AGENDA INFORMATION SHEET
DEPARTMENT: Materials Management
ACM: Bryan Langley
AGENDA DATE: September 20, 2016
SUBJECT
Title
Consider adoption of an ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute a Interlocal Agreement with the University of North Texas under section 791.001 of the State of Texas Government Code, and to authorize the City of Denton to participate in the ITDS Corporate Partners Program-Professional Development Program for City of Denton employees; authorizing the expenditure of funds therefor; and declaring an effective date (File 6217-Interlocal Agreement with the University of North Texas in the two (2) year amount of $15,375).
Body
BACKGROUND
The City initiated a Lean Government program in 2014 with the following goal statement:
Our City is experiencing tremendous growth, it's visible and palpable. In fact, Denton is on track to have a 65 percent increase in population to over 200K by 2030. This growth will place great demands on the entire organization from the utilities to public safety, recreation & leisure to general government. To meet this demand, we intend to have controlled growth in our capabilities by innovating and reinventing ourselves rather than just adding equipment, staff, and layers of bureaucracy.
By applying methodologies proven in manufacturing, health care, service industries and even government, Denton can remove many of the annoyances and obstacles to our jobs that we run into every day and take our focus away from the real work. This work is rewarding, meaningful and creates a better community. This is Denton's LEAN Journey.
Since the beginning in 2014, city staff have held five kaizen events (week long process improvement events) covering the hiring process, purchasing process, engineering development review process, complete development review process and most recently the meter reading to billing process for utilities. In addition to the intensive kaizen events, city staff trained as lean coaches have worked with on several smaller business process improvements. There are ten lean coaches from the City’s divisions of finance, customer service, purchasing, utility administration, police, fleet services, solid waste, parks and recreation, human resources and electric. To date the estimated savings from these improvements is over $600,000 and the estimated staff time savings is over 7,000 hours.
The purpose of this interlocal agreement is to expand the lean efforts in Denton through training offered by Dr. Jerry Dake and Dr. Donna Lohr. These lecturers work in the College of Business Information Technology and Decision Sciences division at North Texas. Dr. Dake teaches a senior level class in decisions sciences incorporating lean techniques and data analysis. This agreement will cover four training classes to be held at the City on lean techniques. Each class will meet six times and include a City of Denton lean project as part of the training.
In addition to this training, Dr. Dake’s senior level decision sciences class must evaluate actual processes and data as part of the class assignment. The City in conjunction with Dr. Dake will allow students to evaluate specific data and processes in customer service, police and the City’s warehouse this fall.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve an Interlocal Agreement with the University of North Texas in a two (2) year amount of $15,375.
PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas
FISCAL INFORMATION
Funding for this training is budgeted for FY 2016-17 in the Human Resources Department of the General Fund.
STRATEGIC PLAN RELATIONSHIP
The City of Denton’s Strategic Plan is an action-oriented road map that will help the City achieve its vision. The foundation for the plan is the five long-term Key Focus Areas (KFA): Organizational Excellence; Public Infrastructure; Economic Development; Safe, Livable, and Family-Friendly Community; and Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship. While individual items may support multiple KFAs, this specific City Council agenda item contributes most directly to the following KFA and goal:
Related Key Focus Area: Organizational Excellence
Related Goal: 1.2 Develop a high-performance work force
EXHIBITS
Exhibit 1: Ordinance
Exhibit 2: Interlocal Agreement
Respectfully submitted:
Chuck Springer, 349-8260
Director of Finance
For information concerning this acquisition, contact: Chuck Springer at 349-8260.