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MRSC has joined with Carl Neu, Director of the Center for the Future of Local Governance, P. Stephen DiJulio, Attorney, Foster Pepper PLLC, Ann Macfarlane, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, Jurassic Parliament, and George Raiter, Cowlitz County Commissioner, to bring you the "Council/Commission Advisor." The Council/Commission Advisor will feature a new article each month with timely information and advice you can use.*
Why Don’t They Run Government Like a Business?
December 2010
By George Raiter
Cowlitz County Commissioner
We often hear this comment when someone is frustrated with government for not being more timely, flexible or cheaper.
Of course we don’t run government like a business because it isn’t a business. It doesn’t have the same mission as a business nor the same options. When I worked for Industrial America or ran my own business, my decisions were much less complicated. When there was an economic slowdown, my customers would cut back on purchases. They wanted less of the goods or service that I offered. Very quickly I had idle workers. Without sufficient orders I had to shutdown manufacturing lines and lay-off workers. Usually the workers said they already knew it was coming.
Rarely is this the case in government. Many times the demand for government services goes up as revenues go down. This is especially true in our more vulnerable population - those who tend to use government services the most - and in our most contrarian population – those who tend to run up against the rules of society and consume the resources of our law & justice system.
Unlike business we can’t chose our market niche. We can’t choose our service area or fine tune our “product mix.” We have to deliver mandated services to qualified constituents whether or not they are cost effective or “profitable.”
If we did run local government like a business we could triple the cost of building permits (we have a monopoly), leave roads unpaved in sparsely populated areas (not enough voters to remove us from our job) and when we had a revenue shortfall we wouldn’t lay off employees – we would apply for a bailout from federal government.
That is not to say that government can’t learn from business nor can’t adopt many business practices. In Cowlitz County we are trying to do just that.
A few years ago we hired Washington Manufacturing Services, a non-profit organization that provides “Lean Manufacturing” training to small businesses in Washington. This is essentially the Toyota Manufacturing/Total Quality Control System. This was developed by U.S. Quality Experts such as J Juran and Edwards Deming after World War II. The Japanese governmental and industrial leadership implemented this philosophy. Every year the Deming’s Award is bestowed on the top performing industry by the national government.
Washington Manufacturing uses same principles – i.e., optimizing work processes – for their Lean Manufacturing and Office Lean programs. Cowlitz County was one of the first governmental entities to embrace this service. The first departments in the county to embark on this training were the Health Department, District Court and Community Development - resulting in some great success stories. The initial effort was made possible by the decision of the Board of Commissioners to pay for the training out of their unspent travel budget. Six other departments have since had the training. The current recession has delayed further county-wide deployment.
Preventive maintenance is another industry-inspired protocol. The County had unacceptable maintenance costs, a backlog of work requests and no formal priority setting or tracking system. Department heads and elected officials would often turn to outside contractors. We hired an experienced industrial maintenance manager with the charge to get-‘er-done.
Now work orders are entered and tracked on a web-based system called School Dude. The wait time for a job went from months to days. Over 75% of the work requests are now initiated by maintenance workers during their preventive maintenance rounds. The recession has resulted in a cut back of maintenance staff but we are still holding the line in our maintenance performance.
In Building and Planning we used work flow diagrams to improve our performance on issuing permits. The goal is to develop a web-based tracking system for customers to follow the status of their permits as they wind through the approval process. Elsewhere we are emphasizing strategic planning, customer-focused service, workplace safety, principled leadership and employee-friendly management policy.
We are a long way from performing like the best of the successful businesses. But we know there are also many businesses struggling to meet those levels. The exceptional ones serve as role models for all of us. And we anticipate the day when we hear someone say “Why can’t this business give us the same service we get at Cowlitz County.”
P. Stephen DiJulio, a partner at Foster Pepper & Shefelman PLLC, focuses on litigation involving state and local governments, and land use and environmental law. Particular experience includes representation of jurisdictions on eminent domain, utilities (water, wastewater, storm water, solid waste systems), local improvement districts, facility siting and contractor litigation. More.
Carl Neu, author and consultant, is recognized nationally as an authority on, and an experienced practitioner of, the theory and application of governance and leadership to city councils and county boards, local government managers, and community leaders. More.
Ann G. Macfarlane is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian. She created Jurassic Parliament to make parliamentary procedure easy to learn and memorable. She provides training on leadership, meeting management, parliamentary procedure and organizational development across the U.S.
George Raiter has been a Cowlitz County Commissioner since January 2001. He has held various positions in the community, including Longview City Council from 1978 - 1986, City of Longview Mayor, Cowlitz Planning Commission from 1996-1998 and the State Legislature from 1989 - 1991. In addition to his public service, George has worked in private industry for Weyerhaeuser Company 1987-91 (Regional Environmental Manager) And Reynolds Alumunim 1972-87 (Quality Manager, Plant Manager)
*The Articles appearing in the "Council/Commission" column represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Municipal Research & Services Center.