Janitors will clean Hennepin County buildings during the day.
Yesterday’s Star Tribune included a story (”Cleaning in the Light of Day“) about the upcoming change to janitorial services in Hennepin County buildings:
Janitors typically do their work sight unseen, after everyone else has gone home. But soon that’s going to change at the Hennepin County Government Center and other heavily used county buildings.
By shutting off the lights and turning down the thermostats at night, the county expects to save at least $100,000 a year in energy costs.
Starting March 1, about half of Hennepin County’s buildings - 63 in all - will be vacuumed, wiped down, swept and emptied of trash during the daytime rather than at night. It’s thought to be the first public entity in Minnesota to move to day cleaning, a trend that has gained popularity in the private sector. Read more…
Board Unanimously Requires Pay-for-Performance Contracts
The County Board last week unanimously passed a resolution I proposed which will require the county’s Human Services Department and Corrections Department to more widely use pay-for-performance contracts with hundreds of county vendors.In essence, this means that many of the organizations hired by the county to provide services will be paid based upon their ability to prove they have achieved measurable, long-term changes for the people they serve. In my opinion, this constitutes basic accountability in government spending.
The county has been using pay-for-performance contracts with select vendors for the past several years. It is not, however, a widespread practice. Many of our contracts are based solely on “outputs” - how many people a particular vendor served. Read more…
In July, I blogged about some significant positive changes that are occuring in Hennepin County regarding out-of-home placement issues for juvenile offenders. I thought it would make sense to post a positive award each month to bookend the monthly Golden Fire Hydrant award. Good things do happen in government sometimes.
August’s Taxpayer Victory award goes to a unanimous vote of the Board to rescind authority earlier given to county staff to condemn property through eminent domain. Read more…
Major Changes Underway in Dealing with Juvenile Offenders
I often focus on the negative in this blog, pointing out those things that I believe are ill-conceived or wasteful in Hennepin County. That doesn’t mean that Hennepin County isn’t providing many excellent and crucial services to the taxpayers of the county on a daily basis. Those many positive things, however, are frequently touted by the media and by the county’s active public relations staff.
One of the main purposes of this blog is to inform taxpayers of those matters that they might not otherwise know about - those things that the media has missed and the county doesn’t choose to trumpet (such as the monthly Golden Fire Hydrant). Not surprisingly, those things are usually not all that positive.
I do intend, however, to give credit where it is due on occasion, especially when county leadership and staff are willing to take difficult steps to reform or streamline the way services are provided in Hennepin County. Read more…
