Seizing the Benefits of Collaboration Across the Organization: THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA.

• Author: Ludwig, Katie
• Position: FINANCE

Like many coastal communities, the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, makes a priority of climate resiliency. Due in large part to collaboration among the Finance Department, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Public Works Department, the city is finding ways to move its sustainability and climate resiliency efforts forward. GFOA recently spoke with city leaders to learn more about how their departments collaborate and the benefits collaboration provides.

Laura Aker Reece, the director of OMB, explained that some of her office's "best work in collaboration over the past few y ears has been related to funding and moving forward initiatives related to sustainability." The city plans to issue a $200 million stormwater bond, an effort that has included OMB and Finance, as well as Public Works, whose role included advocating to the public, explaining the timing of the projects involved, and delivering the work.

OMB has two divisions: Budget/CIP and Grants and Structural Innovation. Much of the work of the Budget/CIP and Grants division is developing the city's capital improvement plan (CIP), "We're the central piece for developing plans for our CIP with the departments, working with Finance to figure out how to pay for them all within our current rate structures and financing ability," she said. "We also work on special projects, a little bit of everything, depending on what's going on in the city, so we really see ourselves as part of every team in the city."

One of OMB's chief partners in the stormwater bond effort has been Nancy Gassman, the assistant public works director in charge of sustainability. She is responsible for fleet services, solid waste and recycling, environmental and regulatory affairs, sustainability and climate resilience, and stormwater operations. "It's an eclectic group, all working toward sustainability and resilience within the City of Fort Lauderdale," she explained.

Another partner on the stormwater bond effort is Susan Grant, the city's director of finance. Susan is a proponent of collaboration because "none of us knows everything." She finds value in getting diverse opinions from people throughout the organization and believes collaboration is especially important in a big city like Fort Lauderdale to make sure that an idea is fully vetted before it moves forward.

Susan emphasized the importance of developing solid working relationships as a precursor to collaboration. "I think you have to develop those really good, solid working relationships with everyone you work with, and that involves communication and trust. You need those two things so you can be honest with people and tell them the story as it really is. Once we're all on that same plane, and we know exactly what's going on, we can solve problems better," she said.

Nancy agreed about the importance of developing relationships and stressed that phone or face-to-face conversations are the best way. "We live in a world of email. All of us get somewhere between 100 and 150 emails a day, and if you really want to create relationships, you have to pick up the phone, or you have to walk down to their office from time to time. You can't create relationships by sending email. I walk down to Laura's office a lot more than I used to," she said.

"In addition to the informal relationships, we also try to make collaboration a formal process using things like our FL2STAT (1) quality management meetings," explained Yvette Matthews, division manager. Yvette oversees the city's centralized grants process, helps develop the city's annual budget, and manages special projects. She said the FL2STAT meetings bring all the players to the table to discuss issues and help ensure that everyone can play a part in the decision-making process.

As part of the FL2STAT...