ACC-OC Recognizes Leaders in Local Government Innovation

CBJ Golden Hub pic 1On June 27, The Association of
California Cities – Orange County
(ACC-OC) announced the recipients of the Second Annual “Golden Hub of Innovation” awards at a ceremony held at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California.

“The purpose of the program,” announced Lacy Kelly, CEO of ACC-OC, “is to publicly honor cities and other local governments that are not only developing and implementing innovative solutions to today’s challenges but measurably saving taxpayer dollars in the process.”

Applications were reviewed and winners were selected by a volunteer judging committee consisting of venerable government, labor, education, business and non-profit leaders.

Many Golden Hub-winning entries demonstrated the ability of agencies to implement vital cost-savings measures, establish inter-agency partnerships that effectively leveraged economies of scale, and form intra-agency department teams to better streamline management or operations functions and enhance communications.

“Orange County is leading the way in terms of innovative government management strategies,” continued Kelly. “We are proud to highlight such efforts to save tax dollars and encourage sharing of best practices among member cities.”

Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry echoed Kelly’s sentiments. The city won an award for innovation in the category of Planning and Community Development for its Public Art and Cultural Facilities Fund as well as received an honorable mention in the technology/e-government agency category.

ACCOC Golden Hub pic 2“I am very proud of our city for the recognition by our peers for our innovative initiatives. We are working hard to keep Newport Beach on the front lines of innovation,” said Mr. Curry. “I was particularly proud of the recognition of my recent Arts Facility Funding Initiative, which will dedicated 2% of existing developer agreement fees to permanent art installations for facilities in our city. This will enable us to expand on the cultural opportunities in our city and enhance our high quality of civic life.”

Below is the list of this year’s winners:

Orange County Transportation Authority – Category: Budget and Finance

OCTA earlier this year implemented a pension-reform plan for existing administrative employees that will phase in employees paying 100 percent of their share of pension costs by January 1, 2017. The resulting pension cost savings will result in taxpayers saving $8.2 million over the next four years and $85 million during the next 20 years.

City of Buena Park – Category: Economic Development

The city of Buena Park established a policy to earmark funds returned from the State due to the elimination of redevelopment for economic development purposes. The city as a taxing entity received a one-time payment of approximately $3.3 million and will continue receiving an estimated $1.2 million per year in “residual” property taxes. The city agreed to set aside the entire $1.2 million plus half of the residual ($600,000) to assist in the funding of developments, public improvements and the promotion of tourism, rather than applying the funds to operating costs.

City of Costa Mesa – Category: Environmental Quality

The 40-acre Fairview Park Wetlands and Riparian Habitat Project was established as part of the city’s 1997 approved Fairview Park Master Plan to preserve and restore the park, remove pollutants from dry weather flows while providing recreational opportunities, preserve open space and providing habitat for wildlife. The project was funded through a collaboration of federal, state, county and local agencies, with city funding being leveraged on a 10:1 basis ($553,000 in city funding, $5,514,000 total).

City of Orange Department Heads – Category: Innovators of the Year

In late 2011, Orange’s top managers were called together for a brainstorming meeting to discuss some hard truths facing their city: economic downturn, hiring freeze, related vacancies, institutional knowledge loss through retirements and impacts of concession-based labor negotiations, among others. This novel, never-before-convened leadership team called TEAM (Together Enhancing, Advancing and Motivating) ORANGE aggressively and enthusiastically tackled these and many other issues facing the city. In the process, this group has ensured a better trained, informed, leaner and more motivated workforce while increasing overall communications regarding city affairs and a stronger leadership team that will serve the city well long into the future.

Cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa – Category: Planning and Community Development

The City of Costa Mesa established a Neighborhood Improvement Task Force consisting of representatives of a variety of city and county departments (Police, Fire, code enforcement, health, etc.) to develop and implement a multi-pronged strategy to tackle some of the city’s most stubborn problems, including homelessness, motels, problem properties and neighborhood safety. The short-term result has been an overall improvement in the overall condition of the city’s parks, increase in the use of homeless services and more property owners in compliance with city codes.

The City of Newport Beach established a Public Art and Cultural Facilities Fund comprised of 2 percent of unallocated public benefit fees received by the City through existing development fees in order to promote and enhance the city’s public art program and overall quality of life.

Cities of Anaheim and Stanton – Category: Public Safety

City of Anaheim’s Fire and Rescue took an innovative approach to developing its Strategic Plan and Standards of Cover, leading to increased efficiency to meet the demands and expectations of Anaheim residents and businesses. Through this process, the agency re-evaluated the concentration and distribution of resources, taking into account everything from demographics, density, zoning, socio-economics, education levels, size of structures, call volumes by day of the week and hour of the day in determining the most effective and efficient use of resources, better coverage and, more importantly, reduced response time (44 percent in the first three months of the change).

In response to “tent cities” cropping up in its parks, the City of Stanton created the Neighborhood Enhancement Task Force (NET) to support community oriented policing and problem solving. The goal of this strategy was to streamline safety services and make it more responsive. NET allowed neighbors, business owners, law enforcement and city staff to work together and grow their sphere of influence for public safety. Short-term results has been a measurable reduction in homeless “tent cities” in Stanton parks, greater response times and, in the long term, reduces 1,020 hours of proactive patrol time each year along with $150,000 in current costs to be re-allocated to other priorities.

City of Newport Beach – Category: Public Works and Infrastructure

The Lower Newport Bay Dredging project was a joint effort between the Army Corps of Engineers, the city of Newport Beach and the County of Orange to address the critical navigational issues that had plagued boaters and harbor users in recent years. The largest, most comprehensive dredging project in the harbor’s nearly 80 year history, the three agency collaborative also included the partnership of the Port of Long Beach, which accepted approximately 120,000 cubic yards of disposal material from the project in order to convert a large channel to a storage area for shipping containers. Along with the economies of scale inherent in a multi-agency, cooperative effort, this bay to port, ocean-going disposal route resulted in an estimated $10 million in project savings.

City of Tustin – Category: Staffing and Service Delivery

In a successful effort to eliminate an immediate structural budget deficit of $4 million due to the elimination of Redevelopment Agencies, the city of Tustin implemented a financial strategy that included a 10 percent reduction in full-time staff. In addition, a 21st Century Hiring Practice was established to reduce the cost of filling positions by, among other things, eliminating expensive executive recruitment processes and nationwide searches, In all, the city saved $1.1 million per fiscal year relative to a structural fix.

Transportation Corridor Agencies – Category: Technology and E-Government

TCA recognized the potential cost savings and increased productivity by allowing employees to bring their own iPhone, iPads and Android-based devices to work and securely plugging the devices into the agencies’ information and technology systems. Encryption software allowed for the secure access to TCA’s systems while maintaining the privacy of employees’ data.

In addition to the above winners, Honorable Mention recognition was awarded to the following agencies:

City of Stanton – Economic Development
City of Buena Park – Public Safety
City of Laguna Niguel – Staffing/Service Delivery
City of Newport Beach – Technology/E-Government