City Agencies Research Articles

Understanding water policy sustainability: A case study in San Francisco and San Jose California

This research works to create a clearer understanding of sustainability in water policy through an examination of current water policies in San Francisco and San Jose, California. San Francisco was selected because it appears on various lists of as one of the “Most Sustainable US Cities.” San Jose was chosen as a control city based on being similar in demographics, climate, and in the same state, but did not appear on any sustainability lists. A comparison of the sustainability of water policies between the two cities was undertaken based on the traditional pillars of social, economic, and environmental themes highlighted in the literature. The results suggest that, as expected and for the most part, San Francisco has more sustainable policies than San Jose, although there is overlap. The environmental pillar was the least included of the three traditional pillars in each city while economic interests were the most prevalent. San Francisco was only missing two of the twenty-one themes while San Jose was missing ten. This cursory research suggests that to increase sustainability within water policy city agencies, policy writers, and water board members should address these themes in the writing of water policy. The study did not attempt to address the effectiveness of any policies.

Public Health and the Pope's Visit to Philadelphia, 2015.

Pope Francis visited Philadelphia for 2 days during September 2015. Preparedness functions managed by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) were similar to those of other mass gatherings but also required accommodation of special security arrangements and the location of public events in central areas of the city. Public health planning involved collaborations with multiple city, state, and federal agencies and neighboring jurisdictions. PDPH preparations encompassed incident command procedures, contingency planning, disease surveillance and prevention, food safety, vector control, BioWatch air sampling, volunteer management for first-aid services, and continuity of operations. These were based on, or informed by, existing emergency plans and prior experiences in responding to public health crises, supporting large public events, managing regional preparedness exercises, engaging Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, and executing routine functions. Although the papal visit concluded without the occurrence of a substantial public health or healthcare emergency, lessons learned have and will continue to improve coordination with partner agencies in planning and executing large-scale events, as well as managing regional disease surveillance procedures and medical volunteer engagement. Another area identified for improvement concerns enhancing the role of local health departments in planning for responses to possible BioWatch alerts.

Using Network Analysis to Identify Key Actors in Collaborative Governance Processes

AbstractCollaborative governance is an increasingly popular form of governance. In theory, collaborative governance processes should be inclusive and value the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including nonprofit organizations. In practice, this may not be the case. Recent work on representation in collaborative governance has found asymmetry in the way actor groups are descriptively and substantively represented in the collaborative governance process. We extend this line of work by employing network methods to create a diagnostic tool to identify which individual actors are substantively represented in collaborative governance processes over time. This tool is designed to systematically evaluate whether individual actors are under or overrepresented in collaborative governance. It provides a starting point for groups to discuss whether they are functionally inclusive and to understand whether non-inclusion is random or systematic. We apply the tool to collaborative governance in a regional food system and find variance in substantive representation by actor, indicating the collaborative governance process diverges from its inclusive design in practice. In particular, nonprofit organizations who are formally part of the collaborative governance process are not substantively represented in formal meetings to the same degree as city and county agencies.

ANALISIS PENGARUH PAJAK DAERAH TERHADAP PENINGKATAN PENDAPATAN ASLI DAERAH DI KABUPATEN MINAHASA

This study aims to analyze the effect of Local Tax on Local Revenue in Minahasa District Year 2011-2015. This research was conducted from January to March 2017 in Minahasa District, North Minahasa District and Tomohon City with the object of Local Taxes research from 2011 to 2015. This study uses secondary data obtained from Minahasa District Revenue Office, Regional Finance Board and Asset Manager of Minahasa District, North Minahasa District and Tomohon City and Statistics Agency of Minahasa District. Data analysis used Contribution and Growth Matrix Analysis and Time Series Analysis. This study found that the contribution of local taxes to the original income of the period of 2011-2015 is still below 50 percetn and the local revenue is at the 5 percent level of Central Government Fund Transfer Income to the regions. This has resulted in poor welfare and prosperity of the population reflected in the per capita income level that is still lacking and the level of regional independence is still low. Analysis of regional tax trends for the year 2016-2020 has increased but still below 5 (five) billion rupiah each year so it still needs to be improved.

Predictive Analytics for City Agencies: Lessons from Children's Services.

Many municipal agencies maintain detailed and comprehensive electronic records of their interactions with citizens. These data, in combination with machine learning and statistical techniques, offer the promise of better decision making, and more efficient and equitable service delivery. However, a data scientist employed by an agency to implement these techniques faces numerous and varied choices that cumulatively can have significant real-world consequences. The data scientist, who may be the only person at an agency equipped to understand the technical complexity of a predictive algorithm, therefore, bears a good deal of responsibility in making judgments. In this perspective, I use a concrete example from my experience of working with New York City's Administration for Children's Services to illustrate the social and technical tradeoffs that can result from choices made in each step of data analysis. Three themes underlie these tradeoffs: the importance of frequent communication between the data scientist, agency leadership, and domain experts; the agency's resources and organizational constraints; and the necessity of an ethical framework to evaluate salient costs and benefits. These themes inform specific recommendations that I provide to guide agencies that employ data scientists and rely on their work in designing, testing, and implementing predictive algorithms.

Promoting energy-saving behaviour: formal social groups as promising middle actors for municipal interventions

City governments worldwide are trying to motivate their citizens to reduce their energy use—a particular challenge as they try to reach individual households. A promising strategy to engage the public broadly entails collaborating with middle actors to multiply the effects of municipal interventions. Some of these middle actors are formal social groups (e.g. sports clubs and neighbourhood associations). We conducted an online experiment (N = 136) to determine whether such interventions were more effective when they are communicated through formal social groups than when communicated through city governments. Participants received letters containing advice for saving energy in the household. Willingness to participate was higher when the letters came from formal social groups than when they came from a city agency. Furthermore, actual members of formal social groups generally were more willing to participate. Our evidence suggests that formal social groups are promising middle actors for energy conservation campaigns and that city governments should engage more often with these groups to communicate with residents.

“I’m not really healed … I’m just bandaged up”: Perceptions of healing among former students of Indian residential schools

Attempts at resolution between former students of Indian residential schools and the non-Aboriginal Canadian population began with the signing of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2006. The Settlement Agreement outlined provisions for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document the stories of former students and for the Resolution Health Support Program to offer emotional and cultural support to former students and their families. Although former students have catalogued their stories through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, experiences of healing from the events of Indian residential schools remain relatively unknown. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of healing among former Indian residential school students. In partnership with an Aboriginal support agency in a small Saskatchewan city, we interviewed 10 Aboriginal people affected by residential schools. The focus of the interviews was to generate participants’ conceptions and experiences of healing regarding their residential school experiences. We found all participants continued to experience physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual impacts of residential school attendance. Disclosure of their experiences was an important turning point for some participants. Their efforts to move on varied from attempting to “forget” about their experience to reconnecting with their culture and/or following their spiritual, religious, or faith practices. Participants also noted the profound intergenerational effects of residential schools and the need for communities to promote healing. The findings will be used to guide an assessment of the healing needs among this population in Saskatchewan.

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

In January 2013, John C. Liu, New York City's comptroller, wrote to the residents of the city about his audit of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). Liu summarized his office's findings: “The audit found that DPR was not carrying out and overseeing capital construction projects in a timely and cost effective manner.” To investigate the existence of the in organizations, information from nearly 1,800 capital projects undertaken between 1998 and 2008 was obtained from the office of the chief engineer of the New York City DPR. In light of the data, how severe was the planning fallacy during this time and could it be used for overcoming the planning fallacy? Excerpt UVA-QA-0815 Rev. Aug. 11, 2015 New York City Department of Parks and Recreation On January 11, 2013, John C. Liu, New York City's comptroller, wrote to the residents of the city about his audit of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). Among his responsibilities, the comptroller made recommendations for city programs and operations and audited city agencies. Liu summarized his office's findings: “The audit found that DPR was not carrying out and overseeing capital construction projects in a timely and cost effective manner.” New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City DPR was responsible for maintaining more than 1,700 city parks and recreational facilities, preserving natural areas, and furnishing recreational properties. The agency was in charge of 29,098 acres of parks, beaches, playgrounds, stadiums, marinas, gardens, and squares. The DPR not only cared for street and park flora and fauna, historic houses, statues, monuments, and open spaces in the five New York City boroughs, but also oversaw activities supporting physical fitness, environmental education, and performing arts. . . .

Employing big data analytics to monitor transportation impacts in El Paso during Pope’s visit to the US-Mexico border City of Juárez

Abstract City and state agencies often need guidance to manage traffic demand during special events. The demand and supply uncertainty during a major event makes it challenging to identify an optimal demand management strategy. Hence, agencies take a conventional approach, developing inflexible plans that inherently assume a high demand and congested conditions. Often, perceived supply constraints on the day of “rare” special events leads to reduced demand, resulting in uncongested conditions. This was the case when Pope Francis visited various cities across the US, and later the border city of Juarez near El Paso on the US-Mexico border. This study analyzed the impact of the Papal Visit on El Paso’s transportation system. The results found mostly uncongested traffic conditions and increased travel time reliability when compared with regular weekdays and weekends. People preferred walking and transit over using private vehicles to cross the border to attend either the mass in Juarez or the event in El Paso. The developed methodology and results will be useful for city, state and federal agencies in El Paso to manage travel demand during similar special events.

Does training matter in public organizations? Assessing training effects in the U.S. law enforcement agencies

This study examined the consequences of training on organizations. With data collected from 464 U.S. law enforcement agencies, training effects were explored in terms of crime control performance and sworn officers' resignation in regression analysis. According to the findings, training did not significantly improve crime control performance and police officers tended to stay in current organizations when they received a longer training. This study also found that law enforcement agencies in large cities tended to require longer training hours for their police officers.

Identifying and Prioritizing Information Needs and Research Priorities of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Practitioners.

This study describes findings from an assessment conducted to identify perceived knowledge gaps, information needs, and research priorities among state, territorial, and local public health preparedness directors and coordinators related to public health emergency preparedness and response (PHPR). The goal of the study was to gather information that would be useful for ensuring that future funding for research and evaluation targets areas most critical for advancing public health practice. We implemented a mixed-methods approach to identify and prioritize PHPR research questions. A web survey was sent to all state, city, and territorial health agencies funded through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement program and a sample of local health departments (LHDs). Three focus groups of state and local practitioners and subject matter experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were subsequently conducted, followed by 3 meetings of an expert panel of PHPR practitioners and CDC experts to prioritize and refine the research questions. We identified a final list of 44 research questions that were deemed by study participants as priority topics where future research can inform PHPR programs and practice. We identified differences in perceived research priorities between PHEP awardees and LHD survey respondents; the number of research questions rated as important was greater among LHDs than among PHEP awardees (75%, n=33, compared to 24%, n=15). The research questions identified provide insight into public health practitioners' perceived knowledge gaps and the types of information that would be most useful for informing and advancing PHPR practice. The study also points to a higher level of information need among LHDs than among PHEP awardees. These findings are important for CDC and the PHPR research community to ensure that future research studies are responsive to practitioners' needs and provide the information required to enhance their capacity to meet the needs of the communities and jurisdictions they serve. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:552-561).

Green and Smart: Perspectives of City and Water Agency Officials in Pennsylvania toward Adopting New Infrastructure Technologies for Stormwater Management

AbstractStormwater runoff associated with urbanization is one of the main factors hindering continued progress toward cleaner water. The state of Pennsylvania has older cities and towns, ample wate...

Performance of two prevalent infiltration models for disturbed urban soils

AbstractEstimating infiltration losses is very important for calculating runoff and recharge. However, the accuracy of contemporary infiltration models for disturbed urban soils may not be adequate, potentially compromising calculations based upon them. The objective of this study was to assess the performance of the two most prevalent infiltration models, Horton and Green–Ampt, for applications in urban soils. The data were measured by the US Environmental Protection Agency in a large city for soils with various characteristics of texture, structure, age, compactness, and dryness/wetness. The results indicate both models performed better in predicting infiltration rates for clayey rather than sandy soils, for new rather than old soils, and for wet rather than dry soils. For the clayey soils, both models performed better for the noncompact than compact soils. The opposite was true for sandy soils. Overall, neither infiltration model performed well for most soils, with the sole exception of the new clayey, wet, noncompact soils. The generally poor performance of the models in disturbed soils will likely increase uncertainty in model predictions. This study demonstrates the need to develop improved, more robust infiltration algorithms applicable to urban soils and various kinds of urban development that are based on carefully measured field experimental data.

Exploring the Change in Strategy Formulation and Performance Measurement Practices Under Turbulence

ABSTRACTThis article adds to the growing literature exploring the impact of cutbacks and environmental turbulence on organizational operations by studying the changes in strategy formulation and performance measurement practices in the public sector in the wake of the Great Recession. Survey data were collected from public transit agencies in small and medium-sized cities at the beginning of the recession in 2009 and again in 2013. The analyses found that transit agencies dealt with the fallout from the economic crisis by increasing their use of logical incrementalism approaches to strategy formulation through negotiating with organizational stakeholders and responding to newly emerging information through continuing changes in strategy. Agencies also placed greater emphasis on performance measurement practices. While the use of formal strategic planning itself remained constant under turbulence, the blended approach of formal strategic planning and logical incrementalism showed significant increase. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed in the conclusion.

STRATEGI PENGEMBANGAN SISTEM JARINGAN TRANSPORTASI DI KOTA MANADO

This research was conducted in Manado City, North Sulawesi Province. Data to be used in this research is primary data and secondary data. Primary data were obtained from direct interviews with land transportation users. Secondary data were obtained from various publications issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics Manado City and Regional Agencies related to this research. This research uses SWOT analysis method (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), with analysis of development of transportation sub sector using External Internal matrix. The results of this study indicate that the strategy that can be set for the development of transportation network system in Manado City are Development of existing transportation network in Manado City, based on geographical potential and natural resources owned by looking at opportunities from the tourism and transportation sectors potential for the development of sea and coastal transportation, increased discipline of riders, passengers and pedestrians, balancing the percentage of vehicles and minimizing, congestion level with good parking location arrangement, maximize the development of road network in Manado City by optimizing the distribution of goods and human to the transportation of the feeder (transportation between environments) and maximize the integration of modes to access new road network, Improve the quality of human resources for the users Public transport needs to be done so that they are really ready to carry out transportation services to the general public as well as improve the discipline of utilization of driving license to minimize the users of motor vehicles.

Integrating user feedback with open data quality models

ABSTRACTUser feedback is critical to improving the quality of open data. However, most open data publishers gather only anecdotal evidence about user experiences. This unstructured and informal commentary is, consequently, difficult to translate into actionable steps towards improving data quality. Drawing on user comments collected from Data.Gov ‐ an open data portal providing access to thousands of datasets published by city, state, and federal government agencies in the USA – we inductively develop a classification of reported data quality issues. This poster presents preliminary findings from applying this coding scheme to all issues that users filed on Data.gov in 2015 and 2016. We suggest that our classification scheme can help open data publishers collect structured, actionable information to improve data quality.

Preparing the Health System to Respond to Ebola Virus Disease in New York City, 2014.

The world's largest outbreak of Ebola virus disease began in West Africa in 2014. Although few cases were identified in the United States, the possibility of imported cases led US public health systems and health care facilities to focus on preparing the health care system to quickly and safely identify and respond to emerging infectious diseases. In New York City, early, coordinated planning among city and state agencies and the health care delivery system led to a successful response to a single case diagnosed in a returned health care worker. In this article we describe public health and health care system preparedness efforts in New York City to respond to Ebola and conclude that coordinated public health emergency response relies on joint planning and sustained resources for public health emergency response, epidemiology and laboratory capacity, and health care emergency management. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:370-374).

The Effect of Police Slowdowns on Crime

Though police strikes have been well studied, there are almost no articles written on the public safety consequences of police work slowdowns—labor actions where police officers reduce their ticket-writing and/or arrest productivity for a temporary period. This article fills the current void by presenting evidence on the 1997 New York City Police Department work slowdown, to my knowledge the longest documented police slowdown in U.S. history. Drawing on several, originally collected data sources from the NYPD and other city agencies, the article assesses the impact of the slowdown on ticket enforcement, arrest enforcement, and crime. The findings indicate that, at least in the context of contract-motivated slowdowns where the union may be motivated to garner public support for pay increases, the effects on public safety may be limited. Specifically, in the case of the 1997 slowdown, ticket-writing for all categories of tickets fell dramatically but arrest enforcement for all types of serious crime stayed the same or increased. Accordingly, the crime effects were mostly concentrated in the area of minor criminal disorder (misdemeanors and violations). Only two categories of serious crime (larcenies and assaults) were affected and those crime increases were minimal.

Customer satisfaction with bus rapid transit: a study of New York City select bus service applying structural equation modeling

Like any other transit mode, bus rapid transit (BRT) has a number of service quality and performance attributes that can affect rider satisfaction. However, there is little understanding about BRT rider satisfaction. This study investigates the relationship between riders’ overall satisfaction and underlying driving factors of the BRT service in New York City (NYC), known as select bus service (SBS). Two conceptual structures are developed for three groups of SBS riders based on theoretical review and pilot survey. Hypotheses about relationships between latent variables and observed variables are developed. Survey data obtained from interviewing riders on buses and at bus stops are used to test the hypotheses by applying structural equation modeling (SEM). For each group of riders, one model was built. Acceptable fits were obtained for all three models. In addition, some of the proposed causal relationships were supported in these models. Accepted hypotheses suggest that service quality was the most important factor influencing overall satisfaction for all three kinds of riders, namely, frequency, on-time performance, and speed. The other significant attributes are bus-only lanes, buses with three doors, bus comfort and cleanliness, proximity of bus stops, real-time information, limited stops, and ticket system attributes. Their effects vary among riders on routes with different locations and between rider groups with and without awareness of travel information. The implications of the findings for future planning and system improvement are discussed. In this study, SEM is found to be an appropriate methodology for measuring rider satisfaction levels. The findings are useful for the agencies in NYC and other cities in a similar situation to justify and plan transit service with limited resources.

Advertising Industry Diversity: We've “Kind of” Come a Long Way Baby, but Larger Pipeline and More Intentional Action from Industry and Educators Needed

Diversity in the workplace makes us smarter. Recent studies show that diversity, particularly diversity, in both large corporations and small groups, enhances creativity and leads to innovation, better decision-making and more effective problem solving (Phillips, 2014). While society has grown more demographically diverse over the years, the advertising industry - along with the academic institutions that provide it with the talent pool - has fallen woefully behind the country. For example, according to a study by the Madison Avenue Project, Blacks represent 13% of the population but make up only 5% of advertising professionals (Schultz, 2011). In fact, the study pointed out that nearly a fifth of large ad agencies employ no Black professionals, a rate that is 60% higher than the general labor market (Schultz, 2011). Moreover, research demonstrates that, on those occasions when Blacks are employed in the industry, most are generally relegated to jobs in stand-alone multicultural agencies (Bendick & Egan, 2009).The advertising industry has been charged with and trusted to reach and influence an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse populace, but lacks credibility given the limited extent to which it has impacted the color line within its own industry. Frankly, this problem is not just the responsibility of the advertising industry. It shares responsibility with the academy for the lack of workplace diversity in advertising.Although advertising managers voice their desire to hire more ethnic minorities, many claim they cannot find diverse candidates, because few minorities pursue advertising as a career (Schultz, 2011). This is partially true. The majority of college students studying advertising and related fields actually reflect the advertising workforce - predominantly white and mostly female (Bendick & Egan, 2009; Fullerton & Kendrick, 2014). To impact change, there needs to be a more concerted effort by both the industry and the academy to diversify agencies by creating a talent pipeline of diverse candidates.The History of Advertising Workplace DiversityThe advertising industry has a dismal history of hiring members from underrepresented groups. As early as the 1960s, agencies have been under significant pressure by civil rights organizations to diversify, an issue that became particularly evident after an Urban League investigation revealed few creative and executive positions were occupied by Blacks (Chambers, 2008). Another investigation, led by the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1963, discovered that fewer than one percent of employees at Madison Avenue agencies were Black (Patel, 2010). This disgraceful hiring record sparked the New York State Commission on Human Rights (NYSCHR) to launch several inquiries examining the hiring practices of many New York City agencies (Elias, Phillips, VanRysdam & Chun, in press).For example, in 1968 the Commission charged nearly a dozen leading ad agencies with employment discrimination (Chambers, 2008) and initiated complaints against a number of agencies for what the Commission called a poor record of hiring minorities and an unwillingness and inability to make meaningful changes to the culture (Chambers, 2008).In fact, just ten years ago the New York City Commission on Human Rights threatened to force executives at leading advertising agencies to testify about their dismal record of hiring ethnic minorities. Out of this fear, 16 of New York's top ad agencies signed agreements with the Commission to increase their ethnic minority recruiting, diversify senior management and allow city officials to track their hiring progress (Texeira, 2006). Despite these efforts, a 2008 follow-up study conducted by attorney Cyrus Mehri and the NAACP concluded in a 100-page report that despite the threat of fines, necessary improvements in balance in advertising employment rates never occurred. The NAACP study revealed that racial discrimination is 38 percent worse in the advertising industry than in the overall U. …