What would be the criteria used by a government entity like the Lake County, FL School District to develop more efficient and economical management of operations? Maybe professionalism?
So how do we define professionalism? Here are recent examples from other Florida government entities. When I mention Lake County, remember that is a SEPARATE government entity from the Lake County School District.
1) The County Sherrif's department recently announced they were in the final stages of becoming accredited by a state wide organization, the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation Inc., that sets performance standards for law enforcement departments. They never had that certification before until the recently deceased Sherrif Daniels started the qualification process.
2) Today's Orlando Sentinel described in an AP article how the Florida Department of Children & Families failed to have adequate professionally certified staff for a $23-million federal grant for FEMA. The grant was to "help residents overcome mental-health problems caused by major disasters". The paper said that "three out of four Florida based supervisors" for the grant "do not meet federal educational and licensing guidelines." The study was done by the "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" and found that just ONE of 29 supervisors was a licensed mental-health supervisor and SEVEN of the supervisors did not even have a bachelor's degree. This indicates the FL DCF does not have adequate professional certification requirements for their staff, as well as failing to follow the Federal grant requirements. See the article at the end of this document.
3) I recently attended the 7-week "Citizen's Academy" run by Lake County administration to familiarize citizens with Lake County government functions. There, as we saw numerous program managers, I was impressed with the subject matter (technical) capabilities of the managers. I asked the one discussing fleet management and he was a member of a professional fleet management association and could name several others.
4) The Lake County Finance department publishes governmental Financial Officer budget benchmarks on their website and how they meet them. This year they won an award. There are no similar benchmarks on the School District website or in their budget information. Thus, another factor of higher level professionalism is how an entity meets Statewide or national association benchmarks that show performance ratios. The lowest level of financial reporting, such as that shown in the School District's budgeting, is one that only shows spending by categories without such benchmarks or ratios. Higher level reporting standards inlcude "resource management" benchmarks or ratios published over several years to see improvement trends, and then compared to other similar organizations. See the Lake County 2005 financial analysis report that discusses the 22 benchmark factors they follow from the Government Finance Officers Association at:
http://www.lakegovernment.com/pdfs/Budget/analyzing_lake_countys_finances.pdf
Summary
So there are several indicators of professionalism that can affect management performance:
1) The attainment of professional certifications from industry associations. These days, it is not uncommon for almost every technical / management function position in organizations to be covered by a professional association which also probably has a professional certification. In my former field of internal audit, there is the Certified Internal Auditor from the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) from a different association, plus the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. And, many internal auditors have all three of those certifications. Yes, there is also the more well known CPA (Certified Public Accountant) but they focus on compliance with publicly published financial reports which do NOT usually reflect how efficient, effective and economical the entity is.
2) The attainment of organizational work accreditation standards like the Sherrif is doing or the benchmark performance reporting shown by the Lake County finance department.
3) The completion and acceptable results from peer reviews of the functional department by a professional association. Some national professional assocations (the Institute of Internal Auditors is one) offer these peer review processes.
4) The quality of advanced, technical degrees held by non-instructional administrative management and senior staff. Do they only have a BA in sociology, or an advanced Master's degree in their functional field (engineering, construction management, investments, etc ) from a recognized university? Did you know there is even a payroll accountant's association?
5) External work experience in the function being managed is also important, especially from outside Lake County, since the School District is the largest employer in Lake County. There are few local organizations where staff with the needed technical or functional experience for a $700-million agency can be found. There also are NO local four year colleges where a staff person can be exposed to management practices used in other large organizations to manage resources. As an example, many of the Lake County managers talking at the Citizen's Council were hired from outside the County and had directly related experience to their work function. They even hired an experienced museum manager from outside Lake County for the County Historical museum. How does the School District compare? The media has reported considerable turnover of Senior managers.
So, how well do the different non-instructional administration departments in the Lake County School Distric meet the above criteria. That is one of the areas we will look at, because if those criteria are not met, we can't expect the School District management to even know about standard performance practices used elsewhere.
vj
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Here is the Orlando Sentinel report on the FEMA grants and lack of professional certification by FL mental health counselors:
Report probes FEMA grants
Mental-health workers for Project HOPE lack credentials, a review finds.
The Associated Press
December 11, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Three out of four Florida-based supervisors in FEMA's $23 million counseling program for hurricane victims do not meet federal educational and licensing guidelines, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Project HOPE -- Helping Our People in Emergencies -- was part of $109 million in counseling grants the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded nationwide last year to help residents overcome mental-health problems caused by major disasters.
The program, whose grants expire Thursday, is run in Florida by the state's Department of Children & Families.
A South Florida Sun-Sentinel review of 29 Project HOPE supervisors -- all but a handful of the supervisors statewide -- showed that just one was a licensed mental-health counselor in Florida, and seven did not have bachelor's degrees.
Only seven supervisors had mental-health-related master's degrees.
"It is frustrating to learn that some team leaders hired do not possess the qualifications FEMA expected and that other team members have troubling backgrounds.
FEMA will ask tough questions of the state . . . to ensure that, in the future, only appropriately qualified individuals provide this valuable counseling service to Floridians," the federal agency said in a statement.
DCF is reviewing the Project HOPE hiring decisions, said agency Secretary Lucy Hadi, who will retire next month.
In written responses to questions, DCF said the federal government does not mandate specific credentials or education levels.
"And, while we would have liked to hire staff based solely on the federal guidelines, we realized that wasn't realistic," the agency said.
Project HOPE hired Leon Gillis in November 2005 as a team leader in the Daytona Beach area even though he wrote on his application that he had been convicted of robbery twice, aggravated assault and cocaine possession, the paper found.
He has been arrested 14 times in Florida from 1966 to 2002 and spent more than five years in prison, records show.
"All of his offenses were related to drugs," said Angela Jackson, a mental-health administrator for Florida's Department of Children & Families, which runs Project HOPE. "He's shown by clear and convincing evidence that he is rehabilitated and with all the skills -- we would hate for a person to be kept down because of that."
DCF launched an internal investigation into Project HOPE after the Sun-Sentinel reported in October that federal grants were being used to pay for puppet shows and yoga on the beach.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's inspector general also is investigating Project HOPE.
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Here is the Daily Commercial article on the Sherrif's department accreditation process
from the DailyCommercial.com
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Sheriff soliciting public's opinion
Sunday, December 10, 2006
TAVARES - The Lake County Sheriff's Office is inviting employees and citizens to share their views on the sheriff's office.
The office, which has been working toward accreditation for nearly two years, is scheduled for final assessment Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The accreditation process is a means of maintaining the highest professional standards and is determined by an independent review board.
The program requires compliance with state-of-the-art standards in four areas: policy and procedures, administration, operations and support services.
Agencies must comply with all mandatory standards and at least 80 percent of non-mandatory standards. Other standards include traffic, records, recruitment and training.
"We are looking forward to completing this project," said Lake Sheriff's Sgt. Christie Mysinger.
The assessment team encourages agency members and citizens to call the team between 1 and 5 p.m. Wednesday to offer their comments, both negative and positive. Comments can also be submitted in writing to Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation Inc., 3504 Lake Lynda Drive, Suite 380, Orlando 32817.
"We are excited about the finalization of this project. It has been a long process," said Mysinger.
The process was started by the late Chris Daniels, who died in October.
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Note: We haven't reviewed these accreditation standards to see if they do include administration performance rations and benchmarks for efficiency, economy or effectiveness, but will do so in the future. vj
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