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- Each department which interacts with the public should develop a bilingual series of
information brochures, systematically describing its services and the conditions of service availability. These brochures should emphasize completeness and accuracy over fancy design.
They should be kept constantly updated through desktop publishing technology, and they
should be distributed free through the city information centers.
Estimated Costs - Included in other items.
- Establish a uniform policy of providing free validated parking for citizens doing business with
City offices downtown.
Estimated Costs - Not available; requires study of number of spaces needed.
- As an initial step toward developing satellite "one-stop" business and permit centers, arrange to
issue the kinds of simple permits which are now available at the North Loop Service Center at
the existing Multi-Service Centers in the Southern Sector.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $38,000 (personnel and telecommunications).
- Locate offices for building inspectors and code compliance inspectors together in the public
works service centers.
Estimated Costs - $0 net.
- Complete the process of computerizing the development of City ordinances and resolutions as
a high priority item. New ordinances and resolutions, along with the minutes of Council
meetings, should be available on-line at the city information centers.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $70,000. Annual: Savings not estimated.
- Provide sale publications and documents of City Council as part of the local government
documents depository system at university libraries.
Estimated Costs - Not available; depends on administrative system developed.
- Establish an appropriately furnished office, including secretarial space and conference room,
for each Councilmember within the district he/she represents. This should be in an existing
City facility if suitable space is available. Otherwise it should be leased in an appropriately
accessible commercial location.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $3,000 each (equipment). Annual: $8,000 each (leased
space).
- Provide each Councilmember with a full-time administrative assistant. This person should be
thoroughly familiar with the organization and functioning of the city government, results-oriented, and able to follow-up in providing effective staff support.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $50,000 each (personnel and operations).
- Coordinate the implementation of recommendations which require concerted action by more
than one department. These include information resources, telecommunications services, and
public information activities.
Estimated Costs - $0.
- Develop a "One Stop" business and permit center in the City Hall area as soon as funds can be
allocated.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $250,000 (personnel and leased space).
- As experience is gained in managing the downtown "One-Stop" Center, consider developing a
network of 3-5 satellite centers at multi-service facilities in outlying quadrants. These may be
more limited in scope than the downtown center, and they might offer certain services on a
rotating schedule basis. They should emphasize information dissemination functions.
Estimated Costs - Not available; depends on program to be developed.
- Replace the existing North Loop Service Center with two new centers in the Northeast and
Northwest. These facilities should have adequate sites to allow for expansion and for the
relocation of other internal service functions which are now scattered in arbitrary locations.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $7 million. Annual: Savings not estimated.
- Expand the service centers to also accommodate parks maintenance.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $2.5 million per service center. Annual: Savings not
estimated.
- Develop a northside Public Health Branch and four additional Public Health Clinics. These
facilities should be co-located with the Multi-Service Centers (as has been done at the Eastside
Center), to facilitate coordination of client intake.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $3.5 million. Annual: $1.2 million.
- Develop an on-line computer retrieval system to make copies of birth and death records
available at facilities outside the downtown office.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $ 64,800. Annual: $46,800 (communications).
- Develop a satellite animal control facility, rather than continuing to expand the existing facility
in Brackenridge Park. Ultimately the City should replace the existing facility, which does not
belong in the park.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $1 million. Annual: $1.3 million.
- Develop Northside and Southside Multi-Service Centers comparable to the existing Eastside
and West End Centers. These must be carefully located to maximize accessibility to their
present and future targeted service populations. They should be designed to house information
functions as well as social service agencies.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $2.4 million+/- each, depending on site cost and specific
services programmed at each location. Annual: Not estimated.
- Develop municipal public information centers with a trained staff and extended hours in each
of the Multi-Service Centers.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $20,000 ($5,000 per site for communications).
- Work with other departments to develop and install the information systems necessary to
implement recommendations for remote access to information and documents.
Estimated Costs - Included in other items.
- Develop a middle tier network of regional "super-branches," of around 20,000 square feet
each. These should contain expanded reference sections, so that citizens in outlying
neighborhoods would have an alternative to the downtown Main Library. Development of
these facilities must not cause a reduction in services or hours at other branches or the Main
Library.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $800,000 each (construction and initial book stock).
Annual: $250,000 each.
- Expand existing branch libraries to include community meeting rooms and facilities to host
literacy programs.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $250,000 per site.
- Develop city government information centers in the branch libraries. All city government
publications of general public interest (e.g., codes, directories, etc.) should be available for
study and copying at these locations. Branch expansions to accommodate community meeting
facilities should be designed to implement this function at the same time.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $85,000 ($5,000 per site for communications).
- Revitalize the moribund program to maintain a documents depository system in cooperation
with university libraries. The public library "super-branches" should also include all significant
city government publications in their reference collections.
Estimated Costs - Not available; depends on administrative system developed.
- Continue to pursue opportunities to develop combined school/ public libraries.
Estimated Costs - $0.
- Relocate the park maintenance functions which are now centralized in Brackenridge Park to
the public works service centers.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $2.5 million per service center. Annual: Savings not
estimated.
- Revise the Neighborhood Planning Process to provide more opportunity for smaller
neighborhoods to participate by reducing the plan requirements or by accepting annual goals
statements, and more effective implementation through rezoning and capital improvements
programming.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $38,200 (1 additional planner).
- Develop a flexible, short range sector planning process. This should be designed to mobilize
residents in areas larger than an individual neighborhood to set annual "action plan" agendas.
Estimated Costs - Included in previous item.
- Develop a system to offer a broader array of community services through the substations. The
department's plan to create "Police Service Agents" may be an effective step in this direction.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $612,000.
- Develop a system to make available at the substations accident and incident reports, so that
citizens who need them for insurance claims are not required to obtain them downtown.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $10,000.
- Make all city government publications of general public interest available for study and copying
at the city information centers in branch libraries and multi-service centers.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $42,000 ($2000 per site for equipment).
- Provide technical assistance and translation services to other departments in producing
bilingual versions of all city government publications of a general public information character.
This particularly includes the recommended departmental service information brochures, the
general service information directory, and the agendas of Council and city commissions.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $47,000 (personnel and printing).
- Develop guidelines to ensure uniformity in the content and format of departmental service
information brochures. Provide technical assistance to other departments in publishing them.
Estimated Costs - $0.
- Compile and publish a bilingual general service information directory including building
addresses, hours of operation, and telephone numbers and descriptions of key services. This
information should also be available on-line through the city information centers.
Estimated Costs - Included in other items.
- Evaluate the need for desktop publishing capabilities throughout the structure of city
government. Provide this capability for departments which cannot justify acquiring their own
software and equipment.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $14,000 per site. Number of sites requires study.
- Make available through the city information centers, on-line and in bilingual form, the complete
agendas of City Council and all city boards and commissions.
Estimated Costs - Included in other items.
- Make available through the information centers City bid requests and specifications, requests
for proposals, job vacancy announcements and job application forms.
Estimated Costs - Included in other items.
- Assist the Library in managing the collection and distribution to university depository libraries
of the documents produced by other City agencies.
Estimated Costs - Not available; depends on administrative system developed.
- Broadcast over the City's cable TV access channel the complete agendas of City Council and
all city boards and commissions.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $10,000.
- Include the "B" sessions in the live coverage of City Council meetings on CATV-5.
Estimated Costs - $0.
- Consider broadcasting Planning and Zoning Commission meetings and major public hearings
on CATV-5.
Estimated Costs - Annual: $28,000.
- Supplement existing cable TV character generating equipment with the capability to broadcast
graphic images, such as maps of the brush collection zones.
Estimated Costs - Capital: $10,000.
- Use the cable TV access channel to publicize the availability of free validated parking for
citizens doing business with City offices downtown.
Estimated Costs - $0.
- Support the Cable TV Advisory Committee in developing a plan to use desktop video and
presentation technology as part of the City's public information strategy. Support other
departments in using this technology.
Estimated Costs - Requires further study.
- Support the Cable TV Advisory Committee in developing a plan to use the Institutional "B
trunk" for a government information network. Through this network, achieve the "electronic
co-location" of all City facilities, and begin the development of a useful regional data bank.
Estimated Costs - Requires further study.
- Establish an effective bilingual telephone inquiry system, paralleling the information available
through the information centers and cable TV channel.
Estimated Costs - Not available.
- Work with Information Resources and other departments to develop and install the
telecommunications systems necessary to implement recommendations for remote access to
information and documents.
Estimated Costs - Included in other items.
- Thoroughly revise the listings of City phone numbers in the directory blue pages, to make it
easy for citizens to identify the offices they need to call. After-hours numbers, emergency
numbers, TTY numbers, headings for bilingual assistance and offices which deal frequently
with an unsophisticated public should systematically be listed in bold print. Entries using plain
language should supplement the listings which track the City's administrative structure (e.g.,
"Dog pound" as well as "Metropolitan Health District - Environmental Health Services -
Animal Control Facility.")
Estimated Costs - $0.
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Back to Report Table of Contents
Back to Beginning of Recommendations by Department
Forward to Appendix A (Ordinance No. 65983)