Municipal Officers’ Association of BC Annual Convention, Prince George, Wednesday, 31 May 2000

• Business driver – the crunch between ever-increasing demands on local governments coupled with limitations on available resources.

• Expectations are rising – on the part of our customers, taxpayers, citizens – information technology has had a lot to do with this

• We all recognize that we need to work smarter by identifying areas of excellence and by sharing that expertise in creative ways

• Collaboration and strategic partnerships are immediately available options – more and more recognized as the way to do business
• We also recognize that collaboration does not happen easily or automatically, especially between organizations with different cultures and vested interests – so we thought a deliberate and meaningful look at resource sharing and strategic partnering would be beneficial.

• public-to-public (between local governments, multiple levels of government)
• public-to-private
• interagency (government-to-government; government-to-business; government-to-customer - eg. providing basic infrastructure to 911 service)
• variations on all of the above – polymorphous partnering

• to share or pool resources or ideas for use by all – eliminate redundancy
• to take advantage of a partner’s more extensive market reach or influence
• to take advantage of a partner’s core expertise
• to share the same vehicle or process to deliver the same service to each partner’s end users
• many others that will come out in the course of the discussion

• Have some fun – generate some discussion
• Brainstorm the following topics using a collaborative public-private sector team of "seasoned" facilitators

• Barriers to partnering
• Reasons to partner
• Principles for successful partnering
• Building on the brainstorming sessions to determine our "Next Steps"

• unaligned agendas
• lack of clear common vision/goals/objectives
• inability to reach consensus
• turf wars/vested interests
• FUD factor (fear, uncertainty, doubt)
• fear of loss of control
• lack of trust
• are local governments partners or potential customers
• suspicion of monopolies
• egos/personalities
• no common ground (perception or reality)
• hidden agenda
• unwillingness to change, resistance to change
• lack of resources to implement changes
• lack of skills in collaboration
• lack of understanding of the benefits of partnering
• concern over previous failures and bad press
• labour relations issues
• security, privacy concerns
• lack of creativity
• unwillingness to deviate from a "solo course"
• a culture that does not promote or reward innovation
• a sense that what worked in the past shouldn’t be changed
• a view that "if it works, its good enough"
• lack of people – human resources problems
• lack of energy (to gain consensus, to align agendas, to persuade and obtain support, etc)

• increases efficiency (improved use of resources)
• taxpayer pressure/expectation
• better product can result
• avoids unnecessary duplication
• realizes cost savings
• collaboration creates synergy
• optimizes limited resources
• provides ongoing access to expertise
• improves knowledge base
• removed redundancy
• promotes standards
• provides opportunity to learn & stimulates an examination of the status quo
• provides sustainability
• in the public interest (only 1 taxpayer's pocket)
• consolidation/convenience - 1 stop shopping/ 1 entry point
• fosters best of breed practices
• promotes standards that result in common "interfaces" or processes to consumers/citizens operating in multiple areas
• allows organization to focus on core business
• fosters centers of excellence
• advances the business plan
• mitigates/spreads risk
• fosters best practices
• facilitates new services
• provides learning opportunities
• enables new and improved services or operations within budget
• facilitates communication and services
• beneficial to smaller and medium-sized municipalities who could not do large expensive projects alone
• points illustrated using the example of Grand Prairie, AB

• emphasize principles for collaboration
• set clear objectives, roles
• identify all barriers and have a plan to minimize or eliminate each one
• identify the reasons for the arrangement and quantify the value of those reasons to each involved
• identify measures for success, and be disciplined about monitoring
• partnerships must have credibility
• equal commitment of all partners needed
• need governance structures that balance interests
• define the scope and boundaries of the project
• determine the scope of partner relationships – develop trust
• develop conflict resolution guidelines
• discuss scaled contributions; deciding who brings what to the table, proportional to the size
• develop escalation guidelines
• have rules of disengagement
• needs of all partners must be met
• start small with manageable project and scope
• layered approach
• investigate potential new governance structures
• i.e. ICI Provincial Cadastral Initiative, CivicInfo BC
• non-profit society
• non-share capital
• new financing models

• act to find solutions rather than dwelling on problems
• use CivicInfo BC for collaboration
• promote collaboration on the Local Government Portal Project. It will benefit all of us in a number of ways. Let’s have the Portal Project serve as a positive and highly beneficial collaborative project, that will inspire others
• use CivicInfo BC as a vehicle for the Cadastral Map project
• look further into partnerships for online payment of bills, tickets, etc. – set it up once, share the knowledge on how to do so
• find a good pilot project and start soon
• take action now!
• Communication is key! Involve people in the community!
• collaboration needs to continue
• choose a project and go!
• Build it and they will come!
• Technology is the vehicle. Not panacea!
• Need funding and resources
• Focus on business needs and services
• Smart communities - is a start. Expand from here!
• BC is but a small part of the global community; we should be working together not separately or at odds with one another. Think big!
• Identify what you have in common/share with potential public and private partners.
• build communication bridges