Case Study: City of Portland Cross-Bureau Efficiency Initiative

Executive Overview

The Consolidation Inquiry was a City of Portland effort from the Office of Management and Finance (OMF), commissioned by the Mayor's Office and guided by a Steering Committee of five bureau directors. It evaluated opportunities for improving efficiency and effectiveness in three key service areas: Facilities Management, Revenue Collection, and Professional Services (PTE) Contracting. It was the first cross-bureau collaborative efficiency initiative in the City's history. The research was conducted by a Work Group in the Business Operations Division. As the selected Hatfield Fellow, I served as primary researcher and authored the final report of findings, which is publicly available through the City of Portland. The team identified numerous specific opportunities for cross-bureau collaboration, process standardization, and technology consolidation. The Steering Committee approved pursuit of all opportunities scoring above 2.4, representing 15+ specific efficiency improvements across facilities, revenue, and contracting operations.

Challenge

The project aimed to address findings from an earlier review of the OMF structure, which recommended consolidating facilities management and revenue collection, and coordinating professional services contracting. The core challenges observed were:

Facilities Management: Wide variations in how bureaus managed facilities and property, leading to a lack of cross-bureau coordination, inconsistent cost tracking, and reactive work order processes.

Revenue Collection: Bureaus needed to offer modern, alternative payment options and move away from paper checks to better leverage the city's cash position. Many transactional and revenue charge activities relied on inefficient workarounds like Excel spreadsheets or one-off processes for public records requests and Point of Sale transactions.

PTE Contracting: Restrictions on cross-bureau usage of on-call service contracts, challenges for smaller firms due to high liability insurance requirements, and inconsistencies in contract management knowledge among staff.

Approach

The Work Group supported the Steering Committee by developing a research methodology focusing on: bureaus that owned property, bureaus that collected the largest sums of external revenue (over $10,000,000 annually), and the central Procurement Services division.

Data Collection: Research meetings and one-on-one discussions were held with bureau staff across the targeted service areas.

Analysis: Data was compiled using structured tools (an Excel-based facilities management tracker and a standardized questionnaire for revenue collection) to ensure consistency across bureaus.

Opportunity Generation: Data was analyzed to identify specific opportunities aligned with guiding principles, including ensuring benefits outweigh costs and avoiding unnecessary restructuring of bureau functions.

Prioritization: A prioritization matrix was compiled, assigning each opportunity an owner and an estimated level of effort. The Steering Committee rated each opportunity (3 = Definitely Pursue, 2 = Maybe, 1 = Not at this time).

Selection: All opportunities with a cumulative Steering Committee rating above 2.4 were selected for further pursuit, resulting in 15+ approved efficiency improvements.

Impact

The project yielded several high-priority recommendations for cross-bureau collaboration and standardization, leveraging existing City systems including SAP Flexible Real Estate and Public Sector Collections and Disbursements.

Facilities Collaboration: Establish regular cross-bureau meetings for facilities and property managers, and develop a Citywide Facilities Maintenance Technician apprenticeship program.

Revenue Optimization: Evaluate bureau revenues still received by paper check for conversion to electronic payments (ACH/card), support migration to a hosted payment solution, and develop a consistent process for public records request revenue collection.

Contracting Efficiency: Develop a process to post and share Citywide facilities-related on-call contracts, revise City policy on liability insurance requirements for smaller firms, and establish an official Citywide collections agency contract.

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The Consolidation Inquiry demonstrated that cross-bureau collaboration can unlock significant efficiency gains across an entire organization, when guided by a clear methodology and executive commitment. If your city or county is ready to identify similar opportunities, visit the Services page to learn more about how Local Efficiency Solutions can help.