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Table 3.4: Efficiency measures used within local government departments
Type of efficiency
Specialisms in
neighboring assets
Use of mobile
program and
maintenance teams
Flexibility from
greater use of parttime
staff
Procurement
Reduction in
“stock”
Self-service
Equipment savings
Energy-saving
measures
Greater use of assets
Disposal of
unneeded assets 45
Library use of a
collection agency
Maintenance of
larger assets
Example
• In Minneapolis recreation centers are grouped into five Community Service Areas (CSAs). The aim
with each CSA is to ensure that, between the centers in each CSA, there is a wide range of facilities and
programs. The arrangement allows for specialisms and avoids duplication.
• In St. Paul, the fields and play areas remain around several Rec Centers that have been demolished.
Rather than invest in permanent equipment that is occasionally used, the Department of Parks and
Recreation runs a mobile recreation program and hires college students to assist with this. There are
four teams in operation throughout the summer that bring climbing walls, bouncy castles, small soccer
goals, and other athletic equipment. Staff are busy and equipment is in use.
• Increased use of part-time staff.
• n.b. this is also likely to mean more staff with reduced employment conditions (compared to fulltime
staff).
• Amongst the efficiency measures employed by the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore is the use of
the internet for their telephone system and negotiating discounts with book dealers.
• One local authority interviewed has increased wild-space in its parks by 15 percent — allied to
increased efforts to keep invasive species down. The reduced mowing also brings less carbon footprint
and helps wildlife. 43
• Removal of print reference collections can save space in libraries as the material can all be held, and
accessed, online. In January 2014 San Antonio County in Texas introduced the first all-digital library in
the United States – all content is accessed either online or via e-readers.
• Libraries can offer self-service kiosks, allowing members to check out materials themselves. At
Baltimore County Public Library 90% of circulation is handled by self-checkout, thereby reducing the
need for customer service staff (each machine costs $7000).
• Maintain rather than replace mowing and other green-space management equipment
• Libraries are increasingly cutting public computer terminals as more and more library-users bring their
own lap-tops and smart-phones
• In Indiana the Jennings County Public Library hopes to wipe out its $60,000 electricity bill by installing
(bond-funded) solar roof paneling.
• One of the interviews revealed that consideration was being given to adding retractable roofs and walls
to make open air public swimming pools usable year-round – an idea already used in Las Vegas. 44 This
will deliver more bang for the tax-payer buck and, if user charges/fees are involved, additional revenue.
• In Baltimore a 2013 city-commissioned report recommended that the city could generate revenue by
offering long-term retail and residential leases for 15 city historic properties and outright selling two
others.
• In Detroit, a decommissioned park with a defunct, graffiti-covered pool and a still-active playground
was sold in April 2012 as part of a residential development in the city’s resurgent mid-town. The new
development will have a play scape, and a local community development corporation will renovate a
smaller park a half-mile away.
• Since the beginning of 2013, the Detroit Public Library system has contracted with a collection agency 46
to assist in recovering non-returned library materials and unpaid fines (each year approximately, 40,000
items are checked out and never returned, an annual cost of roughly $500,000).
• The City of Detroit focuses its mowing and maintenance efforts on larger city-owned parks. With scarce
resources it is more efficient to focus efforts on large spaces than on the several hundred small parks.
43
For further details see the Michigan Department of Natural Resources “Grow not Mow” page http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10365_37783-146674--,00.html.
44
Details can be found here http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/Find/21065.htm.
45
The Appendix contains an account of strategies for a city faced with having to sell off valuable community and civic assets to ease wider city debt issues.
46
Unique Management, the largest provider of collection agency services to U.S. libraries.
Raising Money | 74