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Municipality Hires CH2M HILL To Streamline OperationsContract will cost $300,000Related Content
ANCHORAGE—Aiming for faster and more efficient city services, Mayor Dan Sullivan has hired the company CH2M HILL to prioritize savings in the municipality’s operation and maintenance costs. The move is part of the mayor's initiative to get every city department doing business better. Sullivan says he's made hard cuts to the budget and says it’s now time to start looking at combining services and getting new technology to run a more efficient government. Whether it's on the bus, with a police car or fire truck, Sullivan is moving forward to get the city and its services running more smoothly and at reduced cost. “Essentially we are looking for some quick big wins,” he said. Sullivan has awarded a contract to CH2M HILL to identify essential functions and recommend ways to streamline operations and maintenance to put more money back into the municipality’s bank account. “I think we have seven different maintenance shops,” Sullivan said. “A lot of cities have consolidated into one maintenance shop, where you cross train mechanics to work any piece of equipment.” CH2M HILL says its goal is to show the municipality how to maintain good services even while cutting back. The focus will be on fleet maintenance: over a thousand municipal vehicles, facility maintenance on the city's 164 buildings and 211 parks, and public works with design, engineering and management of roads and drains. “Every recommendation we can develop quickly, we are going to offer that and provide that to the city," said Mark Lasswell, president and CEO of CH2M HILL Alaska. The municipality has bought a program called SAP that will be used for financial, human resource, budget and grant issues. “It makes the city more efficient while becoming truly paperless,” Sullivan said. “The savings for the city and the modernization and the efficiency that the customer will see ultimately is well worth the investment.” It’s an investment that's expected to save millions while still keeping the public happy. “We can provide more efficient service and maybe even better service than we enjoy today,” Lasswell said. The contract awarded to CH2M HILL will cost the municipality $300,000 and will come from the maintenance budget. The new paperless software SAP that replaces the decades-old People Soft will be $9.6 million dollars—costs from which Sullivan says the municipality will reap in savings benefits for the next decade. CH2M HILL was selected based on its experience working with city governments across the country. The company is expected to submit recommendations in the next 10 to 14 months. |
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Anonymous said on Thursday, Jul 28 at 3:00 PM
Hope they can "prioritize savings in the municipality’s operation and maintenance costs" better than they design buildings.
71459248Now what? said on Thursday, Jul 28 at 3:31 PM
I wonder what this is going to cost us? $300,000 is negotiable - especially with this contractor. And since this is coming from the maintenance budget, I guess the municipality is going to have to go without some type of maintenance to cover the $300,000 expense. Does their budget include a muni tax break? Something does not seem appropriate with this contract or the reason for it.
71460537mcgillagorilla said on Friday, Jul 29 at 8:22 AM
the company is bill allens old veco. i have been around jobs that ch2mhill did the engineering on and that was a disaster. so anchorage gets hozed again so the good old boys spread the wealth of the public trough around to the insiders. the taxpayers get hozed.
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