Management consulting

In order to function on tighter resources but still achieve better outcomes, governmental everywhere need to rethink and restructure their policy-making and operations. Reinventing regulatory, management and operations structures requires a great deal of technical knowledge and hands-on experience. It also requires something in shorter supply - creativity. The case examples below demonstrate why at Public Works, we're making good ideas work for the better.

Next Generation Environmental Excellence: California Environmental Protection Agency

As part of its function as an outsourced policy office of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), Public Works directed the California Innovations for Environmental Excellence project. The Innovations Project covered a broad mix of policy, program and process areas that fall into three separate (but related) general categories: Permits Innovations, Process Innovations, and Compliance Innovations. However, the common goals of all three Innovations were: 1) achieving significant improvements in environmental performance; and 2) establishing clearly defined indicators to measure those significant improvements in environmental performance.

Permit Innovations proposed two "tiers" or "tracks" for permit holders and applicants. The choice of "tiers" would be voluntary. Participants in the "higher tier," or Innovations Track, would commit to higher levels of environmental performance than that mandated by law. Process Innovations would be a separate but related initiative that would provide inter-Agency support to the Permit Innovations initiative. Process Innovations would focus on internal administrative and budget initiatives within Cal/EPA, which over time would serve more as a management tool. Compliance Innovations focused on three separate but related initiatives: making enforcement and outreach more efficient; simplifying and standardizing reporting requirements; and using compliance histories to better target inspection resources.

Through these and other efforts, Public Works is helping implement a new model for government regulation that meets the demands of the 21st Century by improving regulatory outcomes with less bureaucracy and lower costs:

• Tie regulation to desired outcomes rather than bureaucratic inputs.
  
• Target enforcement and penalties more efficiently.
  
• Reduce the regulatory burden on the vast majority of citizens and businesses while rewarding compliance.
  

Smarter Labor Standards: California Department of Industrial Relations

Even with increased resources, the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) never would be able to monitor all of the workplaces in California fully to protect low- and minimum-wage workers. That's why DIR turned to Public Works for a new approach to labor standards. Public Works helped DIR staff to design a meticulous six-tiered program to modernize the state's labor regulatory system.

The program was based on the simple premise that DIR should focus on increased compliance with labor standards - such as payment of the minimum wage and overtime for excess hours - instead of relying primarily on enforcement. By defining several tiers of compliance, Public Works' efforts allowed DIR to clearly focus its resources on the worst offenders. The system calls for tougher fines and penalties to generate revenue, ensures that the worst offenders paid for their own enforcement, and demonstrates that the reforms were about stronger, not weaker, compliance.

Public Works also developed a streamlined "traffic citation" approach to isolated problems that previously had been handled by multiple bureaucratic and judicial appeals, providing low-income workers a desperately needed system for swifter payment of claims. The new system reduces the level of regulatory oversight for employers with clean records, focuses on public outreach and private sector mentoring for at-risk firms, and provides incentives for businesses to go beyond the minimum legal requirements.

By crafting these changes, Public Works helped redesign government enforcement efforts to increase compliance while reducing regulatory overhead.

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