FD seeks lean gov’t
New process would reduce local wasteBy BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer
Management techniques introduced by Toyota may soon be used in a bid to improve the efficiency of Fort Dodge government services.
Toyota called it lean manufacturing, but the city version is known as lean government. It's a long-term system of change that seeks to squeeze out any inefficiencies in a given task.
On Saturday, City Manager David Fierke described lean government as the ''logical next step of what we've been doing all along.''
He added that adopting lean government is necessary as well as logical.
''If we stay with the status quo, we're going to get to the point where we're in a financial crisis,'' he said.
He is recommending that the council hire PDG of Story City to help implement lean government practices. The company would be paid $5,400 a month for the first year of its services, $3,750 a month for the second year and $2,500 a month for the third year.
The city also received a proposal from Argent Global Services of Oklahoma City, Okla. That firm would charge between $8,400 to $55,000, depending on the level of service provided.
Fierke said hiring a firm is necessary because no one on the city staff has the training to conduct a thorough lean government review.
The City Council is expected to act on hiring PDG on March 9. That hiring would start a process that would take five to 10 years to fully implement, according to Mayor Terry Lutz. He advocates the lean government process as a way to achieve his goal of reducing the city's tax-supported operating budget by 3 percent over two years.
Rick Brimeyer, Iowa division president of PDG, said his company helps organizations break down every task they do to find ways to better use the available money. The end result, he said, are better services and happy workers.
Fierke used the example of a broken street sign post to illustrate how lean government works. He said that every city worker who might be involved in handling that problem would meet with a trained moderator from the consulting company in what's called a ''kaizen event.'' During that session, each step in the process of fixing the sign post - from the intial report of the problem to final adjustments on the sign - would be discussed. He said the employees would be asked to recommend better ways to do each step. At the end of the session, a revised way of fixing the sign post would be developed. Fierke said that new method would become the standard procedure.
Lutz said laying off employees is not the ultimate goal of lean government. Fierke noted that the city is launching the process at a time when 42 employees will become eligible for retirement in the next five years.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net
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politicalgame
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02-23-09 10:21 PM
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Getting rid of Firemen to hire Cops. I don't understand how this is going to add to public safety???? If crime is down 18% how does this justify hiring more Police???
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spendspend
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02-23-09 10:21 PM
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ok Anderson interesting concept but what happens when all the police/firefighters are at a fight downtown and there is a fire at your house with one of your family members trapt in the house? Whats the priority! Keep thinking!
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Anderson
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02-23-09 10:16 PM
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Why not combine the fire and police depts and train them accordingly? The policemen could carry their fire clothes in their cruisers and gather at a fire via radio call just as they do at an accident. A single driver could keep the firetrucks ready to go and get them to the scene. Might be hard on the donut shops, true, but that's a sacrifice that would hurt no one's health or figure. City could pick up the cost of clothes cleaning or even an occasional replacement when required. Just saw that Honda was training one of it's workers in his eighth skill; its a flexibility/efficiency thing.
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spendspend
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02-23-09 9:11 PM
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I agree with you sportsman but if you look at any department presentations to the council, how come you never see the Fire Chief talk or represent his department??? Maybe it's time for a new Fire Chief too! PUBLIC SAFETY!!! What's more important??
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SPORTSMAN
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02-23-09 12:23 PM
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Oh another thing Mayor. You want Ft. Dodge Fire Dept. to be a volunteer thing, so you can hire more policemen ---does anyone see whos in his back pocket???
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SPORTSMAN
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02-23-09 11:10 AM
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Ok so you are going to spend all this money. And you are getting rid of our Fire Dept. cause the mayor says Ft. Dodge can handle the Dept. with volunteer help only. How do you stop this from happening? Ft. Dodge can't handle change - well you either get rid of these people in office - or you settle for what they keep doing to you. As I see it people of Ft. Dodge have one or the other they can do. I'm not a bettin' man but I will bet on this one! You people of Ft. Dodge will do nothing but settle, thats usually the way you have handled these problems in the past,by doing nothing!
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BobJohnson
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02-23-09 8:49 AM
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The city could have added to the police force with this money. I guess our city isn't so broke after all. They keep finding money to waste.
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 8:30 PM
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ScenicImagery: I like you idea, makes a lot of sense.
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ScenicImagery
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02-22-09 4:18 PM
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Instead of spending all that money to have some company show us how to "lean down" our government, why don't we send someone to classes to learn this (not an elected offical, but a paid staff member).. this would be proactive, and the city would benefit more by having an educated personel on staff instead of having to hire out to some company everytime a situation arose, like this.
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 2:02 PM
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jaybares you're right but whatisthedeal brought up a good question: Wasn't that what the city manager was hired to do? Of course Fierke wants them retained. Less work for him to do. Can't remember the last time someone was hired to do part of my job. Must be nice to work for the city.And before anybody says anything yes I realize Fierke will have to help implement anything this group comes up with that the city council sgrees to, but if he would have been doing his job to begin with, we wouldn't need them now. If I only did half my job I sure wouldn't last as long as Fierke before I'd be out on my butt.
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verbiosa
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02-22-09 11:24 AM
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Toyota has a terrible reputation for workers relations. I would hate for our government to forget, amidst all their big dollar spending, that there are more important things than money. Having a city staff that feels good about going to work also impacts efficiency.
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jaybares
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02-22-09 10:16 AM
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You missed the point that it is not a fixed contract. If the company does not perform, they will not be retain. It is not a long term contractual event...it is month to month. If a 2-3% annual savings can be generated, it will turn out to be a wise decision to avoid the City Budget from having to continue to increase causing hardships at budget time in the future. I appreciate that the Council will be addressing the matter now rather than putting their heads in the sand and doing nothing. Action now will save much pain...and we hope limited resources every year for many years. Proactive action now is a good thing.
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 9:41 AM
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Dejavue; Answer me this Do you think spending $140,000 minimum to help us do what we should be doing ourselves already is a wise idea?
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 9:39 AM
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Dejavue: Don't see any community involvement from you either Just the same old paranoia.
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WHATISTHEDEAL
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02-22-09 9:27 AM
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Can someone explain this to me? The city is struggling financially, and now they want to pay someone to show them how to slim down the city payroll. I thought we hired a city manager and created all these other positions to handle this stuff. I have an idea why don’t we eliminate all the overpaid positions at city hall that promised to bring in more businesses and have not delivered. Keep the police force staffed at what it is and hold them more accountable. This city has less than 27,000.00 people and 37 police officers (that’s over 1 for every 1,000 people). Why don’t we manage what we have better? If the people in city hall that are making 80-110k a year are not qualified to do their jobs replace them?
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Dejavue
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02-22-09 8:50 AM
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boatassembler: why don't you become proactive in your community, instead of letting off your continual stream of hot air, hiding behind a computer?
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scarum
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02-22-09 8:41 AM
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Wouldn't need to hire any one if some one in the city goverment had an ounce of COMMON SENSE
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 1:31 AM
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At the very least we have another company willing to do the same thing for less than half the cost at the most. But of course Fierke wants the higher bid to get it. FIERKE MUST GO!
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 1:27 AM
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So according to my calculations Fierke wants to spend $139,800 on PDG to help implement lean government practices. We should be able to do that ourselves! I've changed my mind. Fierke should be the FIRST to go!
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boatassembler
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02-22-09 1:21 AM
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I have a idea for lean government. Let's get rid of the mayor, the city manager and half the council. Problem solved!
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