Ideas for the City Council
Contributed by: Anonymous
Cost saving Ideas: Ways for the city to save money and not implement more property taxes or user fees.
1) Consolidate or outsource city vehicle maintenance:OPD is already outsourcing maintenance of there squad cars. Why do we have duplicate vehicle maintenance staffs in the city garage, city forestry, fire department, transit department? They areas are ripe for outsourcing or consolidation.
2) Downsize the size of our city bus fleet:We have many very large sized busses. I assume these are mostly purchased for the once a year EAA convention. Most of even our small busses are never even close to full, so why do we have these huge size busses running around town, burning costly fuel, an almost completely void of passengers?
3) Outfit the garbage trucks with snow plow rigs: Most large cities use their garbage trucks for plowing duty. In Oshkosh we buy additional tandem axle dump trucks for this purpose. Drive by the City garage and see how many are parked in the lot not being used. We certainly could reduce our fleet of large tandem axle trucks if we put our garbage truck fleet into service helping to plow snow. The garbage men seem to work odd half day schedules anyhow. This would allow them to work more hours during snow falls in the winter.
4) Let’s look at outsourcing our entire City Forestry Department.This Department even has its own building. They are housed in a fairly large building on Witzel Street. I see lots of fairly expensive trucks, choppers, bucket trucks, skid loaders etc etc in this building when I pass by. What do these guys do in the winter? I’m thinking maybe a National concern like Aspundh would be able to provide a competitive bid: Taken from the Aspundh web page: Aspundh Municipal Tree Services -The removal of dead or dangerous trees along public thoroughfares is a priority for every community. Eliminating deadwood, keeping municipal utility lines clear of branches, and correctly pruning young trees is equally important in minimizing liability and maintaining a healthy, attractive urban forest. In order to achieve these goals, it takes knowledgeable tree care professionals with the necessary experience to complete the job safely and efficiently. Since time, labor, and equipment are costly, thorough training and competent supervision are musts. If an untrained crew causes a power outage, or damage to a person and property, your municipality may be liable. One call to the Asplundh Municipal Division can eliminate the costs and problems associated with purchasing and maintaining specialized equipment, providing technical and safety training for crew personnel. This can help minimize your liability for work-related injury or property damage. In addition, we can assist municipalities in:- developing tree maintenance programs and writing contract specifications - presenting workshops for both Asplundh and municipal crews on various industry-related topics - providing public relations support on tree related issues - acting as a resource of information on professional standards and industry trends As part of the world’s largest vegetation control company, we draw on more than a century of experience in urban tree maintenance. By using local workers under the direction of our experienced supervisors, and drawing on our extensive fleet of specialized equipment, it is our goal to provide public agencies with the most reliable, efficient, and professional service at the lowest price possible. For more information, please call 1-425-318-4177, extension 4384, or e-mail: Municipal@asplundh.com. Furthermore, it appears we have several classifications of employees related to forestry. Arborists, Urban Forest Technician, Horticulturist, Groundskeeper, etc. All these costly positions could possibly be eliminated by outsourcing the entire Forestry Department. I believe the elimination of this department would have little impact on taxpayers day-to-day lives.
5) The Oshkosh Lakeshore Municipal Golf Course was totally renovated in 2001. It may be time to investigate if maintaining this course is in the best interest of all taxpayers. Few municipalities maintain a city owned and operated golf course. Oshkosh and the surrounding area has many golfing opportunities that our municipal course competes with. The land alone could be sold for an extremely high value as it is waterfront property.
6) The most drastic savings will be achieved when a complete 3rd party audit is conducted of each city position and department. Undoubtedly, we have a huge corporation called City of Oshkosh government. The bureaucracy, duplication of services, conducting non-core competency services of such a large corporation is almost a given. These are the areas that need to be weeded out. When we take the time and effort to face the reality that we need to restructure our city staff and become far leaner in our hiring practices, we will then be truly serving the taxpayer. When posed with good cost savings ideas don't say "It can't be done"... Instead, figure a way to make it happen.
Ideas for the City Council
Authored by: mjs on Thursday, August 17 2006 @ 06:41 PM MDT
Great posting!Many of these suggestions seem to be valuable and certainly are worthy of careful considration and further evaluation. I hope the poster has passed these comments on to our city council members.I believe the city council is currently evaluating budget items for the coming year, so these suggestion are extremely timely. Keep the good ideas coming!
Cost saving Ideas: Ways for the city to save money and not implement more property taxes or user fees.
1) Consolidate or outsource city vehicle maintenance:OPD is already outsourcing maintenance of there squad cars. Why do we have duplicate vehicle maintenance staffs in the city garage, city forestry, fire department, transit department? They areas are ripe for outsourcing or consolidation.
2) Downsize the size of our city bus fleet:We have many very large sized busses. I assume these are mostly purchased for the once a year EAA convention. Most of even our small busses are never even close to full, so why do we have these huge size busses running around town, burning costly fuel, an almost completely void of passengers?
3) Outfit the garbage trucks with snow plow rigs: Most large cities use their garbage trucks for plowing duty. In Oshkosh we buy additional tandem axle dump trucks for this purpose. Drive by the City garage and see how many are parked in the lot not being used. We certainly could reduce our fleet of large tandem axle trucks if we put our garbage truck fleet into service helping to plow snow. The garbage men seem to work odd half day schedules anyhow. This would allow them to work more hours during snow falls in the winter.
4) Let’s look at outsourcing our entire City Forestry Department.This Department even has its own building. They are housed in a fairly large building on Witzel Street. I see lots of fairly expensive trucks, choppers, bucket trucks, skid loaders etc etc in this building when I pass by. What do these guys do in the winter? I’m thinking maybe a National concern like Aspundh would be able to provide a competitive bid: Taken from the Aspundh web page: Aspundh Municipal Tree Services -The removal of dead or dangerous trees along public thoroughfares is a priority for every community. Eliminating deadwood, keeping municipal utility lines clear of branches, and correctly pruning young trees is equally important in minimizing liability and maintaining a healthy, attractive urban forest. In order to achieve these goals, it takes knowledgeable tree care professionals with the necessary experience to complete the job safely and efficiently. Since time, labor, and equipment are costly, thorough training and competent supervision are musts. If an untrained crew causes a power outage, or damage to a person and property, your municipality may be liable. One call to the Asplundh Municipal Division can eliminate the costs and problems associated with purchasing and maintaining specialized equipment, providing technical and safety training for crew personnel. This can help minimize your liability for work-related injury or property damage. In addition, we can assist municipalities in:- developing tree maintenance programs and writing contract specifications - presenting workshops for both Asplundh and municipal crews on various industry-related topics - providing public relations support on tree related issues - acting as a resource of information on professional standards and industry trends As part of the world’s largest vegetation control company, we draw on more than a century of experience in urban tree maintenance. By using local workers under the direction of our experienced supervisors, and drawing on our extensive fleet of specialized equipment, it is our goal to provide public agencies with the most reliable, efficient, and professional service at the lowest price possible. For more information, please call 1-425-318-4177, extension 4384, or e-mail: Municipal@asplundh.com. Furthermore, it appears we have several classifications of employees related to forestry. Arborists, Urban Forest Technician, Horticulturist, Groundskeeper, etc. All these costly positions could possibly be eliminated by outsourcing the entire Forestry Department. I believe the elimination of this department would have little impact on taxpayers day-to-day lives.
5) The Oshkosh Lakeshore Municipal Golf Course was totally renovated in 2001. It may be time to investigate if maintaining this course is in the best interest of all taxpayers. Few municipalities maintain a city owned and operated golf course. Oshkosh and the surrounding area has many golfing opportunities that our municipal course competes with. The land alone could be sold for an extremely high value as it is waterfront property.
6) The most drastic savings will be achieved when a complete 3rd party audit is conducted of each city position and department. Undoubtedly, we have a huge corporation called City of Oshkosh government. The bureaucracy, duplication of services, conducting non-core competency services of such a large corporation is almost a given. These are the areas that need to be weeded out. When we take the time and effort to face the reality that we need to restructure our city staff and become far leaner in our hiring practices, we will then be truly serving the taxpayer. When posed with good cost savings ideas don't say "It can't be done"... Instead, figure a way to make it happen.
Ideas for the City Council
Authored by: mjs on Thursday, August 17 2006 @ 06:41 PM MDT
Great posting!Many of these suggestions seem to be valuable and certainly are worthy of careful considration and further evaluation. I hope the poster has passed these comments on to our city council members.I believe the city council is currently evaluating budget items for the coming year, so these suggestion are extremely timely. Keep the good ideas coming!
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 12:35 PM
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