Public Management Academy Projects

Public Management Academy Projects
A Component of the Ohio Certified Public Manager® Program

The Public Management Academy (PMA) is a comprehensive management development certificate program for public managers, and a required component of the Ohio Certified Public Manager® Program.

Throughout the Academy, public servants learn and practice the management skills and tools they will need to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Academy offers a one-year series of customized workshops, creating a "public manager's toolkit".

Throughout the program, participants create, develop, and implement a project that will add value to their organization. To graduate, participants must present their project concept, and submit a written paper.

View PMA Projects: PMA 4 | PMA 5 | PMA 6 | PMA 7 | PMA 8 | PMA 9 | PMA 10 | PMA11

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Public Management Academy 11 Projects

Participants from Public Management Academy 11 will present their projects virtually on February 23 and March 8, 2024.

• View the presentation program.

Budget Management Analyst Onboard Training
Eric Vukmanic & Tom Allen
Creation of a comprehensive onboarding program for incoming Budget Management Analysts to the Office of Management and Budget at the Greater Cleveland RTA. This program will cover all aspects of training from initial orientation to the completion of their first year. It also includes centralization and digitalization of instructional documents into an organized digital structure that will greatly benefit future new hires.

Quality Assurance and Improvement Program
Steven Zimmerman
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's Internal Audit Department strives to meet and exceed the professional standards set forth by the Institute of Internal Auditors. To meet that goal, the department needs to implement a Quality Assurance and Improvement Program. This program will allow the department to measure performance, ensure a standard of quality, and identify opportunities for improvement through internal review and stakeholder feedback. Project success will be characterized by the integration of quality assurance procedures and processes into the standard audit workflow, the tracking of Key Performance Indicators against set goals, and the completion of annual internal assessments.

Planning for Success
Scott King & Charity Robl
This project pushes the boundaries of traditional succession planning by establishing a leadership and talent development program for employees. The goal is to create a deep pool of well-developed employees to draw from when critical roles become vacant. This program will allow Commerce to continue providing exemplary and uninterrupted services to our stakeholders and Ohioans. At the same time, it reinforces Commerce's commitment to its employees reaching their professional goals.

Geospatial Asset Maintenance for the Authority's Collective Memory
Kirk Dimmick & Molly O'Donnell
Our project developed a more sustainable engineering database of Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) fixed bridge asset records within an electronic GIS mapped system. Our project also documented a process that can be used to create electronic GIS records for other infrastructure assets. Our project will result not only in cost savings for the Authority, but also will enable other departments to use archived engineering data more efficiently.

Modernizing the Point of Sale Applications, Inspection, and Escrow Process
Kyle Krewson

This project will consist of utilizing the customer addresses provided by Pitney Bowes presort services and reduce the amount of total mail returned to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles by 50% within the next two years. This will result in an approximate savings of $125,000 per year in direct cost, while also reducing the delay and improving communication between the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and its customers.
 

Annual Report Dashboard
Carla Regener
This project has improved our method of reporting annual stormwater information to our stakeholders in a quick and easy format. A dashboard is used to summarize and covey the results of annual stormwater infrastructure inspections. The goal is that communities will utilize the information provided in this dashboard to assess their program, make informed decisions and, easily pull numbers for regulatory reporting. In addition, we can utilize this information internally to enhance our program to ensure it is making the greatest impact.

Process Improvement Team (PIT): Enhancing Efficiency and Effectiveness
Rosa Allen-Lester
The purpose of the Process Improvement Team (PIT) is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of internal bureau processes. All processes will be reviewed to identify deficiencies as well as opportunities for improvement. Our goal is to decrease the time from project conception to dispatching of the purchase order for commencement of work and to ensure that our processes are in line with the requirements of our federal funders to avoid future audit findings. This streamlined approach not only fosters quicker project initiation but also contributes to overall operational agility.

Effective Communication through the On-Boarding Process
Toi Porch / Shelton Coleman / LeKeya Montgomery
We are dedicated to creating an environment where employees are actively engaged in their work, empowered to make meaningful contributions, and inspired to reach their full potential. Through our evolving processes, we enable employees to take ownership of their work, leverage self-service technology, and access resources that facilitate their professional growth.

Standard Operating Procedures Manual for Richland Soil & Water Conservation District
Erica Thomas
In order to assist the Richland Soil & Water Conservation District's Board of Supervisors to plan for upcoming staff retirements and to keep the momentum of providing excellent services and programs, this project is developing a Standard Operating Procedures Manual for our District. A standard operating procedures manual will document our current processes with detailed steps so that new employees have something to refer to when learning their new job, and it will establish expectations for consistency and clarity. It will also be helpful for employee evaluations to make sure the job duties and goals are in alignment with our district procedures and policies.

DEI Progress Tracking and Reporting Tools for Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
Mohan Kurupo
This project centers around the development and implementation of tools that will enable the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to track and report its progress in achieving DEI goals. These tools will be comprised of a range of data collection, analysis, and visualization capabilities, ensuring a comprehensive and accurate representation of our DEI initiatives. By utilizing business intelligence software, we will harness the power of data to shed light on our current position in the journey towards DEI and to showcase the strides we make over time.

NEORSD Financial Reporting Enterprise System
Shola Ojo
The vision of this project is to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and compliance of financial reporting by migrating to a new financial reporting system. The new system will provide a more modern and secure environment for financial data reporting, which will allow for better end user experience, allow for collaboration opportunities, improved data visualization and data presentation structure.

Safe Settings
DiGi Mason & Martin Carreon
The aim of this project is to address the enormous toll that gun violence has taken on Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The objective is to use the data to create a program that will help educate and stop the gun violence among the youth. Students and parents will understand the importance of gun safety, so CMSD students will be safer at home and school.

IT Recruitment – Challenges and Solutions
Ruchi Grewal
This project explores the intricacies of Information Technology (IT) recruitment within the public sector, shedding light on the unique challenges faced by government organizations in attracting and retaining top IT talent. It examines the evolving role of IT in the public sector, the impact of digital transformation, and the specific challenges that government agencies encounter in recruiting IT professionals. Additionally, it offers potential solutions and strategies to address these challenges, ensuring that public sector organizations can effectively harness the power of IT to serve their constituents.

Next Level Employee Engagement
Chisa Clark/Chas McKnight/Jeffrey Pewitt/San Antonio Gibbons
We recognize the role of effective training and communication through employee engagement by implementing next level strategies. Strategies including redesigning current training practices, advancing effective communication methods within the organization, while aiming to support and retain long-term relationships in the workplace. By revitalizing current approaches of engagements for our employees, this effort will guide the City of Cleveland's employee experience through the Next Level Employee Engagement Project.

Improving Internal and External Communications
Ashely Flowers
​​​​​​​This project focuses on improving the internal communications that were determined by our employee engagement survey. Our goal is to ensure that all communication is delivered clearly, effectively and inclusively in a timely and consistent manner. This has been a great initiative working together with each division to collaborate on ideas, and brainstorming on the importance of our core values as one agency. By implementing our goal, we believe this will help improve our internal and external communications at The Ohio Department of Taxation.

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Public Management Academy 10 Projects

Hands-Free BMV
Dawn Zwetzig
State of Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles
This project includes ascertaining the current equipment and vehicle capabilities of 43 Bureau of Motor Vehicles field staff members. The first step in the project will include ordering the equipment needed to go hands-free. The second part of the project will be to create a training program to be implemented once all the equipment is procured. This will help ensure staff members know how to effectively utilize all parts to become truly hands-free while operating their state vehicle.

City of Cleveland Legislative Training Guide
Stephanie Phillibert
City of Cleveland
This project is an introduction to the step-by-step administrative and approval process of moving legislation through City Hall to become a final ordinance. The training guide will include key terminology, key staff involved and a process map. The guide will also explain how to progress through Advantage, a software involved in the legislative approval process.

Painesville Township Storm Sewer Mapping on a GIS System
John Kotrlik
Painesville Township
Currently, Painesville Township does not have an up-to-date mapping system that is easily accessible. With current employees retiring and taking valuable knowledge with them, the new employees have a difficult time locating the drainage infrastructure. This project will put everything on a geographic information system. Everyone will have access to this information on their smartphone or a provided tablet. This will give all current and future employees an easy way to access valuable information when working in the field of an emergency flooding situation for many years to come. In addition, the Service Director for Painesville Township will be able to add all new systems instantaneously.

Bainbridge Township Service Department Safety Training Program; Recurring Training for Service Department Employees
Gregory "Alex" Hansel
Bainbridge Township
This project will begin a new culture of training at the Bainbridge Township Service Department by prioritizing regular and recurring safety training. Moving forward, the Service Department will come to recognize safety training as an ongoing occurrence. This project will benefit many different stakeholders throughout the Township including the service department staff, residents, business owners, commuters, Police and Fire Departments. The goal of this project is to have a minimum of eight safety training sessions covering various topics scheduled for 2024.

Registration Renewal Process
Corey D. Dorsey
Ohio Department of Public Safety
This project will consist of utilizing the customer addresses provided by Pitney Bowes presort services and reduce the amount of total mail returned to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles by 50% within the next two years. This will result in an approximate savings of $125,000 per year in direct cost, while also reducing the delay and improving communication between the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and its customers.

Project Cancellation Reboot
Brandon K. Freeman
Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation
This project will improve the cancellation process for employers and employees inside the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation by simplifying the current cancellation form and providing additional improvements to the process. This project will help reduce inquiries, save money, and decrease time spent on the cancellation process.

Building Claims Correspondence Inventory
Diane Heyman-Justice
Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation
This project includes building a claims correspondence inventory of all letters that are generated to our external parties within the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation. Currently, there is no claims correspondence list of all letters generated by claims staff. This is problematic when trying to work a change request submitted to make changes to a claim's correspondence. Building a claims correspondence inventory will prevent reliance on other areas to obtain a copy of the current letter. This inventory list will also include pertinent information to staff as well as date placed in production, and approvals from the business, communications and legal departments. This will save time and alleviate dependence on other areas for information that should be stored as an inventory list.

Self-Care, the foundation of Excellence in Customer Service
Barbara Cartwright
Ohio Department of Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities
This project highlights the importance of employee needs in customer service. As employees, we are evaluated on the service we deliver to our customers. Management develops trainings and best practices, so employees know how to properly care for their customers. Additionally, employee needs must be treated equally as important as customer needs. Excellent customer service can only be provided once employee needs are met.

Annual Report User Guide
Felicia Hale
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
This project involves creating an Annual Report User Guide for Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). Each jurisdictional regulated entity that has an active certificate during the reporting year must file a separate annual report for each PUCO certificate number it holds, regardless of whether it conducted operations or generated revenue in Ohio during the reporting year. These user guides will help customers to accurately complete an annual report and thus reduce the risk of needing to make an amendment.

Dispatch Academy
Adrienne Sheffer
Ohio State Highway Patrol
This project will create a law enforcement communications course for the Ohio State Highway Patrol. It is a multi-day course geared toward interested high school and college age individuals. The course will be held at the Highway Patrol Academy, and offered on a weekend or in the summer so students can attend without missing regular classes. This course will give the students a brief overview of all aspects of the position and provide a snapshot of the position to determine if this is a career path which may be worth pursuing for the individual.

Inventory Management Project
SheaRon Daniels
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
The Support Services Team would like to develop a cost-effective tracking system that will enhance the ability to track paper product purchases, usage, and history in a more efficient and resourceful manner. This project will include the implementation of an internal inventory application, through which we will be able to track and analyze outgoing inventory, incoming inventory, and expenditures for supplying paper products to Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. All types of paper goods are in high demand, and manufacturers are struggling to meet those needs; this project will help resolve the urgency of the looming paper shortage.

Historical Records Management, the Transition from Paper Documents to Electronic
Kristy Hunt
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been a state Agency since 1972 and serves as a public records repository. Starting in 2015, all incoming and outgoing documents have been managed within the electronic eDocs management system. Documents from 1972-2014 are primarily in paper format and need to be transitioned into an electronic format, a process referred to as back-filing. The back-filing effort is time and resource intensive, and to be sure that accuracy and efficiency are built into the process, it must be implemented in a strategic and organized manner. This project will create a process document that will outline the steps involved, as well as the resources, tools, staff roles and responsibilities that are a part of the back-filing effort. The presence of a process document will ensure that this long-term project will continue to be implemented in an accurate and efficient manner until it is completed. This document will also be utilized by other Ohio EPA sections and programs to assist with their implementation of the back-filing effort as well.

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Public Management Academy 9 Projects

Participants from Public Management Academy 9 will present their projects virtually on December 1, 2, and 15, 2022.

• View the presentation program.

GCRTA Transit Ambassador Program: Connecting the Community
Chief Deirdre Jones
Greater Cleveland RTA
As a new approach to ensure rider safety and satisfaction, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) launched its Transit Ambassador Program, a progressive policing and community engagement initiative. This initiative reduces the law enforcement's footprint on GCRTA transit systems by integrating unarmed professionals to handle non-criminal issues. Our ambassador team includes customer-oriented personnel, as well as crisis intervention specialists, trained in using conflict resolution skills. The team will assist those on the transit system experiencing a mental health crisis. Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists will work under the supervision of GCRTA's Transit Police Department.

Mental Health Awareness/Law Enforcement
Mark Mazur
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
My project focuses on the mental health and wellness of police officers and first responders- both active and retired- to help them enjoy a better quality of life. The goal of the project is to provide counseling from trained professionals to both police officers and first responders. Law enforcement has been secured to assist on an "as needed" basis. I will provide a vehicle, along with a sounding board, for those that are struggling with anxiety or the everyday stress and trauma that comes with the job.

CMSD Direct (incident/complaint) Reporting Portal
Yusheva Martin
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District's "Direct Reporting Portal" will be geared towards reporting incidents and complaints from parents, staff and the community in a timely manner. I will be using an app for the portal. Inside the app a complaint, incident, or concern, can be reported from the palm of your hand using your smartphone for convenience. Our aim is to have the complaint addressed within 24-48 hours.

Circular Organic Waste Management in Cuyahoga County
Kristin Hall
Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District
Organic wast represents a unique challenge and opportunity in Cuyahoga County. While there is some infrastructure to support the diversion, management, and land use applications of organic materials in the region, there is no comprehensive program that cohesively manages and stewards this valuable commodity. Recognizing the critical role soil plays in the work of Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District and the overall health of our community, this PMA project will explore the key stakeholders, the economic opportunities, and the political and operational needs to implement a county-wide organic waste management program. In partnership with the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, this project will plan an Organic Waste charette in early 2023 to help to establish a collective vision for a regional organic waste management program.

You may have heard the line before: a hungry child cannot learn.
Mallory Packard and Robinette Prince-Simpkins
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
The school nutrition department at CMSD has had a large decrease in meal participation post pandemic. We believe this is due to a combination of scholar absence, unappealing meals, and/ or not being motivated to eat. Our project's goal is to increase the meal participation so that scholars will not be hungry through their school day. We plan to reach this goal through meal participation incentives, new recipes and other engagement activities.

EZfare: Utilizing technology to enhance your experience.
Laurie Gillon
Greater Cleveland RTA
The current state of the world is technology driven. Social media, virtual meetings and classes, working remotely, and application use are the "new normal" as far as the way business is conducted. To remain viable, evolving with the times and implementing technology into business practices is not only practical, but necessary. GCRTA is doing its part to embrace technology, specifically by implementing a new mobile ticketing app, EZfare. My project will document the timeline of implementation with real-time benefits, highlight future probable benefits, and note any opportunities for improvement that may have occurred during implementation.

Updating Intake Process
Jeff Grubb
Greater Cleveland RTA
GCRTA has updated a lot of its vehicle maintenance practices over the past few years, changing the entire scope of how certain parts are being rebuilt in house, or sent out to be rebuilt. During this time, the reclaim department has seen a lot of parts being returned quickly, causing confusion as to where parts are being sent, and we are rebuilding them in house. This project is going to work on streamlining the process and getting the department back on track. We will be looking into a more detailed inspection process of the parts that have been removed from the coach to ensure their useful life has been met, or if they can be of further use on our vehicles. The goal of this project is to ensure GCRTA reduces the cost of parts and labor by extending the life of existing parts.

Connecting With the RRPL Community: Email Marketing Segmentation
Chanel Steiner, Molly McGirr Norris, Kristine Lee
Rocky River Public Library
Like many commercial companies, Rocky River Public Library currently uses email marketing to inform patrons of the value of the library and keep them engaged between visits. Segmented email marketing provides targeted, personalized emails most relevant to particular patrons. By implementing a segmented email marketing strategy for the front facing departments within the Rocky River Public Library, we will ensure our patrons receive focused information about our offerings. Our project outcome will open a direct line of communication to inform patrons of programs, services, and collection items that are relevant to them. This will in turn increase brand recognition, program attendance, and general use of the library.

Improving Safety with Electronics
Ivan Solivan
Greater Cleveland RTA
We are facing a challenge with the onboard video recording systems which go out during operation. A connection between DVR, router, and local area network for configuration must be created. This will prompt remote access to any vehicle DVR, which in turn will be able to receive real-time notifications of equipment failures. My role in this project is to learn about the new software, take the lead on project installation, and conduct training for electronic repair technicians. This software installation is currently ongoing at the Triskett Station.

Planning for the Future with Financial Transparency
Danielle Romanowski
Village of South Russell
This project aims to create a 5-year Financial Forecast to offer insight and transparency to the public as well as the County Budget Commission, which oversees the Village's budget. Given that the Village's revenues come from taxpayers, it is important to demonstrate the Village has a plan in place that will require the need for its fund balances. Having a document which reflects the expenses of future plans/projects of the Village enables officials to ensure that proper funding will be available when needed. Additionally, a 5-year Financial Forecast will offer transparency to the public.

City of Brooklyn Onboarding Process
Mayor Katherine Gallagher and Tom Raguz
City of Brooklyn
Recruitment and retention of employees is as important now as it has ever been due to various factors such as: the "Great Resignation", employee retirements and the general recruiting issues that are plaguing organizations nationwide. This project will develop a systematic onboarding process of new employees that starts at the initial application process. Through the new employee's probationary period, the focus will be on the engagement of the new employee to develop a full understanding of the city and the internal organization, with the ultimate goal of increasing retention and development of future leaders of the organization.

Safeway Innovators: Streamlining The Screening Process For CMSD
Serena Ellis and Darren Hardnick Sr.
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
In 2023, school safety has never been more important than it is today. Over the last 25 years, the nation has seen an increase in active-shooter type incidents and acts of violence within our schools. This has challenged educators and law enforcement to stay ahead of the curve and continue to think outside the box to ensure a safe learning environment at school. There has also been a rise in active-shooter type incidents in our everyday lives. Some of us don't feel comfortable going to an office building, a school or a sporting event, in fear of what may happen. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District unfortunately experienced their first active- shooter incident on October 10, 2007. Several students and staff members were seriously injured during this incident. This incident lead CMSD schools to change security measures for all district locations. The Department of Safety and Security installed 250 walk-thru metal detectors and 27 x-ray machines throughout the school district. These security measures were put in place to prevent students and visitors from entering facilities with deadly weapons (guns, knives, tasers). CMSD partnered up CEIA and Smith Detection so we can be proactive in ensuring the safety of our schools. We are developing a new standard to improve the metal detector process screening for CMSD. In addition, improvements are being made to the school security check points, hand-held metal detector wands, and X-ray machines as we continue to refine our safety measures.

Diversity Management Compliance System
Carl Kirkland
Greater Cleveland RTA
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit System is seeking to implement a web-based diversity management system to be an active participant in supplier diversity program takes a great deal of effort, political, capital, and commitment, and vendor community. The contract compliance data maintenance is expected to be performed by authorized internal GCRTA staff as well as authorized external parties. The requirements for the web-based user screens for contract compliance include authorizing internal GCRTA staff over the intranet with user authentication and primary contract information may be able to be obtained with a link to Oracle application.

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Public Management Academy 8 Projects

Participants from Public Management Academy 8 will present their projects virtually on July 7, 21, August 11, 2022.

• View the presentation program.
• Videos of the presentations can be viewed here: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Implementing CollectionHQ: Collection Size Management and Space Utilization Planning Peter Matera
Rocky River Public Library
CollectionHQ is a web-based collection management system for libraries. This project entails implementing cHQ to provide a data-driven way to analyze the library's physical collections of circulating materials (books, movies, etc.) based on size and usage. An upcoming building-wide space analysis, which is part of RRPL's current Strategic Plan, intends to find a way to meet community demand for services such as small meeting rooms and makerspace items, all of which require space the library doesn't have readily available. The results of this project, in light of changing trends in how libraries are used, will generate crucial data to inform the decision-making process about how much space may be needed for the library's physical materials.

Analyst Training Program
Kathleen Waclawski
Ohio Department of Public Safety
The Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center (ONIC) was established in July 2019. As a new unit, training was limited to already existing courses which over time were found to not fully meet the criteria and needs of the ONIC. The ONIC is in the process of developing a formal training program for intelligence analysts at the ONIC across a range of topics. This project will focus on the area of product development and analytic language and writing using both internally developed trainings and external trainings that supplement this topic.

Refugee Mental Health: Improving Access to Mental Health in Refugee Communities
Sandra Hollingsworth
Ohio Department of Job & Family Services
This project develops a new Refugee Mental Health Program for Ohio. The Refugee Mental Health Program will focus activities in Cleveland and Columbus that reduce barriers and improve access to mental health services for refugee communities.

Creation of Recreational Hunting Maps for Ohio's State Forests
Jared Craig
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources – Division of Forestry manages 24 State Forests covering approximately 200,000 acres of land throughout Ohio. Multiple-use management is at the core of the Division's mission on its public lands. One such use of state forest lands is recreational hunting, which attracts thousands of visitors annually from across the country. Each year, the Division receives numerous requests from recreationists inquiring about past harvesting activities, roads and trails, and forest facilities that contribute to a successful hunt. Until now, no publicly accessible maps existed to easily assist hunters with common questions. The primary goal of this project was to create a map for each state forest showing forest management activities and facilities that are of interest to hunters. The maps will be published online in a format that is easily accessible and compatible with smartphone mapping apps so that users can view their location on the map in real-time.

Tackling the Move from an Outdated Computer System to a Modernized, User-Friendly System
Teri Earnest
Ohio Department of Job & Family Services
Most business environments either have experienced or will soon experience the need to upgrade their business' computer system to a more modern, easy to use version. How can you do this while maintaining years' worth of existing data as well as vital business processes? This project will take us through the identification of business requirements defining critical activities that must continue to exist while incorporating a new user friendly, intuitive design.

ODM, Bureau of Program Integrity- Learning on Demand Training Program
Christine Cole
Ohio Department of Medicaid
This project develops a new Learning On Demand training program for the Bureau of Program Integrity of the Ohio Department of Medicaid. The initial On Boarding of new Auditors will become seamless and seasoned Auditors will have a library of courses for refresher. Development of this program will leverage the assistance of our Policy Bureau, Section Chiefs, Managers, and Lead Auditors. The Learning on Demand program will initially focus on the Long Term Care and State Agency Audit Section of the Bureau of Program Integrity and will be expanded to include other sections of the Bureau at a later date.

Caesar Creek Pioneer Village: A Strategic Plan
Tiffany DeChant-Hunt & Shaun Lentini
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
This project evaluated the Caesar Creek Pioneer Village as a continued asset to Ohio State Parks by ensuring we can meet the commitment of providing and maintaining facilities and infrastructure that are safe, clean, and welcoming to all visitors.

Accountancy Board Communications Enhancement Project
Donna Oklok
Accountancy Board of Ohio
The Accountancy Board seeks to maintain its vision of being an agency that provides quality service using technology and best business practices. Certified public accountants are active in their licensure throughout their careers, and questions regarding various steps in those processes are common. To that end, we seek to present information to potential CPAs, current licensees, and the public in a more engaging and accessible manner using short YouTube videos and podcast episodes. Our goals are to put information "at the point of the ask," and reduce time spent seeking answers to most-asked questions; and maximize staff engagement to specific issues and questions. Through website analysis, license holder surveys, and staff input, we have a long-range plan to provide increased value to our stakeholders and staff.

Competent Person Training
Jeffrey Houssami
Ohio Department of Transportation
My project focus is to create better safety compliance training at ODOT. The training is competent person training for ODOT employees. Competent Person Training is required by OSHA a federal agency who requires employers to ensure they have put their field employees through this training. My project will be discussing what Competent Person training is, how to implement it in an agency of 4,000 Employees, and the content that will be covered during this training.

Transit Sustainability
Kay Sutula
Greater Cleveland RTA
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (Authority) implemented a sustainability program in 2010. A multi-functional team helped lead the Authority toward ISO 14001 certification at the Central Bus Maintenance District and started the certification process to the two bus districts. The program started to falter in 2018 due to overwhelming ISO paperwork, lack of participation within the Authority, and elimination of the recycling program due to an increase of contamination. By the beginning of 2020, the program was dead. In late 2020, the Authority launched its new 10-year Strategic Plan, which again identified Sustainability as an objective. In early 2021, President Biden identified the Federal Government's objective to decrease Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the next 30 years, with a decrease of 50% in 2030, compared to 2005. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and American Public Transportation Association (APTA) launched sustainability programs, encouraging all transit agencies to enroll and create a commitment to the sustainability efforts. With a Climate Control Action Plan and education on recycling correctly, the Authority is revitalizing sustainability to create a better and brighter future for the Authority and Northeast Ohio.

Microservice Architecture in Azure Cloud - Department of Developmental Disabilities' Medicaid Billing System
Matthew Larch
Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities
An attempt to prove the use of microservices in cloud has better performance and is easier to maintain than our on premise hosted .NET monolith solution. There is a near future need to have microservice architecture available and ready for development to support cloud-based solutions at DODD. This attempt to validate the processes will clarify the decisions that need to be made on our larger application migrations. Identifying and removing blockers and impediments early will enable us to quickly develop viable solutions.

The Zen Initiative
Holly Martin
Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities
The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities is in a staffing crisis for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs). DSPs are the people who assist in the daily care for individuals who have developmental disabilities. The staffing shortage has led to staff having to work more days and have longer hours. This increase at work can cause stress, all while still having to provide care for our individuals who have developmental disabilities, which at times can be very demanding. DSPs work life and their personal lives are affected by this crisis.When staff are stressed, lack sleep, and have other things going on in their lives outside of work, how can they provide the best care for the individuals they serve? The word Zen is commonly described as being focused on your body and mind at the same time. It is a way of being present in the moment, a state of mind. A perspective of what's around you that can bring some clarity and wisdom.The Zen Initiative is aimed at creating calming spaces that can be used by our staff to help gather their thoughts, give time to relax, or give a change of pace, build rapport between staff and individuals, and provide community supports to bring about wellness such as massages, yoga classes, etc. This project should also bring about more community awareness to Tiffin

Developmental Center on who we serve and how the community can help (fingers crosses they want to come work at the center).

Corrective Action Correction
Josh Copper
Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services
Recognizing the importance of proper record keeping, my project is rebuilding an antiquated employee corrective action (discipline, supplemental training) log using Excel. The previous version was created in 2014 and has had several authors. Also, the prior version does not have a standard format for the data entries, making the information not searchable or useful for report generation. The primary goals are for the system to be reliable, searchable, and sharable.

Safeguarding against Ransomware Attacks
Shreekanth Chutkay
Ohio Tuition Trust Authority
Ransomware is a form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption. Ransomware incidents can severely impact business processes and leave our agency without the data we need to operate and deliver mission-critical services. The goal of this project is to develop plans, layout strategies and implement a robust system to safeguard against ransomware attacks.

Damage Prevention Invoicing
Brian Benjamin
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
Damage Prevention is also known as Call Before You Dig, where users call *811 to request utility lines to be marked prior to an expected excavation. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) enforces the damage prevention law in the Ohio Revised Code (O.R.C.) by responding to complaints derived from the process. To cover the costs of this enforcement, the PUCO is provided the ability to invoice utility owners, commercial excavators, designers, and developers up to $50 annually. Invoicing took place only in 2016 and has not been done since for a variety of reasons. My project works to implement the necessary technology and process improvements to begin Damage Prevention Invoicing on July 1st, 2022. As a note, the project officially went live on June 6th and the process and technology improvements are implement.

The PUCO could start the invoicing process today if needed, however, for budgetary reasons we will wait until next fiscal year.

Recreation for All
Stephanie Koval & Dylan Fodor
City of Solon
This project recommends an action plan, based around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, for employee and community engagement within the City of Solon Recreational Services. The Solon Recreation Department and Grantwood Golf Course deal directly with the public on a daily basis and it is important to raise awareness of the value of collaborating with people of diverse cultures, races, genders, beliefs, abilities and experiences within our staff and community. The City of Solon promotes the phrase, "Working, Learning, Thriving Together". We believe to fully promote this within the city, education of diversity, equity and inclusion is detrimental to the continuing success of our community, staff and surrounding areas. By educating ourselves and our staff to value diversity is important for the success of creating a welcoming environment and a recreational center for everyone. This project will highlight areas of growth within our community on DEI with the incorporation of community and employee surveys and engagement on proposed actions for the future.

Welcome to Avon Lake, a Guide for Human Resources
Mary Siwierka
City of Avon Lake
The City of Avon Lake has a dedicated workforce of over 150 full time, year round staff members – some are covered by union agreements, some are covered by city ordinances and some (of both groups) relied on a personnel manual last updated in 2010. This project sought to change the multiple or dated (or non-existent) sources of information to create a manual that is current with labor laws and policies. In addition, this project create a video for onboarding purposes. This video will assist not only in attracting prospective employees but will also serve as introduction about the community for those staff members who do not live within the community. The third piece of the project was the creation of a document that briefly outlined the benefits the City offered to employees. Many of the ordinances that governed personnel matters had not been reviewed for decades (some going back to 1970's) and were stale and outdated. Three entire sections of City laws, on the books for decades, were reviewed, scrubbed, updated, and established by City Council…this work laid a foundation for the new manual.

Creating Self-Guided Modular Training
Crissy Muse
Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation
One of the greatest challenges for any employer is training incoming staff. On average, it takes about 6 months to train incoming employees in order for them to be productive. Implementing the self-guided modular training will cut down on the time spent by other coordinators and management training new staff. This project will provide incoming staff with all the tools necessary to bring them up to a productive level. Incoming staff will have the ability to learn at their own pace have an additional resource to add to their toolbox whenever needed for reference or as a refresher.

Gamifying Work Readiness and Vocational Service Advancement to Level Up Engagement of Transition Age Youth & Families
Barbara Cartwright
Ohio Department of Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities
The work seeks to introduce gaming concepts to the vocational rehabilitation process and best practices supporting transition age youth with disabilities. This project will: 1) Provide a history of traditional vocational rehabilitation and note the trend in other professions to specialize, meeting youth and families at their point of need; 2) Examine the disparity of transition age youth referred and those advancing to competitive employment. The examination will inform the lack of engagement at pivotal points in the vocational rehabilitation process stalling advancement to an employment outcome; 3) Review best practices central to supporting transition age students with disabilities including: small group, interest and involvement with gaming and the added value of mentoring individuals and families; 4) Develop a multi-agency pilot of transition age youth and families with consultation from OCALI to develop the game board, badge and leveling components.

Voc Rehab Referral Redesign Project
Amy Hoops
Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation
Vocational Rehabilitation Services is an invaluable service available to Ohio's injured workers to help them return to work following an industrial accident. Currently, BWC uses emails to initiate the vocational rehabilitation referral to determine the injured workers feasibility and eligibility to participated in services. The goal of my project to is to transition the current method by which voc rehab referral are addressed from email to using the BWC claim management system, CoreSuite. Using CoreSuite will allow for real-time tracking of referrals, more transparency during the initial referral phase, balance of workloads amongst the BWC rehabilitation specialist, and eliminate an extra step in the referral process.

Improving the Onboarding Experience with Ohio Benefits
Eric Ott
Ohio Department of Administrative Services
The Ohio Benefits program is a very large program comprised of multiple agencies and various organizations working together to provide benefits for the citizens of Ohio. Currently, it takes someone an average of 9-12 months to onboard successfully onto the program and become fully productive. Learning all of the various people, acronyms, policies, and plans is overwhelming. By creating a new and in-depth training program, the goal is to reduce the onboarding time for a new team member to 4-6 months. Enabling someone to be effective in their new role sooner helps them to be more successful and ultimately makes the program more successful.

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Public Management Academy 7 Projects

Participants from Public Management Academy 7 presented their projects virtually on February 24 and 25, 2022:

• View the presentation program.
• Videos of the presentations can be viewed here: Day 1 | Day 2

Building a Resilient Organization 
Anthony Luke
Cleveland Division of Fire
This project focuses on what organizational changes are needed to maximize the service capacity of the Cleveland Division of Fire and allow it to be adaptable to societal changes. The fire service worldwide has expanded its mission to an all-hazards models that addresses many public safety and quality of life issues, formerly well outside of its scope of services. The Cleveland Division of Fire has fallen behind this industry trend to political challenges and a lack of focus on the employee as the organizations most valuable resource. This projects looks at the advantages gained by recentering the organization around building competent and resilient employees that will be self-driven to push the organization into the future.

Meals Audit & Staffing Standardization
Stephanie Y. Hobbs
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
There is not enough solid data about how many meals are served per staff. This project will allow me to gather productivity data whereby I will measure productivity internally and externally. This will help everyone better understand staffing levels with the result of showing increase staffing and productivity. The data will show which schools are high, median, and low performers with the possibility of moving those schools that have additional support to assist those who do not, which could alleviate layoffs or utilizing the budget to hire. Although this is one metric and not complete due to other factors that need to be factored in this will at least start the conversation from just resource emphasis to productivity and resource emphasis. The goal is to get everyone above the median using the internal and external data collection that was obtained.

Succession Planning: Establishing a Pipeline
Trent Ross
Rocky River Public Library
Replacing management-level positions can be time-consuming, and applicants frequently lack the necessary experience and training to step into those positions without lengthy learning and adjustment periods. This project aims to establish a succession pipeline that minimizes the length of time it takes to replace key positions. The succession pipeline identifies management track staff within the organization; and provides them the opportunity to receive the training and experience necessary to seamlessly transition into management-level positions, retaining both staff and institutional knowledge in the process

Update to City Parking Management
David Baas
City of Lakewood
Parking is a critical issue within the City of Lakewood. Current city management of, and permitting associated with, on-street and off-street parking suffers from a lack of formal process and is regulated by code predominantly from the 1990's through 2010, with some aspects dating as far back as 1960. Additionally, reliance on obsolete coinonly parking meters and a dedicated, but small weekday-only parking enforcement staff hampers our ability to appropriately price, enforce, and dynamically manage this critically limited resource to better meet the needs of residents, businesses, and visitors. Desired outcomes of this project include: (1) Transition plan to replace existing coin-only metering with a contemporary digital contactless payment and management system; (2) recommendation for a formal, improved process for on-street parking permitting; (3) recommendation for updates to City Parking Code; and (4) recommendation for enhancing Parking Enforcement hours and staffing.

Youth Equity Hub
Alanna Nicholas
Capital Talent Development Group
The Youth Equity Hub Project is designed to advance social and economic equity among historically underserved and underrepresented youth talent through services centered-around researched based workforce development strategies and social capital building. The core objective of the project is to provide a continuum of services from an one-stop provider ecosystem that empowers (1). students served to realize the value of education and graduate on time from high school and/or college (2). students served to engage in relevant, meaningful work-based learning opportunities that lead to gainful employment connections, and (3). students served to maximize exposure to leadership and mentoring opportunities that support their enrollment and completion of college and attainment of certification training, which would strengthen their capacity to achieve self-sufficiency and social-economic mobility. Leading to the development of an engaged, educated, high skilled youth talent base deemed employable and career ready for the labor market.

Berea Recreation Center Expansion
Guy Turner
City of Berea
The Berea Recreation Center is undergoing an expansion. I will discuss financing, layout, practicality, usage and reality. The focus of this project is to address the loss of space at the current high school. Our programs have grown and the space has decreased. We have the opportunity to address programming and facility needs.

GIS Map: Landbank and Property Maintenance
Jennifer Duber & Patricia Salemi
City of Garfield Heights
This project presents a proposed GIS map layer to track the posting and maintenance of blighted and city owned landbank properties. This presents an opportunity allowing all departments access to a map that will better serve the Garfield Heights community.

Learning Loss: An Equity Focused Approach
LaVerne Peakes
AdvantageCLE
AdvantageCLE stands ready to help students in elementary schools in the Hough Neighborhood that have experienced learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding our 2018 pilot after-school program to additional schools and to improve students' reading and math skills. AdvantageCLE has partnered with the "Say Yes" program through Cleveland Metropolitan School District and will create a manual to deliver effective programming to improve educational outcomes.

Employee Engagement
Shayne Benware and Anthony Gregory
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
GCRTA has identified Employee Growth and Engagement as one of the key Success Outcomes of our new Vision; "Leading the Delivery of Safe and Creative Mobility Solutions and our Mission; "Connecting Communities." We are looking for a new and effective way to create a culture of Engagement and Growth through a methodology that will assist management in communicating the Authority's Vision and Mission throughout the GCRTA community while creating a connection that will empower employees address their concerns to management.

Dads on Duty
Dennis Hill, Michael Onesky, & Stephen Mullen
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
The Community Cares concept activates parental and community involvement in our schools. This is based on a successful model that is being used in Shreveport, LA where fathers came to school and served as greeters and hall monitors. The school had experience much of what we are seeing including about 27 arrests for fighting in one week. Once the fathers got involved, there hasn't been a single incident since. In our efforts to address the current climate in some of our buildings, we feel this is the perfect opportunity to bring this program to CMSD. We are suggesting a pilot-project at Glenville High School. Glenville HS has experienced some challenges, but the Glenville neighborhood is also a community that is actively connected with the school. The alumni association, parents, residents, and other stakeholders can be instrumental in helping us achieve the success that we seek.

Spanish Speaking Assistance Initiative
Reshaun Godfrey, Edna Ruiz-Vega, and Dominick Demus
Bureau of Workers' Compensation
The Bureau of Workers' Compensation currently utilize a third-party interpreter service for our Spanish speaking only customers. On many occasions, the Injured Worker has expressed frustration with this service. They must wait for the interpreter over the phone and the translation process can be lengthy and complicated. Our project will establish a Spanish speaking claims representative team, removing the need for interpreter services. Our goal is to improve communication, customer satisfaction and educate the Hispanic Injured Worker on BWC benefits, policies, and procedures.

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Public Management Academy 6 Projects

Participants from Public Management Academy 6 presented their projects virtually on August 5 and 6, 2021:

• View the presentation program. 
• Videos of the presentations can be viewed here: Day 1 | Day 2 

Virtual Visionaries
Debra Benton, Gavin Garner, & Terry Wheeler
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Our project will benefit Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) students, as well as assist the parents and teachers. We plan to introduce a Virtual Safety Town. This will model the in-person Safety Town format, but in a virtual form that can be accessed by students, parents, and teachers at any time. This will help teach children safety practices at school and in their neighborhoods. The program will reach a multitude of students, and give parents and teachers a reference point so they can oversee the education of these safety practices.

Improvement of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) Archive Retrieval Process
Sheneé McCoy-Gibbons
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Agency: Cleveland Metropolitan School District Department of Safety & Security
Overview: The current process of requesting footage from the CCTV system is antiquated. Submissions are predominately on paper, but are also received via telephone, email, and conversations in passing. This process will be completed digitized and placed on the Departmental website. Requestors as well as CCTV technicians will receive electronic acknowledgement and continued feedback on submissions. This improvement will increase efficiency as well as transparency in the CCTV retrieval process.

Transportation inequality and the effects of spatial mismatch
Nikki Ponder
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
I plan to explore the problem of transportation inequality or what is known as the transpiration divide from a public transit perspective.  I plan to primarily focus on Cuyahoga County and North East Ohio. I want to study how the lack of mobility effects access to economic improvement, health, and social exclusion.

Creating a Civil Oversight Board for the GCRTA Police Department
Kelly King
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
What is a civil review board, in short, its primary function is to review complaints or conduct independent reviews of allegations of police misconduct. To try and meet the needs of the GCRTA and its service community by being accountable and transparent. I will compare how other police departments have set up their civil review board to create a board that will work for the GCRTA.

Let's Get Digital: Modernizing Legislative Retrieval
Amber Joyner
City of Warrensville Heights
The City of Warrensville Heights has no tracking of the city's legislative records prior to 2002 and all of the legislation is on paper only. The legislative request process is often a difficult one when not enough information can be provided to retrieve older legislation. This project addresses the need for Council and Administration to have a more efficient way to track, request and retrieve legislation. Through data collection, survey and informational interviews, the answer will be clear that it is time to get digital!

Data Mining to Boost Lottery Sales
Azra Gusic
Ohio Lottery Commission
The shift toward data driven sales strategies in the marketplace has created new opportunities to grow lottery scratch-off sales in FY22. My objective is to create an interactive program to educate and engage sales representatives in data mining to generate additional sales in each district. Successful implementation will maximize my region's contribution to the OH Lottery's investment in K-12 education.

Creation of Policy and Procedure Manuals for the City's Architectural Review Board, Board of Zoning Appeals, and Planning Commission
Michael Love
City of South Euclid
My project consisted of creating policy and procedure manuals for South Euclid's Boards and Commissions, specifically the Architectural Review Board, the Board of Zoning Appeals, and the Planning Commission. The goal of the policy and procedure manuals is to provide board and commission members with a clear understanding of their duties and responsibilities. These user-friendly electronic manuals are expected to decrease board and commission members' over reliance on city staff and help them understand their roles without having to refer to the extensive list of codified ordinances. The goal of the manuals is to lead to more efficient and effective board and commission meetings.

Court Professionalization Project
Scott Howard
Perrysburg Municipal Court
The project has several components:

• The development of a Mission Statement, a Vision Statement and Core Values.
• An overview of the American Justice System and a brief history of Court Administration.
• An introduction to Case Flow Management and an overview of studies and research in Case Flow Management.
• The final portion of my project is the actual data analysis - tracking criminal cases filed in the Perrysburg Municipal Court in order to ensure their timely resolution.

Improving Work/Life Balance for Municipal Employees
Jennifer Kuzma and Michael Mallis
City of Bedford
Private sector offers many opportunities to give employees work/life balance opportunities where public sector employers have not been as open.  Taking lessons learned from COVID-19 shutdowns, are there opportunities to give public municipal employees a better work/life balance?  This presentation will explore options and provide recommendations for municipalities to consider.

LINK Program Expansion
Charlene Jones, Toni Kolawole, Ramona Lowery
Cleveland State University
The LINK Program at Cleveland State University was established over 30 years ago to fulfill the corporate demand for diverse talent in co-ops, internships, and full-time employment opportunities. Participants receive individualized support, mentors, financial assistance and dynamic workshops, which have been instrumental in a graduation rate of 70% (and climbing). The program continues to empower students to leap boldly into their futures. The Bridge (our logo) is the foundation and each beam is a step to success for our scholars. And yet, there are many more students to reach. Please consider supporting our work as we equip current and future LINK scholars for a life without limitations.

Justice Uncovered: Podcasting Through the Lens of Justice
Toni Kolawole
Cleveland State University
Many people are unaware of what actually goes on behind bars, or what happens once individuals are released from incarceration. That's exactly what the podcast Justice Uncovered aims to reveal. In each episode, I focus on magnifying the voices of the unheard in the criminal justice system by sharing the stories of those who have been and still are affected by it; particularly, currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. The goal is to create public awareness of what people experience within and on the other side of the corrections system, thereby inspiring others to stand for true justice in the United States and implement lasting, positive change that encourages unity and treats all people as people.

A Fresh New Look at South Euclid
Ann Marie Donegan & Daniel Subwick
City of South Euclid
South Euclid desired an update in its current web site format and layout.  We are excited to offer South Euclid a fresh and streamline window into South Euclid through a new and improved web site.  This web site will offer a one-stop "glimpse" into a diverse community; diverse in population, businesses, and housing as well as an array of city and community services and outreach.

HOME Base where PAST + PRESENT define FUTURE
Andrea Mitchell
City of Warrensville Heights
Every person, every place has a story. Each story is part of a shared history—a foundation.
HOME Base— Historic Municipal Oriented Education Base is that essential foundation.
As of June 2021, the City of Warrensville Heights was absent a portal or mode to share her story.
More than a historical society, a portal for growth. HOME Base is an interactive resource model for community and municipal growth in The City of Warrensville Heights, via archive, display and discussion of oral, transcribed, pictorial, written and virtual historic content.

Cleveland Metropolitan School District Operations Workorder Process
Ashley Moore & Angela Barnett
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
By restructuring the workorder process this will provide real time updates and confirmation of completed request. In addition, this process will also systematically improve communications and provide a high level of operational excellence. We believe Dude Solutions will provide our staff and external stakeholders a user-friendly product that improves productivity. In conclusion, we believe this will be more efficient and cost effective for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

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Public Management Academy 5 Projects

Participants from Public Management Academy 5 presented their projects virtually on May 12 and 14, 2021.

Day 1: https://youtu.be/MTOqpiZiIAY
Day 2: https://youtu.be/Fix6LGNiXMg

AL PAL (Avon Lake Police Athletic League) – Supporting the needs of the community
Tim Pinchek City of Avon Lake
AL Pal was created, in conjunction, with a local resident to provide a supplement for facilities, programs and City services in Avon Lake. This presentation will include the timeline detailing the creation of AL PAL and the programs it currently is supporting and future projects in development.

Reimagining Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District's Stormwater Management Program: A Strategy for Growth and Resilience
Brent Eysenbach
Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District Cuyahoga
SWCD's stormwater program has been in existence for nearly 20 years with only minor reforms. This project sought to look inward and assess organizational structures, task management, and employee training. The goal was to determine what works, what needs reform, and what should be abandoned in order to develop a stronger program and position the District for future growth opportunities. An extension of the project was to examine how proposed changes enacted for the 2021 program year would additionally benefit the District's customers; local municipalities.

Police Training, Transparency, and Trust
Sgt. Christopher Pfeifer Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Police Department
This project is for the betterment of the community we serve. The project will explore opportunities for meaningful and impactful policy reforms in GCRTA policing and will seek enhancements for lasting societal change. Using proactive strategies for building community partnerships, we will seek to modify policing culture and develop ways for our officers to deliver fair and impartial services for the community. With enhanced transparency, we will increase community confidence in the GCRTA and the Transit Police Department.

Rethink, Recycling: Recycle Right, Brooklyn!
Councilwoman Kathleen Pucci
City of Brooklyn
Contamination in the curbside recycling stream has become a serious issue for cities. The result has been less options for the disposal of recyclables and increased costs. This program will reduce the contamination in the curbside recycling stream by providing direct education to residents who are not recycling correctly. We received a special grant from The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District to fund part-time, seasonal staff who will inspect the recycling carts for a total of eight weeks. If the cart contains contaminants, the staff will leave an OOPS tag on the cart explaining the problem, and instructing the resident to correct issue and then place their cart out the following week. We will conduct a pre-and post-audit to measure the level of contamination so we will be able to quantify the improvement.

Simulation Exercises in Empathy
Village of Woodmere and the City of Euclid Police Department
Daphne Evans and Sgt. Vashon Williams
Northeast Ohio serves as a hotspot for tensions that may arise between the community and police. In 2020, the nation was faced with a pandemic and several incidents that further catalyzed divisive tensions that boiled over in May 2020 with riots/protests that devastated downtown Cleveland. These simulations will shed light on the lives of those from disadvantaged backgrounds and law enforcement professionals in order to establish an appreciation for the conditions and/or experiences we may not have an opportunity to directly face in our daily interactions. The goal will be to reduce citizen complaints, encourage officers to police with compassion, and invite citizens to take an active role in understanding and solving crime in their communities in conjunction with police.

The Newly Elected Officials Reference Manual
Mayor Annette Blackwell, Steve Kilo, and Ghazala Ahmad
The Cities of Maple Heights and Strongsville
The goal of this project is to provide helpful reference information for newly elected officials. This manual contains a Table of Contents which organizes documents to clearly explain or provide additional information for the duties and responsibilities of their new roles.

PLAAY on the Move - Go Baby Go: Integrating an Online Scheduling Solution
Elena Grigore, Angelia Green, and Tariq Mohammed
Cleveland State University
The scope of this project entailed improving operational efficiencies for the PLAAY on the Move – Go Baby Go program at Cleveland State University. By integrating a new action-oriented scheduling system for program staff that also supplies client website access to online scheduling options. The use of Microsoft Bookings for the online scheduling system prompted development of a user reference guide to aid program staff in understanding scheduling features. In addition, website enhancements such as modernized aesthetics and content reorganization were made to improve virtual experiences and highlight program attributes. Customized surveys designed for program staff and clients will supply continuous feedback and data analysis for future program improvements.

Caught Off Guard: How to Not Do Crisis Communications on the Fly
Jamie Mason
Rocky River Public Library
Don't get caught off guard when the media shows up. Rocky River Public Library was recently featured on both Channel 5 News and 19 News in Cleveland, Ohio. This project will address crisis communications best practices and techniques using the Rocky River Library as a case study.

Transparency in Budget: Where the Dollars Make Sense
Danielle Clark Cuyahoga County and the ADAMHS Board
This project reviews the current biennial budget process as outlined by the Office of Budget & Management within Cuyahoga County's Fiscal Office. Phase 1 of this project creates a more transparent and streamlined budget process that allows for more collaboration between OBM and County agencies. Phase 2 would involve implementation of the budget process which would begin Spring 2021, due to my transition to one of the County's outside boards (ADAMHS), this phase will explore ways to integrate the County's biennial budget process into ADAMHS' yearly budget development. Phase 3 will involve a review of the process and its success and effective within the organization.

Precise Prints
Laverne Austin, Daniel Rivera, and Matthew Reutter
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Since 2006, At the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the Department of Safety and Security has been administering fingerprints for the school district. We have fingerprinted potential new hires, all current employees for compliance and licensure, contractors, volunteers, and students to ensure effective background checks for those who will be around the youth & future leaders in Cleveland. We used over 20,000 sheets of paper per year, which caused significant delays in processing new hires, not being able to read handwriting, faulty equipment, constant network issues, costly supplies, not enough manpower, and long waits which caused the district tons of money. With COVID, we faced another challenge, how to do all the above safely, while ensuring social distancing and sanitizing of the facilities and equipment.

Payment Plan Process Improvement
Majlinda Marku
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
The objective of this process is to align payment plan standard operating procedure with process workflow and automate tracking and reporting. The primary goals for this project are to streamline the process by utilizing financial system to standardize payment plan standard operating procedures, create real time reporting to aid collection processes, establish step review and audit trail, store electronic documentation and improve staff's time management. The new process will eliminate snail mail around departments increasing efficiency and eliminating the risk of lost papers, reduce manpower significantly to record and track everything manually, establish records and history on customer accounts and to aid customers' need faster and more accurately.

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Public Management Academy 4 Projects

The 2019-2020 cohort presented on March 4th, 2020 at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs. Click here to view a video of the project presentations: Part 1 | Part 2. Project summaries are listed below:

Munis Process Improvement Project
Michael Dalby, Amiya Hutson, Oliver Reyes
Cleveland Public Library
There is no uniform understanding and expertise from managers regarding our internal requisition software (Munis). With the Library Director's permission, we sought to streamline processes or seek alternatives to the Munis system. We also wanted to create an in-depth training program for staff. 

Vendor Performance Management 
Ryan Fogliano
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA)
Using the information in our 2-system database to create a real time report that can help eliminate faulty vendors and increase vendor performance.  With this vendor management tool, we will have the ability to promote quality products and on time deliveries while decreasing RMA's and financial waste due to lost time and service to our customers.  Our main goal with this tool is to improve the RTAs ability to provide safe reliable transportation by creating a more efficient service strategy.

Automation of Account Adjustment and Lien Invoice Creation 
Orjada Gecaj
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD)
The objective of the new process is to automate account adjustment and lien invoice creation. This would allow for increased accuracy, efficiency and time management. The primary goals for this project were to streamline the process, increase accuracy and free time for billing staff to dedicate to other processes and projects. The new process will be completed by one person and will take 1-2 hours to complete, including testing and report creation.

2020 Vision for 2030 
Mayor Bill Koons
The Village of South Russell
"2020 Vision for 2030" is the development of the strategic plan for South Russell Village to occur during the summer of 2020.  To prepare myself for the development of the village's strategic plan, I implemented an information gathering process from all members of council, department heads, citizens serving on village advisory boards, and community members.  The information gathered is being focused and sorted to create 3-5 key issues to be addressed when building the strategic plan.

Streamlining the Internal and External Permit Process in the Use of CMSD Buildings 
Lamont Dodson, Crystal Franklin, Willie Morris
Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and Cleveland State University (CSU)
The permit process for the rental of building space belonging to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District was an arduous, tedious process that involved several departments, steps, and lacked a clear-cut protocol.  As a result, there were logistical and financial systems that had to be in place as well as an immediate need for an electronic process.  In this project, we created a process that is streamlined, user friendly, and more cost efficient for the district.  It is our hopes that the new system will decrease permit processing errors, be more user-friendly for the community, and decrease unnecessary spending for the district.  

Standardized Project Scheduling 
Larry Surber & Ben Wright
The City of Westlake
The focus of this project is to develop a standard projected base scheduling of resources for projects. Currently, each department has their own process with no understanding of the other departments needs and internal scheduling. This project will create a standard process for scheduling projects for all departments. 

Snow and Ice Operational Efficiency 
Tab Gordon & Kenneth Holland
Bainbridge Township
Our project examines ways to increase the efficiency of our current snow and ice operational plan using emerging technologies and out of the box thinking.

Vendor Consolidation: Facility Services 
Frank Corlett
The City of Solon 
The goal of the project is to reduce expenditures and increase efficiency by consolidating common facility requirements. By decreasing the number of parallel vendors used City-wide we can effectively reduce workflows, purchase orders, time and budget obligations. In selecting pre-defined vendors for specific relatable facility requirements, we put money back in the department's hands through cost divergence.

The Creation of a "Levin Management Fellowship" Program: Generating public value through engaged learning 
Alexandra Higl
Cleveland State University (CSU)
To cultivate the next generation of public and nonprofit leaders while assisting organizations on real-world projects, the Center for Public & Nonprofit Management proposes the creation of a "Levin Management Fellowship Program". This initiative is designed to equip and empower the next generation of public and nonprofit leaders.