Accreditation process helps organization assess service and performance

Matthew F. Villareale

Fleet Management Division Chief Prince William County, Virginia Director, APWA Mid-Atlantic Chapter

he Department of Public Works in Prince William County strives to provide excellent customer service and meet the daily needs of our community. In an effort to assess our service and performance, the department took on the challenge of the accreditation process through APWA.

Public Works is one of the largest departments in the County. We complete a wide variety of tasks from historic preservation, environmental protection, trash and recycling management, neighborhood improvement to providing services such as fleet, printing and cleaning services for our County Government. This diversity in tasks, services and responsibilities led the department to have eight unique cultures in its eight different divisions.

Through the accreditation process, staff was able to create formal bridges between these groups to create a department-wide culture. Cross-divisional teams worked on the first nine chapters and created department-wide policies and procedures. The teams also tackled the subject chapters with management practices that involved multiple divisions. As a result of this work, employees from separate divisions began to see how they were connected to the other employees within the department and how our work supported other groups.

One of the most valuable achievements in the accreditation process was the creation of our department business plan. This plan created goals, strategies and objectives that pull the divisions together toward a common departmentwide vision and mission. The plan was created based on feedback from employees throughout the department. The feedback was then organized and prioritized by a team of employees from all of the divisions. The business plan, which is in line with the County’s strategic plan, heralded a cultural shift in the department.

Another valuable aspect of the accreditation process was the completion of the self assessment phase. It is said that starting is the hardest part of any project. For us, starting and completing the self assessment was the hardest and most important step we took during the accreditation process.

During this self assessment, the department took a hard look at its current practices to determine if they were adequate. We discovered we were fulfilling many of the applicable management practices, but we did not have written policies and practices, so we could not document our compliance. We also found many procedures and policies were based on memos from a supervisor. Through the years, those memos have been forgotten, lost or unfamiliar to employees who started after the memo was issued.

As a direct result of the self assessment, we created a standard for uniformly documenting procedures

and policies within the department. We made these procedures available electronically in a single location accessible to all employees. The crossdivisional teams created SOPs that affected multiple divisions and each division created operation manuals for their unique and specific tasks. Now, our practices are uniform, well documented and easily accessible by all.

In Public Works, we believe a proactive department is highly organized and accountable for fulfilling its responsibilities, so we began our journey to become accredited five and a half years ago. We knew it was time to assess and improve ourselves to meet the challenges of the future. But it came at a time of change for the department when two divisions left to become new departments. The journey also began during the darkest days of the Great Recession when we lost staff and funding.

Our pursuit of accreditation also came at a pinnacle time for our entire organization. Like so many others, our local government was struggling with the current recession and difficult economic situations. Our organization knew entities outside the County Government would begin to look sharply and critically at all business practices. In response, Prince William County Government began a number of internal audits and reviews. These new internal controls and accountability assure citizens that tax dollars and funds are used wisely and correctly. These steps also ensure our organization works at its fullest potential and most effective level.

By completing the accreditation process, Prince William County Public Works has proactively reviewed our practices and made changes where necessary to reach national standards set by our peers in the public works industry. We now know we have the documents and procedures to confirm sound business practices, internal controls and accountability. We can confidently face and meet any reviews given by our elected officials, executive management for the County Government or our counterparts in other jurisdictions. Public Works is credible and trustworthy as a steward of public funds and fulfilling public needs.

By initiating and completing the accreditation process on our own, our department worked on bettering itself on its own terms using guidelines and standards established by peers within an association dedicated to the advancement of the public works profession. Our staff knows we are performing to our fullest potential to meet the County’s new accountability standards and the standards set by our counterparts in the public works industry.

Our five-and-a-half-year journey to become accredited has come to a close. During this journey, our department had to work closely and cooperatively to complete the self assessment and self improvement phases of accreditation. This project felt daunting at times as we balanced daily responsibilities, difficult and changing times, and the challenges of accreditation, but in the end it drew the department together as a unified team.

We learned more about our organization, the work our coworkers face and complete each day, and the value that all of our combined services bring to this community. This unity and camaraderie will help the department as we face our daily responsibilities, future challenges and issues, and efforts to remain accredited and continuously improving.

Matthew F. Villareale can be reached at (703) 792-5063 or mvillareale@ pwcgov.org.

You like what you do, now start moving up the public works ladder!

The DCS Center offers you access to institutes that offer cutting-edge curriculum specifically designed for public works professionals just like you. This type of learning model allows you to improve your management skills and become a more effective leader, benefitting not only yourself, but your organization as well.