Overview
Prior to April 2018, the Manitowoc County Department of Public Works (DPW) was comprised of four divisions: Buildings & Grounds, Solid Waste & Recycling, Public Safety Communications, and an Exposition Center Rental Facility. Our county’s Information Technology Department Director retired in April 2018, and the IT Department was merged into the Public Works Department as a new, fifth DPW division. This action was chosen to reduce redundant business functions and their associated costs while leveraging the technical staff from both departments to work collectively on projects and infrastructure, as both departments shared common infrastructure and had, at times, worked cooperatively on technology projects. There was also the perception that the IT Department was out of touch with the common county employee and needed to be more customer-service focused. Merging these two distinct operations was not accomplished without initial skepticism by the county board of supervisors and by staff of both departments. Change is difficult, and this was not a small operational change.
The first hurdle to overcome was with the IT staff, reassuring them a DPW director could lead a highly technical staff and advocate for them and their profession. Words only matter if they are followed up by actions, and by informing them of the plan and telling them the truth throughout, it was only a matter of time before their trust was earned. It also wasn’t long before they realized the depth of IT knowledge many of our building facilities technicians had. Building systems have become highly technical, and the days of the “hammer mechanics” are long over.
The second hurdle was integrating the Buildings & Grounds staff with their new IT partners and helping them realize the synergy realized by having this new talent in the department. Facilities workers in general are very customer-service focused. As our facilities’ technicians realized very quickly, having IT staff close by to support so many of the facilities-based systems, it was a win-win for our customers, the employees of the county, and the general public.
The last hurdle for full acceptance of this new staffing arrangement was proving to the county board of supervisors success. We’ve accomplished this through our actions, as again, actions speak louder than words. Information Technology staff (now a division of the DPW) are more responsive to their customers, better integrated in the overall business of County government, and better able to serve the mission of County government by being leaner and customer-service focused.
I feel the outcomes of this personnel management action were excellent with a number of technology projects, both in the facilities realm and the IT realm, competed successfully. A list of those projects are: Installation of fully IP-based enterprise-class phone system; creation of a disaster recovery site for the county’s data; installation of a wireless network connection to several of the county’s satellite buildings; replacement of the Law Enforcement Center’s IP CCTV system; and replacement of the county’s DDC Buildings Controls (BAS) platform. Lastly, success achieved through change cannot happen without everyone on the team being invested in that success. Manitowoc County DPW is lucky to have a dedicated staff of 25 true professionals.
In-House Participants
Gerard Neuser, Director; Judy Stahl, Business Manager; Craig Breit, Buildings & Grounds Supervisor; Bill Jones, Communications Systems Engineer; Al Schema, Building Services Supervisor; Luke Kalista, Senior Network Engineer; Kody Burg, Information Technology Manager; Jennell Shelton, Expo Facility Manager; Jon Reisenbuechler, Recycling Center Manager
