Lighting the way to upgrades

Compton, Calif.

Last year, Compton, Calif., officials identified two significant needs: about $4 million in facility upgrades and additional emergency-response and disaster-preparedness training for public safety employees, whose equipment also needed updating.

Because of a static tax base and limited income, city officials found the money to pay for the upgrades, training and equipment through a performance contract with Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls. The company replaced cooling systems, interior lighting and streetlights with more energy-efficient units, the operations and maintenance savings from which will pay for the $4.4 million project over 15 years. If the savings fall short, the company will write the city a check for the difference.

The city replaced or re-lamped nearly 5,000 light fixtures in 22 buildings, including replacing all T12 fluorescent lamps with high-efficiency T8 fluorescent lamps and all incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps. It also replaced more than 1,100 old streetlights, which used high-pressure sodium light bulbs that cast a yellowish light and directed up to 50 percent of the light up into the air, with high-efficiency induction lighting fixtures. The new fixtures have lower utility, maintenance and operational costs, as well as higher light levels, better light quality and less light pollution in neighborhoods. Compton's city hall, built in the 1970s, also received a new, high-efficiency chiller system to replace the old one that no longer worked.

With money saved from the energy-efficiency improvements, the city paid for additional emergency-response and disaster-preparedness training for public safety employees and purchased 1,200 vests and saddlebags for first responders. Every city vehicle now is equipped with a kit stocked with three days of emergency supplies. The city also installed a leak-detection system in 45 miles of water mains to identify and fix water leaks, resulting in less waste and lower water costs. Compton also is studying its water rates to determine whether they accurately reflect the actual cost of operating and maintaining the water system.

Compton officials estimate the improvements will remove 354 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the environment, which is equal to removing 77 cars from congested Los Angeles freeways for one year. “Not only have we achieved something quite unique to the city, but it lends further proof that we are indeed a forward-moving city,” says Michael Harvey, special projects manager. “This accomplishment has greatly improved services and products for our citizens, using the best long-term financing for these projects. We set the standards for other cities and communities and, at the same time, serve as a model to cities across the country.”

Agencies/companies involved: Compton, Johnson Controls Inc.

Sports revive downtown

Ogden, Utah

For many years, Ogden, Utah's downtown floundered as developers and consumers headed for the suburbs. That is beginning to change, however, as a result of a city project to replace an abandoned mall with a mixed-use development. The first phase, a 140,000-square-foot recreation facility named the Salomon Center, opened in June 2007 and has spurred adjacent commercial, retail and residential construction.

Several years ago, Mayor Matthew Godfrey proposed a plan to purchase the mall and revitalize downtown Ogden, but residents and developers were skeptical. The city pushed forward with the idea, however, purchasing the vacant mall for $6 million in 2001 and demolishing the property. Ogden hired an urban design and planning firm to identify new uses for the site, and invited public suggestions.

Gradually, support grew, and shortly after the city approved construction of a recreation center on the site, private developers and investors committed to build neighboring attractions, including a 13-screen movie theater, two four-story office buildings, a six-story, mixed-use project containing 28 condominium units, a mixed-use project with 108 rental units and three restaurants.

The anchor attraction is the Salomon Center, which includes indoor simulated skydiving, an indoor surfing wave, a climbing wall, a Gold's Gym, a sports medicine clinic, a nutrition center, a dance studio, a family bowling center, glow golf, bumper cars, billiards, an arcade and two restaurants. Ogden's redevelopment agency leases the center to a local private company to manage and operate. “The city was trying to change its image from an old railroad town to a high-adventure outdoor recreation destination, and the new Salomon Center needed to be an icon supporting that new image,” says John Patterson, chief administrative officer. “The new center was designed to include some unique high-adventure attractions that would make it a regional attraction drawing people to the city's downtown.”

Since the Salomon Center opened, a developer has announced another mixed-use project downtown consisting of a seven-story building with 63 condominium units. Also, under negotiation is a 14-story, mixed-use project that will contain 570,000 square feet of condominium and 106,000 square feet of hotel space. The development will complete the city's plan to redevelop about 20 acres of Ogden's central business district, Patterson says.

The cost of the center, excluding land, was $20 million, financed through tax increment bonds ($7.28 million), lease revenue bonds ($8.9 million), and $3.82 million from the general fund. The combined cost of the downtown redevelopment when it is completed in 2010 is estimated at $188 million. “The expanded interest created by the Salomon Center and the downtown redevelopment success will help attract the resources necessary to improve the tax base of the city and the lifestyle of its residents,” Patterson says.

Agencies/companies involved: Ogden, Ogden City Redevelopment Agency, Health and Fitness Holdings

Web site redesigns services

Renton, Wash.

With neighbors like Amazon.com, Microsoft and Expedia, Renton, Wash., had reason to be embarrassed by its low-tech, outdated Web site. It suffered from a cumbersome address (ci.renton.wa.us), poor navigation, amateurish design and a confusing structure.

Renton officials realized the need for change and assembled a multi-departmental team to create a new site that minimized government jargon, made services more accessible and convenient for residents while providing multiple ways to inform them about city news and events. “We saw the Web site as one of our primary communications tools. With an improved Web site, we could better serve our community and reaffirm our commitment to customer service,” says Preeti Shridhar, Renton communications director.

Renton outsourced the design and server hosting while handling all other aspects in-house. Transitioning from the old to the new site required converting more than 1,500 pages of content and installing a content management system that divided site management among departments, creating 35 to 40 “sub-Webmasters” rather than just one.

Deferring Web management to existing staff, with oversight from the interdepartmental “volunteer” Web team and communications director, keeps information current and costs low, Shridhar says. But, it also means more departments and staff are involved, requiring additional training and responsibilities. Including design, branding, software, programming, hosting, multimedia software capabilities and online services, the Web site, funded as a capital improvement project, cost $54,397 in 2005 and $48,554 in 2006.

In January 2007, Renton officially launched its new site, RentonWA.gov. Along with structural and visual improvements, the site includes a dynamic home page with direct links to popular pages and breaking news. An interactive calendar, improved search function, live streaming of the local government access channel, and a subscription-based e-mail alert feature also were added.

Users have responded: in January 2006, the old site received 242,390 page views; in January 2007, the new site got 894,449 page views, with an additional 30 percent increase in page views by July 2007. According to user surveys, the Web site went from 73 percent of users not being able to find what they were looking for in November/December 2006 to 0 percent not finding what they were looking for in February 2007.

Renton plans to improve the site further, including making all city forms interactive and expanding programming, interactive features and multimedia content. Enhanced mapping and GIS capabilities are planned, as is the establishment of an ongoing Web maintenance budget for improvements. “Renton made a significant commitment to developing a Web site that was reflective of our community and responsive to the needs and requirements of our residents,” says Mayor Kathy Keolker. “The Web site also makes city government and services more accessible to the public and showcases Renton's appeal to prospective businesses and visitors.”

Agencies/companies involved: Renton, Community Marketing Campaign stakeholders, Phinney Bischoff, Granicus, Square Root

Regional agencies talk safety

San Diego, Calif.

When fires broke out four years ago in and around San Diego, emergency responders battled communication breakdowns along with the blazes. After the event, San Diego's public safety community began resolving serious problems in its voice system coverage to ensure local, regional, state and federal agencies could share information at any time.

They began work on the Regional Command and Control Communications (3Cs) Pilot Project to expand and increase capacity of existing public safety microwave networks and provide secure digital communication systems for first responders, senior officials and emergency operations/dispatch centers across San Diego and beyond. “It provides an alternative means of communication to first-responder command staff during large-scale critical incidents, especially those requiring response from multiple agencies,” says Lisa Stapleton, information technology manager for San Diego Public Safety & Homeland Security. “By utilizing the 3Cs network, valuable radio airtime is made available for communications to and from the field.”

To ensure the system had enough capacity for video teleconferencing, secure wide-area sharing of helicopter video images, computer-assisted dispatch (CAD)-to-CAD links, data sharing between emergency operations centers (EOCs) and secure voice/image communications, San Diego had to build its own network. The high-capacity connections had to operate not just within the city, but also among neighboring cities, nearby counties, and state and federal agencies.

City officials initially identified 85 sites over nearly 22,000 square miles as potential locations to incorporate in the network, including San Diego, Imperial, Orange, and Riverside counties in California, as well as Yuma County, Ariz. Two consulting firms were hired as project managers to coordinate with each of the participating agencies and vendors.

An initial 16-site pilot program completed this year cost $6 million, financed by a U.S. Department of Justice COPS Interoperable Technology Grant and the California State Homeland Security Grant Program. Another $17 million has been raised to fund additional phases through 2010, Stapleton says.

“The impact of this project is a major improvement in how EOCs manage incidents,” Stapleton says. “By incorporating specialty video feeds into the system, including aerial video and closed-circuit television from critical infrastructure, incident commanders will have better intelligence on which to base their decisions. The network also will provide a way to quickly and effectively broadcast information to other agencies using three different modes of communication: teleconferencing on the network, broadcast of briefings over the public safety broadcast network and secured Web streaming.”

Agencies/companies involved: San Diego, Cisco Systems, Enforcement Support Agency, Harris Stratex Networks, Pacific Microwave Research, Providea, Spinitar, Tandberg, Tech/Knowledge Inc., VBrick