Title
Accepting the Department Efficiency and Collaboration Study between Parks and Recreation and the Public Library Report conducted by Wilder Research.
Body
WHEREAS, the Saint Paul City Council Audit Committee, with support from the City Council (RES 23-1905), hired Wilder Research to study and make recommendations regarding the efficiencies and opportunities for collaboration, cost sharing, and process improvement within Saint Paul Parks and Recreation and Saint Paul Public Library; and
WHEREAS, on September 17, 2024, Wilder Research presented a preliminary report of their findings and recommendations in four functional areas (i.e., human resources and staffing, financial management and procurement, technology management and equipment, and facilities and maintenance) of both departments before the Saint Paul City Council Audit Committee; and
WHEREAS, the Saint Paul City Council Audit Committee accepted the report and voted to refer the study to the full City Council at its September 25, 2024 meeting along with a PowerPoint presentation ((Attachment A), and the report (Attachment B); and
WHEREAS the study identified the following key findings in each of the four functional areas:
Human Resources and Staffing
• The centralized human resource approach may not fully accommodate the specific needs of different departments.
• Hiring needed staff, especially seasonal staff, can be cumbersome, slowing down the hiring process. There is a need for an efficient hiring and on-boarding process to enable departments to fill positions quickly, particularly during the summer season.
• Cross training staff can reduce costs and create a pipeline for staff movement and promotion.
Financial Management and Procurement
• More coordination is needed between departments to avoid redundancy and inefficiencies in resource management to better navigate procurement processes, for example, utilizing common vendors and master contracts.
Technology Management and Equipment
• Managing budget constraints while keeping up with technological advances is a constant struggle especially given the rapid pace of change in the technology landscape.
• Greater collaboration on technology investments could prevent duplication of efforts and ensure that both departments benefit from technology advancements.
Facilities and Maintenance
• Staff express uncertainty on how best to optimize the use of physical spaces to reduce costs.
• There are current strategies in place to manage physical assets between departments designed to produce efficiencies and cost sharing, however, those strategies might not be used across all working sections in both departments; and,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Saint Paul City Council accepts the Department Efficiency and Collaboration Study between Saint Paul Parks and Recreation and Saint Paul Public Library Report conducted by Wilder Research in its entirety and recommends sharing the findings of the report with the Mayor, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department and Saint Paul Public Library.