TAPInternational March 22, 2016 Mr. Mike Riley, Assistant Director of Financial Services City of Bremerton, Washington RE: Staffing / Workload Analysis Dear Mr. Riley, ‘The City of Bremerton Parks and Recreation Department and TAP International, Inc. have together completed a staffing/workload analysis. The project, implemented at no cost to the City, was sponsored by the Local Government Performance Center (LGPC}, the training and information resources arm of the Washington State Auditor’s Office. The LGPC provides staff development and tools to local governments that need to solve problems, reduce costs, and improve the value of their services to citizens. The City requested the LGPC, in coordination with TAP International, Inc, to assist in its efforts to develop a tool to assess and estimate the staffing needs of the City's Parks & Recreation Department based on its current workload now and in the future. The tool makes transparent the Department's efforts, given its current staff and resources, to provide Bremerton City residents attractive, well-maintained public spaces. This letter summarizes the results of the work performed whose outcomes allowed for the identification of opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Department operations. To build the staffing/workload analysis tool, first, the Department's current park maintenance and recreation activities was identified, including the amount of time that the Department has spent to accomplish these activities over one year. City Finance and Department management contributed their own records of the amount of time Department staff spent on activities. Through the use of small group workshops, 15 staff members further identified who performs what activities and how much time each member of the staff spends on those activities. The tool includes volunteer time spent on a wide range of Parks and Recreation activities, as well as deferred maintenance activities and other unmet park needs as described in the City of Bremerton Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan. The tool was then used to estimate the number of full-time equivalents (FTEs) needed to accomplish each activity or position, and the associated cost of that labor. Department staff and TAP International consultants used these results to identify and discuss opportunities for how the Department could perform these activities in less time or in ways that could deliver better service to the City.‘Overall, there may be specific opportunities for the City to strategically invest in additional staff to help the Department to be become more cost-effective and enhance the Department's revenue generation capabilities. For 2015 (and again in 2016), the City approved just over 23 full-time ‘equivalents for the Parks and Recreation Department, including a total of 4.28 FTEs in seasonal labor. Based on the available information, the analysis found that it would be cost-effective for the Department to add one full-time office assistant to help the Department respond to customer inquiries, take reservations for facilities rentals and process customer payments for recreation programs. ‘The workload analysis found that the Department spends more to staff its reception desk using the existing staff than the Department would ifit hired an additional office assistant. The Department's reception desk is open nine hours a day, however, the Department's only office assistant works six hours a day, and must leave the desk to perform some of her activities. The Department uses two Recreation Program Coordinators and the Recreation Program Director to cover the desk for the remaining three hours a day that the office assistant is not available, or already engaged with 2 ‘customer. However, it would be less expensive to the City less to employ an additional office assistant, at any level, than using the other higher-paid Recreation Program staff to cover the reception desk, The Recreation Program Coordinators said that, with the time they currently spend at the desk, they would use this time instead to engage in revenue-generating activities aligned with ‘their job responsibilities, such as expanding recreation sports programs. Investment in an additional office assistant would also have a return on investment because the reception desk primary takes reservations and payments for Department's facilities rentals. In 2015, the Department processed 537 facilities rentals, the majority park rentals. Reducing the number of hours that the reception desk is open to better align with staff availabilty may have the unintended consequence of reducing the number of rentals, because all rentals must be performed manually and the Department's ‘website has limited information about the facilities and their availability. The workload analysis also showed that Department staff and volunteers spend a significant amount of time performing janitorial or custodial activities. For example, park maintenance staff spend about 14 percent of their time on restroom maintenance and recreation staff spent 20 percent of their time on custodial activities. Management said the time needed to perform these critical custodial duties each day reduces the availability of recreation staff to work on revenue-generating recreation activities and prevent maintenance staff from working on deferred maintenance activities. Further, while performing restroom maintenance, park maintenance staff also reported concerns about their safety and security from improperly disposed needles and frequent confrontations with hostile patrons who refuse to leave restrooms for cleaning or at closing because staff members work alone when maintaining restrooms, Although management reported an unsuccessful prior attempt to contract for custodial services, it may be more cost-effective for the City to once-again try to contract for these services, pending further cost-benefit anal ‘The team further used the workload analysis tool to examine the allocation of staffing and workloads among park locations. For example, the amount of time spent on the City’s flower baskets, from growing the flowers in the greenhouse and then maintaining the hanging baskets once displayed, requires about 1,120 hours a year (about 6 percent of park maintenance’s hours) at an estimated labor cost of $27,250 annually. In another area, the tool showed that combined, the Department has allocated almost one full FTE each year to the maintenance of Harborside Park and the Fountains,confirming the concern of park maintenance staff that these facilities require a significant amount of their time to keep operational. The results of the workload analysis led to several areas to further explore by the City. In trying to determine staffing needs to accommodate workload levels of unmet or deferred maintenance needs, the team identified the need for park maintenance management to develop a formal tracking system (using a spreadsheet) of maintenance requests from outside the Department, as well as a record of deferred maintenance activities as this occurs throughout the year. While making it easier for the Department to track maintenance requests, this tracking system would also record how much time the Department spends responding to these request or is unable to perform, which may not be captured in management's current record-keeping efforts. The Department already routinely tracks the amount of time its staff spends daily on each activity at each park location, and the recreation program management is tracking the amount of time that volunteers donate to its recreation programs. Further efforts by management to track how the Department allocates its time among its various activities will facilitate analysis on staffing levels needed, including better scheduling to address unmet or deferred maintenance needs. Having this level of detail could also allow Department management to better respond to special requests, by perhaps combining regularly scheduled work with the requests, making the Department’s work more efficient. The workload/staffing analysis tool showed that the Department spends about 1,222 hours, or two- thirds of an FTE each year, on activities related to the cemetery including routine maintenance and burials. Park maintenance staff identified the cemetery as a location at which there is only enough time to perform the minimal amount of maintenance work. Other cities have successfully established self-supporting cemetery districts or enterprise departments, an opportunity the team discussed when examining the results of the workload analysis. Park maintenance management said that the cemetery could generate additional revenue for the City, if the Department had more time to dedicate to sales. Under a cemetery district or enterprise department structure, this additional revenue could be used directly to pay for the basic level of maintenance the Department must perform regardless. Finally, the workload/staffing analysis tool showed that volunteers contribute a significant amount of time to help the Department accomplish its recreation program goals, including the operation of ‘the Senior Center. The Senior Center is staffed by a full-time director and part-time (17 hour/week) assistant. The Department estimated that volunteers provide more than 70 percent of the hours to operate the Senior Center, including 1,380 volunteer hours spent specifically on administration/reception activities like registration, cash-handling, event set-up and take-down, and kitchen help. Further discussion by the team found that volunteers are performing key functions at the Senior Center, such as custodial, kitchen, and under special circumstances, financial management activities, which all may unwittingly expose the City to unanticipated risk, however ‘there is no other Senior Center staff to perform these tasks.twas a pleasure to work with the Park and Recreation Department management and staff. The City Is fortunate to have a dedicated group of employees who care deeply about the City’s Parks and Recreation programs. And special thanks to Mike Riley, Assistant Director of Financial Services, for his efforts to coordinate this project and participation to ensure its success. Sincerely, He Tptenatino2 TAP International, Inc.