6 minute read
You could be saying, “I heard it from my mentor
Connie Hartline
Publications Manager American Public Works Association Kansas City, Missouri
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erhaps you’ve wondered why APWA is putting considerable effort into assembling a group of 200 mentors for the APWA Donald C. Stone Center for Leadership Excellence in Public Works (DCS) program. The answer can be found in something Albert Einstein said: “Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”
In recognition of that truth, APWA has made access to mentoring a key component of the program so that participants get one-on-one time with some of the most successful public works professionals in North America. At press time, 170 Public Works Leadership Fellows (PWLFs) had been approved and are ready to assume their roles as mentors.
One of the early tasks they’ve been assigned is to provide “stories of experience” from their careers, which have been assembled into a supplemental book for DCS program participants. The stories are arranged around leadership and management core competencies, which include: plans for the future; leads an organization; communicates; builds relationships and partnerships; and the multiple categories of managing staff, information, infrastructure, municipal services, and money and resources.
To give you a taste of the added dimensions mentors will bring to the DCS experience, I’ve chosen stories from five of the mentors. The stories use a situation/action/ result format, hence the S/A/R designations that follow.
Michael Waldron, Director of Public Works for Moline, Illinois, chose not to wait for a leaf burn ban and found a creative plan to use a baler to bail out Moline’s curbside leaf service.
S: We vacuum/rake leaves curbside for every street in the city. The city council was contemplating a leaf burn ban, which would add additional tonnage to be collected. At the same time, public works budgets were under severe cuts and reductions in personnel and related expenditures.
A: We watched the council struggle with the decision for 2-3 years prior to adoption. In that period we didn’t wait for the ban to just happen and then adapt. We began an intensive review throughout the Midwest of what our peers were doing and how we could become more efficient, keep our standard of service, and implement any efficiencies as soon as possible rather than waiting for the ban to be put into place.
R: Through peer reviews and networking, we were able to partner with an area farmer to use his bailer equipment (square bails) to collect leaves. The bailer was in addition to our vacuum/rake operations. The burn ban was implemented, and we have completed leaf collection each of these last three years at lower cost. We make at least six complete passes through the entire city in a six-week period each fall.
Carl Dawson, Public Works Director for Raleigh, North Carolina, found that taking time to communicate with employees paid off when news about health care benefits threatened to be a bitter pill for them to swallow.
S: Recently, it became apparent that the City’s health care plans were not sustainable without some significant changes that would affect staff’s benefits. If was also apparent that the reductions in benefits and the increased employee costs would have an effect on employee morale in the department.
A: I served on the City’s management team charged with recommending benefit changes that would offer employees two plans so that they could choose the plan that best met their needs. I met with all of the 400 employees in the department to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each plan and to answer questions about the need for the changes.
R: The changes were made with minimal disruption and drop in employee morale. This happened because staff felt that they were given all of the information necessary to understand the need for the changes and to choose the plan that provided the most benefit to their individual situations.
When it comes to understanding the value of staff attitudes on productivity, Snow White and her “7 Little People” have nothing over on Stuart Moring, Director of Public Works/Environment for Roswell, Georgia.
S: Staff assignments and promotions were often based on longevity or specific skill sets, but teamwork sometimes suffered.
A: I adopted an approach of focusing on attitudes (particularly service and learning) rather than skills in hiring and promotions, because the skills can be taught. Having good caring people begets excellence as they attract other top performers who enjoy their work.
R: The department and key staff are receiving increasing numbers of awards for “best program,” “excellent service,” etc., and we receive the appreciation of top management and elected officials.
Bret Hodne, Public Works Director for West Des Moines, Iowa, found a method for helping the politicians understand what numbers really count in infrastructure management.
S: Educating the elected officials about the need for pavement funding was always an issue. There were also requests from ward council representatives to spend inequitable funds in their respective areas.
A: We elected to implement a pavement management program. We researched several companies and moved forward with the project.
R: We now have dedicated capital funds as a direct result of the program. The system projects the necessary funding based on the elected body’s decisions on what overall condition number they wish to maintain. This process took a lot of the “politics” out of the equation.
John A. McCarty, Executive Director of the Southeast Metro Stormwater Authority in Englewood, Colorado, scratched beneath the surface of “we’ve always done it that way” and found a way to save his agency big bucks.
S: The County performed its own chip sealing of paved roads and sprayed an additional seal coat over the chips (cape seal). The cape seal was costing over $100,000 per year.
A: My experience was that chip seals were very successful without the additional cape seal. I began asking why the County applied the cape seal. Several weeks later, I heard from a long-term blade operator that 20 years ago the chips were a reddish color and that the county commissioner said, “Roads are supposed to be black. Make them black.” The County added the cape seal and continued to do it for more than 20 years.
R: By simply asking the question, the cape seal was determined to be an unnecessary process, which provided $100,000 to extend the miles of road maintained annually.
These are only a few of the scores of stories of experience the DCS mentors have helped us capture on paper—the ones the mentors happened to remember at our prompting. There are countless other stories to be told as mentors and DCS candidates interact within the mentoring relationship. Have you applied for your spot in the DCS program yet? If so, it won’t be long before you could be saying, “I heard it from my mentor!”
Connie Hartline can be reached at (816) 595-5258 or chartline@apwa.net.
You’ve spent time in the public works trenches, now make the move to a desk!
The DCS Center provides the education you need to help you develop a better understanding of the various public works agency responsibilities, applicable technologies and issues facing managers. By participating in the program, you’ll be showing your commitment to the profession and working towards a nationallyrecognized credential.
