2008-07-07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 Ms. Edwards said she would favor having a work session as a pre-cursor to a community conversation. She said we need to make sure we understand the issues and what are barriers. She said some non-profits (i.e., MACAA, CRHA, and LUV, Inc.) could be included in the work session. She suggested having a poverty simulation activity. Mr. Taliaferro said those are excellent suggestions. He said he would like to use the process to educate the community about issues of poverty. Mr. Norris noted that this would just be the beginning of a community dialogue. Ms. Edwards said it may also be a way to talk about other issues in the community (i.e., race). Mr. Norris introduced Karen Shepard, Executive Director of MACAA. Ms. Shepard said MACAA is eager to participate in the discussion. REPORT : QUALITY OF SERVICE AND EFFICIENCY STUDY Mr. Maurice Jones, Assistant City Manager, said that Council had previously indicated that they would like to see a broader examination of City services. He said staff reviewed what other communities are doing. He said the original recommendation was to work with the Weldon Cooper Center, who could use retired government employees to do the study. He said a larger study could take six to eight months and could cost $100,000 to $200,000. He said another option would be to do a departmental review over a number of years. Dr. Brown said the big cost in government is people, and he would like to find out if we have more people providing services than we need. He said he would not spend time relating the study to Council’s vision. He said he would like to know if our structures are efficient. He said he is a little skeptical of using retired city employees to do the study as he would like to have people who have fresh and contemporary thinking and who understand the current state of the art practices for local government. Mr. Huja said he thinks it is important to review staffing and how we compare with similar size localities. Mr. Taliaferro said he has no problem looking at staffing. He said we still have to measure quantitatively what we are doing. Dr. Brown said we should be compared with localities that have similar challenges and aspirations. He said he is attracted to the idea of doing a couple of departments at a time, and is not as anxious to do it all at once. He suggested that staff find out the scope of the work Albemarle County is having done. Mr. Huja said he would like to find out what we are getting for the money we are spending. Ms. Edwards said she would be interested in seeing how the study could measure citizen involvement and how we what we are doing impacts the people we serve. Mr. Jones said we can ask citizens to be part of the study, and ask them how we are doing and how we can improve. Ms. Edwards asked how we justify the cost of the study. Mr. Jones said it is an investment in the City and has the possibility of saving money. Mr. Huja asked about looking at consolidation with Albemarle County, but Mr. Jones said that would be a different study.