Memos

Street and Sidewalk Maintenance PSOW

October 3, 2011

Thank you for the FY 2010- FY 2012 schedules of service for repairs and maintenance in the street and sidewalk maintenance preliminary statement of work (PSOW) you provided to the City Council. In order to better understand what levels of service should be included in this PSOW, I respectfully request the projected schedule for these services in FY 2013 and FY 2014. The combination of past service schedules and projected service schedules will allow the Council to have a holistic view of what performance standards and service levels are appropriate for inclusion in this PSOW. Additionally, I would like to see how well our current staff has done in meeting these performance standards listed in the PSOW over the last few years. It would also be helpful to see a comparison to other municipalities' performance standards for similar services.

The street and sidewalk maintenance PSOW seeks to maintain current service levels, but does not emphasize a focus on reaching optimal service levels. I believe that the performance measures listed in the PSOW could be changed to require that this competition result in the most efficient and optimum level of service for taxpayers. Without the comparative data mentioned above, it is difficult for the City Council to set reasonable performance standards for these services during our only opportunity to provide input in this process as laid out in the managed competition guide.

Based on anecdotal evidence I have received through listening to constituent opinions on various city functions, I wonder if the city is achieving the optimal levels of service for the following items included in this PSOW:

• The six day response time for graffiti removal included in the PSOW concerns me greatly, as I believe the city should be removing graffiti within 24-hours of it being reported to the city.
• Is an eight day response time for pothole repair appropriate? Could a faster response time be met?
• Is a two week response time for weed abatement satisfactory?
• Does a 48-hour response time for emergency tree trimming provide fast enough service in an emergency?

An analysis of how various levels of service would affect the efficiency of the above services being provided must accompany the PSOW so that the City Council can make a well reasoned and informed decision.

Further, I believe that the city may be missing out on an opportunity to reduce costs by expanding the mission of the sign shop to actively pursue the production of signs for other municipalities. Although I understand that the sign shop does make signs for some entities outside of the city, I would like to see if there is any potential to expand this operation.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

David Alvarez with District 80 residents
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