G E TTIN G PU B LIC PROJECTS F U N D E D Six Steps can position projects for success By Cindy McCleary I f it seems like getting funds for public projects is getting harder, it is. The increasing burdens on taxpayer dollars, primarily driven by rising health-care and public- safety costs, make projects that would have been easy to fund five years ago much more difficult. Add to that an increasingly partisan political atmosphere, and local govern­ ments are really feeling the pinch. Politics change faster than a project can get constructed, so funding that is a sure thing this year, might not be next year. As an architect, my role often includes coaching local government professionals through the funding process. Asking for money is scary, and because I am involved in public projects, I know how to listen, connect the dots, and build a story about need that justifies and clarifies the role of a new or renovated facility. Beyond drawing pretty pictures, my 1 8 P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | M A R C H 2 0 1 8 ic m a .o rg /p m job is about digging into operational goals, strategies, and business plans to determine how a building can become a successful tool for a community. Because story is such a big part of architecture, it’s natural that architects can help managers make the public case for financial need. Getting funding isn’t an exact science, but it does have certain ingre­ dients: the needs of a community, the goals of decisionmakers, the emotions of advocates, the hot-button topics, and the business plan of the project. It’s more of a philosophy than a formula; however, in my experience, ad­ hering to these six steps gives a project a better chance of getting the financial support it needs. OSave the eye candy.Setting up a project for fund­ ing success starts early, well before renderings are developed to wow a public audience. It begins in the needs-assessment, master-planning, and pre-design stage, where people can grasp the big challenges and start to build the case for need. The physical environment affects operations. Documenting failings in the current system helps identify the risks associated with inaction, and therefore strengthens the case for spending on facilities. On a recent police department job, we studied the workflow of the depart­ ment’s evidence intake chain of custody to help justify spending to improve it. The evidence-intake area was the same space used for the removal of trash and sometimes, a place to eat lunch. Although there was protocol in place to avoid contaminating incom­ ing evidence, the architecture of the building was introducing the possibility of human error. In the time it took an officer to clean the space before packag­ ing evidence, that evidence could be contaminated, introducing a huge risk. We built an argument for funding based on the risk of losing cases due to poor workflow along the chain-of-custody path. By lin ...

1. G E TTIN G
PU B LIC
PROJECTS
F U N D E D
Six Steps can position projects for success By Cindy McCleary
I
f it seems like getting funds for
public projects is getting harder,
it is. The increasing burdens on
taxpayer dollars, primarily driven
by rising health-care and public-
safety costs, make projects that would
have been easy to fund five years ago
much more difficult.
Add to that an increasingly partisan
political atmosphere, and local govern-
ments are really feeling the pinch.
Politics change faster than a project can
get constructed, so funding that is a sure
thing this year, might not be next year.
As an architect, my role often
includes coaching local government
professionals through the funding
process. Asking for money is scary,
and because I am involved in public
projects, I know how to listen, connect

2. the dots, and build a story about need
that justifies and clarifies the role of a
new or renovated facility.
Beyond drawing pretty pictures, my
1 8 P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | M A R C H 2 0 1 8
ic m a .o rg /p m
job is about digging into operational
goals, strategies, and business plans to
determine how a building can become a
successful tool for a community. Because
story is such a big part of architecture,
it’s natural that architects can help
managers make the public case for
financial need.
Getting funding isn’t an exact
science, but it does have certain ingre-
dients: the needs of a community, the
goals of decisionmakers, the emotions of
advocates, the hot-button topics, and the
business plan of the project.
It’s more of a philosophy than a
formula; however, in my experience, ad-
hering to these six steps gives a project
a better chance of getting the financial
support it needs.
OSave the eye candy.Setting up a project for fund-
ing success starts early, well before
renderings are developed to wow

3. a public audience. It begins in the
needs-assessment, master-planning,
and pre-design stage, where people
can grasp the big challenges and start
to build the case for need.
The physical environment affects
operations. Documenting failings in
the current system helps identify the
risks associated with inaction, and
therefore strengthens the case for
spending on facilities.
On a recent police department job,
we studied the workflow of the depart-
ment’s evidence intake chain of custody
to help justify spending to improve it.
The evidence-intake area was the same
space used for the removal of trash and
sometimes, a place to eat lunch.
Although there was protocol in
place to avoid contaminating incom-
ing evidence, the architecture of the
building was introducing the possibility
of human error. In the time it took an
officer to clean the space before packag-
ing evidence, that evidence could be
contaminated, introducing a huge risk.
We built an argument for funding
based on the risk of losing cases due to
poor workflow along the chain-of-custody
path. By linking space to performance, we
helped build the case for need.

4. Often, someone will ask, “When do
we get to design?” by which they mean,
“Let’s see some flashy images.” The
truth is, before the flash, there needs to
be a thorough, defensible case for need.
O Identify naysayers and under-stand their pitch. Naysayers can
wreak havoc on a project, especially
considering the speed of social media.
Ignore naysayers, and they will bury you.
Whether it’s a commissioner,
elected official, newspaper, political
activist, or disenfranchised group,
naysayers use their voice to dismantle
an idea. You need to understand their
pitch, include them in the process, and
build their trust.
This cannot be done with emotion,
but only with dialogue and facts. Often,
their perception highlights a weakness
in your message that you can use to
strengthen your case.
A recent historic-preservation project
was challenged in the past by active and
organized community members who felt
resentment over being left out of previ-
ous planning efforts. They didn’t have
financial or political leverage, but they
had a voice and a good point.
The solution was to embrace their role
in the project and give them a voice in

5. deciding how the site should teach about
their heritage—and their contributions
made the project better. By bringing them
to the table, understanding the storyline,
and building trust, their voice became one
of support rather than disruption.
Build your advocates. Key to
project success, advocates include
anyone who has political, capital, or
social leverage. Whether councilmember,
fundraiser, cultural gatekeeper, chamber
of commerce executive, or church leader,
anyone with access to hearts, minds,
energy, in-kind resources, and purse
strings can be an advocate.
Building advocates is an art of inclu-
sion and should make them feel valued
for more than the resources they offer.
By asking for their needs, thoughts, and
opinions before their money and connec-
tions, you make them feel empowered
and vested, and automatically make
them a partner.
For a recent police-training facility
project, two police departments were
involved. We knew there was a regional
need for the project, but felt that our
chances for funding would increase if
we had more police departments across
the region invested in the cause. We
needed to leverage their connections to

6. make it happen.
In the planning process, we asked
20 agency heads from across multiple
counties, “What do you need?” All 20
agencies contributed their ideas, and
in the process, became supporters and
advocates.
Our design responded to their needs
by organizing itself in the form of five
semi-independent pods, each focused on
a different type of training. This enabled
smaller agencies to rent spaces spe-
cific to their needs, at lower cost, while
decreasing overhead for the police.
Having these advocates in place be-
fore the design allowed us to meet their
needs as the project developed, making
them strong advocates in our campaign
for funding.
O Build a sound, defensible busi-ness plan. While some public
projects, like universities and training
centers, have revenue offsets, some
facilities just don’t generate revenue.
That doesn’t mean they don’t need a
business plan; in fact, it means they
need to work harder to justify the return
on investment (ROI) of the project.
For non-revenue-generating projects,
a business plan justifies why the project
will save money and improve operations
in the long run.

7. When designing a recent police-
department headquarters, we studied
the workflow to demonstrate how the
department’s obsolete building required
more time for staff to perform simple
tasks. Because the previous building had
evolved in an ad-hoc way over decades,
icma.org/pm: online and mobile accessible MARCH 2 0 1 8 |
PU B LIC MANAG EM ENT 1 9
NAYSAYERS CAN WREAK HAVOC ON
A PROJECT, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING
THE SPEED OF SOCIAL MEDIA. IGNORE
THEM, AND THEY WILL BURY YOU.
each officer spent an average of 17
minutes getting ready for a shift, running
all around the building to check in, get
into uniform, go to roll call, retrieve their
weapon, get medical supplies and duty
bag, and finally get into the squad car.
Next, we tested the same process
using a new plan and clocked it at 12
minutes. That savings of five minutes
per officer, three shifts per day, seven
days per week, 365 days per year added
up to an annual cost of $600,000. That
allowed us to argue that the hard-side
investment in facilities would have
soft-side outcomes, making it a smart
financial investment.

8. No matter the situation, a strong
business plan can help a manager
clarify the case for need. It’s no longer
just based on emotion but on a metric
analysis that has a ROI.
□
Develop a clear message.
Nobody knows a community’s
needs as intimately as the manager does,
but communicating those needs in a way
that connects with the audience is tough.
A clear message quickly educates
an audience, which can be residents
or elected officials, on the risks and
challenges of a project and the outcome
of the investment. But it also makes a
department’s or community’s needs the
legislature’s needs. This requires manag­
ers to forget their needs for a moment and
focus on the needs of the audience.
In a recent public-safety training
facility project, selling the project to the
legislature required us to understand and
address core values. While the immedi-
ate need was for a safe and secure place
to train, that message didn’t resonate
with the legislative audience.
The legislature figured officers
could train in a rented warehouse; from

9. experience, public-safety officials knew
that would not allow officers to feel safe
enough to learn effectively.
Rather than focus our messaging on
the needs of the officers, we chose a mes-
sage that spoke directly to the needs of
legislators to fairly represent constituents.
In the design process, we mapped out
existing training facilities in the region,
and found that they were concentrated
disproportionately in one area.
By presenting this information to the
legislature, the argument became more
about financial equity and tax base—an
idea that resonated with them.
A good message isn’t about selling
personal needs but about positioning
the need to achieve an audience’s
goals. This kind of argument makes it
more likely that your project becomes
a priority for them.
Dedicate feet-on-the-ground
leadership. When trying to get a
project funded, the better story that can
be told, the better chances of success.
As architects, the deeper we can get into
nuts-and-bolts operations, the better we
can align the design to what is needed,
and the better story we can tell to justify
need. This requires a significant com-

10. mitment of time and talent early in the
design process.
In designing a recent revitalization of
a historic site, city staff felt overwhelmed
during the early stages by the scale of
decisions required to successfully plan
the project. It was only after dedicating a
team of eight empowered leaders to give
80 percent of their time to the project
that we really made progress and started
making impactful decisions.
By allowing people with operational
authority to get into the weeds of the
project, my organization could conduct
a deeper dialogue on how design could
improve workflow.
Dedicating the time and attention of
leaders with authority over the long-term
shape of the organization results in bet-
ter design. This builds into a better story
and a stronger case for funding.
At the same time as health care,
education, and policing are taking up a
bigger slice of the funding pie, build-
ings are getting more expensive and the
prospect of asking for money is more
daunting than ever.
My message to local government
managers is that by paying attention to
the audience, dedicating empowered

11. leadership to projects, and making early
strategic decisions, they will have a
better chance of seeing projects built. P /l
j CINDY MCCLEARY is regional
government market sector leader,
' " - ■ LEO A DALY, Minneapolis, Minnesota
(IA ' A ([email protected]).
AT THE SAME TIME AS HEALTH
CARE, EDUCATION, AND POLICING
ARE TAKING UP A BIGGER SLICE OF
THE FUNDING PIE, BUILDINGS ARE
GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE AND THE
PROSPECT OF ASKING FOR MONEY
IS MORE DAUNTING THAN EVER.
20 PUBLI C M A N A G E M E N T | MARCH 2 0 1 8
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38 SECURIT Y TECHNOLOGY E XECUTIVE •

12. September/October 2017 • www. SecurityInfoWatch.com
SECURED CITIES
s concerns around public
safety and security have risen
over the years, cities and
law enforcement are doing
everything in their power
to prepare for any situation
that might come their way.
Through the use of big data and analytics,
along with smarter transportation man-
agement systems and innovative public
safety strategies, city governments can
successfully host major events, deal with
unpredictable natural disasters, and even
reduce unnecessary citizen service disrup-
tions - all by managing risk.
A major portion of this risk manage-
ment strategy is achieved through sharing
the right data across multiple stakehold-
ers and agencies. This task can seem quite
daunting, especially when considering how
much extensive cooperation and coordina-
tion across many departments it requires.
Special events often times attract very
large crowds, and natural disasters present
unpredictable outcomes that create logisti-
cal, safety and transportation challenges
on a massive scale. It is essential for cit-
ies to find an intelligent software solution

13. that works directly with special response
groups to connect them with command
center communications and real-time
situational awareness, enabling increased
collaboration and allowing authorized
users to view and manage situations in
real-time. Cities need to be able to share
video and other important data with secu-
rity teams around the city such as public
safety agencies, the police and fire depart-
ments, major venues, stadiums, hospitals
and medical centers.
Below are three key takeaways that city
3 Ways Cities Can
Strengthen Their
Public
Safety
Strategy
By James Chong
is occurring, or perhaps which way is the
safest route to exit the building, or even
receive response notifications from affect-
ed personnel.
Additionally, responders are able to
provide real-time communication and the
status of a present situation. This proves
to be a game-changer when city agencies
work together to secure major city events,
as well as in emergencies such as a natural
disaster. Mobile collaboration also helps
law enforcement during active shooter

14. events to determine the safest location
for medics and first responders to enter
the building to treat victims.
In order to build an effective security
platform, you must be able to collect and
interpret metadata to pull the most useful
and actionable data out of the noise.
Based on customized rules and regula-
tions, organizations can set parameters
for what should be flagged as “high risk”.
The first warning sign is usually unusual
or unexpected activity - whether physi-
cally on your organization’s campus or
virtually on your IT system. By collecting
data from disparate sensors, devices, and
subsystems, data analytics tools are able
to identify patterns that are unusual on
any monitoring or sensor device and flag
these as potential risks.
Through integrating data analytics and
correlation tools with video and sensor
data, cities can analyze external threats as
it pertains to their assets in order to more
effectively mitigate risk. When implement-
ed correctly, this technology can facilitate
clear inter-agency communication, faster
response times, and a stronger plan for city
efficiency and safety.
governments can apply to building their
public safety strategy.
Government agencies can easily

15. become siloed - especially at the city level.
When stakeholders and organizational
leaders decide to integrate their technol-
ogy and work together, this creates an effi-
cient and powerful database that involves
every aspect of the city’s needs.
Integrating multiple subsystems, sen-
sors, and devices into a unified user inter-
face create one common platform rather
than numerous disparate applications,
creating a faster process for decisions to
be made. When operation centers have to
contact multiple disparate sites for real-
time updates, it increases the risk of mis-
managed information and human error.
With the help of a converged security
platform, decision makers can respond to
everyday events and more serious risks in
a more efficient manner by reducing the
amount of time and effort operators spend
looking at multiple screens to gather, sort
and analyze data.
Mobility is crucial for a public safety
strategy. Operational databases should
also be browser-based so that they’re avail-
able anytime from anywhere for mobile
users. This also allows multiple entities
from various groups, with appropriate
security credentials, to collaborate in
real-time and share actionable informa-
tion with incident responders.
Innovative data correlation and man-

16. agement dashboards allow city decision
makers to manage situations in real-time.
IT staff with authorized credentials can
access the dashboard from anywhere on a
mobile tablet or smart phone for enhanced
situational awareness. Mobile phones
are the quickest and most effective way
to reach large groups of people, in three
primary ways. For instance, organizations
can use an emergency notification system
to notify specific groups that an incident
About the
Author:
James I. Chong ser ves
as CEO of V idSys which he
founded in 2005.
Collaborative efforts among public safety agencies enhance
their ability to mitigate risk, share analytical data and collect
useful information from myriad video surveillance feeds.
A
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11:18 AM
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