2008 TLG Conference Case Study Presenters
City of Arvada
"Super Heroes are Real: Selecting the Very Best Police Officer Candidates"
Effective police officer recruitment remains a major challenge for police departments across the nation. The Arvada Police Department chose to impact this ongoing problem by examining and redesigning its recruitment strategies and selection process components from top to bottom.
With an eye on the core values of the city and the police department’s mission, we formed a task force to create an innovative and sustainable recruitment effort. Teams within the task force studied a myriad of issues including the changing face of the workforce, defining qualities and characteristics specific to successful Arvada Police Officers, re-evaluating the purpose and design of the selection process components, and revitalizing the design and delivery of the agency’s recruitment message.
Out of this effort came a new recruitment message and a new attitude toward finding the very best police officers to serve our community. The sentiment that “Super Heroes are Real” became the centerpiece of the recruitment philosophy and the way in which we select police officers. Our recruitment and selection components now emphasize evaluation of character qualities, core competencies, and fundamental values in alignment with those of the community and the policing profession. We believe other local government organizations can benefit from the strategies and underlying philosophies we applied to the recruitment issue. We hope you’ll join us for our presentation!
Attendees will take away:
- Information and ideas on designing an effective and contemporary recruitment message.
- How branding your community or department can set the tone for your recruitment efforts.
- How community resources can be used to promote innovative recruitment solutions.
- How technology affected our recruitment efforts and how it might improve yours.
City of Aspen
"Energy Hogzillas Fill the Trough"
Nationwide, the median home is 2,434 square feet. Today, Pitkin County's average new home is 4,953 square feet, with 10 percent greater than 10,000 square feet of conditioned space. In 2000, the City of Aspen and Pitkin County launched an energy code that had the first renewable energy requirement for residential homes.
This initiative was named the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program (REMP). Its goal is to keep three tons of carbon out of the air for every ton of excess carbon emitted from the more inefficient new homes in Aspen.
Homeowners who desire snow melting systems or outdoor spas have the option of installing a renewable energy system or paying a renewable energy mitigation fee. The energy for these uses must come from the houses energy budget or up to 50% can be supplied from on-site systems such as solar electric (photovoltaic), solar hot water systems, and hydroelectric or ground source heat pumps.
In addition, houses over 5,000 ft2 are required to install a renewable energy system on site or pay a fee.
REMP sets a high standard as a carbon tax that equates to $340 per ton of carbon dioxide making it the highest carbon tax in the world. The REMP fee is an example of what happens when a progressive community decides to offer an option to either build to meet the needs of society or pay a tax to offset excessive energy use. Since the program’s inception in 2000, the REMP fund has raised almost $6,000,000 and has revolutionized the way residential homes are designed and built in the Roaring Fork Valley, which includes approximately 45,000 residents and many second home owners.
Now, architects are adding features such as solar hot water, solar photovoltaic, and geothermal systems to commercial and non-commercial buildings because of the influence of this program.
Attendees will take away:
- Hear the history of how a community reached an understanding about its own resource consumption and developed a program to mitigate some of its own excesses
- Learn about Aspen’s Energy Code and how it has modified the way homes are designed in Aspen and other towns in the Roaring Fork Valley
- See how City staff and CORE (Community Office for Resource Efficiency) staff worked with the designers, engineers, architects, developers and builders to make the program palatable.
- Learn how REMP’s mitigation fee also provides benefits in the form of renewable energy project grants for schools, public facilities, affordable housing and more. It also provides energy star rebates to all citizens in the Roaring Fork Valley (Aspen, Basalt, Pitkin County, Snowmass Village, El Jebel, Glenwood Springs communities) and solar panel installation rebates.
- Hear about our “Lessons Learned”
City of Austin
City of Berkeley
"Berkeley Climate Action: Designing and Implementing a Local Climate Action Plan"
Local governments are uniquely situated to affect the major sources of the emissions that cause global warming. But achieving greenhouse gas emissions reductions is not easy.
It requires significant changes in our communities – in our infrastructure, our technologies, our policy priorities, and in the decisions we make as residents, business owners, and city officials. Further, climate protection strategies must be consistent with other fundamental priorities such as improved social equity and public health and building a vibrant local economy.
This presentation will outline the specific methods the City of Berkeley, CA is employing to design and implement its blueprint for achieving aggressive greenhouse gas emissions reductions: The Berkeley Climate Action Plan. The City sees the climate action planning process as not just an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also as an opportunity to facilitate a positive community-based movement that results in improved quality of life for our citizens.
Attendees will take away:
- Specific methods for engaging the community in climate action planning and implementation
- A methodology for measuring and tracking community-level greenhouse gas emissions over time
- Effective ways in which to identify and prioritize greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategies
- Specific strategies for achieving reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the transportation, building energy use, and solid waste sectors
- Strategies for identifying and allocating city government resources to the climate protection effort
City of Carlsbad
"Energizing Sustainability Through Employee-Driven Change"
The 2008 TLG conference is about sustainability. For an organization to be sustainable its employees must challenge themselves to learn, to stay in touch with the community and its needs, to update their skills, and to find ever better ways to deliver service.
One way the City of Carlsbad, California is responding to this challenge is through a diverse cross-section of the City’s workforce who volunteer to serve on a self-directed team that focuses on the future. This dynamic group is called the Strategic Change Team (SCT).
The Strategic Change Team provides an opportunity for learning and growth for forward thinking, innovation-oriented employees who become champions of progressive change throughout the organization.
Working in partnership with the organization’s senior management, the Team engages its members and the City overall in open discussion of the challenges of a changing workplace. It also seeks to learn from initiatives in both public and private sectors, and to actively consider the full universe of options with which to respond to new and different internal and external demands.
The Strategic Change Team’s story will be meaningful for any organization needing to attract and retain quality people and to fully enlist their energies in improving the present and successfully addressing the challenge of an on-rushing future.
Attendees will take away:
- The Power of Purpose can energize your organization
- Small scale change can produce large scale results
- To “cure the common cold” in organizations: apathy
- To use creative learning to enhance organizational vitality
- Principles for developing your own version of the Strategic Change Team
City of Carlsbad
"Sustainability for Dummies: Infusing Balanced Thinking into Decision Making"
In the past decade the term “sustainability” has become synonymous with “green”. Cities and other governments have implemented policies to increase energy efficiency, encourage clean industry, reduce the government’s carbon footprint, and support the use of renewable resources.
And, in many cases, these policies have been effective in raising awareness and significantly improving environmental quality.
However, in Carlsbad, we believe there is more, much more, to the challenge of achieving sustainability than succeeding on the environmental front. Truly sustainable communities will be those that have been able to balance the three elements that define the quality of life for those that live, work and play within the community:
- A strong social fabric that supports the needs of the people that are part of the community.
- An economic system that provides the means to support the community and the government services that contribute to the quality of life.
- An environmental ethic (and related behaviors) that contributes to a clean, healthy and lasting ecosystem for both the local and global community.
Please join us for a fun, participative, and provocative discussion where we will examine:
- A sustainability model that goes beyond “green”.
- The importance of balance in creating a sustainable system.
- How vision, ethics, reality, courage, and the conflict between competing interests are all part of the sustainability dialog.
City of Charlottesville
"Building Occupants: The Final Frontier in Energy Savings"
Charlottesville City Schools are among the largest consumers of natural resources in the local region, holding in excess of 1.6 million square feet of property assets. The City, which provides facilities management services to the Charlottesville City School system, launched an ambitious Energy and Environmental Sustainability Program in the fall of 2006.
In essence, this was an innovative energy efficiency competition between City schools, with the aim of reducing 2.9 million pounds of CO2, representing a reduction of energy use by 10%, across all City schools in one year. The signing of the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement by the City in 2007 provided an important framework for these efforts.
Cash prize awards were made to each participating school based on their individual energy savings.
The application of targets and incentives to this program meant that it became in every actor’s interest to succeed. This hugely successful scheme resulted in a range of financial awards – from zero for no savings achieved to nearly $8,000 a quarter for a school showing a huge improvement.
This program required the assumption of a leadership role from the City facilitators, driving change instead of responding to it.
The creative process and application of the project was developed with no outside consultancy, was developed using technologies and means already at the disposal of the City and was successfully achieved with no initial budget. The success of the program, however, belongs to the principals, teachers, and custodians who brought the practical applications of environmental awareness into the classroom. EPA-developed lesson plans were shared with School administrators, to serve as “jumping off” points for teachers, who ultimately developed into their own unique takes on the matter. For example, math teachers used raw utility data sets for lessons ranging from simple addition and subtraction to advanced data modeling.
Attendees will take away:
- How the City succeeded in forming partnerships through education and achieving “buy-in” from busy school principles, administrators and teachers.
- How the City invested funds saved from energy efficiencies into improvements to the school facilities, and how this program provided educational opportunities to improve sustainability awareness.
- How this program was initiated and successfully implemented with no initial budget.
- How the savings from this program were used to purchase equipment and materials to begin a Green Cleaning and recycling program for the schools.
Cities
of Coconut Creek and Delray Beach
"Live, Work & Be Green"
From tomatoes galore to slot machines, to development with green workforce housing - that is the history and future of Coconut Creek’s town
center. The future also includes sustainable architecture and requirements for buildings to receive LEED certification on this multi-million square feet of land (2 ½ million in commercial, 1 million in office, and 2,700 residential). Town centers, like in most communities, are in the heart of the city, but the difference is that our town center has an expanding casino that currently anchors the southwest corner of the mostly undeveloped land.
Eventually, the Seminole Tribe will build a 1,500-room hotel with an eight-story garage and ancillary retail on 44 acres. On the northeast end of this square is a 23-acre, mixed-use project, called Promenade at Coconut Creek. The development will bring upscale shopping, living and working venues that will create one of South Florida's most progressive, environmentally-friendly town centers.
These types of projects will naturally bring-about thousands of residents and employees.
So you may ask, what is the problem? Well, with smart growth come challenges, such as workforce housing in a market where housing prices are no longer considered “affordable” for many retail and service workers. Coconut Creek needed to ask the question – how do we create a true sense of community and economic diversity within our city’s boundaries while continuing as a leader in green development. One innovative approach was to create an Affordable Housing Linkage Fee to assure a future sustainable housing market for the new workforce coming into our city. Providing a bona fide location to live, work, and play, logically reduces the output of energy.
Employees and residents will have the opportunity to enjoy the network of connected greenways by foot, bicycle or skating. Come and learn how Coconut Creek, the Butterfly Capital of the World, creatively became one of the first cities in the State of Florida to adopt a city-directed and controlled Linkage Fee based on non-residential uses.
Attendees will take away:
- Outline of Affordable Housing Linkage Fee structure
- Some negative aspects of inclusionary zoning
- How a linkage fee impacts traditional commuting
- How integration of green building concepts and workforce/affordable housing is possible
- Why employers, rather than builders/contractors, should play a key role in workforce/affordable housing
City of Decatur
"The Road to Improvement: Active Living and the Decatur Community Transportation Plan"
In May 2006, the City of Decatur set out on an ambitious project: develop a comprehensive transportation plan for the City which shifted the emphasis from moving cars to creating a healthy and active built environment, inclusive of pedestrians, bicyclists, and a range of physical abilities.
The foundation of the Decatur Community Transportation Plan (CTP) – and it’s most innovative element – was precisely that focus on an Active Living community. Starting from the point of prioritizing and promoting physical activity, the planning and engineering elements incorporated a wide range of technical analysis, tools, and strategies that helped integrate both traditional automobile planning as well as elements more important to pedestrians and cyclists.
The CTP has elevated the City into the next generation of transportation planning. The technical track, coupled with an extensive parallel public outreach program utilized cutting-edge tools to comprehensively examine the City’s transportation system.
The public involvement events brought different groups together (children, transit-dependent, and the elderly) and connected them to the city in a new way. It is the first city in the nation to conduct a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on a transportation plan. The vision, goals, and recommendations developed through the Plan can easily be adopted by any jurisdiction concerned with Active Living, transportation, public health, and the ability of local governments to provide a high quality of life.
Attendees will take away:
- How to integrate public health concepts into transportation plans and projects
- Powerful public involvement techniques for project prioritization
- How to use new analytical techniques to improve transportation for bicyclists and pedestrians
- How to build and encourage the use of "complete streets"
City of Dublin
"Kermit Had It All Wrong - It's Easy Being Green!!
Engaging Your Community and Employees in Environmental Sustainability"
The City of Dublin, like many local governments throughout the country and the world, has taken on the responsibility to positively impact our environment.
This presentation will tell the City of Dublin story - of how we have educated and actively involved our residents and our employees in environmental stewardship initiatives.
Our City's slogan is "It's Greener in Dublin"; our goal is to live this slogan daily.
Through the on-going efforts of an internal, employee-driven "Eco-Dublin" team and a citizen volunteer "Green Team" we have built employee and community ambassadors and have successfully carried out numerous environmental initiatives.
This presentation will look at the formation, leadership and success of the employee Eco-Dublin team, focusing on innovative team initiatives such as:
- Green Clean and Maintenance Program
- Eco-Dublin Expo
- Public Forum on Climate Change
- Employee and Resident Educational Efforts
- Expanded Employee and Resident Recycling Efforts
- Environmentally-focused Citizen Volunteer Programs
Take a-ways:
- How to build an effective internal "Eco-Team" to accomplish simple and complex environmental initiatives.
- How to inspire your Staff to think and act "green."
- How to educate and actively engage your community around areas of environmental sustainability.
Cities of Durham and Independence
"Create a Blueprint to Build YOUR Leadership Pipeline"
Featured in the November 2007 issue of PM magazine, the City of Durham, NC created a Blueprint for Building the Leadership Pipeline. Recognizing the cascading impact of retirements on leadership succession, the rising expectations among employees for development opportunities, and the need for increased leadership competencies at all levels of our organization, we focused on what we have currently and what we need.
The Blueprint describes existing resources for developing leaders – some that are quite creative and inexpensive. Additionally, it identifies gaps in our current efforts and proposes new initiatives. Catalogued in the Blueprint are descriptions of our Executive Leadership Institute, Management Academy and City College for Employees. Other approaches, in various phases of construction, are informal mentoring, developmental assignments, job shadowing and coaching.
Durham is using the Blueprint to encourage employees to take greater responsibility for their own leadership development and to catalyze organizational initiatives to fill in the gaps and create new opportunities for leadership development. Other localities can use Durham’s experience as a template to create their own customized blueprints for leadership development.
Attendees will take away:
- A template for assessing your own organizational resources for leadership development
- Models of low cost, low maintenance professional learning and development
- Ideas for engaging leaders at all levels, getting people in the right places, development programs and training, getting the right experience, and helping employees own their own development
And
"Unleashing Everyday Heroes"
Wish you could leap tall buildings in a single bound, stop speeding bullets, halt locomotives, discover more heroes? Well don't despair. Heroes are all around you just looking for a way to shine. Come learn how to unleash everyday heroes in your City!
The City of Independence presents a program that is creating contagious employee commitment, breaking down communication barriers and expanding personal
growth and leadership development. Our belief is that Individual Development and Elevated Action, i.e., IDEA's, will ignite positive change through individual action,
unleashing everyday heroes. It's a bird, it's a plane.....no wait.....it could be your STAFF soaring to new heights!
Attendees will take away:
- Sample of a successful curriculum
- How to seek solutions - not excuses
- Ideas for marketing this program to employees
- Design for a program that impacts new & long-term employees
- Learn how to integrate Program into your organizational goals
City of Fort Collins
"The Journey from "Trust Us" to Data-Driven Government
In 2005, the City of Fort Collins was facing what was
arguably the most challenging budget in our City’s history. City Council and staff
responded with a sweeping and productive change when we replaced the traditional
approach to city budgeting with an entirely new process called Budgeting for
Outcomes (BFO).
Instead of focusing on City departments, BFO focuses on community
priorities and assigns dollars to fund those priorities. It is a totally
new way of budgeting that is based on collaboration, transparency and delivering
the services that matter most to taxpayers. Having now completed a second round
of BFO, the City has found that the budget process is helping us to achieve a
much bigger objective -
to be an organization that demands and consistently
delivers excellence and accountability.
Learn how Fort Collins has used this new BFO process to:
- Create a higher level of credibility between the city government and the community
- Strengthen the partnership with City Council
- Change the budget document from an accounting manual to an open & transparent map of the services we deliver
- Engage City employees in creative thinking and have them much more informed about the budget process
- Set clear goals, measure our performance and benchmark against other cities and private sector companies
City of Kannapolis
"Warp Speed: From Looms to Labs"
Seven million square feet of textile space stands vacant over an entire downtown with no hope of another user. More than four thousand residents without a job and unanswered questions ponder life absent of the securities and familiarities of working in the mill. Many of them don’t have the skills necessary to compete in a global marketplace.
Kannapolis, N.C., a city of 40,000, faced this challenge in 2003. Pillowtex – formerly Cannon Mills, then Fieldcrest Cannon – closed its operations and left 280 acres lifeless in downtown Kannapolis.
Less than five years later? The announcement of a $1.5 billion research campus with 7 universities – including Duke, NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill.
An emerging high-end commercial and residential corridor connecting the interstate to downtown. A business park partnership with a private developer successfully concluded with the park sold out in just a few short years. Bold, audacious moves in the face of a rapidly changing economic landscape. And Kannapolis is just getting started.
Attendees will take away:
- How risk-taking, especially the formation of public-private partnerships, laid the groundwork for dramatic transformation within Kannapolis’ economy.
- Thinking outside the normal parameters of a municipal government and being willing to take bold steps creates a platform to launch successful economic development initiatives.
- Truly studying strengths and weaknesses, especially the weaknesses, as a community can establish the momentum to facilitate meaningful and generational change.
City of Las Vegas
"Performance Plus: Moving an Enterprise Forward"
The Performance Plus Initiative at the City of Las Vegas is designed to break through the boundaries of ordinary governmental operations by increasing governmental transparency through citizen involvement. The concept is focused on the customer and the end-result: to bring government closer to the people.
At an enterprise-wide level, communication strategies have been employed to 1) evaluate 2) manage 3) budget 4) motivate 5) promote 6) learn 7) improve and 8) celebrate the successes of a more accountable government.
The Performance Plus presentation will focus on the strategies utilized and the lessons learned from this enterprise-wide initiative, which promotes creativity and collaboration with all departments by tearing down existing "silos." Information sharing, accountability in decision making, and tying results to the budgeting process has increased our ability to provide services and share our stories with the community.
Representatives from the City of Las Vegas will present on the challenges, successes and next steps for moving the enterprise forward utilizing the Performance Plus methodology.
Attendees will take away:
- Bringing tough subjects to the table
- Developing communication strategies for results
- Enterprise-wide problem resolution
City of Palm Bay
"Targeted Performance through Accountability and Conveyance: the PalmStat Story"
Loosely modeled after the City of Baltimore’s “CitiStat” system, PalmStat is a collaborative effort by senior managers and key employees to improve government performance and service delivery through the review of statistical information and the development of improvement strategies.
The PalmStat process is intended to facilitate timely and accurate information reporting throughout the City, with a focus on increasing employee productivity and more effectively deploying resources, thereby reducing government cost. At weekly meetings, departments and divisions present progress reports on their performance, including their progress on the various measures they are tracking.
This information is provided directly to City management and senior-level representatives from all other departments, who collectively engage in discussion as to what response is necessitated by the data being presented. This information, along with an electronic budget document, is provided on the City’s website (PalmStat data scheduled to go live by 2/28/08) with interactive software enabling citizens to give instant feedback on individual PalmStat items.
The advent of PalmStat has helped shift the organizational culture from a traditional red-tape environment and a ”this is mine, that’s yours” mentality, to one that embraces innovation and celebrates failures.
This transformation, although revolutionary within the City, is very replicable in other organization. The key to changing your organization into a super-charged entity is shifting the culture through small wins and creating multiple opportunities for buy-in at all levels throughout the organization.
Attendees will take away:
- How PalmStat is different from other “performance-stat” programs
- How to successfully implement an accountability management system similar to PalmStat
- Why new software and employees are not needed
- How to get employee buy-in
- The importance of regularly scheduled meetings
- The importance of collaboration among department directors
- The importance of timely and accurate information reporting
- Why an electronic budget document is easier to use than a traditional paper copy
- The importance of organizational change and celebrating failures
City of Phoenix
"Healthy Homes - Healthy Kids - Healthy Communities"
The City of Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department (NSD) identified a gap in addressing health and safety hazards in the homes of children so, NSD engaged and partnered with Head Start programs and the Phoenix Children’s Hospital to seek grants to deliver a custom array of services to low-income families with children.
The Healthy Homes Demonstration Project utilized a comprehensive healthy housing assessment tool, augmented existing housing rehabilitation funds, characterized unhealthy and dangerous housing elements, and conducted a grass roots public education campaign. The project’s performance and results were evaluated by the National Center for Healthy Housing and 97% of participant respondents believed their homes were safer after participating in the program.
Attendees will take away how Phoenix:
- Built partnerships with internal departments and private sector entities with similar goals and mission
- Produced a functional project team of experts
- Customized interventions based on each individual assessment
- Leveraged resources to produce comprehensive services
- Faced the challenges of delivering comprehensive services with multiple partners and funding sources
- Captured data to identify the project’s cost and effectiveness
City of Phoenix
"Made in the Shade – Cooling Your Heels in Downtown Phoenix"
In the summer of 2006, the city of Phoenix held a kick-off for the Downtown Urban Form Project. This was not just a kick-off for the Project, but the beginning of a process that would transform a local government organization. Phoenix is an extremely efficient government organization that can plan, fund, and execute major projects – sports venues, cultural venues, a major convention center, a city owned 1000 room hotel and the country’s newest light rail system.
However, the organization has failed to understand the key role that a comfortable pedestrian environment plays in creating a successful Downtown.
It was recognized by many, and reiterated by the community through the public outreach process, that Downtown was a very unpleasant place for pedestrians during the hot months of the year – generally May through September. Further, research conducted by Arizona State University (ASU) identified the Downtown as the epicenter of the region’s Urban Heat Island.
ASU and Studio MA, a member of the consultant team, determined that acceptable levels of thermal comfort can be achieved in Downtown through an integrated approach to the design of the urban environment that includes street and building proportions, open space, urban forestry, building design and appropriate materials.
The presentation will include representatives from the three major players in the planning process: the city of Phoenix; Studio MA, consultant for the Urban Form Project; and Arizona State University School of Sustainability.
Attendees will take away:
- How the Urban Form Project enhanced the City/University partnership by involving Arizona State University researchers in the process of developing sustainability standards to address the UHI and help create a thermally comfortable pedestrian environment.
- How the Urban Form Project transformed local government by introducing new ideas through the process of hiring an outside consultant to prepare a Downtown plan and a Form based Code.
- How the Urban Form Project introduced cutting edge research into the development of the Downtown Plan and the preparation of the Form Based Code. The Form based Code incorporates pedestrian comfort standards with the building and the streetscape design.
- How the Urban Form Project public process, which involved multiple groups, played a key role in creating a plan that puts in place the mechanisms for implementing the community vision for Downtown.
City of Rancho Cordova
"Who ya gonna call? Blight Busters!"
Rancho Cordova, California is an established community that became a city only five years ago. As is the case in any older neighborhoods, the importance of maintaining neighborhood conditions is a priority with solutions that require collaboration among multiple entities.
In January 2007, the City launched a unique effort to protect the quality of residential areas. The effort, which is called “Growing Strong Neighborhoods,” began as a unified effort to work with residents to make neighborhoods safe and healthy for all. In just 18 months – the time it takes many cities to see programs phase out – Growing Strong Neighborhoods has grown into a high demand service and has reinvented how Rancho Cordova and residents work together toward common goals.
The cornerstone of Growing Strong Neighborhoods is Blight Busters, a monthly neighborhood visit coordinated with Code Enforcement, Building and Safety Staff, Police, Animal Control, Fire and other city departments. Together, these different groups are a “seamless” team that works with and educates concerned residents to ensure that community standards are met, and to build energy for further improvement.
Attendees will take away:
- A behind-the scenes look at how this program was conceived, nurtured, and eventually blossomed into one of the most effective outreach programs in the region.
- A workable plan for adapting the Growing Strong Neighborhoods model to meet the need for collaborative efforts in your own community.
- An understanding of how a concentrated, cross-organizational, and collaborative effort can change attitudes and perceptions, whether focused on neighborhood blight or other city-wide issues.
City of Rolling Meadows
"From Hats & Bats to Values & Community"
The Police Neighborhood Resource Center (PNRC) started as a tactical crime suppression and this led to strategic intervention after the presence of gangs was excised and crimes against persons and property was reduced.
The offering of education (after-school tutoring) and early short-term social services replaced the no longer needed strong enforcement of local and state laws. A five tier bootstrap approach to the affected population consisting of: law enforcement, healthcare, education, recreation, and living skills (job placement, citizenship) was created. From the original three partners, there are currently over twenty partners, each with an individual unique mission and funding to serve the affected population
There were no competing interests in the creation of the PNRC.
The owner of the property was ready for government intervention and no other entity was willing or able to commence a start-up initiative such as the Rolling Meadows Police Neighborhood Resource Center. From the beginning of this initiative in 1990, the affected population has been part of this process. From the first door to door campaign to understand the community’s needs, to the biannual survey of needs and satisfaction in healthcare, social service, and education; to the police-beat officers (on foot) returning comments to administrative staff from the public, and the hospital conducting a separate and special needs assessment in 1995, the PNRC continues to plan and develop for the future.
Over the years, the stewards of the City, especially in the PNRC area, continues to follow the Athenian Oath “….we will transmit the City, not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.” The true “American Dream” is being realized!
Attendees will take away:
- The PNRC was opened primarily to provide an alternative to street crime, gang affiliations, and violent crime in a neighborhood that was home to socially and medically indigent people who were under-employed and who had no expectation of success.
- Building on success and working with multiply groups, organizations, etc.
- Building Values and Community through some of the current PNRC activities:
- A variety of recreational programs,
- after school homework center,
- alcohol and substance abuse counseling and referral services,
- child development and care,
- computer center,
- domestic violence prevention and intervention,
- Harper College non-native literacy classes,
- Holiday dinners for needy families,
- Job outreach center,
- legal referral service specializing in immigration and other civil matters,
- local hospital operates a pilot health clinic in the center with emphasis on prevention and primary care,
- safe house for the victims of domestic violence,
- satellite library,
- senior citizen outreach services,
- separate domestic violence counseling for the offender, victim, and their families,
- short term counseling, and
- summer camp program.
City of South Jordan
"BACK TO THE FUTURE:
The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create it"
In our ever-changing world, planning for a sustainable future is increasingly important although the idea of constructing a modern-day “De Lorean” can be daunting.
The City of South Jordan, Utah, has met this challenge by creating a fiscal research methodology which helps decision makers link today’s decisions with tomorrow’s possibilities. South Jordan will share its experience of utilizing vision, technical construction, buy-in, strategic execution, and continual plan validation.
Advanced financial modeling and future’s research can be done by cities of all sizes and can help any organization better prepare for the future and respond to change. You will learn how to incorporate the core value that change is the status quo into your daily decision making processes. This session is not for the “Biffs” among us, it will be filled with concrete examples and actual lessons learned from a group that has been to the future… and back.
Attendees will take away:
- The philosophy behind the methodology.
- The technical tools to create your own financial model.
- The presentation tools which will help you obtain necessary “buy-in.”
- The ability to link this model to other strategic execution documents regarding future staffing, budgets, tax considerations, land use decisions, and more.
City of West Hollywood
"Urban Oasis: Carving A Sustainable City Out Of An Unsustainable Region"
Going Green
Hardly a day goes by when the word “green” does not appear in the media: a presidential candidate touting green energy, a celebrity toting a green manufactured handbag, or a business talking about greening their practices with carbon offsets. The Green Era has arrived. But what does “green” really mean? And how does it affect building design, construction, and remodeling?
Simple Concept
Green building is simple concept – design buildings and use land to save energy and reduce waste. The City of West Hollywood started the Green Building Program to do just that – save energy and reduce waste. In doing so, residents and businesses will have lower utility bills and improved air quality. Based on a simple point system, architects and developers incorporate green design standards into their building plans.
These features will add longevity and durability to the building, improve energy and water efficiency, and reduce the amount of waste that is created through construction and annual building maintenance and operations.
Design Standards
As of October 1, 2007, the City of West Hollywood mandates that all new projects of three or more units include green building standards as part of their plans for the design, construction, and renovation of buildings. Each project must receive 60 of 160 points for approval. High performing projects of 90 points are eligible to receive incentives.
The West Hollywood Green Building Program is not the only set of standards by which to build green. Many private buildings have gravitated towards “LEED Certification.” LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is based on a set of design and construction standards developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Buildings that meet LEED standards are exempt from the West Hollywood Green Building Point System.
The benefits of green building are far reaching and long lasting. They include:
- Cost Savings: Up-front investments in green designs and technology can yield financial paybacks over the life of the building through lower utility bills and reduced operating and maintenance costs.
- Ecological Benefit: Green buildings are more resource efficient, minimize waste, and reduce the amount of materials ending up in landfills. Also, for every gallon of water or kilowatt-hour of electricity you save, you reduce the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.
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Health: Levels of air pollution inside homes and businesses can be 2-5 times higher than outdoor levels. Using low/non-toxic materials and good ventilation techniques can help to prevent problems like molds, allergens and poor air quality.
- Beauty and Comfort: Natural materials, high quality lighting, and good design details make for pleasing spaces. Your home or business can be a refuge from the hectic—and polluted—world outside.
- Added Value: Green buildings are marketable to a larger population. Green elements also represent value: 80% of homebuyers say new homes don’t meet their environmental expectations, and 96% said they are willing to pay more for a home with green features.
- Resources: West Hollywood has started a Green Building Resource Center in City Hall where citizens can look at green products and gather information on green design. The resource center will provide citizens with a green building manual, outlining the point system and implementation, as well as educational brochures on the principles and features of green design. Additionally, citizens can pick up a list of local sustainable product venders. These materials are available on the web at www.weho.org/greenbuilding.
City of Yuma
"Riverfront Gone Wild!
Reclaiming the Legacy of the Yuma Crossing"
In 1877, the first railroad to enter Arizona crossed the Colorado River at Yuma, spurring growth in this small border community, but the downtown riverfront fell on hard times as the community grew away from river
However, the riverfront has now been transformed through an innovative public/private partnership with restored wetlands, riverfront parks, and commercial revitalization.
The City of Yuma worked through difficult issues of amassing the land and partnering with a developer to attract $100 million in private investment—all in a National Historic Landmark! The $32 million Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center is scheduled to open in late 2008 along the river's edge, a testament to the persistence and creativity of this public/private partnership.
Attendees will take away:
- The Ps and Qs of working with multiple federal and state agencies to amass land for redevelopment ….like patience, persistence, and quiet diplomacy!
- Keys in forming a long term partnership with a private developer
- "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" of a Joint Planning Process
- How to mix old and new: new development in an historic setting.
- The long lost art of crafting a development agreement that’s a “win/win” for developer and municipality.
County of Arlington
"Creating Fresh AIRE Out of Thin Air: A Successful Local Climate Action Initiative Absent State or Utility Programming"
On January 1, 2007, Arlington County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson unveiled Fresh AIRE – Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions, a campaign to address our contributions to global climate change in Arlington, Virginia.
This multifaceted, collaborative initiative set out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from County operations, and encourage, assist, and recognize businesses and residents with their own efforts to reduce emissions. Just a year into this campaign, this effort is already a quantitative success and has contributed to broad recognition for Arlington. Virginia is not known for a progressive environmental agenda, which added to the challenge of this effort.
Nonetheless, the early success and future promise of this program has led to a dedicated stream of funding for long-term climate action in Arlington.
This presentation will demonstrate the key organizational strategies used to develop and deliver AIRE, including breaking traditional boundaries, fostering cross-disciplinary cooperation, setting clear targets, reaching out to key constituents, and leading by example. A cohesive communications plan was integral to this effort and will be featured in this presentation.
Attendees will take away:
- They do that next door? Wow, we could work well together!
- How much? How many? The importance of clear quantitative goals.
- Getting away from mine vs. yours and getting to ours.
- How branding and humor can make a dry subject memorable.
County of Sarasota
Town of Cary
"Creating Sustainable Buildings through Flexible Architectural Standards"
The Town of Cary, North Carolina’s focus on the quality of the built environment is one of the reasons why Money magazine chose this community as the most desirable place to live in the Eastern United States in 2004. After establishing architectural compatibility requirements over 20 years ago, the community has “grown up” with high quality development.
While successful, those old requirements for building design were not clear, and were often contested by architects and builders for their subjectivity and lack of flexibility. Countless, frustrating hours were spent by staff members and designers on hundreds of projects to work through differences of opinion about what constituted “good” building design.
In response to these concerns, the Town embarked on a project to:
- produce high quality, sustainable buildings;
- provide flexibility and encourage creativity; and
- streamline the approval process using clear standards that yield predictable outcomes.
Adopted May 2005, these design standards have proven to be a significant improvement in the town’s ability to create a long-lasting, aesthetically-pleasing, human-scaled community. Distilled into key components, nine standards were developed to reflect elements that are common to great urban buildings that stand the test of time. The unique beauty of these guidelines is that they do not dictate architectural style but instead focus on the psychological and human scale aspects of buildings – regardless of the type of architecture selected.
Attendees will take away:
- Produce a practical application of design standards that create sustainable buildings while allowing flexibility for architects;
- Inspire good architectural design and predictability in the development review process;
- Make new buildings blend within the context of existing buildings in urban environments; and
- Overcome obstacles/challenges to this new approach to building design?
Town of Gilbert
"Water Resource Sustainability Through Private-Public Collaboration"
"Water saved is habitat gained: The Town of Gilbert’s Experience in Groundwater Recharge"
The Town of Gilbert has been recharging water to replenish its aquifer since 1989. We have learned that the process of replenishing groundwater opens up a multitude of opportunities to enrich our community. We have partnered with the Audubon Society, Arizona Game and Fish, local schools, and service organizations to create wildlife habitats and educational opportunities.
The Town formed the Riparian Institute to facilitate the educational experiences by providing curriculums, docents, and tours of the sites. We estimate that the sites receive over 90,000 visitors each year including 8,000 youth that participate in school and other youth programs.
Attendees will take away:
- Involving a diverse group of stake-holders in project planning yields great benefits.
- Enthusiasm is contagious.
- Other opportunities will arise that you have not considered.
- Plan for involving volunteers in project construction and maintenance activities.
Town of Leesburg
"Turning Liabilities into Assets: Leesburg’s Sustainable Biosolid Fertilizer Program"
Wastewater treatment service is an essential component of every municipal utility system, and a significant by-product of this service are the solids, referred to as “biosolids” after treatment. The disposal and/or re-use of these biosolids has become a controversial issue in many parts of the country due to public objections to odor problems and concerns for potential health and environmental impacts.
The Town of Leesburg has taken an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to this problem, and turned a potential liability into a marketable product. This product is being used to reduce costs for lawn maintenance on town owned property, protect water resources, and generate revenues.
The Town of Leesburg, faced with a growing annual quantity of organic solid byproduct from its wastewater system, abandoned its aesthetically displeasing Class B land application method in favor of producing an environmentally friendly and sustainable Class EQ (Exceptional Quality) biosolid fertilizer.
The town operates an innovative heat drying system that was the first of its kind for any government in Virginia. Leesburg offers bags of the high-grade pellets to residents at no cost and commercial users at a low cost. This entrepreneurial program is saving taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars annually in fertilizer expenses for town-owned facilities. Managers of large use areas such as golf courses and farms who acquire the product now have a low cost and environmentally friendly alternative to inorganic fertilizers that can cause harm to the Potomac River watershed.
Leesburg’s forward-looking Town Council authorized the construction of a system with sufficient capacity to handle Leesburg’s need into the distant future. When the product’s safety was challenged by an individual at a Town Council meeting in February 2003, the town was able to use the opportunity to reiterate the safety and environmental benefits of the product in such a manner that it continues to be viewed as a popular, safe alternative to inorganic fertilizers.
Attendees will take away:
- Overcoming public perception/controversy and implementing an acceptable alternative to citizens.
- Case study revealing the advantages of being proactive rather than reactive.
- Understanding technology alternatives and planning for future growth.
- Considering options of what to do with the “sludge stuff” with disappearing farm lands and increased development.