In January of 2010 the Phoenix City Council created the Finance, Efficiency and Innovation Subcommittee, which has identified more than $40 million in savings, and expects to save $125 million over the next five years.
The subcommittee created five working groups: communications, process improvements, private-public partnerships, rightsourcing, and technology.
Highlights of the committees accomplishments as reported by www.efficientgov.com are:
•The elimination of 125 positions, and the reallocation of 135 others, resulting in annual savings of $9.5 million;
•Outsourcing in more than 340 service areas, totally approximately $477 million;
•Recruitment of more than 24,000 volunteers, who have donated nearly half a million hours for 13 different city departments;
•Approval of same-day solid waste collection, resulting in $1.3 million
•Competitive bidding for medical and dental benefits for city employees, resulting in first-year savings of $2.65 million.
More information about the committee can be viewed here.
Getting into the nitty gritty process of how government works everyday is not easy. The City of Phoenix appears to have done an excellent job of studying their operations and implementing change. Other municipalities may want to review the Phoenix effort and apply some of their ideas.
