7.1 STAFFING THE STORMWATER MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

Decision-making in local governmental public works organizations is highly variable and complex. It is affected by many often-competing influences that at times seem to be at cross-purposes. Managers who have responsible to carry out specific stormwater functions for local governments must possess a high degree of patience, flexibility, and understanding so they can respond to the dynamic needs of the citizens they serve. Ultimately, those who best comprehend the purpose and mission of their organization are best suited to carry out their responsibilities. The following discussion provides an overall context upon which the public works manager can decide how to best serve their constituents with the necessary stormwater functions.

The framework for decision-making in a local governmental setting involves several inter-dependent organizational levels. To best understand what influences decisions at these differing levels, the public works manager should gain an appreciation of what variables influence such decisions. Any local government's managers could benefit by becoming familiar with the variables that effect the political, managerial, and operational context under which such decisions are made. Organizational levels include:

• Political - Citizens who are elected to public office have a duty to the electorate to serve in a manner for the common good. The nature of any individual elected official's involvement and commitment to the specific public works function (including stormwater management) ranges from one of maintaining the status quo to responding to a crisis necessitated by some recent emergency event. The decisions an elected official makes are highly variable, often risky, and sometimes without local precedent. Political leaders must evaluate competing values and make decisions as to what is best for their local community. The need for creativity is high.
• Managerial - Appointed public works managers are responsible for carrying out the mission of their department as established by their elected officials. Effective managers have the ability to efficiently allocate resources in a manner befitting their understanding of the particular public works need. Decision-making is sometimes complex but often presents itself in a manner that rational outcomes can be predicted. Ranges of alternative actions are generally known and understood.
• Operational - This includes individuals who carry out the assigned functions and tasks through the local government's planning and budgeting functions. Decisions are often routine with high degrees of predictability.

Numerous variables influence how decisions are made within a public works organization. Any individual's decision-making related to these variables are a function of their level position in the local government. The variables include:

• General - Nature and purpose of the stormwater function; how it is funded; what tasks are performed; how they are accomplished and what feedback mechanism exists to report their completion.
• Time Horizon - Whether the decision has immediacy or whether it exceeds the term of an elected official's office tenure.
• Frequency - Unique (one time) or routine (many times).
• Complexity - How easy a decision is to make because of precedent or how many variables have to be satisfied.
• Risk - Often the most difficult area to assess. In the political arena, it can be highly variable and remains the prime reason the citizens express their desires through their elected officials.
• Uncertainty - Those who deliver the needed service need to do so with little left to chance, while managers have to weigh various possible outcomes.
• Sources of Data - In the political arena, data comes from the electorate indirectly, but directly from those immediately affected. Managers are guided by the laws, ordinances, and policy documents.

A local government's organizational options are varied and are influenced by local needs. For the public works manager to be able to manage effectively, he or she must have a cohesive organizational structure. The manager should have a fundamental understanding of general management principals.

Management is the process of achieving predetermined objectives through the efforts of other people. The stormwater manager must understand the political environment in which his or her organization exists, the overall public works context of their operation, and how to best accomplish the predetermined objectives.

Organizational structure is the formal expression of authority and responsibility through which management functions. The structure can be highly variable. No two organizations need be organized the same way even though their functions may be similar.

Along with the authority each manager must have that is commensurate with their responsibility, must be a standard of accountability from which they are measured. This holds true for all levels in any organization. Authority, responsibility, and accountability are the fundamental management precepts of any organization.

Organizational structure will promote or retard action. This is the single most important factor governing how effective the stormwater function can be. It is affected by many competing variables. A great deal of forethought must be given to a stormwater organization's structure. Some fundamental issues that should be understood are:

• Organizational structure is a function of the policies and procedures of the local government, and how the political and executive management activities support or retard a strong stormwater management program.
• People placed in positions to manage the stormwater function must be given the responsibility to effectively carry out their assignments. An expectation of a certain level of performance or accomplishment must be commensurate with the manager's authority to influence their unit's performance. Any short of a balance between authority and responsibility will, at best, frustrate the manager or, at worst, render the stormwater organization ineffective.
• Ability of the stormwater entity to change and meet broad objectives that will change over time characterizes an effective and well functioning unit. Managers, political leaders, and staff must understand and accept that change will be inevitable. What works best today will not work best tomorrow. The organization must be seen as a dynamic and ever changing operation.

The stormwater manager, like all managers, accomplishes his or her work through the efforts of others. To better understand the workplace dynamic that affects all human enterprises, some basic organzational theory is necessary. During the later stages of the industrial revolution, an understanding of general management activities evolved. Some of the broad areas identified during this period are still valid today. These activities involve the following as they relate to most public works functions:

• Planning - Relates to the ability to anticipate desired ends and match the necessary resources, manpower and equipment, to fulfill the stormwater objectives. Flood control, water quality improvement and protection, and the attendant operation and maintenance activities must be carefully analyzed in advance.
• Organizing - Creating a fully functioning entity requires systematic and consistent management principals. Such organization at the stormwater management functional level must support the entire public works entity and the larger local government structure.
• Command - Supervision that has the ability to carry out pre-programmed activities, respond to daily uncertainties in the workload, and react to the occasional crisis requires a certain authority to act.
• Coordination - Interaction with other governmental entities is a necessity. Florida regulatory agencies, the Department of Environmental Protection and the water management districts, are more heavily involved in local government stormwater functions than ever before. Moreover, the federal government remains a strong player in this area. Their interest and involvement in stormwater management, especially at the local government level, will continue to evolve.
• Control - The proper utilization of resources requires control of expenses and an assurance of accountability that such expenses are in conformance with the objectives of the organization. Control creates opportunities for managers to create an effective and efficient organization.

Henri Fayol, at the beginning of the 20^th century, developed a series of Guiding Principles that when applied to any organization, public or private, would create an effective enterprise. These principals are universal and involve:

• Responsibility with the authority to act
• Discipline amongst the employees
• Unity of command; one supervisor
• Unity of direction and a common purpose
• Organization's interest first, ahead of individual or group
• Just compensation for services
• Centralization of decision making
• Scalar chain of authority; breaking the work into logical units
• Order
• Equity
• Stability
• Foster initiative
• Epirit de corps, teamwork and interpersonal relations

A local government's stormwater management organizational options can be thought to fall into one of three basic configurations. As discussed in general terms earlier, how an entity is organized is a reflection on a series of decisions that have evolved over time. Several broad options are being utilized by a variety of local governments that take into account varying degrees of independence and funding sources.

This is a very common organizational structure for the larger local governments. Historically, stormwater management has been in response to flooding and general drainage needs. Recently, with a greater awareness associated with water quality impacts from urban drainage, these units have begun to address those concerns through their typical organization. Funding for stormwater projects to improve water quality has been problematic due to the difficulty of gaining consensus that the improvements are necessary.

Some local governments have established a fully functioning stormwater operation that operates independently from other departments. Their funding may comes from an independent source such as a stormwater utility. They have the ability to issue revenue bonds and respond directly to many stormwater issues. Funding can be by general revenue, utility fees, or a combination of both.

Sometimes no formal stormwater entity exits within a local government but drainage needs still must be addressed. Many agencies share this work internally between operations. Most frequently this involves a transportation, water, or wastewater function. Funding is most often by general revenue.

Once a local government decides to provide a certain service, it sometimes becomes a guessing game as to what effort needs to be expended to provide the service. The concept of level of service offers a framework to logically approach this challenge.

The primary purpose of organization is to arrange functions, tasks, and people in a manner that most effectively accomplishes the mission of the organization. A functional organization, based on specialized responsibility in a particular area, provides the framework for stormwater service.

The first step in the establishment of the proper level of service is to determine what functions will be provided. Section 7.2 below provides a starting point for the assessment. Annual workloads need to be understood. Historical data provides some of the information but a bottom up analysis is the most effective. An example of the operation and maintenance area is shown below:

• Inventory - Determine how much of a typical facility is present. For example, if the stormwater unit has the responsibility for ditch maintenance, the initial starting point would be to measure the number of linear feet of ditch that has to be routinely maintained.
• Activity - Related to each feature of the inventory, decide what maintenance activity is needed. This could be mowing, grading and erosion repair etc.
• Standard - For each activity, an activity standard is established relating resources (people and equipment) required to perform the maintenance. If we continue on with our example related to ditch mowing, the stormwater unit determines a one-person crew operating a slope mower could serve 2,500 linear feet of ditch per day.
• Level of Service (LOS) - The most difficult determination is often deciding what LOS is to be applied to each activity. For our ditch mowing activity, the staff determines that mowing at a frequency of three times per year (on average) is necessary. A logical and informed decision can be made because this is the only variable that is subjective. If the political leadership desires more frequently mowing, the LOS may become four or five times per year. Management may only want to mow two times per year. Once costs are applied to the LOS, then a decision is made.
• Available Work Days - How many days can work be performed taking into account vacations, sick leave, holidays, historical weather delays, etc? It is determined that 200 workdays are available each year. (Some local governments report available workdays as low as 160.)
• Production Requirements - LOS times inventory determines production needs. If the locality has 100,000 linear feet of ditches (the inventory) and the LOS is 3, then the annual production requirement is 100,000 x 3 = 300,000 LF/ year.
• Crew Days - This is computed by dividing production requirements by the standard: 300,000/ 2,500 = 200 crew days.
• Resource Requirements - The number of crew days/ standard: 200/ 200 = 1 crew. The standard establishes crew cost; therefore, the cost to provide ditch maintenance at the LOS is the cost of one crew including manpower, equipment, employee benefits, etc.

Coupling the LOS with the facility inventory can create a powerful tool to logically determine the cost of providing the desired service. Even though the example uses a straightforward maintenance activity, it can be applied to virtually any work activity. By performing a service level analysis for each desired work activity and summing them, the total cost to provide stormwater services for a local government jurisdiction can be determined. Service level analysis is an extremely powerful tool for the stormwater manager.

Level of service analysis can also be applied to the setting of design standards (frequency of allowable flooding, duration and depth), which in turn establishes the cost of a capital improvement program.