Government of the District of Columbia
DC Department of Public Works
Testimony of
William O. Howland, Jr.
Director
Public Oversight Hearing
Department of Public Works FY 2008 and 2009 Performance and Spending
March 10, 2009
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORTATION
Jim Graham, Chairperson
John A. Wilson Building
Council Chamber, Room 500
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Testimony of William O. Howland, Jr.
Director, Department of Public Works
Public Oversight Hearing on DPW’s FY 2008 and 2009 Performance and Spending
Before the Committee on Public Works and Transportation
March 10, 2009, 10 am
Introduction
• Good morning, Chairman Graham, members of the Council and staff. I am William O. Howland Jr., Director of the Department of Public Works. I am happy to be here this morning to discuss our achievements and challenges of FY 2008 and 2009.
• The mission of the Department of Public Works is to provide environmentally healthy municipal services that are both ecologically sound and cost effective. To that end, DPW serves all District residents, businesses, visitors and commuters by providing:
o Trash, recycling and litter collection and disposal.
o Street and alley cleaning.
o Solid waste education and enforcement.
o Parking enforcement, including towing, booting and removing abandoned vehicles.
o Fleet management, including fueling and vehicle maintenance services.
• Since I just cited Fleet, I would like to note that just last week the District received a Life-time Partnership Award from the US Department of Energy for its work as a stakeholder with the Metropolitan Washington Alternative Fuels Clean Cities Partnership, and for successfully incorporating the use of natural gas and alternative fuels into its vehicle fleet.
• The District is one of the original six Clean Cities coalitions designated by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in 1993.
• Clean Cities is a government-industry partnership designed to reduce petroleum consumption in the transportation sector by promoting the use of alternative fuels and vehicles, idle reduction technologies, hybrid electric vehicles, fuel blends, and fuel economy measures.
Teamwork as a Strategy for Success
• Mayor Fenty is leading the way by introducing the CapStat concept within District government. Teamwork is at its core. DC agencies work together to make positive things happen for the city.
• What distinguishes the Department of Public Works is our high level of teamwork as a strategy to achieve positive outcomes. Throughout my testimony, I will cite examples how this strategy—teamwork—is the key to our success.
• Last week we saw an example of that teamwork. DPW crews, working with our District Snow Team partner, DDOT, reduced five plus inches of snow on our streets to running water in just hours despite the sub-freezing temperatures.
• The results were children went to school, parents went to work, merchants opened their stores and DC government provided services to residents, businesses, visitors and commuters because the Snow Team worked well.
• The Snow Team consists of DPW’s Fleet Management Administration that preps the vehicles and equipment in advance of a storm and keeps the plows, front-end loaders and other equipment working during a storm. Fleet then restores the vehicles to their primary use once the snow event ends.
• DPW’s primary Snow Team member is the Solid Waste Management Administration, especially its Street and Alley Cleaning Division, which houses the leaf collection, litter can collection and nuisance property abatement operations. They form the backbone of the snow removal program.
• DPW’s Office of Information Technology supports communications among government agencies.
• This year, Mayor Fenty raised the bar for snow removal services. Based on the comments from residents and commuters, we met or exceeded expectations for this year’s ice and snow storms.
• DPW’s use of teamwork extends throughout our service delivery because it allows us to manage our resources more effectively and efficiently.
• Our fall leaf collection program, which runs from November through January, is a prime example. Every year, DPW’s Human Capital Administration hires about 200 people for four intense months of collecting leaves and holiday trees. HCA scrutinized the 1,200 applications and identified those found to be most eligible.
• Once the positions were filled, the Street and Alley Cleaning Division took over. To absorb 200 people quickly involves teaming new employees with seasoned veterans who train the new hires by demonstrating what is expected, including strictly following traffic and safety regulations.
• Teamwork instills the belief that everyone is critical to the operation’s success. Leaf collection employees are required to give up Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving to make sure the job gets done. On top of missing holidays, everyone worked a six-day week, and many worked a seven-day week.
• Often those days extended well beyond the standard eight hours. You can imagine the sacrifices their family members made to support these employees.
• If team members are absent, the work slows down, which can lead to injuries from slipping on leaves or flooding because leaves are filling the catch basins. This year’s teams were the most productive ever.
• Everyone has talents to contribute to the team. In FY 2008, the leaf collection program introduced the latest operations improvement—using mechanical sweepers to “manicure” the curb lane by clearing it of debris once the leaves have been vacuumed.
• Our Fleet mechanics also are leaf program team members. Their skills keep the dump trucks, vacuums, sweepers and other pieces of equipment running. These same mechanics also transform leaf collection equipment into snow fighting vehicles whenever snow or ice are predicted because leaf collection employees also are the backbone of the District Snow Team.
• Let’s not forget to applaud the most important members of the leaf collection teams, District residents who prepare their leaves for collection. For many residents, their reward is free, rich mulch to use in their yards. Two years after being collected and cured, these leaves are ready for residents, garden clubs, neighborhood cleanup groups, and schools to use for their beautification projects.
• Now, I would like to turn to another successful use of our teamwork strategy—the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama.
• DPW played a significant role in making Inauguration Day and the associated events exceptional. I am proud of our teamwork, within DPW and with other DC and federal government agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations.
• The team’s amazing accomplishments are magnified by the fact that this was the largest event ever hosted by the District. Our memories of the festivities have greater meaning because we were part of this historic event.
• DPW led the DC Presidential Inaugural Committee Public Works Subcommittee, consisting of DC and federal government agencies, which began planning in July 2008. DPW employees also were members of various DC and federal government subcommittees, including Vending, Licensing and Inspections; Transportation; Communications; Media; Health; Venue; and Finance and Administration.
• DPW, our sister agencies and federal partners gave all we had to ensure the Obamas and the millions of people who shared this occasion experienced the very best the District has to offer. And we made the city look great!
• We sanitized the parade route so President and Mrs. Obama and parade participants could travel safely. We made sure the streets were clean so the millions of tourists could appreciate the pristine beauty of our city.
• We deployed the full Snow Team to be ready just in case. We provided salt for an unexpected water main break. We relocated vehicles that blocked access to key streets and made sure city vehicles operated at maximum effectiveness. We kept our customer service operations open to assist citizens in need, and we collected trash and recycling, too.
• I’m most amazed by our work after the parade. More than 260,000 pounds of litter and debris were collected from downtown, the parade route, and the streets surrounding the Mall.
• Crews worked double and triple shifts, mechanically and manually sweeping and disposing of trash to clean the streets in record time. Many employees spent more than one night on the job, away from their families making sure everything was perfect.
• Our hard work was recognized by The Washington Post, DC Examiner, and even the London-based Economist magazine praised the work of DPW crews.
• The general public doesn’t know all that goes into returning the city to normalcy within hours of this unprecedented event, nor do people know the many months our team spent planning so that we would achieve a successful, incident-free Inauguration.
• While the Inauguration attracted international attention, I would like to describe briefly a new event whose success relied on teamwork.
• Truck Touch was held last August and became an instant hit among District families, especially the young children. They climbed aboard a trash truck and honked the horn. They manipulated the snow plow attached to a dump truck. They even got to ride in a police motorcycle around the RFK parking lot.
• DPW coordinated participation by multiple DC agencies: Departments of Employment Services, Health, Parks and Recreation, and Transportation; Fire and Emergency Management Services, the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Water and Sewer Authority.
• For the first time, DC government employees got a chance to demonstrate their skills operating equipment such as a knuckle boom, bucket truck and hook and ladder truck. Everyone had fun and residents and employees made a connection.
• DPW’s teamwork also is global. The Office of the Secretary calls upon DPW to share our expertise with international delegations. We have made presentations to delegations from Russia, China, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia. As Mayor Fenty says, the District of Columbia is a World Class Capital.
DC Fleet Share—Helping DC Government Perform at a Higher Level
• The events I’ve discussed so far illustrate how the DPW team, either working solo or with other agencies, has provided services to the public. Now, I would like to turn our attention to a project envisioned by Mayor Fenty and supported by Chairman Graham: DC Fleet Share, which assists DC government employees with carrying out their responsibilities.
• Last year, Mayor Fenty directed DPW to reduce the light vehicle fleet by more than 300 vehicles. Thank you, Chairman Graham, for joining Mayor Fenty when he announced that achievement and introduced the unique motor pool operation called DC Fleet Share.
• DC Fleet Share is a pilot motor pool operation, based on the Zipcar model that allows DC government employees to reserve a vehicle via the Internet on a first-come, first-served basis. DC Fleet Share began with 29 vehicles at four sites. It has expanded to 50 vehicles located at nine sites.
• The District’s online fleet management maximizes fleet utilization on an hourly basis, allowing a high number of trips to be supported by a smaller number of vehicles. In July, DC Fleet Share vehicles were reserved for almost 1,400 hours of use and that number had doubled to 2,800 hours by February.
• Its three main benefits: cost reduction, safety improvement and environmental sustainability—and the higher accountability for use of a vehicle—make the Zipcar model very attractive to us.
• A user survey revealed that DC Fleet Share is bringing a higher level of reliability for access to a vehicle than the traditional motor pool.
Parking Services Teamwork
• Columbia Heights is a destination for fine dining, shopping and entertainment, which means increased competition for on-street parking. Chairman Graham challenged DPW and DDOT to develop a parking enforcement strategy to balance the needs of Columbia Heights residents and the visitors to the neighborhood.
• DPW worked with Chairman Graham, residents and DDOT to develop and implement a plan that works.
Sweepercam—How Parking Enforcement, Street Cleaning and Information Technology Team Up to Create a Cleaner DC
• First, I would like to thank Chairman Graham for his support for this innovative use of technology to achieve a major environmental goal—cleaner streets. Sweepercam became a reality last year when we conducted the pilot test of the license plate recognition camera system on two street sweepers.
• Between August and November, these two sweepers traveled throughout the city, capturing the images of vehicles parked during sweeping hours. During this period, DPW issued 3,351 warning notices.
• The District is the first jurisdiction to take license plate recognition technology this far in applying it to street cleaning. The benefits, as described in a recent pollutant study that measured the pollutants DPW sweepers clear from District streets, found that along a 10-mile route they remove 100 pounds of oil and grease, on average.
• So when the sweepers are not removing these pollutants, the next rain sweeps them, along with trash and other debris, into the sewers for a one-way ticket to the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.
• Sweepercam will go live later this month when the residential street sweeping program resumes. Citations will be issued.
Not in Our DC—Litter and Graffiti Prevention Bring Neighbors Together
• Last summer, DPW launched its litter and graffiti prevention program, “Not in Our DC, Pledge to Keep the Capital Clean,” which encourages young people, in particular, to become involved in keeping their neighborhoods clean.
• The project features a 30-minute documentary featuring District youth and adults showing their enthusiasm for making the District’s beauty stand out. In addition to the documentary, online visitors to www.dpw.dc.gov can go to the Not in Our DC link where they will find 10 videos about young people and adults who are preventing litter and graffiti as well as resource guides to promote discussion about change into discussion to affect change.
• All these materials are provided in English and Spanish.
Teamwork at the Grassroots Level
• I would like to conclude my remarks by describing our teamwork that is most visible to District residents.
• Mayor Fenty has made customer service the hallmark of his administration. And when Mayor Fenty visits neighborhoods for walk-throughs and Fix-its, residents experience up close and personal customer service, Mayor Fenty-style.
• Working under the leadership of the Mayor’s Office, all DPW operations—Solid Waste, Parking and Fleet—are meeting residents’ needs.
• Among the services provided along more than 1,200 blocks citywide, are removal of abandoned and dangerous vehicles and dead animals, street and alley cleaning, litter can collection, and vacant lot cleaning.
• DPW is making a positive difference in residents’ lives.
• Thank you, Chairman Graham and members of the Committee for this opportunity. I am prepared to answer your questions.