston said it was fine to talk about the education component, but he was not compelled to
change the goals because it was not in Council's control. They already encouraged education behind the
scenes.
Ms. Helphand said it might be something that showed up in their priorities in partnering or advocacy.
She asked Council to discuss their one year priorities. She asked how Council wanted to go through the
priorities. She offered some suggestions.
Councilor Wylie said Mr. Grimaldi would know the status on each ofthe priorities and she would like
him to summarize each as they went through them.
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Councilor Pishioneri said it would be helpful to him to go down the list to see where there were problem
areas.
Councilor Lundberg suggested just ranking the actual priority. Some had more done than others and
some were more problematic than others. These were just one-year targets.
Councilor Ralston said it was hard to prioritize the one-year targets. There were only two things he
noticed on the list that Council had raised to a higher level over the last year: building maintenance
funding; and reducing reliance on the levies. The rest were fine the way they were.
Glenwood Development:
Mr. Grimaldi started through the priority list. He said there were still a lot of issues to discuss about
Glenwood, such as a master developer versus multi-developers, the design of Franklin Boulevard, and
how to implement the Glenwood Refinement Plan update project.
This item would remain a top priority.
Gateway Development:
Mr. Grimaldi said this priority focused on transportation issues, such as I-5/Beltline, Gateway/Beltline
intersection, and the Lane Transit District EmX project.
This item would remain a top priority.
Downtown Redevelopment:
Mr. Grimaldi said that would be a long-term issue. The first step was to pass the Urban Renewal Plan
which had already happened. The next step would be deciding how to approach redevelopment. He
discussed past planning efforts for downtown.
This item would remain ,a top priority.
Mayor Leiken asked how many applications had been received for the Downtown Citizen Advisory
Committee.
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery said forty-two applications had been received for eleven positions.
Mayor Leiken said it was great to see that much interest. He noted that the applicants were not the same
names'that always applied.
Several cQuncilors said they had been approached by applicants who were very interested in being
appointed to that committee. There was a lot of energy around this project.
Councilor Ralston asked Chief Smith about the transients under the Glenwood Bridge. He said it seemed
there were very few of them out there for a few weeks, but a lot of people had now returned. He said he
had seen two Sheriffs vehicles down there recently. He asked what had changed that caused the
transients to return to that location.
Chief Smith said it was the warmer weather. When it was extremely cold, the transients left and found
other places to stay.
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Councilor Ralston asked ift~ere was an effort by someone to police that area.
No. Councilor Pishioneri said that was State property and the City and County couldn't do anything.
Councilor Ralston noted that there were students at the bus station. He said he would be afraid to stand at
that station. He said somewhere between the Glenwood redevelopment and the Downtown, the City
needed to isolate the problems at that bridge. He had received a number of complaints from Springfield
residents asking why the City wasn't doing anything. He had tried to explain the State law to them.
Ms. Helphand said this item could be added to the Issue Bin on her chart to address the homeless issue at
the Glenwood Bridge.
Mill Race Redevel6pment:
Mr. Grimaldi said staff continued to work with the Corps of Engineers to move this along.
This item would remain a priority.
South 4rd Street Improvements:
This item is complete and can be removed from the priority list.
Support Review of the Feasibility of a Conference Center:
Mr. Grimaldi said the consortium had issued a request for proposals (RFP) to look at the feasibility of a
conference center.
This item would remain a priority.
Determine the Future of the Library:
Mr. Grimaldi said the Library staff and Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery had been looking at
alternatives to stabilize or fund the Library.
This item would remain a priority.
Implement Remaining Nodal Development Areas per TransPlan:
Development Services Director Bill Grile addressed this item. He said it was on the work program.
There were areas yet to be designated, such as RiverBend and Jasper. Forming these areas mayor may
not reduce trip counts expected, but was a feasible alternative.
This item would remain a priority.
Councilor Ballew asked if updating the TransPlan should be added to the list.
Council chose to add: Update TransPlan to the priorities list.
Discussion was held regarding areas scheduled to be implemented as nodal.
TEAM Springfield:
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Mr. Grimaldi said this was an ongoing project and was going well.
This item would remain a priority.
Identify Possible Wi-Fi Locations in Nodal Development:
Mr. Grimaldi said Council had made a decision not to move forward on this. It was removed.
Enter into an Agreement with the BLM/Forest Service to Construct Office and Warehouse Space
in Springfield:
This project was complete and could be removed from the list.
Commercial-Industrial-Residential Buildable Land:
Mr. Grimaldi said this was a long-term project to be completed in 2009.
This item would remain a priority.
Develop, Revise and Implement an Emergency Management Plan:
Mr. Grimaldi said this was complete for the most part and could be removed.
Chief Murphy said they still needed to put the Mayor and Council through an online course on the
National Incident Management System (NIMS).
Councilor Pishioneri said it was important for the Mayor and Council to be trained and have that
knowledge in the event of an emergency. He discussed the potential need for an Instant Command
System (ICS) either in the City or multi-jurisdictional, and the need to understand the fiscal
responsibilities when an emergency arose.
Councilor Wylie noted the recent fires in San Diego, California and the experience that city and others
had in such emergencies. The City needed to be well trained and prepared.
Establish External and Internal Communications Interoperability:
Chief Smith said they were still working on this. It was close to being completed and was scheduled to
go live in May if several issues could be worked out.
Councilor Pishioneri asked about Public Works licensing.
Chief Smith said they felt they had a frequency for public works that would allow them to be in the trunk
system.
Update the IT Disaster Recovery Plan:
Mr. Grimaldi said that was still in the works.
This item would remain a priority.
Facilitate Justice Center Construction Timeline for on Schedule Completion:
Mr. Grimaldi said this was in progress.
This item would remain as a priority.
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City Hal) Space Needs:
Mr. Grimaldi said an initial report on this item would be coming to Council in April.
This item would remain a priority.
Promote Community Image:
Mr. Grimaldi said this project was under way with staff working withthe Ulum Group. Staff would be
getting back to the Council with the results from the community survey.
This item would remain a priority.
Reduce Reliance on Special Levies:.
Mr. Grimaldi said discussion would be held with the Budget Committee to see if we could fit these into
the budget.
This item would remain a priority.
Building Maintenance Funding:
Mr. Grimaldi said this was discussed during City Hall Space Needs.
This item would remain a priority.
Growth Demands on Curr'ent Service Levels:
Mr. Grimaldi said this was ongoing.
This item would remain a priority.
Councilor Lundberg said the City was working on street funding. A special committee was being
formed, and a work plan would be developed. She also noted that the storm water and sewer master plans
were coming forward soon.
Street Maintenance Funding was added to the priorities list.
Councilor Ballew asked about the average income of residents. It would be nice to have some economic
indicators on a consistent basis, including something like a gross product. It fit with the economic well-
being and the overall goal for the City to reach their goals.
Councilor Lundberg said they needed to look at where the tax money was coming from (commercial,
industrial and residential). There was low-end housing and high-end housing and each came with a
different dollar amount contributing to the City's tax base. It would be worthwhile to have an annual
report card to evaluate those things - a strategic plan.
Councilor Wylie said she would like to see the connection of the priorities to the goals.
Mayor Leiken discussed the assessed values that were designated in 1997 and noted that Springfield was
given a lower value due to timing. He said one of the things he would like to do would be to see if there
was a way to work with the State and County tax assessors to re-evaluate those values. Springfield was
not able to capture the true value of properties because of this initial value.
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Councilor Ralston said he would like to see what type of development gave the most back to the City
regarding taxes and which had the best potential.
Mr. Grimaldi said the opportunity to look at that would be coming soon as we concluded the study of
residential, commercial and industrial land. Part of the discussion could be to look at the mix.
Mr. Grile said another thing to consider was the cost of service for each type of development.
Councilor Wylie spoke of other values of development, such as bringing in jobs to allow people to buy
homes, etc.
Ms. Helphand moved on to the postcard exercise. She handed out some of the postcards that the
Executive Team had written.
Mayor Leiken said he had talked to the Springfield Chamber about a vision he had for the area in fifteen
years. He elaborated. He said to look at pictures of 1970 Portland along the river, and look at it now.
Springfield needed to stay on course.
The rest ofthe Councilors read their postcards and the postcards from the Executive Team members. Ms.
Helphand wrote the themes on a chart as they read.
Postcard themes:
· Glenwood Riverfront: Dining, paths, parks, galleries
. Downtown: Historic standards, vibrant, galleries
. Condos with riverviews
. Good wage jobs
. Lowered crime with the jail in place
. Convention Center w/hotels
. Paid Councilors
. Mill Race project complete
· New Library, branch Library
. RiverBend
. Franklin Blvd redesign
· Small town feeling with growth
. EmX went everywhere
. Center of downtown is Willamette River
. Police technology
. Nature and parks
. River trails
Ms. Helphand discussed the themes.
Mayor Leiken said there were a lot of common themes between the staff and Council postcards. That
was part of the cooperation and common vision that helped the City move forward. He hoped to
maintain that common denominator.
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February 11,2008
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Councilor Ballew said it showed Springfield coming from a lumber town to a medical town.
Councilor Lundberg said it could be a healing community, with an emphasis on trails and natural
resources. It was to the City's benefit that we had a great shared vision.
Ms. Helphand reviewed tonight's discussion. Great organizations came from consistently pushing in a
common direction in a disciplined fashion over a period of time. She asked Council how they decided
what was most important and what was in place to make sure those things were accomplished.
Councilor Ralston said they needed to keep doing what they were doing because they were on the right
track.
Councilor Ballew agreed. Staff keeping Council updated was important.
Councilor Woodrow said to continue building relationships with staff.
Councilor Lundberg said there was a readiness factor and some of the priorities were closer to being
completed. None of the priorities had to come off the list as long as they fit within the goals. Some were
shovel ready.
Mayor Leike~ said there was enough faith between Council and staff to trust their judgment regarding
moving priorities up on the list as they become ready to move forward. He would like to continue that
relationship.
Councilor Wylie said she had a great deal of faith in the staff being able to evaluate the priorities and
relay that to Council.
Councilor Ralston said all of the goals needed to be worked on and that was why there were specialists
(Department Directors) in each department.
Councilor Ballew said that was true, but some were multi-year projects. She would rely on Mr. Grimaldi
as the gatekeeper to let Council know what could be done.
Ms. Helphand reviewed tonight's discussion. She said the discussion would go to the continuous
improvement item next.
Councilor Ballew said in looking at the Council goals, at some point they needed more visions for the
future. .
Councilor Ralston said that was part of the moving target as things progressed.
Mr. Grimaldi discussed the Gateway area and things that would be coming along in that area.
Councilor Lundberg said transportation was a good example of needing to look years in advance.
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February 11,2008
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Councilor Pishioneri said in order to get to the long-term goals, they needed to focus on the internal
health first. If the organization was not strong, they wouldn't get anywhere. He discussed the upcoming
classification and compensation study. The City needed to retain its culture.
Mayor Leiken said they couldn't get complacent about the City's success. Eugene had a tremendous
amount of resources and Springfield needed to scratch and claw for every opportunity presented.
Springfield needed to be at the front of the line.
Councilor Ballew said they hadn't yet talked about the community itself and their hopes and aspirations.
Ms. Helphand said they needed to hear from the community.
Mr. Grimaldi said staff would bring an outline to Council on how to think more strategically internally
with departments and touching base with the community. They were not looking at a long-intensive
process.
Councilor Ralston said the community gave the Council feedback all the time. They had a good rapport
with the citizens.
Mr. Grimaldi said they would look at better communication between departments and maximizing
resources.
Councilor Wylie said there were a lot of homeless and low income residents in Springfield. Through the
development policies, the City needed to provide housing and jobs to allow the citizens to be a
functioning part of the community. She agreed that the City should be a partner in the education and
training of the citizens.
Councilor Ralston discussed the potential expansion of the UGB and bringing it more affordable
property. He said Springfield focused more on home ownership and Eugene focused more on low-
income housing and rentals. Springfield needed more affordable housing for young families. There were
State laws against forcing developers to have land that was affordable, but there must be a way to
provide affordable housing. It was all part of supplying for the needs of the community.
Councilor Lundberg said when looking at the future economic indicators, they should also look at the
consolidated plan, the goal of higher ownership, and look at development. Some builders could build
starter homes without government help. She felt it should be put in with economic indicators.
Ms. Helphand asked if Council needed to stretch for 5 minutes.
Council took a break at 7:26 p.m.
Council resumed their meeting at 7:30 p.m.
Ms. Helphand said she would be turning this portion of the meeting over to Mr. Grimaldi and Mr.
Towery.
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Mr. Grimaldi said he liked to think of the City organization as great and greater. He noted the quality of
employees at the City of Springfield and said they were always looking at ways to improve. He said the
management staff had been looking at some tools to make sure we were continuing to improve. There
were work load issues with the growth of our community and the workforce was changing. It was
important to tap into the resources of the employees coming in to the organization. Management was
looking at ways to manage the staff and put succession planning into place.
Mr. Towery said copies of the power point could be made available to those that would like a paper
copy. He noted that Niel Laudati had put together the power point presentation.
Mr. Towery said the Executive Team had been looking for an approach to help prioritize and implement
the Council goals. He said the power point presentation and the white paper in the agenda packet
(Attachment E) provided information regarding this topic. During the day long planning session with the
Executive Team earlier in the year, six motivating factors for a lean approach were identified. Those
points were: I) To make Springfield a preferred and desirable place to live and work; 2) To reach our
potential as individuals and as an organization; 3) To get daily work done daily; 4) To provide
challenging and stimulating work for city employees; 5) To remove the barriers to success; and 6) To
reward a job well done. Some of the keys to a successful implementation of a lean philosophy included a
strong connection to a strategic vision for the organization. Mr. Grimaldi had already outlined his
support and the entire Executive Team was committed to present a unified approach to implementing
lean strategies and process improvement throughout the organization. By the end of February, forty-five
managers and other key support staff, including all of the Executive Team, would have been through a
three-day process management training. This year, the City had conducted a couple of process
improvement events, also called Kaizan events or rapid improvement. Three or four years ago, the
organization went through a small version of rapid improvement process. He explained. He asked Bill
Grile, Development Services Department (DSD) Director, and Dan Brown, Public Works (PW) Director
to speak about the events they had sponsored in their departments.
Mr. Grile said they felt this was very valuable. Last spring DSD knew they were having problems
keeping up with getting the residential plan reviews through the review process. Several staff met with
Ed McMahon (HomeBuilders' Association) and discussed how they could do better. In order to be
development friendly, DSD needed to improve their service. They held a Kaizan event, which meant
they brought in the people that did the work and asked them how the plan review could be sped up and
improved. He gave an example of a home review. Instead of it taking a month to review, they were able
to reduce the time to an hour and a half after going through this process. He explained the previous
process, and how they changed the process. DSD had done sixty-eight of these plan reviews since May
17,2007.
Councilor Ballew asked ifby using the new process it freed up additional time for staff and if it allowed
them to be more productive.
Mr. Grile said this needed to be done comprehensively for the entire land development review process
because something could be fixed in one area, but could compound the effects in other areas. That would
be the next step for DSD. Time was saved when waste was eliminated. There was waste in all
organizations and they had identified the types of waste in the plan review process and figured out how
to eliminate that waste for that one process.
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Mr. Brown said PW did capital projects in several divisions in PW: Environmental Service Division;
Transportation Division; and Engineering Division. The Engineering Division did a lot of the visible
work, such as South 42nd Street improvements, the Harlow Road Pump Station, and others: The work
unit that did that work included nine people, including the supervisor. They found that they had a lot of
new people in that division. He commended the work done by JeffProciw on the South 42nd Street
project, but noted it was Jeffs first project that wasn't in the forest. PW staff became concerned about
work load issues and new staff. They brought Rhonda Costanza in to work with them. They went
through the rapid improvement process, found waste, and applied lean thinking principles. Through the
process, they were able to define the roles and responsibilities for each of the nine staff members in the
Engineering Division. They clarified accountability and came up with better reporting measurements.
One goal was to develop an outline of a project manual, as they had never had one before. Seven of the
nine chapters had been written so far. With this manual, everything would be standardized and reporting
systems would be in place with visual controls in the workplace. He explained.
Mr. Towery said a number of changes were already in place following this training. The City's
workforce was changing, the technology we used was changing, and the service demands from citizens
were driven by growth and development in the community, by demographic trends and by their own
expectations for services. To meet the challenges, staff needed to take a different approach. Asking for
more dollars and more staffing was not a sustainable approach. This process wasn't new, but was newer
for governments. It had been used in the manufacturing sector for decades. Some of the terms used were
Japanese and went back to the rebuilding of the Japanese manufacturing sector after World War II. The
term Kaizen, meant 'change for the better'. World class companies worldwide had used this approach for
decades.
Mr. Towery said this process worked by reviewing individual processes in the organization by holding
Kaizen events and bringing together the people that actually did the work, along with key managers who
could help implement recommended changes and make sure they could remove the barriers to success.
The processes and measurements were identified and refined over time. The initial exercise of going
through a process improvement was just the first step. It provided the tools to those involved in those
processes so they could continue to refine and improve the processes over time. He noted some of the
companies in the United States that had used Kaizen and lean philosophy over the years, including
Marathon Coach in Junction City. He referred to the organizational goals: Passion for our community;
Integrity in our work; and Results through collaboration. The Executive Team saw this approach as the
best way to engage and serve our customers, tap into the creativity, dedication and commitment of City
employees, and make the best long-term use of limited resources.
Councilor Ballew asked if there was a downside to this process.
I
Mr. Towery said much of this process would look familiar, not only because it had been around for sixty
to eighty years,. but because most of the bestsellers written over the last couple of decades on this
subject had used bits and pieces of these philosophies. There were a lot of tools under the umbrella of
lean approach or lean principles, and staff was trying to take the best of those tools that would work for
the City and apply them systematically throughout our organization. The biggest downside was that it
needed the buy-in from the top by the policy makers and management. It was a lot of work and a
different way of doing business and took a long-term perspective. He referred to the issue of problem
employees and noted that often it was the process that was the problem, not the employee. One of the
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February 11,2008
Page 14
the process that was the problem, not the employee. One of the steps needed was to take a look at what
needed to be done to deliver that result.
Mr. Grile said he had observed this and the process set up for the building permit review, and he also sat
in on the graduation session of the PW training. At the beginning of the training, not everyone was
excited about this process. The people with the answers to the problems were those that were closest to
the work. When those doing the work were empowered with series of questions and what could be done,
they became believers in the process. Even the skeptics admitted that the process helped. He gave an
example.
Ms. Helphand added that a lot of energy went into trouble employees. Studies had shown that it was
more efficient to put energy into the process first.
Councilor Ballew said she had visited a company that had done a lean process two or three years ago and
they were now out of business.
Discussion was held regarding the many reasons the business could have failed.
Councilor Wylie said sometimes problems in the system caused problem employees.
Mayor Leiken noted that some ofthe companies shown that had used this process were non-union
cQmpanies and that there was a different culture in the eastern countries cQmpared to the United States.
He asked if the unions had bought in to this process. He thought the term lean was outdated. During his
State of the City address he used words such as innovation and efficient. He said he was not challenging
this, but wanted to make sure unions and the everyday employees were o.k. with this. To work, they
needed buy-in from the everyday workers. If everyone was on the same page, it would be very
successful.
Mr. Grimaldi said several years ago, an Organizational Health Task Team was formed with a variety of
City employees as members. One of the problems that had not yet been addressed that this team had
identified was work load. This rapid improvement process plan was something that started with
employees and was an answer to some of the issues raised by the employees. There had been
informational meetings with staff.
Mr. Towery said when using the word lean, they were really talking about continuously improving and
trying to get better. The word lean evolved from elimination of waste, but it may not resonate well with
staff. One of the fears in this type of approach when handled poorly was whether or not it meant
elimination of employees. One of the keys ofthose companies that had done this right was to make a
commitment to the people that they wouldn't lose positions based on the rapid process improvement. He
noted that the process events held so far by the City included about eight or nine people, with line staff
involved.
Budget Officer Bob Brew said as a public employee, there was a reaction to the lean idea. Any
management book written suggested that the best way to motivate employees was to ask for their ideas
and then implement those ideas. He felt this process would do as much to retain quality people as any
other initiative the City undertook.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
February 11,2008
Page 15
Councilor Woodrow said you could manage money, but you needed to lead people. He noted that things
were done differently here than in Japan. He explained. With the continuous improvement, the response
from line workers had been positive. It was important to get the buy-in from line workers and to let the
employees lead the process. He was very supportive and felt it would be very beneficial in the long run.
Mr. Brown said he was involved in three of the RPI process events. In all three cases, line staff and non-
management staff were as enthusiastic about what was accomplished as the supervisors and managers
because they were going to be relieved of a lot of the stress with the changes. Going in to this process, it
was not unusual to find a few that were extremely skeptical. Within four hours, those people were
leading the charge to look at better and more efficient ways to do things.
Fire Chief Murphy addressed the Mayor's question about unions and said the International Association
of Fire Fighters (IAFF) was a very powerful union. His Oregon Public Employees Union (OPED) work
unit had embraced the process improvement. The real test would be the IAFF work unit. It needed to be
done right. There was one rapid improvement process event that was ready to occur that did include
some IAFFstaff. Those types of traditional work units would be a big challenge, but it had not deterred
his department from looking at this process.
Mr. Grimaldi said Council would be hearing more on this topic as it was implemented throughout the
City organization.
Councilor Ballew noted that Franklin Boulevard under the I-5 Bridge was scheduled to be closed tonight
after 9:00pm until 6:00am.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 pm.
Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa
Attest:
Am~~
City Recorder