Tools for FEMA Disaster Recovery: Maintenance System vs. Financial System

2005 APWA National Congress in Minneapolis, Minnesota

9/10/2005

LAC coordinated with clients to speak at five sessions in September of 2005 at the APWA National Congress.

Summary:

Tools for FEMA Disaster Recovery: Maintenance System vs. Financial System

This presentation will address one county’s experience with FEMA work reporting requirements for reimbursement during the hurricane events of 2004. The first part will provide an overview of FEMA requirements and describe the pros and cons of two different systems that public agencies can utilize to capture information for reimbursement: maintenance systems and financial systems. The second part of the presentation will provide the process used and the lessons learned from a county prospective. The goal of this presentation is to help other agencies prepare and implement a well thought out FEMA reimbursement plan before disaster strikes. 

Big County or Small City: Efficiency through the Use of Inmate/Furlough Workers and Volunteers.

This presentation will show how two very different public works organizations developed and utilize inmate/furlough worker programs and volunteers to provide cost efficiencies and workload flexibility. The county is 789 square miles and the city is 1 square mile and regardless of size and scope of work both agencies use this cost savings idea. The first part of the presentation will show an overview of both agencies and provide a historic look at their use of inmate/furlough worker programs and the regulations that govern these programs. The second part of the presentation will focus on the specifics of each program such as implementation, choice of work assignments, security, worker skill assessments, and necessary training requirements that supervisors must obtained in order to run these crews. 

Being Proactive in a Growing City: Maintenance Operations Evaluation and Implementation to Achieve Results! 

This presentation will show how one such growing city has prepared itself to be a world class destination city while keeping its small town feel. The Streets Division underwent a management and operations review to align its labor force, management processes, and technology resources to ensure that they can meet the challenge of constant growth and new demands of its services. The second part of the presentation shows how the city established a maintenance system that includes the capabilities to produce a performance-based work plan and budget in order to set goals and achieve results. This system is used as a tool to justify resources, promote advanced work scheduling, and monitor work performance. 

Benchmarking for Improvement Works for Mosquito Control Too!

The presentation will show the benchmarking process that occurred. There were six county programs that were interviewed with relevant information collected for comparison such as equipment per staff, flight hours for aerial spraying, and treated acres per flight hour. The benefits achieved through this project and those opportunities that still exist will be covered. The successes will be highlighted as well as areas where the benchmarking was not as useful. Suggested actions and lesson learned to improve using benchmarking along with ideas to obtain employee "buy in" will be discussed. 

Evaluating Budget Alternatives in Tough Times to Justify Resources

This presentation will discuss how public works agencies can use performance based budgeting to create multiple budget scenarios that enable management to analyze and determine priorities and use of resources. An overview of performance-based budgeting will be discussed including concepts of setting performance objectives by activity, determining effort levels, balancing resources to activities performed; and determining resources based on a rational approach. The second portion of the presentation will be focused on how two agencies actually used performance budgeting to set priorities and determine how best to allocate limited resources.

Speakers:

Harry C. Lorick, PE, PTOE 
Principal, LA Consulting Inc, Manhattan Beach, CA 

Amie Drotning
Senior Associate, LA Consulting INC, Manhattan Beach, CA

Lydia Cox
Senior Associate, LA Consulting INC, Manhattan Beach, CA

 

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