Spring 2015

BSD m a g a z i n e

For Building Services

Department Employees

Message from the Director ............ 2

Employee Spotlight I .................... 3

Strategic Objectives

Workforce Engagement ........... 4

Property Spotlight ........................ 6

Strategic Objectives Data Collection ....................... 8

Employee Spotlight II .......... 11

BSD Goes Bare .................. 12

BSD Outreach .................... 13

Employees on the Move ...... 14

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Building Services Department e-magazine! A few years ago we started “Front Line Feedback” meetings with the purpose of getting direct feedback from front line employees. One of the requests we received was to produce a “newsletter.” There was a desire to share and understand the bigger picture of Building Services and about each other.

Since then we have taken some steps to improve information sharing and communication. The purpose of this publication is to inform, educate, and communicate information about our department for our employees and customers.

You will see articles of interest touching on many different aspects of what we do and who we are. This effort is intended to foster better understanding of our Department, contribute to a closer team and better our relationships with customers.

You may remember that our department’s vision statement is “Become a national benchmark recognized as a proactive learning organization that respects its employees, its customers, and the community at large.” This statement resulted from two goals. The first goal was based on our own recognition of the need to improve our department, to become more proactive instead of just reactive. The second goal is to answer the City Manager’s challenge and his vision to be the best managed City in the country.

The value of the vision statement for any organization is in setting a direction. If you don’t have a destination then how do you know where you are going? So in the interest of clear understanding of our destination lets breakdown our vision statement:

Become a national benchmark… We intend to become a leader in our industry which other similar organizations look to measure their progress to excellence.

…recognized as a proactive learning organization… Organizations of excellence are organizations that learn. Without this fundamental characteristic they would not be able to improve and be recognized as leaders in their fields. Learning means that we take the time to collect information, evaluate and analyze it, and then identify and implement changes that improve our ability to provide services, such as our efforts to build capacity for data collection and analysis and the establishment of our new Key Performance Indicators to measure our progress as a department. This will ultimately enable us to shift from a reactive organization to a proactive one.

… that respects its employees, its customers, and the community at large. This part of the vision statement is derived from our department’s core values and mission. We have used the metaphor of climbing a mountain with the summit representing the destination (vision). This is not an easy journey. This part of the vision statement recognizes that we will not achieve this destination without earning the respect of our customers and employees and ultimately the community we serve.

Surprisingly many organizations don’t have vision statements and often can’t answer the question of where they are headed very clearly or at all. We have a responsibility as public stewards to commit to this journey. I want to thank each of you for your hard work and commitment to this vision.

I hope you find this publication informative and helpful. Please give us your feedback on this magazine to peggy.pleasant@austintexas.gov.

ERIC Stockton, BSD Director

Message from the Director

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“If I had to provide the BSD value to describe Sandra (Fresch), it would be ‘Customer-Focused,” says Eric Herman (Interim Custodial Services Manager). “She brings in the right amount of energy and teamwork to our group.”

Sandra (Building & Grounds Assistant) began working for the Building Services Department in 2013. In addition to her duties at One Texas Center, she also applies her events planning hobby and volunteers to coordinate BSD’s major meetings, proving that she is the “go-to” person who makes it happen. “I love it,” Fresch said. “I want to make sure that everything is a success,” she says.

Prior to working at the City, Sandra worked for the State of Texas (Texas School for the Deaf) for 27 years. Additionally, over the course of her tenure with the State, she worked at two other jobs, including the Texas State School, Travis County and MCI. “As a single mother of 2 boys, I worked at least two jobs for 30 years,” she said.

She worked in various fields in her career, ranging from materials management and logistics to state hospital attendance and residential advising. She encountered a number of hardships on the job both

economic and safety-wise. “I’ve had an arm broken trying to restrain a patient,” she mentioned matter- of-factly.

Many parents and non-parents could not fathom having to shoulder a great deal of responsibility alone, but Sandra credits her mother, Bertha Woodard (a 30 year retiree from the COA) for instilling a strong work ethic and faith in God, while at the same time maintaining a positive disposition and outlook.

With her sons now grown and long married with families of their own, Sandra was recently able to plan the ultimate event—her own wedding. Sandra married retired Air force Senior Master-Sargent Ray Daniels this spring in a wedding that she not only planned but catered, and true to form—Sandra was able to pull off her dream wedding on a budget. “My wedding looked like it cost about $20k,” she said.

Event planning aside, Sandra has other planning to do… “I would like to see other parts of the world and travel more and utilize the things I’ve bought over the years.” Rest assured, Sandra will “make it happen!”

Name our Magazine!BSD employees have an opportunity to name our new magazine! Please submit your suggestions to the link below. The employee with the winning name will be announced via email and awarded a 1/2 day off!

Please send your suggestions to:www.surveymonkey.com/s/C3HLWBQ

Employee Spotlight: SANDRA Fresch

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We spend more hours at work than at home. Because of this fact, it is important that employees like where they work. The BSD Executive Leadership Team identifies employee morale and job satisfaction (also known as workforce engagement) as a key strategic goal for our department.

“Improving any organization has to start with its leadership investing in the workforce,” says Dan Dean, Deputy Building Services Officer. For the past few years, BSD has implemented a number of employee engagement programs with the intent to foster better communication throughout the organization. Some of these efforts include:

Email access—in order to improve communication within the organization, employees need to have access to the appropriate tools. In 2012, all BSD employees have email access—not the case for all departments.

Monthly Frontline Feedback Meetings—The Executive Leadership Team established this meeting in 2011 as an opportunity to meet directly with BSD frontline employees to hear their ideas and suggestions. Some of the new workforce engagement initiatives BSD has implemented in the last few years have come directly from these meetings.

Quarterly BSD All-Department meetings—an opportunity for all BSD employees to receive recognition as well as information on Department-wide initiatives or announcements.

Intranet—BSD introduced a basic Intranet platform with the intent to provide information to both internal and external employees.

eMagazine—This magazine was launched to supplement the All-Department meetings in providing information, successes to its staff and external customers.

A few more initiatives are in the works:Awards & Recognition Improvement—Employee-driven retooling the Fiscal Year 2016 A&R program from 2010’s program.

eNewsletter—intended to provide updates about BSD happenings more frequently as a supplement to the eMagazine.

BSD On-Boarding—intended to address the needs of BSD’s newest employees and provide information about the Department as well as processes and procedures as they apply to their specific job functions.

Additionally, efforts are underway to pro-actively train employees to take on active roles in these programs to improve the organization and their own skills as a whole. Stay tuned!

Strategic Objectives: Improve Workforce Engagement

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“Improving any organization

has to start with its

leadership investing in

the workforce”

5

“We are currently

the only training

facility of this kind

in central Texas.”

6

PROPERTY SPOTLIGHT: Public Safety Training 4800 Shaw Lane

“On any given day, you could hear constant gunfire, feel the bombs going off, see the snipers from SWAT shooting more than 300 yards, watch the Austin Fire Department (AFD) set buildings and cars on fire and watch the ambulances spin around on the emergency vehicle operators course (EVOC) pad,” said Jill Cogburn, Building Services Manager.

It’s not exactly the typical work environment most people expect to work in on a daily basis, but for the past 3 years, it was Jill Cogburn’s world.

The Public Safety Training Campus (PSTC), located in Southeast Austin is the training facility for Austin police, fire and EMS cadets. At 42 acres, it is the largest City of Austin property that is not a park, considered a crown jewel in the City, and is known statewide. “We are currently the only training facility of this kind in central Texas,” says Cogburn. “Other public safety personnel come from all over Texas to attend training at PSTC.” Currently, the facility also houses Austin Community College students undergoing firefighter training.

Although the facility existed on a much smaller scale since the 1980s, PSTC underwent an expansion and renovation five years ago. It has 13 classrooms, a computer lab, reference library, gym/weight room, driving and shooting simulators, observation rooms for testing, pistol range, rifle range and drill tower.

Additionally, PSTC achieved LEED-NC Gold status. “We participate in the City of Austin’s single stream recycling program, as well as recycling hundreds of pounds of brass each year from the pistol range,” says Cogburn.

“Wooden pallets that are too damaged to be reused are burned by AFD in training. We also have a large bio-filtration pond on site, as well as solar panels and photovoltaic converter.” The single biggest challenge for the facility is scheduling resources. In addition, PSTC has an obstacle course for SWAT, driving track, Emergency Vehicle Operating Course, burn buildings, shoot house, etc. Each of the cadet classes must be scheduled far in advance so everyone can share the resources.

Do employees ever feel intimidated working around the uniformed staff or the loud and potentially dangerous site? “We do talk to the cadets on their first training day, providing them guidelines for room cleanup,” according to Somsak Hemsiri, Building and Grounds Lead. “At first, I was nervous, but I realized I’m just here to do my job and over time, I realized we are all just coworkers…we look out for each other… kind of like family.”

At left: MARY JANE Mendez, HEMSIRI “Sam” Somsak and ELAINE Garcia of PSTC Building & Grounds.

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STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: Improve Capability and Capacity for Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting

Data is king The right amount and type of data will help the Department get what it wants and needs. Under the direction of the Executive Leadership Team, BSD employees are working to capture data that will log building and equipment information that will in essence “tell our story” in determining what resources are necessary to improve the Department. “Our customers provide feedback, but a building also talks,” says David Acuña, Manager, Administration and Finance.

BSD recently began the process of data analysis by working with other City departments to develop a complete and accurate database list of City buildings (currently 261 buildings, 30 departments total). The next goal is to take that list and provide greater detail—more comprehensive data that will tell us exactly what condition the facility is in and what the plan of action should be in maintaining or relinquishing the building or even leasing or buying more facilities. “It’s hard to make decisions on a building when we don’t know what our true costs are,” said Walter Drane, Deputy Building Services Officer.

The tracking of costs and the strategic decisions that are included in those costs require communication and support of City Management and ultimately Austin’s taxpayers. The Executive Leadership Team idenfied five Key Performance

Indicators (a collection of performance measures that are an outcome of analysis) that are instrumental in the Department’s success.

These indicators are in the process of being incorporated in our upcoming budget.1. Costs per square foot (Total Cost of

Ownership)2. Portfolio Manager Score (the ECAD ordinance)3. Customer satisfaction scores4. Ratio of scheduled to unscheduled

maintenance5. Facilities condition index (indication of

deferred maintenance and overall condition of a facility)

Within BSD’s operations, the Trades and Finance & Administration groups are working to develop methods that BSD can capture labor and materials costs including using task orders on timesheets and work orders.

BSD’s labor, materials and maintenance costs (including preventative maintenance) are tracked through the Maintenance Edge System for core properties.

“Right now, it’s a manual process among our teams,” says Korrie Melia, Research Analyst, whose role includes data management and reporting. “Hopefully, over time, we can invest in systems that will automate our processes and enable us get information in an easier way.”

Obviously, “telling our story” involves a great deal of time and effort from staff. “It will be tough for a while,” says Drane. “But the end result will be better efficiency and greater resources for our Department.”8

“Our customers provide

feedback, but a

building also talks.”

Have article ideas or suggestions? Send us an email!

Topics can include:• Guest columns• Photo contributions• Employee profiles• Special projects or events in

your division• Anything else you want your fellow

BSD colleagues to know about!

Email your ideas to peggy.pleasant@austintexas.gov

Thank you to this issue’s contributors:Jill Cogburn Wesley CrowPeggy Lee PleasantDonyale ThompsonDakota Young

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“I grew up in the days

where they said “go

out and play” and be

home when the street

lights come on.”

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As one of the Building Services Department’s electricians Wesley Crow has been touted as exemplifying BSD’s values of Excellence and Customer Focus. “Wesley is always trying to learn and ask questions about anything he doesn’t understand,” says Don Hopkins (Project Manager). “In a short while, he studied on his own time and achieved his Electrical Masters License. He always brings quality to his work.” Wesley also serves as BSD’s “unofficial” photographer, documenting department meetings and special events (most of the photographs in this publication including the cover were taken by Wesley).

Outside of work, Wesley Crow is the prime example of an “outdoor sports enthusiast.” However, mainstream field sports such as baseball and football aren’t necessarily his favorites.Wesley’s most recent adventures are more away from the traditional, such as kayak fishing, mountain biking and the X-games. In fact, he recently attended the X games that were held in Austin this past May.

He was able to achieve a dream to participate in the volunteer BMX Rally Cross portion of the games, but he didn’t win the championship he had hope he’d be “I failed miserably,” Crow said. Many of his adventures he tracks on his YouTube channel.

A native Austinite, outdoor sports has pretty much been a part of Wesley’s life. As a child, he was a Boy Scout and his father often took him camping for weeks at a time. Later on, hunting was added to the list. He grew up in North Austin where 20 years ago Highway 183 stopped at Far West. “I grew up in the days where they said “go out and play” and be home when the street lights come on.” With so much growth and development in the City, Wesley

doesn’t feel like there will be many opportunities for true outdoor adventures. “I feel mostly at home in the woods where there is no highway noise or cell phone reception....now you have to drive farther and farther outside Austin for solitude. Now married and a father of toddler Cason, does his family share his enthusiasm for the outdoors? “My wife is the complete opposite of me--very indoor--although we did visit the Redwoods in San Francisco, and she has gone with me on some caching adventures as well.” He feels that Cason is too small for camping right now “but we do have plans.”

Employee Spotlight: WESLEY Crow

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BSD Goes Bare!No liners in your office trash can, why? In 2011, at One Texas Center alone, approximately 208,000 liners made their way to the landfill annually.

Eliminating the liners was an initiative started by BSD a few years ago, to reduce landfill waste, and it saves the City and tax payer’s money as well. “We achieved cost savings from not buying small bags and on time it took for staff to change out the liners,” according to Jim Guthrie, Manager of Custodial Services—now retired.

City Hall cost savings per year is approximately $1,217. Now the custodial staff time can be better spent providing a healthier building environment.

In implementing the program a few years ago, BSD took a phased approach “We implemented the new policy by floors to start,” according to Guthrie. “We started at One Texas Center’s 6th floor, tested it and got buy in from those tenants. We then expanded to RBJ’s 1st floor and the 4th floor City Hall. Not long afterwards, building managers took charge of the rollout, emailed tenants educating them on the policy.”

Building Managers utilized different methods to announce the policy. “I wanted to prepare the

building for the change and posted the ‘Let’s Go Bare’ posters about a month before we rolled out the discontinued use to the rest of the building,” according to Brenda Loney who was the Building Services Manager at City Hall at the time of the policy change. “I had a few sayings and went to PIO Graphics. They liked the “Let’s Go Bare” idea because it was attention grabbing and they put it together to post in City Hall.”

The program iniitially met with some resistance but gained acceptance over time, proving that while change can be uncomfortable at first, it will be gradually accepted with the right amount of communication and education.

The success of the liner program at City Hall led to an expansion of the program at other City facilities. Efforts are being made by the Resource Recovery group to re-educate employees and remphasize the importance of the program.

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One of the Building Service Department’s core values is Societal Responsibility. On November 7, the Department held its 15th annual and final Golf Tournament, benefiting the City of Austin Combined Charities Campaign (COACCC).

More than 100 people attended and participated in the event including some BSD employees. “They come to play golf, but it’s really about having a great time and meeting up with everyone,” according to Mark Northcutt, Project Coordinator.

Started more than 15 years ago by Northcutt with his wife Paula in association with David Acuña (Manager of Administration & Finance) the Golf Tournament is an opportunity to socialize and golf for a good cause. The tournament was named in honor of late BSD employees Art Aguirre and Troy Farr. “Both Aguirre and Farr loved golf and supported the tournaments,” said Acuña. “We decided to name the event after them in memoriam.” The first tournament was held at Bergstrom golf course and eventually moved to the Kizer Golf Course where it has been for the last five years.

The event also includes a raffle for those attendees who don’t play golf. In the beginning, the event raised approximately $2,000, but soon after, its popularity more than doubled the amount. “Over the last 15 years, the tournament raised around $45,000 on behalf of COACCC,” said Acuña. Unfortunately, 2014 was the last year of the tournament, as and BSD is looking at other options to outreach for a good cause. In the early 2000s, there were three COACCC golf tournaments. They are all now defunct, and BSD’s tournament was the last to end.

Special thanks to Mark and his wife, David Acuña and all BSD employees who have contributed to BSD’s Societal Responsibility values and supported this COACCC event over the years.

“They come to play golf,

but it’s really about having

a great time and meeting

up with everyone.”

BSD OUTREACH: City of Austin Combined Charities Campaign Golf Tournament

BSD Employees on the Move 2014

Promotions

Plumber IBuilding & Grounds Assistant

Building & Grounds Supervisor

Heating & Refrigeration Tech. II

Plumber II

Business Process ConsultantHeating & Refrigeration Tech. IIDeputy Officer of Building Services

Maintenance Worker III

Mail Services Clerk SeniorMaintenance Worker LeadPlumber I

General Maint. Supervisor IIBuilding Services ManagerBuilding & Grounds AssistantBuilding & Grounds AssistantBuilding & Grounds Assistant

Building & Grounds Assistant

Building & Grounds AssistantBuilding & Grounds Assistant

Building & Grounds AssistantAdministrative Specialist

January

March

April

May

Travis BurgessCarla Brooks

Eric Herman

Chip Tipton

Chris Ruddell

Peggy PleasantMike WaltersWalter Drane

Mark Ybarra

Michael WhiteJeff CalhounJoel Lara

Jermain DeFreezeJulie CossetteIvonne MarquezSean ShirzadiJuan Foster

Maryanis Guzman Rodriguez

Reginald ClarkLeotis Duffie Jr.

Brandon WilliamsNatalie Leone

June

August

September

October

November

July

December

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BSD PromotionsMaintenance Worker Leader

General Maintenance Manager

Building & Grounds Supervisor

Building & Grounds Lead

Building & Grounds Lead

Building & Grounds Lead

Heating & Refrigeration Tech. III

Building & Grounds Lead

Building & Grounds Assistant

Building & Grounds Assistant

Research Analyst

Scott Whitaker

Donald Baldwin

Nicole Jackson

Victor Recinos

Maria Aguirre

Erik Cantu

Shane Keuhn

Joe Hipolito

Naze Washington

Glenda Washington

Korrie Melia

BSD RetirementsBuilding & Grounds Assistant

Plumber I

Heating & Refrigeration Tech. III

Building Services Manager

Building & Grounds Assistant

General Maint. Supervisor II

Public Services Manager

Bruce Dobrezensky

Clay Hohertz

Patrick Matthews

Rory Roberts

Alcie Marshall

Roger Wienken

Jim Guthrie

Jermain DeFreeze

Nicole Jackson

Travis Burgess

Jim Guthrie

Leo Duffe, Jr. and Reginald Clark

Dan Dean, Roger Weinken, Alice Marshall (with wife), Bruce Dobronzensky (with wife) and Eric Stockton

Walter Drane 15

BSD MissionThe mission of the Building Services Department (BSD) is to support reliable, sustainable, and efficient City facilities.

VisionBecome a national benchmark recognized as being a proactive learning organization that respects its employees, its customers and the community at large.

BUILDINGSERVICES

Our Motto Is “PRIDE in SERVICE.” This comes from our core values of S.E.R.V.I.C.E.

Societal Responsibility

Excellence

Respect

Value-Added

Innovation

Customer-Focus

Ethics

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