FINANCE CONTROL BOARD, March 3, 2008

Present: Chairman Christopher Gabrieli, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Robert Nunes, James Morton, City Council President Bud Williams, City Clerk Wayman Lee

Public Comment

City Clerk Wayman Lee: Good morning. We will start the public comment portion of the finance control board meeting. Our first speaker will be Mr. George Pappas.

George Pappas: Good morning to the financial control board. I’m sorry I don’t know you individually. I’m a new resident of Springfield, and I moved here by choice with my wife and children, but thank you for letting me speak. And to Mayor Sarno, I wanted to extend a thank you to you and to your services and to you office with respect to the issue that is very important to myself and my neighbors dealing with the Longhill Garden [sic] question in the Forest Park area. Your office has given us an opportunity and, I believe, the community an opportunity...

City Councilor Bud Williams: Could you speak up just a little bit? That [microphone] doesn’t amplify. [unintelligible] hard time hearing [unintelligible]

George Pappas: I apologize. But your office has given us an opportunity to buy more time perhaps and seek out stakeholders. I am speaking as a member of Springfield Forward, a new non-profit organization, that was formed last Friday. And while Springfield Forward is looking at this particular issue, it is not going to stop with Forest Park. There are too many important issues around the whole city that need citizen involvement. And our community has made the commitment to reach out to all of you to express our concern with a current proposal that has been rubber stamped by the Forest Park Civic Association board of directors. And I’ll repeat that phrase, rubber stamped, because we as citizens and as residents had no clue until ten days ago that this very issue was even before the civic association. But now we do. And because we know it’s in front of us, we are getting involved.

This is an important issue, because the current proposal is a recipe for the same that’s been at Longhill Gardens. It’s going to be a continuation of crime, prostitution, drug dealing. This is a net cancer; it is a cancer upon the city, and we’re here to try to find better alternatives to the extent that we can. And our plea, our...my plea...is to find, with your cooperation, any opportunity to find more time, to seek out more stakeholders that may want to develop a better project in Longhill Gardens.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with this area of Forest Park. It’s actually a beautiful area of the community, but it represents an opportunity for Forest Park to take back not only a neighborhood, but perhaps the beginning of a city. If we can bring in stakeholders that can develop professional opportunities, mixed income opportunities—anything that doesn’t utilize tax payers’ money. The current proposal wants to borrow, maybe even receive, $14million to bring back the same old recipe: crime, drugs and prostitution.

Our police in Springfield are overburdened. Mayor Sarno, I think you wanted to hire another 50 policemen, and I hope you can. But if we keep building these types of dead-end solutions, 50’s not going to be enough. Thank you very much.

BW: Sir, just a comment, through the chair, Mr. Chairman? And I concur and agree with you and the stance you’re taking, your organization.

What we need to do in Springfield, which we’ve gotten away from, is to create more moderate housing. You know, everything we do is low income. When you create low income housing within a city you end up with a lot of poor people. And I have nothing against poor people, because the Good Lord made a lot of them. But certainly we better be very careful, very mindful in this city, that there’s a balance between low, moderate and up-scale. And if you have the balance, then it kind of, like, works. If we don’t have the balance, it doesn’t work. So I really have to concur with you. Hopefully the council and the mayor can work with the Forest Park Civic Association and the developer. Create low income housing down here, we know exactly, which path that’s going to take. Thank you.

Mayor Domenic Sarno: [unintelligible] ...know we’ve been very methodical on this, taking a step back, holding meetings, negotiating and bringing out to the neighborhood. We will continue to do that, and myself and the control board administration obviously we can do the best for Springfield, but I appreciate your comments.

GP: Thank you very much.

Nicola Manion: Good morning. My name is Nicola Manion and I am also a member of Springfield Forward. And we have suffered so intensely in my neighborhood. I live on Forest Park Avenue. And because of just the boarding up of the buildings, the last two months, we’ve seen a tremendous decrease in the traffic and the crime. But also, too, we know that it’s time for Springfield to try and do something more for the people. They need to have—not congregated in one spot. It’s a stigma to the people. It’s a project. It means they’re put in a place where they can’t develop. And people need to have—there are so many houses in Springfield with yards, fences, that could be used for people so that they could live in a situation nicer than what they’re used to. And I am here to really beg your help, in helping us, try to find a better and more community-oriented use for that land. And thank you very much.

WL: Mr. Charlie Paine.

Charlie Paine: Good morning. My name is Charles E. Paine. I’m the chairman of the citizens’ side of Indian Orchard Community Police. thank you for this opportunity to address the board on the [unintelligible] issues. It’s important and of great interest to the citizens of Springfield. The control board will soon make the decision that will greatly ratify and to the well-being and the long-term prosperity of the city. Naming appointment of a permanent police commissioner. I urge you to appoint William E. Fitchet. William E. Fitchet knows the city. More important, William Fitchet cares about the city, and, if appointed, he will stay in the city of Springfield. Springfield can ill-afford another carpetbagger for the police commission. The Commissioner Fitchet is a law enforce professional. He respects the women and the men of the police department work tirelessly and risk their lives for the people in Springfield day after day. Please listen to these citizens of Springfield and appoint William Fitchet as a permanent police commissioner. Thank you very much.

Timothy Collins: Good morning. I’m here to talk about a couple of things. Mayor Sarno, I want to congratulate you on the group that you’ve had regarding public education over the last few months. My understanding is their report is coming out. I’m here to urge you and the members of the control board to get together with the school committee, because I think we’re putting the cart before the horse. We need to—and that was an excellent group of people; they did a professional job, well-respected; they heard from teachers and administrators, business, parents---and we need to determine what it is we want of a superintendent. Regardless of who the superintendent is, I think this report will guide the direction of change in the Springfield public schools. It will be what parents want, what teachers think they need, what administrators in the buildings think they need. And we need, before we search for a superintendent, to know what direction we want that person to take us in. So I urge you to get together with the school committee and let’s put this political battle aside about who’s going to be the superintendent and let’s talk about what we want from a superintendent to make these schools better so our children leave our schools with the skills they need to survive and thrive.

And I also want to put in a plug for the members of Local 7 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the building trades, the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO, project labor agreement their trying to get with the city. On the private side, Baystate Medical is in the process of finalizing that project labor agreement and there’s a commitment to have 20% of the work done by minority residents of the city of Springfield. This is economic development that we need, living wage jobs. They’re committed to taking these young folks and putting them into their apprentices programs in the 14 different trades that will be involved in the building of the new facility at Baystate Medical. I know it’s a little more difficult to do it on the public side, but with the building of the new Putnam Vocational High School and either Forest Park or Balliet, whichever other building makes the list, I think it’s critical that we extend the project labor agreement on the public side as well.

If we want to get out of this struggle that we’re in, we need living wage jobs, and we need to develop the skills of our young folks so that they can see a future for themselves here in the city of Springfield. So those are the two issues that I bring to you. I hope you consider taking the report that this well-respected group is going to be giving to Mayor Sarno today. And I hope you can bring the school committee and yourselves together and talk about what we want of a superintendent and then it’ll be time to look for who that person’s going to be. Thank you very much.

WL: That’s our last speaker for today.

Control Board Meeting

Approval of the Minutes [Audio was turned off.]

**MINUTES APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

Control Board Executive Director Steve Lisauskas: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The next item on the agenda is a presentation of the Davis Foundation on a request for a grant. I would like, if possible, to –I don’t believe Ms. Walachy is with us at the moment. She’s expecting to be here at 11:00 or so. since we’re starting a little bit earlier, I ‘m wondering whether we could postpone that one the agenda.

[Unintelligible]

SL: Thank you very much. The next item on the agenda is...

Chairman Chris Gabrieli: Needless to say, she did not expect us to be ahead of schedule.

Bills of Prior Year

SL: That is true, Mr. Chairman, thank you. The next item on the agenda, item number IV, Bills of a Prior Year. The request before you is to fund the one item in the treasurer’s department accounting services, approximately $3800. of a bill that was incurred in 2007, as you can see from the attachment. It was invoiced on 6-30-2007, and was not able to be paid on 6-30-2007. As such, it rolled into FY2008; it needs to be paid from proceeds in 2008. The second attachment, just the list of bills of a prior year that have already been paid, were approved by this board in the fall.

**MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY

Snow and Ice Deficit Spending Authorization

SL: Thank you very much. The next item on the agenda, item number V, Snow and Ice Deficit Spending Authorization. This is somewhat ministerial, though still important. The Chapter 44 of the Massachusetts General Laws, which is the finances, sets forth the financial obligations and requirements on cities and towns in Massachusetts, authorizes deficit spending in one account which is the snow and ice account. Due to the emergency nature of snow and ice removal, at times cities and towns will experience a deficit and are required to continue to remove snow and ice for purposes of public safety and public convenience. The order before you under number V would authorize the city to incur a snow and ice deficit. This is a, as I said, somewhat ministerial...it’s common among cities and towns, but it would allow the city to enter into deficit spending if required. And we anticipate if there’s another storm or perhaps even with bills that are coming in, there’s the potential of going into a deficit position, so this would authorize the city to incur and pay those bills on next year’s tax recap.

CG: Was this year’s spending higher than last year’s due to the difference in the winter?

SL: It is. This has been a heavy winter. We have approximately $1.2million in the account and have paid approximately $1.1million in snow and ice bills. There are some potential of receiving additional bills which is why the concern for deficit spending.

RN: [unintelligible] in the next year you may look at just paying it off this year with the reserves that we have, since the reserves are significant.

SL: Yes, yes, sir. We will look to do that.

DS: Mr. Chairman, [unintelligible] Mayor Nunes brings up. By law you can technically report this. You can deficit spend for snow removal on that. And rest assured to the residents and business community city of Springfield, if (knock on wood, I hope we don’t...) we don’t get any more snow of inclement weather, the DPW will be out there to make sure the streets are safe and clean. But technically, we have to abide by this and put it in. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

SL: Yes, sir.

James Morton Steve, do we have approximately how much we’re spending per snow storm? I know it’s difficult with the amount of snow being unpredictable, but do we have an average amount we’re spending?

SL: We have an average amount per inch, and I apologize, I don’t recall that off the top of my head. I will be able to.

CG: Mr. Sullivan’s letter indicates got a [unintelligible] here of $60,000.

SL: For parks and recreation.

DS: That’s for parks.

CG: Oh, I see...next just for that, yeah.

SL: Maybe a $100,000 something per inch, but I’ll need to find that out for you. I apologize for not having it, and we’ll have that for you this afternoon.

DS: Mr. Chairman, we do have DPW director Al Chwalek here if you want any clarification. Obviously, storms vary whether they are out sanding or salting or prep work and/or to heavy storms. And the timing is always difficult, but if you want Mr. Chwalek...

DPW Director Al Chwalek: Good morning.

CG: Good morning.

JM: Can you give us a sense of how much we’re spending per snow storm, but it sounds like you’ve got a figure per inch. What is that figure?

AC: Well, certainly I mean, there’s a lot of factors: the amount, the intensity, duration, but on any given storm, we spend between $12,000. to $15,000. per hour. That’s about 130 pieces of equipment. An average storm, meaning a 6” storm, could run us about $130,000. per storm. Certainly as it gets it’s a little bit more difficult to fight, the price does go up.

JM: It’s good to have a sense as we think about voting in favor of this....

AC: I certainly hope it doesn’t snow any more. I think everybody’s sort of...

[unintelligible]

RN: What’s the appropriation [unintelligible] information on this?

AC: $1.2million roughly.

CG?: You’ve used $1.1million.

AC: We haven’t actually completed the pricing from Saturday’s storm yet, but I’m pretty sure we’ll exceed the $1.2million

SL: With the bills that are coming in.

AC: That’s correct.

RN: Thank you.

**MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

Presentation by the Davis Foundation and Request for Appropriation

SL: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, if it pleases the board, we could go back to item number III I believe.

CG: Please.

SL: Mrs. Walachy. The presentation...this will occur in two parts: both a presentation from Mary Walachy from the Davis Foundation and then also a requested order of appropriation to fund a grant.

Mary Walachy: Good morning. My apologies. I...we weren’t late, I don’t think. We were told to be here at 11:00.

SL: You were early.

CG: Mr. Collins told us last time to be on time, so now we’re ahead of schedule.

DS: Good morning, Mary.

BW: Just a quick question before we get started. I’m not really familiar with the process in terms of grants and how this board handles that and if the request is made today, it’s voted on today?

CG: In this case, yes. We can decide not to proceed. This is a project that started under the previous, you know, under the previous...when you were not on the control board in terms of our interest and active monitoring of something being brought forward by Springfield folks, and I think that the....both the importance of the potential project, you know, the timing is that it would be attractive to do so today, but I clearly with this if you want further information after this discussion, we could defer until the later meeting in March. I am going to seek a vote if you feel satisfied by the information.

BW: As I’ve said, I’ve heard about it. This is the first bit of public information I’ve been privy to, so I don’t know if I’m going to be prepared to vote on this or not. I’m not sure...

CG: [unintelligible] depending on how you feel about it.

BW: All right, thank you.

MW: OK, well, good morning and thank you. It’s really a pleasure and an honor to be here and let me just say not only thank you for this morning, but thank you for all that you’re doing on behalf of the city of Springfield. Not...I’m going to...here I’m going to talk really fast so that I’m going to try to do that either stop me or make me go faster if I’m not proceeding quickly enough.

CG: I would encourage you, Mary, this is an important item even if the amount of money is modest in total size. The project that you’re putting...I think, particularly considering the city council president doesn’t feel...I want to make sure you have the time to present ask questions and others

MW: OK then stop me or whatever you need to do. Let me just tell...You have a copy of the [PowerPoint] presentation that we’re going to do here this morning. What you also have is a small piece of paper that lists the individuals in the community, many of those in positions of leadership that we have at least presented on this idea of a local education fund to date. I think most of you know the foundation, so I’m not I can spend a lot of time talking about that I think what I will say is just an opening statement that I think it’s pretty clear that the Davis Foundation has spent a considerable amount of time, energy and resources addressing the issues of Springfield. We care deeply about the city of Springfield and certainly all the citizens who live in it, particularly our children and particularly our children in the public school system.

I did a report for our new mayor a couple of weeks ago, and you might be interested to know that in the last five years alone, the Davis Foundation has committed over $10million to the city of Springfield. So we are very serious about assisting this community. And with that thought in mind, we began some time ago to really take a look at our work in education and how we were supporting the various efforts, both in the public schools and some of the private schools. We’ve been doing a lot in education. And, frankly, while we think some strides have been made, we have a long way to go. We had begun some conversations really many years back with the an organization called the Public Education Network which is a national network of local education funds across the country. So I want to just give you a quick presentation to be sure everyone’s clear what a local education fund is and then talk specifically about its appropriateness to Springfield.

The first thing I’m going to ask you to do is forget the word “fund,” because people automatically think that’s about raising money and giving out money. there is a small component to that, but really this organizations...it’s not the best word, but because it’s a national word (it’s used across the country), we’re using it, too.

So, what’s a local education fund? A local education fund is an organization that’s independent of the school department. It’s a 501c3. It’s professionally staffed with a board that reflects the community. It works specifically in high poverty urban communities. To be a member of the national network of local education funds, you have to meet certain criteria in terms of children in poverty and urban settings, and fortunately or unfortunately, Springfield makes the grade on both of those areas.

The organization itself is committed to whole school reform. It’s about ensuring that a community of children in a specific community have a high quality of education. And it’s about engaging stakeholder in a community to really work to push that school reform to ensure continuing success for kids. Just to be clear, I’d love to say that the Davis Foundation and all the people who work there are brilliant, but, frankly, we’re not. We didn’t “thunk” this one up ourselves; this is a part of a national network. We’ve been having conversations with them for some time. Many of you know Paul Reville who is now the chair of the board of education for the state of Massachusetts. Previously Paul was board member, chair of the board of the national network, and I will also disclose that Paul has been an advisor to us in some of our education work through his work at the Rennie Center for Education Policy and Research and at his work at Harvard. And so we have had this conversation for some time in a number of communities that we fund looking at the potential to start a local education fund.

So, just to give you a sense of the breadth of local education funds across the country, as you can see, they’re in 34 states, 83 members, 12million children are represented by local education funds. I won’t read this thorough. They’re not only in existence in the United States, but they’re also in existence internationally more recently and you can see some of the key states that are currently have local education funds. Obviously, this presentation, the real question on the table: “Is a local education fund appropriate for Springfield at this time?” And we’re asking for some resources to pursue that exploration in detail.

So what do local education funds do? Number 1, they do research. They look at local data and analyze data to determine and educate the community about what the data says and what the actions ought to be associated with that data. They provide knowledge. Local education funds become experts in various forms of ed reform (What are the most...best practice models?) Let’s assume, for instance, we’re taking a look at early literacy. One of the arenas that Davis has more recently sort of put a stake in the ground on is on reading scores. We all know that the research is clear: if children don’t read by the end of grade three, they rarely catch up. 60% of the children in Springfield do not read at proficiency. A local education fund might play a role in that of helping the community of educators understand what is absolute best practice in early literacy programs and, potentially, share that knowledge and training with the local community.

They’re about policy. They’re about advocating for district wide policy and for funding reform. Myself and members of my staff recently attended a national conference of local education funds, and I will be clear, local education fund leaders told us they spend a significant amount of time analyzing the school budget, determining if budget resources are allocated appropriate to the needs of children based in a review of the data as I mentioned earlier. And so that’s an example of where they might play a role in advocating for change and reform in policy and in funding.

Obviously, they communicate. We need to make sure that all the citizens in Springfield, both the parents, the leaders, the business leaders, educators are clear about what’s happening in the schools. And I’m not here to say that we know that already, but we need to keep our eye on the prize and we need to continue to hold the schools and the community accountable for the success for kids. And then they’re about constituency building. This is about work in school and out of school. Our chairperson, Mr. Gabrieli, is obviously a staunch supporter and we are as well of the value of out of school work as well. And the local education fund has a role in building constituents for children both in and out of school.

So what is our local education fund do? It advocates for accountability. I know that this board is interested in ensuring that various structures of accountability are in place so that we can continue to move forward in Springfield, and we see local education fund as a vehicle for accountability, continued and improved accountability, with regard to the education of our school children. We advocate for improvement; again education...innovative best practice models. We talk...we do education funds do raise resources. Let me be clear about that.. Both local resources as well as national resources. One of the nice things about being a member of the public education network nationally is they are very successful at raising national funds to address public education efforts across the country, and those resources are then [gestures] can’t think of the word; you start up there and then...

SL: Distributed?

MW: Thank you! ..distribute those resources to the member communities. Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m promising that we will get scads of national resources if we have a Springfield local education fund, but we will be in a position to advocate for those funds and so certainly it is also a role for many local education funds to raise funds on a state level, a national level, and a local level that then can be distributed.

Many of you may know of local education funds in more suburban communities that do things like teacher grants, raise funds for teacher grants and then have a competition and teachers are given resources. Frankly, that is something that could happen within this fund, but that is not...it is not really about a re-granting process. This is really much more about accountability structure, best practice structure and a policy and advocacy organization. But we certainly would propose that the local education fund do what it can to attract and increase the amount of resources that are available to the system and the community.

Obviously, we advocate for community involvement. In order for our children to be successful, it takes the whole community. We need business leaders, we need parents, we need those individuals in positions of influence to frankly care. And I’m not suggesting in any way that they don’t. You’re certainly all a perfect example, but we need more. And we need people with sustained commitments to really paying attention to what’s happening with kids, looking at the data and looking at the resources and really setting our eye on a prize that is absolutely got to be success for absolutely every child in Springfield. And we have to work, basically, to build leadership, to build knowledge, and to build momentum for innovation.

So why Springfield? Well, we’ve again been doing a lot of the research, talking with a lot of people (we have many more to speak to as a part of this work), but we’re...we feel that right now is a good time to think about the establishment of a local education fund in Springfield, and frankly, let me say, having just mentioned earlier that the Davis Foundation has committed well over $10million to Springfield, that possibly we could do it alone, but that’s not what this is about. This is about the community taking ownership in this particular initiative. If Davis were to do it by itself, it really does not accomplish what it needs to accomplish. We need a community wide effort. We need business leaders, we need parents, we need educators all to stand up and support this work. And, again, not to say it’s not already happening, but this cannot be about the Davis Foundation, nor is it. We’ve already met with a number of community leaders who are behind this effort. So we think that it’s the right time in Springfield, because frankly we need to...children need to do better. Secondly, there have been a number of efforts, many of which we’ve been behind such as Step up Springfield, Cherish Every Child which has been focused on the early ed agenda as well as some work in wonderful work with the regional employment board for literacy efforts for adults, all of which are great things, but there needs to be a sort of a consolidated, organized effort that says “OK what are the priorities for Springfield, how do we keep our eye on those priorities and how do we work together to frankly be sure that resources are not sort of, sort of spread in so many arenas that we actually don’t accomplish what we need to accomplish?” (All good efforts, all well-meaning, but frankly, we sometimes dissipate the opportunities for impact, because we’re trying to do too much.) We think there’s a climate for this right now; there has always been, but certainly we this body has certainly also raised the awareness of around your interest in ensuring that the educational efforts in Springfield...and certainly, Mayor, I know that you are...certainly put your stake in the ground on ensuring that we improve the schools as well as Councilor Williams. And frankly the future of Springfield depends on us improving our public education system.

So, what would a proposed education fund do in the city of Springfield? And I don’t know if I’m going to walk you through every single one of these, but first is obviously to establish a coalition of support that engages all stakeholders to develop a comprehensive vision and plan for the education of Springfield’s children, a diverse group that represents parents, business leaders, community stakeholders and that would continue to make the case that the future of Springfield schools depend on...excuse me the future of Springfield depends on high quality schools. Frankly, a local education fund would serve as a (and I like this word, these words) “a critical friend” to the school district. There are times when we can be in complete support of the work of the district, but at times there’s occasions when there is a need for others who sit outside the district to be able to put some pressure on the district and those in positions of leadership to take a look at what’s happening, monitor best practice, monitor district performance and engage the community in holding the district accountable. And the community of citizens accountable. And then again make concrete suggestions for policy and financial reform. Again, moving on, local education fund would provide a unified structure, build coherence, connect the district reduce overhead costs and when we talk about that we’re referring to some of the many external efforts that are currently taking place in the city associated with education programs and efforts. We have a lot of them happening.

I’m not going to say that tomorrow we’re going to sort of collapse all of that work and some should not be collapsed, but if we had a...again a board of business leaders and concerned citizens and parents, there would be a conversation around which ones should we continue to sustain, what’s really critical, what’s the eye on the prize? What are the four or five goals that we’ve identified for this district to accomplish? And let’s stick with those and not necessarily be diverted by lots of wonderful opportunities, but not necessarily the right opportunities. And I don’t think I’ll go through the rest; I think you can see those. I will comment again on the last one that we can connect and leverage with the national effort across the nation.

So I’m here as I understand it to ask, we want to move this forward. We want to continue to have conversations. Davis does not want to do it alone. Davis has not done it alone. We do have a body of individuals who are willing to step forward and move this agenda. What we’d like to do is begin to conduct an organizing campaign/education campaign to continue to educate more members of the community about what a local education fund is, what it can do for the city of Springfield, what it can do for our children, to conduct a feasibility study. In order for this to be successful, we believe that there...it should not be about having to raise dollars every day. We want to see the ability for business leaders, the community to step forward and...including ourselves and other private and corporate funders to secure funding for at least a three to five years of operating support to go out the gate so that that’s sort of off the table as...and this organization can actually get to the work. And then finally to develop a business plan related to the feasibility study and the need for operating support. And I think that’s my last slide.

SL: What I think, Mr. Chairman as the board considers the proposal, the governor and the board have outlined...laid out three priorities economic development, education and governance for the city of Springfield, and the control board approximately a year and a half ago undertook a similar effort in working with a business group for the ULI and provided funding to support private fund raising on the Urban Land Institute study which has set forth a framework for economic...furthering economic development downtown and in Springfield generally. So this is consistent...the independent review of the LEF is consistent with prior actions taken with regard to the Urban Land Institute which I believe was funded for $75,000., but working with a private partner to pursue an independent review of what steps we could take for the three priorities laid...set forth by the governor.

MW: And let me clarify, this is not a request for funding to the Davis Foundation. We don’t even know how to bring in money; we only know how to put it out (which is a good thing) and the Springfield Chamber has stepped forward, as they did with the ULI effort, to serve in this capacity and to play a leadership role in the activities that I mentioned.

DS: Mr. Chairman. First of all, I think everybody knows where Chris Gabrieli and myself and the rest of the board and I really commend Chris on the educational front for putting his money where his mouth is and we realize if we’re really going to turn around, continue to turn around the city of Springfield, we have to deal with the root cause of the educational system. Mary, as far as the Davis Foundation, yourself and John Davis and we’ve met a number of times in prior years. You’ve really been a catalyst as far as whether it’s a education and/or non-profits or community centers and you’re really taking the lead as far as pre-K efforts and also besides the Read-by-Three the summer disconnection of keeping kids connected during the summer, because we also see that that two or three month period of...that two month period where kids are not in programs whether through community centers and tying in not only recreation education, they fall behind the wayside. So I, you know, firmly believe that the Davis Foundation and John and yourself, you’re reputation proceeds you so for all the work that you’ve been able to do and thank you for continuing your investment for well over $10million and believing in the city of Springfield. So I’m very excited about this and all the stakeholders and inclusion that’s going to occur. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CG: Mary, a couple of questions. Just to clarify, I think I know, roughly, the answers [unintelligible] at least one of them, but I think as you know, local education funds are not publicly funded. And I think that would be an important criteria to have here so this would be an exception in the sense of the control board appropriating some money toward development of a plan. And the reason I think for us to do that would be if there’s sort of enough evidence a) if we believe a local education fund is a long-term asset to education [unintelligible] in a second, but b) if we believe that there is, you know, an authentic Springfield-based, you know, group coming together to do it. It’s certainly not something that we would ever want to impose on a community ... [unintelligible] a good idea.

MW: Nor would we.

CG: With regard to the first point of whether it’s a good idea, I certainly could share with my fellow control board members, I am familiar with local education funds. I’ve served on the board of the one in Boston called the Boston Plan for Excellence (it’s been around for twenty years) and I attended the meeting that you held here with Wendy Puriefoy who runs the Public Education Network, and I can certainly say that both in my experience in Boston, the experience in Worcester where there’s been one you know they’re excellent piece for large cities, larger cities, of how to...take all of the foundation and business and community assets that want to help the schools and kind of put it in focus and provide that kind of independence that’s often important for you know for the most [unintelligible]. Certainly the Boston Plan for Excellence has played a huge role in Boston for example, winning the [unintelligible] prize as the top urban district in America. And so that’s the basis of my being interested and supportive personally.

I guess my question though is: you give us a list here of who’s attended meetings, and I know that the Davis Foundation has been working with laying some ground work. Can you just tell us a) a little bit about the ground work that’s been laid and b) do you have the initial reaction of these individuals in general has been...how much support [unintelligible]

MW: Well, they’ve been. Again, let me just say again, that we as a foundation have been looking at the structure of local education for some time. We’re not in the last six months; it’s been something really on our radar. We’ve actually talked to the community of Holyoke some years back, and they made...they did an organizing effort, which, frankly, didn’t result in them being successful and that’s unfortunate, but they, but as I understand, looking at it again. With regard...we have really been doing similar presentations across the community. I gave you a list of some of the members of some of the presentations we’ve been at and, frankly, one question is certainly and we have it as well is “Do we really need another 501c3?” and you know, really “Help me to understand shy that would be needed since we have such struggles supporting the 501c3s we already have.” But we feel pretty strongly about that we really are...in this case, it does make sense. I talk with business leaders in particular you know say “We all ought to be together; we all ought to set the same priorities; we ought be consistent about out really the eye on the prize and really having a real concerted, strong sustained effort to assist the schools.” And I say “That’s great, but I know how busy you are and unless there’s an organized effort for somebody who’s holding us accountable to stay in the game, it’s not going to happen. And that’s really been the reaction is that people see this as one way to sort of keep us all focused on the right work and then secondly I will say that people are encouraged and enthusiastic about the thought (and again it will re...we’ll have to work at this) to get the community to agree to a certain number of initiatives and goals associated with our school children, such as (an example and certainly our priority, but it may or may not be this organization’s priority) reading by end of grade three. That’s an example. We could pick 17 things to do for children up to grade three, but in this case, for instance, that’s an example of them putting concerted effort into it and holding the community and the schools accountable to address that issue. There are a lot of things happening in the school. I don’t ever want to suggest that we don’t have hard-working, committed educators who are doing the best they can. They need help. They need external help and they need internal help, and this is an effort. So, Chris, again, is everybody 100% behind it today? No. Do some people not understand it completely yet? Yes, starting with the word “education fund.” Somebody just thinks they say “fund;” they say “Davis Foundation;” they think “Oh boy, lots of money.” There’s a piece of money involved here, but it’s really more about research, accountability, constituency building, and best practice.

JM: Mary, this is my third presentation.

MW: Sorry, James.

JM: No, it was excellent as were the previous two. I see this as an excellent opportunity for the many divergent groups that are committed to public education coming together and sharing through this kind of an initiative, you know, some of the best practices and best strategies for serving Springfield youth. I see this as the way for us to do that. The question I have is: you’re seeking $25,000. in support, but I also understand that there is additional dollars of support for this part of the campaign. Can you share with us that?

MW: No, that’s actually...we have allocated some resources at this point to hire the Rennie Center for Education Policy and Research to give guidance and to assist us in sort of you know being clear about the effort and, and to educate us on best practice. And we’ve worked with PEN, the national network. Right now, the request is just...we’re not anticipating raising any more dollars. At this point, it’s just $25,000. to hire someone to be more full-time, do the remainder, with certainly our help as well, the remainder of sort of community education. We have lots more to do. We have presentations to do. And I’m looking at Tim Collins in the...I’ve mentioned to Tim “I’ve got to meeting with you on this; we’ve got to meet” and we haven’t met yet. We certainly have to meet with the school committee as well and many others. The real funding, James, is really associated with the operating support. Let me be clear: we’re not talking about millions of dollars here. We do not want to develop a huge 501c3; this is...we’re talking a leadership person and some administrative support. If this organization becomes a program deliverer, we’ve made a serious mistake. This is really about higher order research, data collection analysis, education, accountability, research, best practice. It’s not about running programs.

BW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll probably be the only dissenting vote today. Just two points you raise, and it’s very important to me, and I’ve taking a position ever since I’ve been in government that anything dealing with the school department that comes before me and the school department hasn’t had a chance to at least look at the proposal, talked about it, that I’ve been really...

MW: School department?

BW: School department, school board...

MW: Let me be clear, I realize, certainly, members of Joe Burke’s staff have...are very aware of this effort.

BW: School committee?

MW: I have had individual conversations with a couple school committee, but I have not...we have not formally...

BW: They have not endorsed this as a board.

MW: No, the have not.

BW: OK, that would be a sticking point with me.

MW: OK.

CG: We’re just going [unintelligible] Part of the reason these get formed in communities is to have a truly independent voice, so they’re always viewed in all communities as a mixed blessing, more positive than negative, [unintelligible] but they’re seen as...they are an independent...

BW: Mr. Chairman, if they’re going to be that independent, then the city shouldn’t be putting money into it.

CG: And one of the reasons why I brought up that on an on-going basis that it could get public funding so that we would be considering it today....I would not support any public funding on a sustained basis is whether as a control board, we would support an effort coming up from the...arising from the community to see whether an LEF could work in Springfield. On an on-going basis, I would be against city funding, and I think so would PEN and everybody else, because these things have to be authentically private.

BW: But the taxpayer’s going to say “You’ve put money into this situation” and certainly, they should have input to it. If it’s $1.00; people look at $1.00, $1million, $1.00. Look at $1.00 from taxpayers, they have the...should have the right for input, because then now that makes you part of the public process. It just does, in my estimation. The other point you say the school committee hasn’t endorsed this...

MW: Not as a formal body.

BW: Not as a formal body.

MW: Because again let me be clear...we’re in the exploration phase; we’re not in the “it’s-a-done-deal” phase. They are certainly a part of that conversation in moving forward.

BW: I understand. This is my first...you folks have probably heard it two or three times...I...this is the first time I’ve ever...I’ve heard about it, talked about it, and people’ve been mentioning it, but I don’t...I have not had any formal or any information. And just in terms of...you say you’re going to deal with primarily K, pre-K to 3?

MW: This is about public school children in public school system.

BW: How is this...we have Headstart that’s involved now doing their thing...how does that....are they incorporated in this? I mean, how do you....?

MW: This is about...this is an effort to look at how children are educated in Springfield in pre-K minimally through graduation, public schools. We certainly are...it’s not about program. It’s just about taking a look at the data associated with the success of children and ensuring that those things are in place that would ensure the success of children, whether...for instance, Davis has been a staunch supporter of universal pre-K (having every child who’s three, four and five, have a pre-K experience). This organization can certainly support that work, help assist in making sure it happens for Springfield. Headstart is a part of that system. Everybody who’s in the public education system and private education system are a part of ensuring the success of children. It’s not a either/or.

BW: And then I see...then I see that this initiative has a lot of...there’s a lot of business people involved in this. It’s primarily business people. It’s driven...

MW: We, we have prioritized at the moment a number of presentations to business community, because one of the succ—one, “powerless children need powerful friends” to quote a very good friend of mine. Secondly, frankly we’re going to need to make...raise some resources associated with the operating support, and we will be looking to the business community for a significant piece of those resources.

BW: So this $25,000.is just, I mean, if it’s such a small amount of money, what’s the main motivation, the main point, for $25,000. which Davis could probably write a check for $25,000.

MW: We could; I said that. We could write a check tomorrow. It’s about support from the community. It’s about a demonstration of others’ interest not unlike the work that’s been done with the ULI.

CG: And I want to be clear, because I don’t want to put the Davis Foundation on the spot. This is...arises from conversations last year, and I...the reason I am in favor of the control board considering it is I do think one of our jobs as a control board is to look to the long term institutions that would succeed for Springfield and to take actions that support that. And in that, just as the executive director pointed out, we did with the Urban Land Institute report. So the reason I think for us to do it is not chiefly to financial thing, but to actually support a effort to see if long-term institution can be put in place that in other communities has proven to be an important part of successful reform. I want to be clear, just my interest, for example, my support for example is much less on the pre-K discussion which tends to be about adding something. In Boston, the LEF that I’m well familiar with has played a central role in helping, for example, evaluate some of the major initiatives. I think in Springfield we’ve got under the contract this whole development of “master teachers” and I forget what the other “instructional leaders.” There’s a crying need, for example, for independent research to look at questions like “Is that actually effective or not effective?” There’s been...there’s a debate going on about, you know, the appropriateness of a more standardized curriculum. “Is it effective or not effective?” and so that has been the role of LEFs has been to look at issues in the school systems and, you know, be very independent, hence my agreeing that we should not give public funding on an on-going basis.

MW: Frankly, the other thing is this control board is a very prestigious group, and to have the support of the control board for the exploration is important.

BW: Yeah, but in Boston, you have a appointed school committee.

CG: Correct.

BW: I don’t know. This is just...I mean...I’ve had a 15 minute presentation. I just don’t feel I can vote for this today based upon...nothing against the Davis group, they do great work, they’ve invested $10million; that’s all great, but on this initiative that asks me to vote for it.... You folks have had at least...I mean Mayor Nunes is probably the only one that hasn’t (maybe he has, I don’t know). I just don’t feel comfortable in voting. And I didn’t even realize it was on the agenda to be.... I saw it in the evening, but there was no explanation or anything. I had no idea, so....

RN: Mr. Chairman, if this goes forward, what would the relationship be with the school committee, with the school administration?

MW: I’m sorry, you’re asking me? I’m sorry, I thought you were asking him [indicates CG].

RN: What would be the relationship be between this organization, the school committee and the school superintendent and his staff...his [unintelligible] staff?

MW: I guess the word that I’ll come back to was in the presentation was “critical friend.” In some communities, the superintendent of schools, as an example, is an ex officio member of the board. In other instances, the same is the case with the school committee. It really becomes the decision of the organizing board, the local education fund. Clearly, we would like a collaborative venture that is all, I think we all agree where the...where we’re all headed, but occasionally there’ll be opportunities on both sides where there will be differences of opinion and so we need to set a structure that feels comfortable for all involved and that doesn’t set up a situation where this cannot be an independent group that can do the kind of research that Mr. Gabrieli mentioned and be able to put out the data and analysis in a way that is, you know, appropriate.

CG: I think in other communities, Bob, where these have come in place, if they’ve become so crosswise with the school committee and/or the superintendent and staff that they’re not listened to, they can’t be effective. And, on the other hand, if they become just cheerleaders for all that exists, they become sort of irrelevant. So the successful ones have been quiet “critical friends” who raise issues about policy and provide the role...one of the reasons I think this is a particularly interesting thing for Springfield is [unintelligible] what Mary said which is linking Springfield to...through the public education network to the national agenda. The issues in Springfield are the same issues as they are in Pittsburg or in New York and in Boston and many other cities around the across the states and across the country, small and medium and large. It’s difficult though sometimes to tackle all that and there’s an increasing amount of resources (Gates, Annenberg, [unintelligible], etc.) that like to be distributed through those [unintelligible] so in some cases (for example, Boston) the LEF has played a pretty big role in bringing in $10million from Annenberg (actually quite a bit from Annenberg: millions, tens of millions from Annenberg) from Gates and so on, because they didn’t want to, don’t want to give a grant directly to the school system. They want to give a grant to an independent player who will work with the school system, so they have that.... There’s no guarantee that will happen in Springfield, but it’s fair to guarantee that absent that, it’s very...there’s a lot of funders who won’t come to town, because they don’t’ want to give money only to public authorities; they want somebody that has to [unintelligible]

RN: And the goal is to be a partner, not...

CG: The goal is to be a partner.

BW: So, Mr. Chairman, what would happen...the money comes in and they distribute the money as they see fit independent of the city?

CG: Well, typically, for example...

BW: If Gates gives them $5million.

CG: ...in Boston, Gates...the city was interested in and the school department was interested in the smaller high school concept. Gates provided a lot of funding through the Boston Plan for Excellence to do a lot of the coaching, consulting, and transition work to go from large high schools to small. Couldn’t have been done without the complete support of the school side, but it was done independently of the school department in terms of that...those pieces. Does that make sense? So that of course the school committee had to approve the change to small high schools and so forth; that’s totally within their province to set policy for the schools, but the funding to do the transition came from Gates through the Boston Plan for Excellence.

MW: PEN network is a national network. We have had lots of support from them already. They have a model of how to develop a local education fund, a training program for staff, a model for bylaws, so again this isn’t something that we won’t get the support...it doesn’t mean we can’t and shouldn’t mold it to be appropriate to reflect what our needs are here in Springfield, but, you know, we’re not re-inventing the wheel in terms of some of this work which frankly is a time-saver and a really a consummate best practice organizations.

CG: [unintelligible] remind you a vote for this a vote to have an LEF, that’s not a decision we’re going to make. It’s not our authority; it’s a 501c3; it’s not a public entity; it’s also not something that we would on-going fund. It is in my opinion only a vote to support and make clear we support an effort to see whether a structure that has been effective in, you know, 40 or 50 cities across the country on this same basis might be good for Springfield. And I think there’re some...you’ve [MW] raised a couple of the key questions. That’s why I asked you. One is “Is it sustainable at this scale?” (It’s clearly been most successful in the larger cities.

MW: And that’s a challenge.

CG: Worcester does have one, so, you know, different question as to whether Springfield’s large enough. That’s going to come down to whether enough of the private sector community businesses and foundations come together and say “We are going to fund it.” I’m was glad to see you consider one of the criteria that three to five years of support, because I...my personal advice wouldn’t proceed if you don’t.

MW: Frankly, that...we’ve made that commitment as a foundation. As much as we will commit, should we move forward if the community elects to move forward, we will provide some on-gong operating support a) we won’t do it alone, and b) we will not do it at all unless we have the commitment that we have three to five years, and we’d like it to be more like five years of sustainable support, because the other thing is we want this organization to get to work, and if they have to be out there raising money every year for the first few years, it is really divert the attention to the work that’s most important right now.

DS: Mr. Chairman, just a...I look at two words here: “facilitation” and “linkage” and the buy-in, as Mr. Collins, Tim Collins, has said with transition team, I have, this is a buy-in, inclusion, not only from the community or parents and/or students, but to the business community as we know and key word we’re looking to revolutionize the way we do business and educate our Springfield public school system. Not only to keep our residents in the city, but also it is the conduit, the farm system, for economic development. So I think you’re being the facilitator linkage, the buy-in with inclusion and when you make people feel part of it, then they feel author of ownership on it. And this is something unique; it’s innovative. Chairman Gabrieli has worked very closely in Boston and really has done an outstanding job on the educational front. So, you’re brought in as change agents here and need to work with everybody involved, but again the Davis Foundation’s precedes itself, and anything that the Davis Foundation puts their name to is something that I’m very supportive of. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BW: Just and as I said this is not an indictment of the Davis Foundation, but in terms of... I’m just feel that the attendees to date, they’re just...the same business people that are involved in nearly everything in the city of Springfield. I just don’t see the broad-based inclusion (maybe at some point that’ll take place).

MW: That’s exactly what this is about, the...

BW: Well,

MW: ...expanding the audience. Frankly, that’s an audience that we already...

BW: ...because same ones that Step Up Springfield. They were with other initiatives the same group, the same start with Step Up Springfield, business community, and I don’t know, are we just dropping on issues like that, or... I...I don’t understand the game plan, I guess, that’s...I just never understand the game plan, because you have Cherish Every Child, Literacy Works, all these programs, and this is the same, basically the same group that started with that, and that was several years ago.

MW: Certainly, there’re some of the same players, and some of that...

BW: Many of the same players.

MW: Some of them we’re not suggesting should not continue. What we’re saying is “We think that a local education fund...”—again, assuming the community supports it through this exploratory period—that we do have a lot of efforts that’s happening, and we want to see that there are some consolidation and some collaboration and some really best use of our limited resources in the city of Springfield to do what is most important to...

BW: When you said “community”...the business community?

MW: No, the whole community.

BW: Well, I just...I...I’m just not prepared to vote on this today, Mr. Chairman, and I would hope that.(our next meeting is a couple of weeks) maybe I could sit down with the people from the...if the board so desires...the Davis Foundation and...so I can get brought up to speed. I’m not brought up to speed, and I’m not comfortable voting money out from the city when I’m not brought up to speed. I have to answer for this, and I’m sure there’re going to be some questions. I know they do great work; I’m not...there’s nothing casting any aspersions on the work that they do, but I just need to be better informed. And I’m not informed; I’m just not informed.

CG: I appreciate that certainly, you know. Sorry you don’t feel that way, I would like to offer to my colleagues the choice of proceeding, recognizing, you know, the Council President, our respected colleague, feels uncomfortable with it or deferring. I would personally like to proceed on the basis that I don’t think we’re making a commitment to the [unintelligible]...we’re not deciding if this thing will exist; we’re really whether we want to support a structure that’s been successful in many other cities across the state, so that’s the basis of my being comfortable you know, Mr. President, so I would be comfortable with putting it forward as a motion if you would like to put a motion on the table, I...don’t want to...

JM: Mr. Chair, knowing as I do President Bud’s commitment to public education, I’m absolutely optimistic that once he has an opportunity to sit with Mary, that he would be absolutely on board with this. And so I would, as comfortable as I am in voting today in favor of it, I think that if we’re trying to send a message to the education community and to the parents and to the business community that the control board supports this initiative because it’s an important initiative to support, then the full support of this board, a unanimous vote by the board, would probably be positively received. And if it’s just a matter of the two weeks that we have between now and our next meeting, I would be supportive of a motion by Mr. Williams to table it for that two week period.

BW: Just table it, Mr. Chairman, to the next control board meeting which is this month, so....

CG: We’ll vote. We won’t need the presentation again, but we’ll vote, and obviously it leaves you the time between now and then...I’ll put that motion up...to table the final decision until the final decision until then and give you, Councilor Williams, and anyone else to [unintelligible]

BW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CG: Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Morton; you’re a diplomat.

**MOTION TO TABLE PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

CitiStat Presentation by Paul Foster

SL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The next item on the agenda is item number VI, a presentation regarding CitiStat by Paul Foster who is the director of the city’s CitiStat program.

Director of CitiStat Program Paul Foster: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Mayor Sarno, President Williams and members....

BW: Got to speak up so [unintelligible] can hear you

PF: Sorry. Members Nunes and Morton. I’m going to give just a very brief overview of CitiStat. We have had a CitiStat program in Springfield essentialy since September and we’ve really been rolling since January. Some of you may be familiar with Citistat from other communities. It traces its history to the mid-1990s CompStat program in New York City; it was with the New York City police department. It’s often referred to as “Cops on Dots” as a result of the use of mapping and data analysis to improve policing. In the year 2000, the mayor of Baltimore kind of took that concept the next step by applying it not only to the police department, but to all areas of city government with the idea that regular... frequent and regular...analysis of data would be useful in terms of understanding what’s going on in the city, what could be done better, where there would be efficiencies that could be found. And since then, CityStat has been adopted in communities like Atlanta, Buffalo, Columbus OH, Providence, San Francisco, Syracuse. Closer to home, it’s been adopted in Somerville. There was also recently, I believe, an editorial in the Boston Globe about AmesStat in Amesbury which is one of the smaller communities to apply CitiStat, and they seem to be using it very effectively.

Just giving some examples of the impact that CityStat has had in some communities: In Baltimore, over the first seven years, they estimate they’ve saved about $350million as a result of their CityStat program. About $30million of that simply from regularly looking at the expenditure of overtime and identifying areas where they could kind of either hire more staff or do other things to reduce the utilization of overtime. Another example is a number of cities now track their service levels on a regular basis in an attempt to improve performance. An example of that in Baltimore, they track pot hole calls; and since they’ve implemented both a 311 program and a CityStat program, they...the number of calls they get about pot holes have increased from about 2000 a year to 10,000 a year and they still fill 95% of those pot holes within 48 hours of a phone call. That’s the kind of timely data and timely analysis of data that’s been used in communities to improve performance.

CitiStat is often confused...or thought of as a particular piece of software...a technological initiative. It really is a process, so I want to emphasize, so when you’re talking about CitiStat and when we talk about what we’re doing with CitiStat in Springfield, we’re implementing a process. We use software, generally very basic off-the-shelf software to do our analysis, but what we do...the CitiStat staff, my staff and I... we regularly look at data for every city department, and then once a month or once every other month, most city departments are coming to what we call a CitiStat meeting where they sit down with myself and my staff, with the control board, the mayor’s office and several other departments. And basically we go through data, we talk about...really three types of data come up at those meetings. We look at finance, we look at where do we stand on spending vs. budget. Obviously, looking at that on a monthly basis, we are kind of ahead of the game in trying to figuring out where we have potential deficits in the year. We look at personnel data, things like numbers of workplace injuries, overtime utilization, sick leave utilization in an attempt to figure out where there’re efficiencies, issues we have to take on. We also take a look at performance data; this is whether it’s information about pot holes, information about outstanding work orders in the facilities department, all performance data that looks very different from department to department; might be numbers of visits to the libraries. We also as CitiStat are very pro-actively tracking what comes up in these meetings. So if an issue is raised or a next step is identified, we’re making sure that at the next meeting, we ask the question “Where are we on that? Where is that issue now?”

We began our regular schedule of meetings in January. As of now, we’ve had 18 of these CitiStat meetings. We do about three or four a week, and on that schedule, we’re able to bring in most city departments either every month or every other month. Outside of meetings, the CitiStat staff are working on research projects, issues that come up, and we look into, for example, workplace injuries, so one of the things that’s come out of that is questions about “what’s causing these injuries?” So we’ll take a look at the data: what types of injuries are we having, what types of injuries cause the most lost time, are there things we could be doing to protect the city’s workers? In your packets, you have several examples of the kinds of analysis we’re doing. It’s a kind of small sampling just to give you a sense of the kind of analysis and the kind of data that we look at on a day-to-day and month-to-month basis with each department.

Now that we’ve completed these 18 meetings, I can give you few of the issues or a few of the things that we’ve noticed and a few of the areas where we’ve focused. One example is...you’ll hear a presentation, I believe, in a moment about 311, and one of the things we’ve done is we’ve taken a look at citywide call volumes just to ask the question How many times are people calling the city? What are they calling for? and to answer that question. We’re looking at an issue along with the facilities department of identifying the number of non-classroom spaces in schools that are being used to hold classes, examining the degree of loss from city libraries and the effectiveness of security systems in preventing that loss. Citywide guidelines are under creation by the personnel department for the monitoring of sick leave and just giving guidance to department heads and managers in understanding what are their responsibilities in looking at monitoring the sick leave use of their employees, developing workplace safety trainings and deploying additional workplace safety trainings in an attempt to reduce our numbers of injuries, establishing injury review panels as...in an attempt to take a look back at injuries that have actually happened in an attempt to identify what might have prevented those injuries. One of the things that came up at one of our CitiStat meetings with the Department of Public Works was whether we should be using our connect CTY reverse 911 system to let people know that a parking ban has been placed in effect. And I believe that for the last three or four snow storms that’s been used, and people have gotten that notification. Another example recently, we observed in a couple of different departments that inspector positions had been held vacant for lack of vehicles, and obviously that effects the amount of work that can be completed. We’ve been discussing...we had a meeting with the school department last week where the issue came up of :what are we doing to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs of orientation and mentoring for first year teachers? (We have a number of first year teachers in the district, and just asking the question: how do we know that those programs to bring, to orient, those folks are working?) So those are some of the significant issues that have come out so far.

Just to give an example of the kind of savings we’d like to achieve...I mean if we were to reduce the amount of sick leave used and the number of injuries by about 10% each, that would be a savings of about $1million a year to the city. So in summary, CitiStat really is...it’s a process, and the purpose of the process is to create a context in which city departments are held accountable both for their use of resources and for their quality of service delivery. Thank you.

SL: Just to summarize a little bit further, CitiStat is part of the on-going efforts locally to improve the government. As Paul sort of alluded to, in short order, we’ve seen through CitiStat a 7% reduction in sick time use in one department, a 3% reduction in another and that’s only after a short few months of having the program in place. It is something that builds a management structure to analyze the services and to direct resources to local priorities. One of the Mayor’s very strong priorities is improving the quality of life, and CitiStat is something that allows...that builds both that management structure and builds that orientation of the city to pursuing those goals. By tracking and managing data, we’ve seen a nearly doubling in the increase in work orders that are conducted by the facilities department, so it’s a little bit “in the weeds” in that it’s involved in the detailed management aspects of the city, but it’s important and wanted to provide you this presentation today, because it directly relates to improved services, improved quality of life, and reduced costs (which has been a strong focus of the control board over time.)

DS: Mr. Chairman [unintelligible] and Paul I want to commend you on how hard you work on this concept, and I know that my chief of staff, Denise Jordan and attorney Tom Walsh on my staff attended the meetings and I get the feedback on it and executive director Steve Lisauskas hit right on the point as we flex this type of aspect whether police or other departments, Mr. Chairman, quality of life exactly knowing we receive a number of calls in the South End area, the Mason Square area or certain situation, maybe we should be a little more pro-active, so it is invaluable information at that point in time.

RN: You work for the IT [Information Technology] department or...?

PF: I work both...I work for the Mayor’s office.

RN: You work for the Mayor’s office, I see. Full time employee?

PF: Yes.

BW: Are we going to...open for questions now or we’re going to vote this today?

CG: No vote.

SL: This is just Information.

BW: Just on the pre—just real quick so I our citizens understand. How do you say the sick time leave could be...you could save millions of dollars...how’s that...how’s that done through this system?

PF: A lot of it is simply by paying attention to it. I mean sick leave is used and one of the roles of a manager of department head is to make sure that it’s used appropriately based on whatever union contracts or other provisions there are. And one of the things that we’re trying to focus attention on is making sure it is being monitored, it is being looked at, and so the savings come in when we’re ensuring that departments are monitoring it appropriately so that sick leave is not being abused.

BW: So I don’t know what the numbers are [unintelligible] days a year. So you’re saying once that’s exhausted and it goes over and beyond that or if they have 15 days, they’ve used five days, I don’t know legally how you can get involved in that.

PF: Well, you can monitor it, you can ask questions. Certainly, there’re rules such as when an employee has used three or more consecutively, they need to have a doctor’s note. So some of it’s making sure...

BW: [unintelligible] I know the state mine was five. We had a pretty good plan with the state. The city’s...after three days they can inquire at that point in time?

SL: There are some union contracts that are closer to the state, but I think it is generally three days.

BW: After three days, you would begin the process of looking into the situation?

SL: Examining it, yes.

PF: Well, honestly, rightly, it’s the department’s role to do that. My role is to make sure that’s happening.

BW: I don’t mean “you” per se, I mean the city or whoever [unintelligible] today, that’s all I’m suggesting.

PF: Absolutely.

BW: So that’s all you mean, so OK. The only other question, since this is a presentation, is I’m interested in the...and, Steve, maybe you can shed some light on...how much money now we pay in workers’ compensation?

SL: In worker’s compensation?

PF: I believe the budget for this year is about $6million, and if I’m [unintelligible] for that [turns to Personnel Director Marilyn Montagna in the audience].

Personnel Director Marilyn Montagna: I believe on the city side [unintelligible]...

BW: You’re going to have to come up, Ma’m, and get involved in this so our citizens can hear you.

MM: On the city side, forgetting the school department for a minute, the budget for worker’s compensation is just about $2million for this year; $2,070,000 I think. In addition to that, we have almost another $2million budget for the medical costs associated with worker’s compensation.

BW: So what’s the total?

MM: So the total on the city side is about $4million. I off hand don’t...and that does not include police and fire. They pay that directly out of their own salary budget.

BW: And the school side?

MM: On the school side, I just don’t have that number.

BW: So, so, but it’s a large number.

MM: It’s a very large number.

SL: Yes, it is.

BW: I remember a few years ago Chicopee was having a lot of problem with their workman’s compensation claims. They hired...they did something, and they pretty much cleaned their act up in Chicopee. I just hope that we clean our act up in Springfield, because these...these numbers, these are budget busters and they only tend to get worse before they get better. So anything that’s going to add to making sure that...and we’re seeing very those who are injured out fairly should be paid, and there’re some people I’ve heard been out 10, 15 years on workman’s comp. And that to me...I’m not a doctor, I’m not an expert on workman’s compensation...that seems to me is a...it’s stretching it. And I just heard this.

SL: And that has been...I believe the longest was 19 years.

BW: 19 years out on workman’s compensation.

SL: That has been both a very strong focus of both the control board working with the mayoral administration, working with Mrs. Montagna, is to manage that. We’ve made some very substantial progress along those lines.

BW: I’m sure the taxpayers will be very happy. Thank you.

SL: We’ll continue that. Thank you.

PF: OK.

CG: OK Thank you very much.

311 Presentation

SL: The next item on the agenda, item VII, a presentation with regard to 311. 311 is, as you have a bit of a presentation in your package there. It’s essentially...I’m joined by Tom Collins, the city’s chief information officer...is essentially a one stop shopping place for all city services. It has the advantage of being obviously an easy-to-remember number (it’s similar to 911) and it’s actually, that was the impetus for creating 311. It is...cities were finding a very substantial number of non-emergency calls to their 911 telephone line, and so created 311 to create an also-easy-to-use number that would take the non-emergency calls away from the police department.

Some of the advantages of 311: of course, if you’re new to the community or you’re not experienced in working with government, you don’t have to go through the phone book and try to figure out who to call for home heating assistance, for instance. If you’re over 65, is it elder services, is it human services, who is it? Under 311, it’s a one-stop-shopping-mall; you go dial 311 and the city helps you; you don’t have to figure out how to interface with the city. Residents receive faster service and also have the ability to track the status of their requests for service either through the telephone or on line. (You can also submit requests via the internet.) There is the potential also for 311 to be integrated into the work order system. So someone calls for service and it directly goes to the operating department and also into our financial systems here at the city which would allow direct costing. So that phone call to hot patch a pot hole costs the city $X; you could have that level of detail. Over 60 cities including importantly Hartford, Somerville and the city of Buffalo have all adopted the 311 system itself.

How does it work? It’s a place you can call to get answers, get action, and to (colloquially) “get to the point.” In terms of getting answers, you have trained customer service representatives who are able to answer all series of questions. And, as I mentioned before, it’s not incumbent upon the resident to find who to call. It’s not incumbent if you make a bad phone call to hope that you get transferred to the right department. (So you call the wrong department, you hope to get transferred.) The call center agent handles it right there and gets the answer for the resident. They use pre-populated forms so when a call comes in, you already know the questions to ask the resident. You can either send the service directly to the Department of Public Works, for instance, or the Parks Department to remove a downed tree or you know how to put these service requests right into the government so it gets action immediately. Many services can be handled directly by the call center representative himself, and, again, the 311 person (the agent) can handle things directly, usually is the only person, I think, in the vast majority of instances is the only person that a resident has to work with.

As I mentioned, the city services you by voice, email or on line. You can track the requests and reducing the number of non-emergency calls...the police department reports that about 60% of the calls to the police department (both 911 and non-emergency lines) are not related to police business. They’re basically informational calls. They do receive a number of calls “When is my trash day?” (If you can believe people calling 911 for that. They tend to, because they don’t know who to call.) So 311 would reduce that burden, or could reduce that burden on the 911 system and provide everyone equal access to government regardless of your familiarity with the city’s operations, because it’s just a single number that you dial.

Some of the reasons that we have been looking at and exploring 311: It could improve the efficiency and service quality for the city of Springfield and again, as to the Mayor’s priority, quality of life: if you are better able to direct services. Instead of getting a call for a downed tree and having to send someone out to look at the tree, you already know the size of the tree, you know the nature of the equipment, because the resident tells you. That saves you one trip; that allows you to produce more work and improve the quality of life for people in Springfield. You provide better management information. We know that the city would know the calls that it receives and for what purpose; it can manage the responses and allocate resources.

Now the city has an understanding of the number of calls it receives, but it doesn’t have the precise data to say “We are receiving this many calls for this purpose in Old Hill or in Indian Orchard, and so we need to be more pro-active in addressing those issues.” 311 can help provide that information. It also allows the departments to focus on their core mission by creating a central call center function. Departments spend less time answering the phone, less time answering calls. If you believe the police department statistics apply citywide, 60% of calls are misplaced. If you allow the departments to focus on their core mission by allowing those calls to be answered by specially trained call agents, the departments can get more done of what they intend to do. There is in your packet sort of a list of things that would need to occur to implement 311 if that’s something that the city and the control board intend to do.

But with regard to projected costs, we would be looking at one-time costs of between $80,000. and $100,000. for installation of the system and then on-going costs of up to $300,000. Now with those on-going costs, we should keep in mind that at least half of those costs are allocation of existing personnel from a...one call center (the city operates three) to a central call center. So that’s merely moving costs from the left to the right; it’s not...they are not new costs, but we capture them because they’re related to 311. And then a portion of the other operating costs will be recovered, because the departments will have more time to do their work. So you hire a special call center representative and you have benefits in the treasurer collectors office, the assessors office and public works, because they’re not handling those calls directly. So the unique costs to 311 is $300,000. on an on-going basis, but the majority of those costs are reallocations from costs we’re currently experiencing on the departments

So in summary, I think 311 would, if adopted, by the city would provide increased service quality, increased management information which would allow better information for the city and allow better, higher quality decisions...even higher quality decisions...to be made and increased customer service and convenience. So that’s just a very brief sketch of what the 311 system has to offer. It is a system that we have been analyzing for some time under the leadership of Tom Collins, the city’s chief information officer. Be happy to answer any questions that the board has. If the control board were to fund 311, there is a set-aside in the bond issuance that is proposed for May or June that could be used to fund this project if so desired.

DS: Mr. Chairman, I know that Mayor Curtatone in Somerville and I been invited to come out there and we’re going to get a trip out there. The more and more I find out about 311 and the more and more my...I know that attorney Tom Walsh and chief of staff Denise Jordan been aware, gone to meetings on this. This is all about sometimes you have to spend money to make money. We’re looking for cost efficiency number one; we’re looking to pinpoint accountability of resources. And I think it all builds into, as you stated, about effecting of the quality of life, making sure these things are addressed at this point in time and better marshaling our forces and in turn making other departments... Departments work very hard and they respond to calls, but sometimes the right hand might not know what the left hand is doing if it is not completely referred to the appropriate divisions. And so I think it’s important we continue to move forward to looking into this situation as a clearing house and also tracking and accountability. I believe in point in time information I have that you could literally have a number: so number 1236, that was your call-in pertaining to a down limb on a tree what occurred at that point in time. [unintelligible] get to a point in time? I’d love to within a day or 48 hours be able to turn around and get that job done. And I think it also helps us too...let’s say we’re getting a lot of calls Mason Square area have certain street areas that are pot holes are continuing being filled. Well, maybe instead of effectively dealing with those pot holes, maybe we