Residents can help Palm Bay By Linda Jump, Florida Today, 10/1/2007 PALM BAY • On any given Wednesday morning, the best place to find city department directors is at the new utility office building. That's where they'll be assessing city performance at a PalmStat meeting. What's PalmStat? It's the city's version of weekly collaboration of department directors to improve government services and accountability. Styled after Baltimore's CitiStat and New York City's CompStat process, Palm Bay started the process in December 2005. "We're trying to improve what we do. The investment of time has really been worth it," said Suzanne Sherman, PalmStat Management Analyst. City officials said they are the first in the county, and possibly the state, to use statistics-based analysis with weekly department director meetings. Within the next few months, they'll open the process to residents via e-mail. "We're at a point where we need citizen participation to tell us what direction to go in next," Sherman said. The city's web site will include a link to an auxilliary PalmStat site with the statistical data discussed at the meetings. Residents will be asked to participate in monthly surveys that request their input. It's a process we are using so everybody knows what's going on," City Manager Lee Feldman said. The purpose is twofold: to increase accountability and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of city government. He said PalmStat has increased employee productivity. Palm Bay received a two-year $12,500 grant from the National Center for Civic Innovation to involve community members. The city has to provide quarterly reports and participate in a national meeting about PalmStat's success. Each department initially determined areas that need work, called performace deficits. On a rotating basis, each department reports what is being done to make improvements, as well as new trends, how their income and expensesare balancing and what's been donie since their last report on "action items". At a PalmStat meeting in September, human resources chief George Hunt showed peers a revised personnel evaluation form that was discussed at length. Jason Yarborough, utilities director, said he'd prefer no written evaluations or wants a form more suited to his employees instead of a general one. Parks and Recreations Director Steve Riser said all employees should be "at will," and said annual evaluations should be replaced with ongoing dialouge with a supervisor. Police Chief Bill Berger said "blue books" record any policy violations in the police department. The city's new fire Chief Steve Abraira suggested two, not three, options for each criteria--"meets expectations" or "does not meet expectations." "I have heartburn over a stack of glowing reviews for an individual who is always a problem," Abraira said. Other department directors talked about how supervisors need training in evaluations. Feldman said the interaction is what PalmStat is all about. "Everyone has input and we work collectively on a solution," Feldman said. For more inforamtion on PalmStat, contact Suzanne Sherman at: sherms@palmbayflorida.org   City's Management Honored By Sallie James, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/26/2006 CORAL SPRINGS · Twice in past years, a governor's panel has said Coral Springs is run better than most businesses. And twice those efforts have earned Coral Springs the Governor's Sterling Award, which recognizes leadership and management. Now, Coral Springs is the first city in the nation to have its operations reviewed for the Malcolm Baldrige Award Non-Profit pilot program. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program is the highest level of recognition for corporate excellence in the nation. The program is managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration. "It is huge," said City Manager Michael Levison. "This is the granddaddy of all business awards. For us, it's a terrific honor." Past winners of the Malcolm Baldrige Award include Federal Express, Westinghouse, Motorola, Texas Instruments and Xerox, Levinson said. It's the first year that non-profits and governments have been able to submit applications, and Coral Springs was one of 10 applicants nationally. It is the only city being reviewed. Because the non-profit program is a pilot, no award will be given in 2006. Examiners for the national award are in Coral Springs this week, talking to city employees and reviewing everything from leadership and human resources to customer focus and strategic planning. They will be looking for evidence of improvement and how the city has made changes over the years, said Human Resources Director Susan Grant. John Pieno, chairman of the Florida Sterling Council in Tallahassee, said the site visit gives Coral Springs a chance to show off its sleek operations. "[Coral Springs] proved you can run a public-sector entity just like a business, and you wind up with things like AAA bond ratings and being able to grow the city with the right types of businesses," Pieno said. "They are going to set the trend for all the public sector and not-for-profits throughout the country at the national level." The city will apply again in 2007 when non-profits are no longer considered a pilot program and are eligible for the Baldrige Award, Levinson said.