1. Does Size Matter?
The Difference Between a Large Organization and a Smaller City
Mr. Robert R. Gordon, P.E., Director of Public Works, City of Temple Terrace Public Works Agency
City of Temple Terrace Florida
Harry Lorick, P.E., PWLF, Principal, LA Consulting, Inc.
Manhattan Beach, California
July 08, 2014

2. 2
Learning Objectives:
• Differentiate and identify the contrast between a large
and small organizations for DPW
• Identify business and system methodologies to
address unique needs of an organization
• Demonstrate and discuss the importance to an
organization to plan, organize, schedule, and control
their work
“Public works leaders needs to motivate
people and solve problems.” J. Ostrowski
(2003)

3. Agenda
3
• Theories and numbers for Government
• Large agencies
• Smaller agencies
• Similarities and differences
• Suggestions

4. OK …. some theory
4
• Management layers
• Span of control
• Leadership traits
• Leadership styles
• Workflow
• APWA standards

5. 5
The span of control and layers of management help determine the way
an organization manages operations (Lorick, 2011)
Span of control and number of layers impact
both big and small

6. Resource
Data
Activity
Guidelines
Annual
Work
Program
and
Budget
Inventory &
Condition
Assessment Level of
Effort
Work
Activities
Resource
Requirements
Workload
Distribution
Work
Requests
Work
Scheduling
and
Assignments
Work
Backlog
Work
Reporting
Performance
and Cost
Reports
Field
Performance
Evaluation
and
Management
Action
Update
Planning
Values
Work
Calendar
Planning Organizing Directing Controlling
The ideal management of maintenance follows four general processes - planning,
organizing, directing, and controlling; similar to what was identified in the initial needs
assessment.
APWA (2008)
Management processes are needed

7. Resource Decision
Contract maintenance
supplemented with
In‐House forces
In‐ House forces and
Contract maintenance
In‐House forces
In‐ House Forces
supplemented with
Contract maintenance
High
HighLow Staff Availability
Maintenance needs
A Guide for Methods and Procedures
in Contract Maintenance, AASHTO (2002 )
Size in agency and staff can be a factor in
type of resources used

8. APWA Standards
• Standards of Conduct and Core
Competencies (Ostrowski, 2003)
8
APWA guidance can be helpful

9. Skills
9
Large DPW focus is
more on human and
conceptual with less
need for technical.
Small DPW have more
technical focus while
very small agencies
have little concepts
skill needs.
Skills needed vary by size

10. Leadership Styles
10
Well developed
employees require
different focus then
those developing.
The applied leadership
is a situational
function based on the
skill set of the
employees.Styles needed vary by size

11. Agencies by the numbers
11
• 3,144 Counties (2014)
• 19,492 municipal governments
and 16,519 township (2007)
• 293 > 100,000 in population
and 90% of the governments <
25,000
• 50,432 special purpose local
governments(2007),
37,381 special districts, 13,726
school districts, 1,452 public
school systems
Special purpose is 60% of all governments

12. City Population
US versus Florida
12
85% of city governments are
smaller than 10,000 in population

13. Florida Cities
13
61% of city governments are smaller than
10,000 in population

14. Largest City and unincorporated
County Governments
14
49 governments are
over 100,000
51% of people are in
incorporated areas
Counties have a major role and most people in Florida
are governed
by larger agencies.
Conclusion: Most people are under larger agencies
Yet there is a lot of small government agencies.

15. Government
15
Worked with over 100 governments in 11 states
Size from 5 to 4,000 employees in Public Works
From 1 sq. mile in Emeryville to 20,105 sq. miles in San
Bernardino County
Many counties in Florida, local government, and
several foreign counties.
Harry
Worked in both large and small PW and will start with
a large ones!

16. What do Large Agencies Have
16
 Often organized both spatially (multiple locations) and by
separated function
 Have resources with specialists in various fields
 Often use combination of contract and in‐house resources
 Large professional staff
 Frequently seasoned staff with lengthy service with agency
 Structured policies and procedures
Organizations are often complex with large spans
and layers along spatial separation !

17. Here is one very large example
17
4,000 employees and a $2 billion dollar budget
is complex with many functions and 13
management
levels from the Director to the Worker.
Agency interfaces with 83 cities.
Functions – roadways, traffic, bridges and dams,
flood control, airports, beaches, water quality,
potable water, sewer, solid waste, engineering,
geotechnical, survey, mapping, buildings, fleet and
development.

18. Let’s look at another… a Florida one
18
Functions – roadways, traffic, bridges, water quality,
engineering, geotechnical, survey, solid waste,
mapping, mosquito control, and land development.
602 employees and a $70 million budget is
complex with more functions and 6‐7 management
levels from the Director to the Worker.
Agency interfaces with 3 cities.

19. Large Public Works Leaders Key
skills and traits
19
 Vision and direction
 Political understanding and coordination
 Governmental interaction
 Media communications
 Public relations
 Management direction
Direction and communications are key elements.

20. 20
Big agency leadership styles
 Flexible and Interface with political
leadership
 Results and people
 Focus on delegating
 Encourage and motivate
 Obtaining & retaining key management staff
 Monitoring the big picture

21. Yet….Issues with Big agencies
21
 Political direction and loss of control
 Procedures – policy and procurement hamper
efficiency
 Difficulty in aligning staff with direction
 Communication filters
 Separation from worker with amount layers
 Lack of understanding customers
 Speed of decisions
 Silos of work

22. What can be done by Big Agency
22
 Communicate using a clear vision with explicit goals
 Utilize performance measures with accountability
 Establish public relations support
 Ensure alignment with political leaders & executive team
 Establish systems and business processes to monitor
work
 Communicate with staff with open communications
policy
 Conduct annual or bi‐annual status review by
independent staff or outside support
Concepts and management tools to manage
people as well as motivate.

23. Video Bi‐Weekly Scheduling Meeting
Systems
Planning
South Service Unit
West Service Unit
East Service Unit
Internet
23
One example –
tool used for multiple (5) office coordination

24. Goals or Performance plan
FOUR (4) GOALS FOR DIVISION HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED
• MAPP GOAL 1 ‐ Communications
• MAPP GOAL 2 ‐ Risk Management
• MAPP GOAL 3 ‐ Sustainable Infrastructure Practice Strategies
• MAPP GOAL 4 ‐ Operations Improvement
NINE BEHAVIORS
• 01. CUSTOMER SERVICE
• 02. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
• 03. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
• 04. IMPROVING INTERNAL OPERATIONS
• 05. TEAM BUILDING/COLLABORATION
• 06. LEADERSHIP/ORGANIZATIONAL AWARENESS
• 07. COMPLIANCE WITH COUNTY POLICIES AND BOARD DIRECTIVES
• 08. PROMOTING A DIVERSE AND ACCOUNTABLE WORKFORCE
• 09. INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY
24
Another… This is an example of goals and related
behaviors established by entire division with some
specifics.

25. Let’s Hear From
25
Mr. Robert R. Gordon, P.E., Director of Public Works
City of Temple Terrace
Public Works Agency
He has lead in both large and mid sized PW … he will
cover a mid sized one!
He is also a APWA top ten leader in 2013.

26. 26
• 6.9 square miles
• Population of 25,189
Mid sized Florida city with many services
with 60 positions.

27. TEMPLE TERRACE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
Director Assistant to the
Director
Customer Service
Public Service Rep.
Deputy Director
Operations
Assistant City
Engineer
Deputy Director
Utilities
Water Treatment
Chief Plant Operator
Plant Operator (6)
Plant Maintenance II
Water Distribution
Foreman
Utility Maintenance II
Utility Maintenance I(3)
Utility Service Technician II
_________________
Renewal & Replacement
Utility Maintenance II
Utility Maintenance I
Sewer
Foreman
Plant Maintenance II
Plant Maintenance I (5)
Utility Maintenance II
Utility Maintenance I
Engineering
Senior Engineer
Streets
Foreman
Maintenance Attendant IV (2)
Maintenance Attendant III
Maintenance Attendant II
Secretary III
Warehouse
Inventory Control Spec.
Facility Maintenance
Semi-Skilled Tradeswroker
Custodian, part-time (3)
Sanitation
Foreman
Driver/Collector (13)
Fleet Maintenance
Foreman
Mechanic II (2)
Mechanic I
(3)
(26)
(7)
(23.5)
Total 59.5 FTEs
Wide span with many functions.
Include roadways, traffic, water quality, potable
water, sewer, solid waste, engineering,
geotechnical, survey, mapping, facility, fleet and
development review.

28. 28
• Must work at political, administrative, and
technical levels
• Includes multiple functions
• 3 management layers from Director to Worker
• Relationship with employees at all levels
• Interface directly with various departments
• DPW is often the technical expert for all public
works
Covers technical, human and conceptual
skills.

29. 29
Public Works Leaders skills and traits
 Has combination human , technical and
conceptual skills
 Determination, intelligence and integrity
 Know entire agency role and work
 Situational ability to communicate with all
 Understand details of most functions
 Communicate and maintain relationships with
customers, employees, and political leaders

30. 30
Benefits of being smaller
 Less bureaucracy
 Opportunity for flexibility to put personal
face on work flow and processes
 Know employees and customers and
have personal relationships
 Involved in all levels of work and projects
 More cross functionality of employees
and sharing equipment
Opportunity to make difference and be
involved at various levels.

31. 31
Issues
 Smaller numbers of skilled & professional staff
 Less redundancy and backup
 Many functions with only some of the skills sets
 Silos of skills that can result in loss of control
 Often high turnover at skilled areas
 Interaction of political leadership with
employees
 Risk in making decision
Resources, redundancy and risk.

32. • Responsible for multiple infrastructure
• Regulatory requirements exist
• Management and technical needs
• Many stakeholders
• Public and community presence
• Leadership and motivations
• Monitoring performance
32
Similarities
There are size differences … they do
impact the way one must manage and
lead a department yet the basic purposes
and functions are the same.

33. • Focus of Director
• Capability of staff
• Support levels and resources
• Flexibility in decisions and policy
• Amount of DPW involvement in detail
• DPW maintenance and operations focus
• Amount of regulatory requirements and interaction
• Relationship with citizens
33
Differences
Some director’s skills and traits better
match a specific agency size, not everyone
can do equally well at various sizes.

34. • Understand difference in Big and small agencies
• Have visions with goals for each function
• Educate and update elected leaders on executive leadership of
departments performance
• Develop business tools to monitor key work elements in all functions
• Put in place policies and procedures for effective, efficient, and ethical
work
• Communicate with staff using all available tools
• Utilize the APWA standard of conduct and apply or develop APWA
Core competencies
34
Suggested for any Agency
There are size differences … they do
impact the way one must manage and
lead a department yet the basic purposes
and functions are the same.

35. Questions
35Linked @LA_CONSULTING
Celebrating our 20th year of Helping Public Works Work!
Robert R. Gordon, Director of Public Works
City of Temple Terrace Public Works Agency
11210 North 53rd Street
Temple Terrace, Florida 33617
Phone (813) 506‐6572
email: rgordon@templeterrace.com
Jeff Thurman, Consultant
LA Consulting, Inc.
1209 Manhattan Ave, Suite 310
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Phone: (310) 374‐5777
email: jthurman@laconsulting.com

36. References
36
AASHTO (2002). A guide for methods and procedures in contract maintenance.
Washington, DC: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
APWA (2008). Public works administration. Kansas City, Missouri: American Public
Works Association. ISBN 978‐1‐60675‐008‐7
Lorick, J. (2011, Dec.) Span of control impacts public works efficiency. APWA Reporter,
78(12), 36‐39
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Washington, DC:
Sage Publications. ISBN: 978‐1‐4522‐0340‐9
Ostrowski, J. (2004). Everything you need to know to be a public works director.
Kansas City, Missouri: American Public Works Association.
Tolbert, P. & Hall, R. (2009). Organizations: Structures, processes, and outcomes (10th
ed.). New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0132448408.