2018 09 27 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN
SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday,
September 27, 2018, at 5:16 P.M., in the Innovation Room of the Sterling Municipal Library,
One Elizabeth Wilbanks Avenue, Baytown, Texas 77520, with the following in attendance:
Laura Alvarado
Council Member
Robert Hoskins
Council Member
Charles Johnson
Mayor Pro Tem
David Himsel
Council Member
Chris Presley
Council Member
Heather Betancourth
Council Member
Stephen DonCarlos Mayor
Rick Davis
City Manager
Ignacio Ramirez
City Attorney
Leticia Brysch
City Clerk
Mayor DonCarlos convened the September 27, 2018, City Council Regular Work Session with a
quorum present at 5:16 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Council Member
Presley who was absent and Council Member Hoskins who arrived at 5:28 P.M.
1. DISCUSSIONS
a. Receive and discuss a presentation regarding the status of the City's Emergency
Management Division. Showcase the City's Innovation Room and PIPE Academy
Accomplishments.
Director of Strategic Initiatives Nick Woolery welcomed the Council and staff members to the PIPE
Academy Open House in the City's new Innovation Room. Mr. Woolery noted that this new space is a
part of the City's PIPE Academy, and will be used to continue the training and process improvement
processes for the City and for other interested agencies; such as Lee College, GCCISD, etc.
Mr. Woolery noted that before going too far into the PIPE Academy, he wanted to start with the why. He
quoted a comedian that stated in part, "When you know your "why" your "what" has more impact because
you are walking in or towards your purpose." He further noted that the "why" of the PIPE Academy falls
back to Ken Miller's book "Extreme Government Makeover" which states that "The work of the
government is noble, the people of government are amazing, the systems of government are a mess." Mr.
Woolery noted that city staff has a noble purpose in what they do, but many times it is the overly
complicated processes that cause disillusionment in the work and bogs down processes. The core belief
of PIPE or Process Improvement and People Empowerment is to deal with processes and people. As it
relates to processes, the goal is to make the unseen seen, in other words, the "pipes" or processes of
government are poorly laid out, with many unnecessary twists and turns, PIPE aims to expose and
straighten the pipes by examining and streamlining City processes. People are the City's most important
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
September 27, 2018
Page 2 of 3
asset and PIPE focuses on eliminating moldy thinking or the false perception that public employees are
not sufficiently motivated, skilled or accomplished by empowering employees to master their craft, have
autonomous thinking and find their noble purpose.
Mr. Woolery stated that process improvement is the continuous improvement methodology; it is free;
driven by the people who do the work; and continued investment in fellow employees, but mostly it is
giving everyone a set of tools that will help staff see waste and then fix it. Mr. Woolery then outlined the
PIPE academy's roadmap to systematically identify and solve problems - DMAIC:
D - Define the problem
M - Measure and quantify the problem
A - Analyze and identify the cause of the problem
I - Improve and implement solutions
C - Control and maintain solutions.
Mr. Woolery warned against the DI disease, which is the inclination to jump to a solution without really
understanding the problem. He noted that this may solve some aspects of the problem, but unless a
person stops to analyze the problem in detail; i.e. from the beginning to the end, the solution may not
encompass all of the problems.
Mr. Woolery then noted that since the creation of the PIPE Academy that includes Green Belt and Black
Belt training, the Academy has trained 250 employees, had 74 projects for improvements submitted that
resulted in hard dollar savings of an estimated $215,177.43 and $307,876.16 in soft costs savings. Mr.
Woolery noted that the Academy has been so successful because of the City's core values that include
caring, innovation, collaboration, leadership and stewardship that support the Academy's focus on process
improvement, people empowerment and excellent services to our community.
Mr. Woolery noted that the next steps for the Academy are to continue Green and Black belt training,
open the academy to community partners, begin specialized training in 2019, expand BaytownYou and
continue the work on major organization projects such as the hiring and on -boarding processes and the
development and permitting processes. Assistant Fire Chief Dana Dalbey presented an overview of
process improvements in the Fire Department that increased efficiencies and had immediate costs savings.
Chuck Jennings from the Parks and Recreation Department gave the Council an overview of their process
improvement at the Park Service Center that has reduced the prep time for crews in the morning and
increased organization and staff effectiveness.
City Librarian Jamie Eustace presented information regarding the main training concepts presented during
the BaytownYou Green Belt and Black Belt trainings. One of the main concepts revolves around pain
points for the customers and staff, these include: work not being pushed downstream in a timely manner,
over processing of application forms, irrelevant or duplicate information on forms, bottlenecks in the
approval process, to name a few. Ms. Eustace also noted that in conducting the process improvement
process, staff is given tools and a common language that helps them identify these pain points throughout
the entire process in order to find the best and most comprehensive solutions to the issues. She further
noted that in her experience many times she has started a process thinking that the problem with the
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
September 27, 2018
Page 3 of 3
process is "x" when it really ends up being "y", which makes the knowing of the "why" of pain point in a
process so critical because it helps define the issues. Ms. Eustace explained the importance of knowing
the MEAT (money, errors, amount and time) of any process improvement, in order to have the necessary
metrics to measure whether or not the improvements are working. Ms. Eustace walked the Council
through a process improvement model to show the analyze portion of the process improvement process,
which focuses making the invisible - visible; followed by the verification process to ensure that the new
process eliminates the pain points and ending with the MEAT.
Ms. Eustace noted that staff members from different departments are coming together to work on
different aspects of the development process and noted that they used five categories to help guide their
improvement efforts, and they are to:
Create more clarity on the front-end of the development and permitting process,
2. Reduce time it takes to get through the process,
Improve staff accountability and customer service;
4. Improve communication between internal and external customers and stakeholders; and
Intentional long-range planning.
Ms. Eustace noted that since the staff began the process improvements to portions of the development
process the residential driveway replacement permit went from an average of 17 days to process to 1 day;
and the permitting process for new residential structures in the newer neighborhoods have changed as
follows: 2015: 30-45 days, 2017: 30 days, 2018: 6-10 days; and currently with the new Utility Service
Request (USR) policy the new residential permits are reviewed within 5-6 days. She further noted that
these improvements are huge wins for the organization and they are only the beginning as the staff hopes
to continue expanding this training and improvements.
City Manager Rick Davis thanked the BaytownYou faculty for making the PIPE Academy such a success.
b. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda
for September 27, 2018, which is attached below.
This item was not discussed.
2. ADJOURN
With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor DonCarlos adjourned the September 27,
2018 City Cou it Regular Work Session at 6:08 P.M.
Leticia Brysch, Cit erk
City of Baytown
Wr
,A