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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 6270 City of Palo Alto (ID # 6270) Finance Committee Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 12/1/2015 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: Utiltiies Department Organizational Assessment Update Title: Recommendation that the Finance Committee Recommend that the City Council Accept the Utilities Organization Assessment Update Report From: City Manager Lead Department: Utilities Recommendation Staff recommends that the Finance Committee recommend that the City Council accept the Utilities organization assessment update report (attachment A). Executive Summary In 2014, Leidos Engineering, LLC (Leidos) conducted an organizational assessment (report link) to evaluate the operations of the City of Palo Alto Utilities Department (CPAU). There were two primary objectives of the organizational assessment. The first was to review the services CPAU provides to determine optimal staffing levels; the second was to evaluate the trends and challenges in the utilities industry (i.e., electric, gas, water, wastewater collection, fiber). The report concludes that CPAU is appropriately organized and effective and performs as well or better than comparable utilities. CPAU provides very reliable service to the residents and businesses in Palo Alto at competitive rates while reflecting the values of the community it serves. The report further notes that as with most utilities, there are opportunities to improve operations and accordingly, CPAU and the City should further examine strategies to improve performance and address issues associated with attracting, developing, and retaining its workforce. CPAU’s mission is to continue providing safe, reliable, environmentally sustainable and cost-effective services. CPAU has made improvements or initiatives are in progress to address some of the areas where CPAU was not meeting best practices. CPAU will also continue to track and evaluate our performance metrics through the strategic plan and performance scorecard and make improvements when opportunities arise. The Finance Committee requested an update of the organizational assessment report by the end of 2015. Discussion Leidos reviewed CPAU’s performance against more than 20 best practices for electric, water, gas, fiber and wastewater collection services, concluding that CPAU operations reflect best City of Palo Alto Page 2 practices in fourteen categories, is making good progress towards meeting best practices in eight categories and needs significant work to meet best practices in only three categories. At the highest level of consideration are five indicators that CPAU is performing very well: 1. Rates for utility services are competitive. 2. Service reliability is very good. 3. Customer satisfaction is improving. 4. The Utilities are in excellent financial condition. 5. The Utilities are effectively achieving the City’s environmental and social goals. The main areas that CPAU is working towards to meet best practices are: 1. Information and Operating Technologies. 2. Operating Maintenance and Capital Planning. 3. Business Processes. Information and Operating Technologies CPAU is making improvements in its use of information and operating technologies to achieve optimal performance. A high-level Utilities Information Technology Systems Review and Future Needs Assessment was completed in August 2014 by a consultant. The study recommended approximately 40 utilities technology related initiatives to increase operational efficiency, enhance customer services and advance smart grid capabilities in the next 5 to 10 years. Some of the key initiatives identified were an evaluation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and billing system, development of a strategic project roadmap, improvements in reporting, and smart grid projects. CPAU and the City’s IT Department are in the process of hiring a consultant to assist the City with a comprehensive requirement gathering process to be able to select a new government- oriented ERP system and a utility-focused billing and customer information system (CIS). The utility CIS is a critical component of CPAU’s strategic technology roadmap because the CIS is highly integrated with other system applications (e.g. an outage management system, a customer portal, business reporting, smart grid metering). In the past, one of the challenges in the area of information reporting was the lack of specialized resources required to configure and operate the SAP reporting system for the presentation of Utilities data. Over the past twelve months, the City has retained experienced consultants to assist with key SAP CIS/billing initiatives, for example, to develop complex interfaces to secure third party web applications in order to present consumption and usage data to CPAU customers. Additionally, the 300-home residential advanced meter/customer engagement (CustomerConnect) pilot program will continue until December 2016. Staff anticipates a road-map with a full roll-out of advanced meters, and associated smart grid technologies will be developed in the 2016 to 2017 time frame. The timeline of full implementation will be dependent on the City’s initiative to upgrade its SAP ERP and CIS systems. City of Palo Alto Page 3 Operating Maintenance and Capital Planning With regard to “Operating Maintenance and Capital Planning,” the Leidos report notes that the key to providing safe and reliable distribution systems is the replacement of aging infrastructure. Even though the City and CPAU have a robust annual capital budgeting process designed to ensure the safety and reliability of the system, Leidos concluded that limited human resource availability is driving capital spending rather than system expansion needs and system performance. Leidos observed that capital projects are deferred because of insufficient staff required to perform the associated work. Since the report was completed, the backlog of infrastructure replacement projects has dropped significantly from $29 million (Electric, $6M; Gas, $12M; Water, $3M; Wastewater, $8M) in FY 2011 when staff started tracking the capital backlog to $9M (Electric, $4M; Gas, $0M; Water, $2M; Wastewater, $3M) in FY 2015. With the completion of Gas Main Replacement project 19/20/21, the Gas Utility is now up to date with planned infrastructure replacement. The following summarizes the status of CPAU’s capital improvement programs:  Gas: Upcoming gas main replacement project GMR 22 is currently in the design phase and on schedule.  Electric: Replacement of aging electric infrastructure has been delayed over the last several years due to continuous vacancies in Engineering and Operations. CPAU recently executed a three-year contract for a third party contractor to assist with the backlog of overhead electric assets in order bring the backlog down to a manageable level for existing staff.  Water. In FY 2015, the Water main replacement program received a few setbacks. An unusually small number of bids were submitted that were unexpectedly high in cost, which resulted in staff repackaging the bid twice after the initial bid. Unexpectedly high costs were attributed to increased labor rates and material prices on high-density polyethylene main pipes. In the end, Water Main Replacement project 25 was reduced in size and scope. The results from the recently updated Water System Master Plan provide staff with more information regarding the conditions of water mains and may lead to staff recommendation of a revised replacement schedule.  Wastewater: The Wastewater Utility was similarly affected in terms of the small number of bids received and increased labor costs. Business Processes Leidos reviewed a sampling of CPAU’s business processes. Some business processes are very well defined, especially around customer service, risk management and wholesale commodity transactions. In general, Leidos indicated that there is benefit for CPAU to invest more time and energy in the development of business process definition. To achieve progress on the Business Process front, the two largest Utilities divisions, Engineering and Operations, have implemented a central repository system using Sharepoint for business processes and procedures. One of the strengths of the Sharepoint application is City of Palo Alto Page 4 document management. There are in-built features of version control, authorization access, and approval. Policies and procedures are readily accessible and conveniently stored in one location. The City is in the process of rolling out a cloud based version of Sharepoint. Once this is fully deployed, other divisions in CPAU will receive training and be asked to manage their policies and procedures on the new platform. The three areas that CPAU is not meeting best practice performance levels are: 1. Workforce Development 2. Project Management 3. Work Management Workforce Development Workforce development and succession planning continues to be a top priority for the City and for CPAU. Public agencies, including utilities across the nation, are facing a retirement wave and anticipate losing 35 to 50 percent of their workforces within the next five years. CPAU will continue to work with the People Strategy and Operations Department (PSO) and the City Manager’s Office (CMO) on a workforce development plan and strategy to retain talented employees and attract high-caliber recruits. CPAU will be updating its five year organizational chart and matrix to identify skill set gaps as well as employees who are currently or soon to be eligible for retirement. In the past couple of years, CPAU has rotated staff in various positions to cross-train employees and reduce institutional knowledge loss with turnovers. Job rotation is seen as a positive way to motivate employees, maximize current talent utilization, develop leadership skills, reduce skillset gaps, and retain high-potential valuable employees. Staff is establishing a succession planning committee to formalize a rotational program by the end of 2016. CPAU is still struggling to recruit qualified employees, especially in the engineering and operations areas, due to the high cost of living in the area, a compensation package that is matched or exceeded by other hiring agencies or companies, and the number of utilities that the City runs. CPAU will coordinate with PSO and CMO on a case-by-case basis to bring onboard new hires for critical positions while also developing a citywide recruitment strategy. In the meantime, CPAU is contracting with third party construction services to manage one time, temporary increases in work related to capital projects and scheduled maintenance. Project Management CPAU does not have an enterprise project management system. Projects are currently being managed in Microsoft Project, SharePoint, Excel, Access, and/or the contractor’s project management system depending on the type, duration, size and complexity of the project. Leidos recommended formal project management training for staff. Since 2013, CPAU hired a consultant on two separate occasions to provide formal project management training to staff involved with managing capital, operating, or technology projects. The three-day training course covered areas including project failure and success, scope definition, time management, City of Palo Alto Page 5 resource planning, cost control and risk management. CPAU will continue to offer project management training to new and existing staff as needed. Work Management CPAU does not have an enterprise work management system to plan, execute and track projects and tasks. CPAU uses various stand-alone systems to execute certain key work management functions, such as SAP for work order management, but it does not have a holistic work management system that can provide an enterprise view of forecasted labor, actual labor and labor costs, project costs and other project tracking measures. In 2013, CPAU piloted a utility work management software firm to manage and schedule all of its work, which included forecasted labor for every job that was created. The software consolidated the tasks into one system for integrated work order management, planning, scheduling, and dispatching, and had the option of providing timekeeping. While most aspects of the work management system were piloted, the timekeeping function was not piloted due to the complexity of integrating with the SAP system. After the evaluation stage, staff declined to recommend the work management solution because it was basically another system that would need to be managed due to its inability to integrate fully with the SAP system including the billing portion of the system, the high labor intensity to administer the program, and costs associated with the software. This initiative will be re-visited in conjunction with the City’s evaluation of a new ERP and utility CIS. Resource Impact As a result of planned efforts related to evaluation of a new ERP, staff will be able to evaluate opportunities that were identified by Leidos relating to a a new customer billing system, deployment of smart grid projects and implementation of a work management system. The resource impact of these recommendations will be submitted to Council as part of the budget process and where applicable, in conjunction with the contract approval process. Environmental Review City Council acceptance of the Utilities Organization Assessment Update Report does not meet the definition of a project, pursuant to Section 21065 of the California Environmental Quality Act, thus no environmental review is required. Attachments:  Attachment A: CPAU Response to Organizational Review - Status Update Nov 2015 (PDF) Summary of Recommendations and Utilities Plans/Response – Taken from Table ES-3 in the December 2013 City of Palo Alto Utilities Department Organization Assessment: Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Action Recommendations CPAU Water-Wastewater-Gas Operations Division CPAU Customer Service and Resource Management Divisions Reallocate priorities and workload for one FTE of resources from the RMD to energy efficiency planning, reporting and program development functions. The goal is to free up one FTE of CSS resources to invest in EE program marketing and targeted customer service projects including communication to improve satisfaction among residential customers. Develop and adopt revised Division work plans Schedule: Implement immediately or as soon as practical COMPLETED Instead of reallocating an FTE from the Resource Management Division (RMD) to Utilities Marketing Services (UMS), in FY 2014 Utilities reallocated the workload of reporting and program development from UMS to RMD, and subsequently in early 2015, merged UMS into RMD to facilitate a comprehensive and efficienct approach to supply and demand side portfolio management. COMPLETED Probable Actions Customer Support Services Add one additional classification each for utility marketing representative and for customer service representative to increase career progression opportunities. CPAU to develop appropriate documentation to send to the HR Department. Obtain appropriate City approvals. Schedule: Implement immediately or as soon as practical COMPLETED In FY2016, UMS reclassified the job title of three Utility Account Representatives to Marketing Program Administrators to properly align their job responsibilities with their titles. In order to meet the City’s annual energy efficiency (EE) goals, the administrators are responsible for developing new EE programs including 3rd party vendor selection, contract negotiation, and contract administration. UMS and RMD also added one Business Analyst and dropped one Utility Account Rep to enhance and support Utility-specific applications and databases to improve efficiencies and data reporting. COMPLETED ATTACHMENT A Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update CPAU Water-Wastewater-Gas Operations Division Outsource Water Meter Calibrations, Testing, and Installations. Operations Division has issued an RFP and plans to complete outsourcing process. Schedule: Immediate (no implementation plan needed). COMPLETED In FY 2014, Operations awarded a two- year contract to a 3rd party to replace and/or repair large water meters. Meter testing, calibrations, replacement and construction are underway. COMPLETED Engineering Division Reclassify two administrative positions (currently vacant). - One to a computer technician who will support GIS functions and a second position to a management analyst to support contracts planning, administration and management. Implementation analysis to compare costs against status quo and options and consider other benefits and costs. If analysis is favorable, reclassify positions in budget Make appropriate staffing changes Schedule: Start analysis immediately and implement changes by Q2 2014 COMPLETED In FY 2013, one administrative position was reclassified to an Engineering Technician to assist with utilities mapping in the new GIS system. In FY 2014, another administrative position was reclassified to a Utility Coordinator to develop a contract database and assist with contract administration. COMPLETED Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Study Recommendations Resource Management Division Study of service delivery alternatives for some of resource management duties. These duties include contracting with the NCPA to conduct some of the resource acquisition or resource scheduling or contracting with another entity to perform these functions (e.g. Santa Clara, TEA, or ACES). To be determined in discussion with CPAU and ASD Schedule: By the beginning of Q2 2014 COMPLETED Resource Management Division had discussions with alternate service providers as well as with NCPA about the cost of its provision of services. The discussions with NCPA resulted in a reduction of NCPA service costs by $250,000, which is about what staff believes could be saved with an alternate service provider. NCPA fixed several errors in the cost model identified by CPAU and ultimately agreed to update its cost allocation methodology and requested that CPAU be on the review team. Staff will continue to monitor to determine whether more cost savings can be achieved by receiving services from others. In addition, alternative providers of certain competitive services such as resource scheduling will be sought competitively to determine whether to have NCPA, or an alternate provider, provide those services. COMPLETED Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Customer Service Support Division Review CSS annual workplan against customer satisfaction goals and evaluate whether CPAU is under-investing in customer service (technology, staffing, or programs). Make appropriate recommendations. To be determined in discussion with CPAU Schedule: Beginning of Q2 2014 IN PROCESS Staff has made significant progress towards improving online customer interaction, particularly via the “My Utilities Account” (MUA) portal. An extensive survey of all MUA participants, which had a remarkable 35% response rate, is being used to identify which changes being considered are the most valued by our customers. Some features have already been implemented, such as more user-friendly landing pages and internal navigation. CPAU will continuously evaluate more complex changes which are integrated with City’s ERP and utility billing systems. STATUS UPDATE: COMPLETE A high-level Utilities IT Systems Assessment was completed. The study recommended approximately 40 Utilities technology related projects to increase operational efficiency, enhance customer services and advance smart grid capabilities CPAU is coordinating with IT on some of these initiatives including a new billing system, an interactive voice response system, payment processing, and reporting. Staff compares national utility benchmarks against current Customer Service functional staffing levels to identify an optimum mix of staff support for our multiple service and billing functions. CPAU should continue to evaluate the need for the six field customer service staff that read meters if the City decides to transition to two- way meters and consider options including retraining and repurposing these staff members, resizing the division or outsourcing repair and battery replacement functions. City to review annually as part of the budget process. Schedule: If the City transitions to two-way meters. PILOT IN PROCESS CPAU’s residential CustomerConnect pilot program using smart meters is underway. After the results of that pilot program are evaluated, staff will update the smart grid road map and determine whether a full roll-out of smart meters is advisable. STATUS UPDATE: COMPLETE Approximately 300 customers are enrolled in the residential Customer Connect advanced meter pilot program. The advanced meters provide hourly utility usage information. Customers can monitor their usage and make informed decisions on their utility use. CPAU is also able to detect electric outages and water leakage faster while lowering operational costs. The program has been extended until the end of 2016. Meter Reading staffing requirements are currently being met with a combination of permanent and temporary staff in order to maintain maximum flexibility if and when decisions for the installation of two-way (“smart”) meters are made. Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Operations Division, Electric and Wastewater Groups Study Shifting to More Reliance on Third Party Contractors for Electric line work and construction Study (including costs- benefits) Issue RFP Select Contractor(s) and negotiate contract(s) Schedule: Begin study in six (6) months. If action is taken, completion of transition within two to four years COMPLETED In FY 2015, Council approved a three- year electric construction contract (Staff report #5388) to assist CPAU with maintenance and system improvement of the City’s overhead electric distribution system. The construction service will also provide assistance during emergencies and storm situations.In FY 2016, Council approved a three-year excavation contract to augment staff by providing utility trenching and substructure installation services for capital improvement projects. COMPLETED: City Warehouse and CPAU- Operations Division to work to improve interface Specifically, the CPAU-ASD team should analyze the ratio of dollars expended under work orders/service to dollars expended under “blanket” accounts. Further, more generally, the team should establish a process to improve coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness. Schedule: Q2 2014 COMPLETED ASD worked closely with CPAU and other departments in developing and implementing a citywide inventory management policy and procedures. The policy and procedures included proper roles and assignments, inventory tracking and safeguarding. ASD and CPAU are meeting periodically to address slow moving inventory and inventory stored outside of the warehouse. COMPLETED: Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Policy, Management and Capacity Building Recommendations Staff Retention, Recruiting and Training CPAU and the HR Department to develop a five-year HR plan to address retention, succession, recruiting, and replacement. Team to review existing leadership and people development, training, apprenticeship, retention, and recruitment policies and identify gaps against industry best practice and what is needed to meet HR/staffing goals. A short-term action is for CPAU’s AD (in coordination with the HR Department) to contract with a qualified outside recruiter to focus on key hires. Schedule: Q1 2014 for needs assessment and five year plan scoping. Five- year plan by May 2014. ONGOING CPAU developed succession plans for each of its divisions and is seeking assistance from the People, Strategy and Operations (PSO) Department to address the issues related to staff retention, recruitment and training. A significant factor for attracting and retaining qualified employees is the total compensation package offered. STATUS UPDATE: CPAU continues to work with PSO on recruitment, retention and succession planning. CPAU is updating the five year succession plan including an organizational chart and matrix for each division identifying skill set gaps, employee eligibility for retirement and planned retirements. The department has initiated cross- training and rotational assignments to develop employee skill sets and provide growth opportunities and plan to continue this practice as these opportunities arise. CPAU is hiring a temporary Utilities Recruiter to assist PSOD with recruitments. The Utilities Recruiter is responsible for full-cycle recruitment including sourcing, screening, scheduling, interviewing and hiring candidates. Strengthen the Department’s Culture Integrate assessment findings in HR/staffing plans. Brief divisions on the cultural assessment’s findings. Also, CPAU should correlate these findings with the last two annual employee surveys. Identify improvement measures. Schedule: Q1 2014 and ongoing ONGOING CPAU has conducted four annual employee surveys since 2011 and the overall employee satisfaction rating had been gradually improving until the most recent survey. In 2015, 62% of the employees reported being either “very satisfied” or “satisfied”. This is the first time the satisfaction score was below the baseline of 63% set in 2011. STATUS UPDATE: Areas of improvement identified in the survey were improved communication, competitive compensation, new mobile devices for the field, replacement vehicles, and career development opportunities. As a result of the surveys, CPAU has increased training, provided rotational and cross-training assignments, developed new job classifications, and enhanced the employee recognition program. Additionally, CPAU and IT continue to work on mobile devices for the field, and CPAU and Fleet are replacing vehicles in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the field. Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Investigate high current ratio-electric and approach to CIP project financing/debt service Investigate if CPAU/City’s lack of debt service for CIP projects is appropriate, especially given the low cost of borrowing (See Figure 3-12, Current Ratio- Electric for more details). Schedule: Q2 2014 ONGOING Since CIP expenditure levels have been, and are projected to be, steady for most utilities, rate funding is appropriate. For unique or large projects, debt funding is pursued. For example, the $30 million Emergency Water Supply and Storage project was debt financed, but the annual water main replacement projects are rate funded. STATUS UPDATE: COMPLETE FOR WATER; ON-TRACK FOR GAS Master Plan for the Water Utility to address infrastructure replacement priorities has been completed. This data is now being incorporated in the CIP planning for the next CIP cycle. In addition, an analysis of gas pipe materials is in progress and will be used to complete a gas master planning process next year. Expand Use of Master Service Agreements (MSAs) Each division to develop a prioritized list of current and potential future MSAs and preparing a schedule for executing MSAs Schedule: Q1 2014 DEFERRED To ensure maximum collaboration and to remove departmental silos, staff has not pursued this recommendation. In the meanwhile, CPAU is responding to and providing feedback in customer satisfaction surveys that are being conducted by other departments. ONGOING CPAU continues to meet regularly with internal departments (i.e. City Attorney’s Office, Purchasing, IT, PSOD, Public Works) to address business needs and work prioritization. Cost Comparison Study for IT, Purchasing and HR Services Commission a study and hire a consultant to compare the quality and costs of these services provided as they are now (by City Departments) to those that could be provided by contractor resources. Alternatives should be considered such as increasing current contractor support to supplement current City functions to largely outsourcing these functions while leaving City management control for these services in place. Schedule: Q2 2014 – Issue RFP for study DEFERRED Deferred until the completion of the cost allocation study. STATUS UPDATE: In Fiscal Year 2015, ASD implemented a new citywide budget system. Therefore, the cost allocation study was deferred until Fiscal Year 2016. CPAU-City Cost Allocation Complete cost allocation study and make adjustments, as appropriate. Schedule: Q1 2015 DEFERRED Deferred until the completion of the cost allocation study. STATUS UPDATE: In Fiscal Year 2015, ASD implemented a new citywide budget system. Therefore, the cost allocation study was deferred until Fiscal Year 2016. Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update CPAU Managers to Participate in Performance Reviews of the Staff in other Departments that the CPAU Funds CPAU department managers should participate in annual performance reviews for all personnel whose costs are charged to CPAU. Schedule: Annually ONGOING CPAU managers currently informally provide input to the supervisors of those employees who provide services to CPAU for use in the annual performance evaluations. ONGOING Improve advance planning for CIP related procurements Action for Streamlined Procurement for Efficient and Effective Delivery (SPEED) Committee Schedule: Process in place by the beginning of Q2 2015 IN PROCESS Improvements to the procurement processes have begun and are being led by ASD. STATUS UPDATE: ASD has implemented PlanetBids as the City’s eProcurement system. The system provides vendor management, solicitation, evaluation, project reporting, contract compliance and management, and emergency services. As of July 13, 2015, all City of Palo Alto solicitations are handled through PlanetBids. In addition, to implementing PlanetBids, the City has implemented digital signature through DocuSign. DocuSign has reduced the turn-around time for signing contracts by at least 50 percent, from an average of 10 days to 5 or less. PlanetBids will be fully implemented in the fall 2015 timeframe at which time, along with benefits of digital signature, electronic document management and managed print services and other process and policy improvements, the turn-around time on CIP and other related procurements will be reduced further. Conduct twice yearly purchasing requisition training for CPAU staff involved in purchasing (including new hires) ASD, Purchasing Division and CPAU to develop and launch a 60 minute training Schedule: Begin Q1 2015 IMPLEMENTED Staff training on all aspects of the procurement processes has been implemented by ASD. Advanced purchasing training has been undertaken by Marketing Services staff in contract administration and project management COMPLETED Summary of Recommendations – Updated November 2015 Recommendation Implementation Actions/Schedule Utilities Action Status Update Improve Sharing of Best Practices CPAU to hold a forum where people from each of the Divisions present and discuss best practices. Create or expand repository for best practices and tools (possibly on SharePoint). Schedule: Begin Q1 2015 ONGOING Sharing of best practices has been ongoing in the form of presentations at divisional staff meetings, monthly safety meetings, and special training. SharePoint is in use by the Operations and Engineering Divisions and the Rates group in the Resource Management Division. INITIATION COMPLETED, EFFORT IS APPROPRIATELY ONGOING Annual review of staffing adequacy for new and emerging market areas. Annually, as part of CPAU’s annual budget process and at other times as appropriate, evaluate the adequacy of staff capacity (e.g., numbers and skill mix in other areas and associated customer service functions) to ensure that adequate resources are allocated to new or emerging market developments. Schedule: Annually ONGOING Annually, during the budget development process, management evaluates new initiatives and the staffing requirements for both new initiatives and any new regulatory requirements. The Emerging Technology/Test Bed program also receives applications for new technologies on a quarterly basis and promising ideas are tested. These are considered for ongoing implementation, as appropriate, in the budget planning process. INITIATION COMPLETED, EFFORT IS APPROPRIATELY ONGOING Cost-benefit reviews of any new program Conduct a brief cost versus benefit assessment of any new program proposals with potential material impact. Schedule: Ongoing and as part of annual budget process ONGOING CPAU’s standard practice when introducing any new programs is to evaluate the cost effectiveness and impact on rates and staffing. COMPLETED Note: this has an on-going nature. It is CPAU’s standard practice to determine cost-effectiveness of new programs.