Trampled by Technology: Are you managing technology, or is it managing you? What I Learned Down Under Dan Hartman Director of Public Works, City of Golden, Colorado Chair, APWA Leadership and Management Committee 2011 Jennings Randolph Fellow eorge Bernard Shaw said, “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” Well, I found that not completely true about America and Australia when I attended the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA) national conference in August 2011 as a Jennings Randolph Fellow. I did end up with a bunch of “Mates” and learned that I was a “Bloke,” important on the way to the “Dunny.” I also learned that being referred to as “not the full quid” is bad and if called a “Bastard” it is a term of endearment. Also, their french fries are much better than those you will find in France. When applying for the Jennings Randolph Fellowship back in 2010 two things shaped my thinking. First, I recalled a two-hour debate at a city council meeting in the early 1990s. The debate was about buying a fax machine for the City. There was much concern by council about wasting money on a toy. That debate is less than 20 years old, and look where we are now. I also recalled a day less than two years ago when I was conducting a training session for street inspectors in Kabul, Afghanistan. By my count, there were 24 computers in the room, every participant had a phone and most were smart phones. Technology, and how we use it, is the driving force in the future of our public works departments. You can’t escape it. So my Jennings Randolph study was to explain the technology that we, in Golden, were using, and to explore 40 APWA Reporter
May 2012
what was happening in technology in public works in Australia. In addition to a presentation before the IPWEA Conference attendees, IPWEA required a paper which was published for the program. I have included excerpts here to show what I presented to them and have added things I learned from the study. You can find the full paper to the IPWEA at http://www.cityofgolden. net/media/Trampled%20by%20 Technology.pdf. I met with folks and presented in Canberra, home to the conference and Capitol City, and also visited Sydney, Brisbane, Hamilton Island and Canungra. We also had a great dinner and night of entertainment at the house of the Australian Parliament in Canberra. The IPWEA holds a national conference every two years. The best thing I found the Australians doing,
Australian Parliament
at least in some states, is adopting requirements to fund infrastructure replacement. When the Government Accounting Standards Board adopted GASB 34 in the United States, we began to account for the value of our infrastructure assets. While this has clarified that our infrastructure needs reinvestment, in some cases it has minimally helped us compete for funding. In some Australian states accounting for infrastructure is no longer sufficient. They now must not only account, but budget reinvestment funding. This policy has changed budgeting requiring that they maintain what they have before they can spend on anything new. This has enforced a level of discipline on elected officials. Australia—some limits on wireless technology While there was good 3G coverage, I found access to wireless not very universal and even in better hotels had to use computers provided in the
