The following article appears in the Summer 1995 edition of
_The_Public_Sector_Network_News_, pages 10 to 12.]

    TRANSFORMING GOVERNMENT--QUALITY IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE

     Government budgets have been cut or have barely increased in
recent years. At the same time, demand for various publicly
funded services has increased. Traditional management practices
are the least effective way of dealing with such a rapidly
changing environment and often result in conflicts among workers,
between workers and management, and between government and the
public. These conflicts ultimately reduce efficiency, raise
costs, and produce dissatisfaction among government employees and
the general public.

     During 1988 and 1989, the city of Milwaukee Assessor's
Office was burdened with the highest number of public complaints
in decade low employee morale, and high turnover. In 1990, the
office, with its 76 employees, made a complete break from
traditional management practices and adopted a business
philosophy that focuses on customer needs and teamwork.

     This philosophy stresses quality and value for customers and
requires the intelligence, innovation, and commitment of all
employees It demands management practices that allow employees to
be involved in decision-making and to use their knowledge of
customers and the work to improve day-to-day operations and plan
for the future. Such management practices are becoming common in
the private sector, but have only recently been adopted by,
government. 

     A labor/management steering team created with representation
from all levels has been guiding the transformation. The team
developed a quality improvement implementation plan, a strategic
plan, and a process for annually updating the plan. Quality
improvement team projects are selected from the strategic plan,
and progress is monitored via an annually conducted
organizational assessment.

     All employees in the department participated in formulating
the department's vision, mission, and values statement. All had
input in developing the strategic plan and received training so
they understand and know the important role each plays in
carrying out the plan.

     The department philosophy focuses on systems instead of
individuals when trying to improve service. Systems are
documented, studied, streamlined, or reinvented to provide the
best service possible to customers. The department actively uses
teams to study and improve work processes. Every function is
critically evaluated against the department's mission. If a
process is not part of the department or city's mission, it is
eliminated.

     The Assessor's Office has developed its own internal
trainers for such topics as New Roles for Leaders, Planning for
Improvement, Team Dynamics, Facilitation Skills, Customer
Surveys, and a Total Quality Improvement Overview. This
eliminates the expense of bringing in outside trainers.

     The Assessor's Office quality initiative has been highly
successful and has resulted in administrative savings of nearly
$1 million since its inception. It has increased productivity and
customer satisfaction, improved morale, and allowed the
department to hold its budge constant while improving service.
This has occurred in spite of escalating expenses for employee
wages and benefits. Some of the more notable results of this
program include:

     Public Information Team--Developing and carrying out an
extensive, ongoing public information program. 

     Some of the activities include development of a taxpayer
informational brochure in both English and Spanish; creation of
an informational videotape used at meetings and shown on cable
TV; working with neighborhood groups to educate the public on
property assessments; providing all employees with public contact
training; preparation of a public information manual for
employees; formal training programs for policy-makers and the
Board of Review; and formal procedures to ensure that the
thousands of callers following a citywide reevaluation receive
prompt answers to their questions. 

     This team has been instrumental in successfully reducing the
number of properly assessment appeals from a high of 10,642
appeals in 1988 to a low of 4,218 appeals in 1994. This has
resulted in a savings of nearly 33,687 direct labor hours and
$684,000 in staff time since 1990. The work of this team was
recognized by awards from both the Wisconsin Association of
Assessing Officers and the International Association of Assessing
Officers.

     Privatizing Property Ownership Research. 

     This innovation was the result of a team formed to look for
efficiencies in performing property ownership research for other
city departments. As the team studied this problem, it became
clear that this function was not part of the department's mission
and could be provided more efficiently by a private vendor. 

     This innovation reduced the Assessor's Office budget by
$339,000 per year and resulted in a net annual savings to the
city of $149,000. This does not include the annual savings that
resulted from streamlined operations in customer departments. All
five employees affected by this innovation were retrained for
better positions and absorbed into existing vacancies within the
department.

     Environmental Standards Team--Developing standards for the
assessment of property with environmental contamination. 

     An emerging problem in the assessment field is the valuation
of properties affected by some form of environmental
contamination. The Assessor's Office was one of the first in the
country to confront this problem by developing standards to
approach this complex valuation issue in a uniform, systematic
way. The development of this standard tapped the skills of a team
of assessment supervisors and appraisers, an environmental
engineer, and the City Attorney's Office. The work of this team
was recognized by awards from both the Wisconsin Association of
Assessing Officers and the International Association of Assessing
Officers and has been used as a model by other states.

     Telephone Team--improving efficiency by improving service to
business. 

     The Assessor's Office receives nearly 600 telephone calls
per day from various businesses that rely on property data to do
their work. Prior to the initiative, the high volume of calls and
the lack of staff to respond to the inquiries resulted in poor
service to customers. The team surveyed its customers and learned
that businesses were willing to purchase the data via CD-ROM or
even computer printouts. By providing major users with
alternative ways to get the information, response time for other
customers was reduced by more than 20%. 

     The beneficiaries of the innovation are all of the roughly
160,000 property owners in the city who now receive quality
service at reduced costs, businesses who rely on data from the
Assessor's Office, and other city departments that now receive
better service. Providing high-quality service increases customer
satisfaction, saves time, reduces costs, allows staff to devote
themselves to work that adds value to Milwaukee, and allows
employees to take pride in their work.

     The biggest challenge is developing relationships between
labor and management and maintaining effective communication with
employees. Thus, the department has replaced annual employee
performance appraisals with regular coaching sessions and has
developed evaluation forms for employees to provide feedback to
their supervisors. 

     Also critical to success is the need to train both
management and employees in their new roles. The city of
Milwaukee training programs cited previously serve as a starting
point. Customer knowledge is essential to successful
implementation. The Assessor's Office acquires this information
through surveys and from frontline workers.

     Another element vital to success is the ability to be honest
about the mission of government and to streamline or eliminate
services that can be provided more effectively and efficiently by
private business.

     This innovation has been accomplished with no additional
funding. The program has been funded by savings from the
efficiencies it has created. Major savings in staff time due to
the decrease in appeals has allowed the department for the first
time ever to begin a regular program to inspect homes in the
city. This increases the quality of the assessments and helps to
further reduce assessment appeals and costs.

For more information contact: 
Russell Borkin Quality Improvement Manager, 
City of Milwaukee 
Department of Employee Relations 
Room 706, City Hall 
200 East Wells Street 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202-3554 
Phone (414) 286-8154