HR Green ASD - A Missing Piece in Your Budget Puzzle - Manual

Copyright © 2013 by HR Green, Inc. 1
INTRODUCTION
Local governments across the United States are facing severe
budget challenges due to the most recent recession and general
loss of revenues. Most cities have taken significant steps to
close the gap between revenues and expenditures, such as:
delaying capital projects, reducing staff size and changing
citizens’ expectations for services. Is there more that can be
done to solve the budget puzzle? Utilizing (or at least assessing)
alternative methods for delivering services to constituents may
be one of the key missing pieces.
Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) is a method by which you
provide services to your constituents by using contracted staff
to support doing the work. Shared Contracts, Shared Service
Agreements and private sector assistance are three such
models gaining attention in local government circles. Shared
Contracts and Shared Service Agreements use governmental
agencies that cooperate to deliver services, while contract
services utilizes either “for profit” or “not for profit” private sector
partners to work with local agencies for service delivery. This
partnership approach has proven extremely successful and
should result in substantial cost savings and/or an increase in
services to the community.
Some of the benefits cited by communities
utilizing ASD include: lower cost to provide
service, scalability of staffing and expenses to fit
needs, built in accountability to meet specified
service levels.
WHAT TO ASk
One of the first steps in evaluating ASD is to determine which
services are the best candidates for this approach. There are
many factors to consider when evaluating which services are
most appropriate for ASD options for your community including:
▪ What services should be considered for ASD and how do
I evaluate?
▪ How do I get started and is the timing right?
▪ How do I maintain control and measure success?
▪ Is there a driver for the change and is there the support to
make changes?
All of these questions are important, but they require due
diligence and objectivity. HR Green has developed a quick start
tool to help our clients identify which services are the best ASD
candidates.
WHAT TO DO
Dividing the services into a matrix using two criteria (vendor
abundance and cost to deliver service), you can make a self
determination on which services may be your best candidates
for ASD. Don’t spend a lot of time quantifying or worrying
about “how”, use your best estimate to decide “what” and then
validate later. This should be a quick exercise.
Partner Abundance - This refers to the availability of partners
(contract providers) in your area that are qualified to deliver the
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IS ALTeRNATIve SeRvICe DeLIveRy A
MISSING PIeCe TO yOUR BUDGeT PUzzLe?
George Wentz
Rick White, Pe
HR GReeN, INC.