What Happened
The city of Phoenix, AZ, established a city council committee to propose and implement cost-savings measures across departments.
Official Structure
The committee, which is officially called “The Phoenix City Council Finance, Efficiency and Innovation Subcommittee,” was created in January 2010. The task force has identified more than $40 million in savings, and expects to save $125 million over the next five years.
The composition of the “Task Force,” as it is called, is surprisingly large. It includes:
- Twenty city staff members, including the city manager, public works director, budget director, and others;
- Nine public sector members, including community activists, attorneys, accountants, and local business leaders;
The Task Force created five working groups that address communications, process improvements, private-public partnerships, “rightsourcing,” and technology.
Big-Picture Accomplishments
Among the many highlights of the task force’s accomplishments are:
- The elimination of 125 positions, and the reallocation of 135 others, resulting in annual savings of $9.5 million;
- Outsourcing in more than 340 service areas, totally approximately $477 million;
- Recruitment of more than 24,000 volunteers, who have donated nearly half a million hours for 13 different city departments;
- Approval of same-day solid waste collection, resulting in $1.3 million
- Competitive bidding for medical and dental benefits for city employees, resulting in first-year savings of $2.65 million.
Specific Measures Implemented
The myriad measures implemented by the city are almost too many to mention. They touch nearly every component of the city’s operations, and were preceded by detailed efficiency studies of key departments, including fire, justice, police and water.
We’ve listed a few here, but studies, budgets, recommendations, priorities, and additional detail can be found in the “Action Items” section below. Here were some of the savings:
- Consolidation of disparate office systems, including that of the city clerk ($226,000)
- Consolidation of Engineering, Public Works and related services ($628,000)
- Increased revenue from permit fees, “false alarm” fees, license fees, and more ($350,000)
- Insourcing of Aviation Department’s “land acquisition program” ($2 million)
- Implementation of late fee on municipal services bills ($1 million)
- Elimination of on-demand trips for “Reserve-A-Ride” service ($860,000)
Action Items
Here are the latest recommendations from the Phoenix Task Force. Also available is a priority list of efficiencies being pursued.
An updated savings chart can be downloaded as well, as can an efficiency update with the latest progress.
Details on specific programs are also available. For example, a report on the same-day trash efforts, and other process improvements is available.