Administrative
Report
N.5., File # 22-5075 Meeting Date: 11/1/2022
To: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
From: TED SEMAAN, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
LUKE SMUDE, ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER
TITLE
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON THE USE OF SOFTWARE TO IMPROVE THE CITY’S
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS REGARDING THE STATUS OF CAPITAL
PROJECTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Goal 1 of the City Council’s recently revised Strategic Plan is to “Modernize the City’s Communication Systems.” One of the objectives is to look for potential solutions that improve the City’s internal and external communications as it relates to project status and budget reports for the Capital Improvement Project (CIP) Program.
These projects are tracked internally through an Access database and updated manually by Staff on a monthly basis. Since March 2022, the Engineering Division of the Public Works Department has been using cloud-based Smartsheet software to move towards a more collaborative and dynamic project management system in order to move away from the Access database.
The improved data collection opens opportunities for staff to share additional project information through a public CIP Project portal. Leveraging ESRI, the City’s Geographic Information System (GIS) platform, staff can create project slides that share important project information on various projects as well as a map overview that summarizes projects underway throughout the City.
With Council’s input, staff will tailor these efforts and move forward in developing the internal and public-facing components of this item.
Smartsheet is a project management software program that offers a rich set of views, workflows, reports, and dashboards to capture and track plans, resources, schedule tasks and assignments, and share internal documents. Based on the usage over the past several months, the Engineering Division sees Smartsheet as a useful internal software program to streamline internal tracking of projects and contracts.
BACKGROUND
As part of the strategic planning process, Council directed staff to explore potential solutions to improve gaps in internal and external communications as it relates to project status and budget reports for the CIP. Currently, there are one hundred and seventeen (117) projects in the CIP program, all of which are in different stages of development ranging from Pre-Design to Construction,
N.5., File # 22-5075 Meeting Date: 11/1/2022
program, all of which are in different stages of development ranging from Pre-Design to Construction, and each with varying levels of complexity and duration.
Since March 2022, the Engineering Division has been using cloud-based Smartsheet software to streamline and homogenize data collection with the goal of replacing the outdated Access database historically in use. Smartsheet offers a rich set of views, workflows, reports, and dashboards to capture and track plans, resources, schedule tasks and assignments and share internal documents.
Staff has seen improvements in the internal tracking of projects and contracts and is encouraged by the potential Smartsheet has to enhance the monthly data collection and reporting cycle.
In order to address the public facing element of CIP reporting, staff explored multiple solutions over the last several months, including ClearGov and OpenGov. While worthy options, there are additional costs associated with their use and they are solutions not already tied to existing data collection and storage workflows. As a result, staff views ESRI as the most viable option to display collected data regarding CIP projects to the public through an online CIP Portal as it is already in heavy use by the City’s GIS Analyst.
ESRI project pages display various project information, such as, type of project, budgeted amount, funding sources, project phase, and estimated start and end dates. The fields of project pages are customizable and elements can be added or subtracted from the base template established for publication.
Using the applications mentioned above, staff is seeking City Council’s direction and support to invest the time and effort necessary to fully integrate these, Smartsheet and ESRI, tools into the City’s monthly data collection and reporting schedule. With Council’s support, it is estimated it will take three to five months to fully build out a page for every CIP project that is available for public viewing.
COORDINATION
This report was coordinated with the City Manager’s Office.
FISCAL IMPACT
The fiscal impact is expected to be minimal but is not fully known at this time. As the communication effort continues to grow and evolve, additional staff training and resources may be required to ensure staff is able to best utilize the recommended Smartsheet and ESRI platforms.
APPROVED BY:
Mike Witzansky, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
· None