Department of Transportation Issues Performance Data

At a September 3rd meeting of Department Heads, the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (McDOT) provided an update on its performance for the year.

The McDOT includes five distinct divisions:

• The Director’s Office, which provides overall management, financial and planning support,
• The Airport Division, which includes General Mitchell International Airport, the Timmerman general aviation airport, and the Milwaukee Regional Business Park,
• The Transit Division, which provides fixed route bus transit and paratransit services across the County,
• The Highways Division, which provides maintenance for the interstate system and State trunk highways within the County; as well as planning, capital development and maintenance of the County’s trunk highway system and bridges,
• The Fleet Maintenance Division, which maintains and tracks replacement of all vehicles and major equipment (such as airport snowplows and large mowers in the Parks).

The McDOT has approximately 443 budgeted County positions, plus an additional 1,058 positions in the transit system, which is operated through a contract. 2014 budget expenditures total $274 million, of which only $18.6 million or seven percent is funded by the County property tax levy. The McDOT’s operations are highly dependent on State and Federal revenues, or on user fees in the Airport Division.

The full report is available here. Highlights of the September 3 performance report include:

Airport Division

• Passenger enplanements at General Mitchell International Airport (GMIA) declined from 4.9 million in 2010 to 3.2 million in 2013, mainly as a result of industry consolidation.
• Partially as a result of this decrease in enplanements, the cost charged to the airlines by the County to operate the airport rose from $4.12 in 2010 to $8.16 in 2013, and is budgeted to increase again to $9.29 in 2014. The Airport can measure this figure against a benchmark of peer airports that include those in Albuquerque, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis. The 2014 benchmark for this peer group is $10.00. This figure is important because it gauges how competitive Milwaukee County’s airport is in attracting new flights.
• The percentage of revenues earned at GMIA from sources other than the airlines (such as concessions, rental car fees and parking) has remained consistent at between 59 and 65 percent between 2010 and the 2014 budget. The peer group benchmark is closer to 43 percent.

Transit Division

• After remaining consistent at approximately 30 percent between 2011 and 2013, the percentage of expenses covered by rider fares is on pace to decline to approximately 28 percent in 2014.
• Passengers per bus hour has continued to decline since 2011, from 29.3 to 26.3
• After declining in 2012 and 2013, the cost per bus hour estimated at $100.40 in 2014.

Fleet Maintenance Division

• The number of County-owned vehicles exceeding replacement criteria declined from 207 in 2013 to 177 in 2014. This is important because older vehicles that are beyond their useful life are often more expensive to maintain and spend more time in the shop.
• After increasing in 2012, the number of accidents Countywide declined in 2013.

Highways Division

 

2014 Innovation Fund Project Awards

The 2014 Adopted Budget included the creation of the Milwaukee County Innovation Fund. This fund will utilize one-time revenue sources for projects that are designed to improve customer service, enhance operational efficiency, and reduce taxpayer costs for services.

In 2014, the County expects to receive approximately $5.7 million in revenues related to the 2011 sale of a portion of the County Grounds to develop the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Innovation Campus. Of this amount, approximately $4.1 million is available for Innovation Fund Projects. A workgroup made up of representatives from the County Board of Supervisors, the Office of the Comptroller, and DAS-PSB make recommendations for project funding and on April 24, these recommendations were approved.

The approved projects include:

• Construction of  20 units of housing focusing on chronically homeless individuals with alcohol addictions.  The Housing Division would take referrals from Detox, corrections, courts, police, etc. and house individuals that cannot be served in existing housing or shelters due to their active use of alcohol. This funding will leverage over $2 million in other  capital funds from the City of Milwaukee, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and private funds.  A similar model in Minneapolis toured by Housing Division staff show a cost savings for taxpayers of over $500,000 per year by reducing detox admissions by 85%, emergency room visits by 20%, and jail bookings by 23%. 
• An updated jail management system utilized by the County Jail and the House of Corrections. This project will replace an outdated system that uses mainframe computer technology. This project will vastly approve the two facilities’ ability to track inmates, collect data and generate reports. It will also move the County closer to eliminating outdated and extremely expensive mainframe computer technology.
• Updated billing software for the Highways Maintenance Division of the Department of Transportation that will replace the current outdated paper-based system.
• Updated capital project management software.
• Data flow consulting and a call center upgrade in the Department of Child Support Services. Two-thirds of the cost of this project is funded with federal revenues.
• LED lighting upgrades at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
• Consulting services to develop a LEAN workgroup that will analyze County processes and make recommendations for improved efficiency.
• Core competency training for direct care staff that will provide services to individuals with co-occurring intellectual disabilities and mental illness who are being relocated to the community from Behavioral Health Division-Hilltop.
• Lighting retrofits for Lincoln Memorial Drive and tennis courts in various parks.
• Scanning equipment in the Circuit Courts to reduce the use of paper filings and increased electronic document storage.
• Electronic whiteboard units in the Acute and Children s’ Units at the Behavioral Health Division that will enhance the efficient sharing of patient information at the facility.
• Two pieces of equipment that will enhance autopsy services in the Office of the Medical Examiner.
• Funding for the Parks Amenities Matching Fund that will leverage outside revenues for park improvement projects.

The project awards include requirements that recipient departments provide informational progress reports six months after initiation of the project.

2013 Performance Data Submitted to ICMA

Milwaukee County is a member of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Center for Performance Measurement. The County joined this program in 2012. The Center for Performance Measurement tracks several hundred activity data and performance measures in a wide variety of major service areas. In Milwaukee County, these service areas include:

• Parks & Recreation
• Sustainability
• Information Technology
• Human Resources
• Risk Management
• Procurement
• Facilities Management
• Highway Maintenance
• Fleet Management
• Housing Programs

On March 17, the Office for Performance, Strategy and Budget submitted (thanks to the cooperation of several departments) the 2013 data for these service areas to ICMA. The ICMA compiles these data sets from dozens of cities and counties across the Country and makes them available to program participants. This data will be used to evaluate our performance against peer jurisdictions, such as Miami-Dade County, FL; Bernalillo County, NM; Alameda County, CA; and Fairfax County, VA; that also participate in the program.

Look for additional information on performance measures and comparisons with peer jurisdictions in future blog posts!

An Overview of Milwaukee County’s Transportation Function

Milwaukee County’s transportation function is served by one department, the Department of Transportation, whose mission is “providing excellence in the construction and maintenance of the physical infrastructure that provides for the public’s health and safety.”

The Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is a diverse Department charged with developing and maintaining Milwaukee County’s vast infrastructure needs based on the diverse talent and qualifications of its staff. There are five distinct divisions within the Department, each with a unique role in serving the needs of the County. The Department consists of the:

1. Airports, which runs General Mitchell International Airport, Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport, and the former WI 440th Air Refueling Wing base, now known as the Milwaukee Regional Business Park
2. Director’s Office, which provides essential management and support to the other DOT divisions
3. Fleet Management, which maintains and purchases vehicles, fuel, and parts for Milwaukee County’s more than 2,200 vehicle inventory
4. Highways, which plans and maintains County, and State highways
5. Transit Services, which administrates public transportation services through both fixed route and para transit services.

The largest tax levy component within MCDOT is the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS), at approximately $18.5 million.  Both MCDOT and MCTS continually strive to balance the needs of the transit users, employers whose employees rely on a dependable transit system, and the tax payers. In contrast, the Airport Division is funded entirely by user fees and other indirect revenues such as concessions on rental car operations and parking; the Highway Maintenance Division is almost entirely funded by the State of Wisconsin through reimbursement of costs to maintain the freeway system and State trunk highways. The Fleet Management Division has a net levy return of nearly $1 million due to charges for debt service on County-owned vehicles.

In the 2014 Adopted Milwaukee County Budget, the Transportation function accounts for more than 450 County positions, $228 million in expenditures, and $18.6 million in tax levy.

For a detailed breakdown of the funding of each of these offices, please click here to view an infographic we have prepared.

Below is an interactive Prezi presentation showing the organizational structure of the Public Safety function and it’s component units.