ASSET MANAGEMENT PRESENTATION National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference HUME CITY COUNCIL John Monaghan

Not everyone here is an AM expert-and neither am I But most of us if not all are very experienced and are skilled in Project Management And the reason we are is because of our practical approach to problem solving and to Project management- That is on any project we ask What do we have to do? What has been done so far? What is still to be done? What resources in time, money and staff do we have? What outcomes do we want? So in this talk I will take you through Hume City Councils learnings along the road to achieving core accreditation using the National Asset Management Framework scoresheet and our project Management approach.

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference 1. Where to start? 2. It’s so hard to get AM people. 3. Learning about AM. 4. Training Staff. 5. So much to do so little time. 6. Spread the Work Load. 7. Involve the decision makers in your vision. 8. The lifecycle of Asset Management. 9. Service Planning -the new frontier. I’ll just tell you a little bit about Hume City Council Our Asset management Structure The struggle we all have, more so in AM to find and retain good staff How we improved our knowledge of AM The importance of training staff What a mammoth task we as Asset Managers have to do How important to spread the load Especially to get management and Councillors on side The importance of maintaining your Asset Management Systems and whole of Council approach And the new frontier Service Planning and how it can help you

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference Where to start? Hume-one of the fastest growing municipalities in Australia 30 minutes by train north- north- west of Melbourne Home to Melbourne Airport and Ford Includes the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Craigieburn and Donnybrook and the township of Sunbury, Hume Highway, Calder freeway, M80 and the Tullamarine Freeway $60M CWP $1.8B in Assets Hume City Council owns and controls over $1.79B of assets. These include 1020 Kms of roads, 112 bridges, 1230 Kms of drains, 1100 Kms of footpaths, 234 buildings and 1557 Ha of reserves. . Broadmeadows on the south Travel up the hume highway to Donnybrook And we’re as far west as Sunbury and the Calder Highway ie 500sqKms

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference AM Staff Structure Manager Finance Admin. Person Traffic Civil Design GIS Assets Coordinator The current structure is this – so I guess the point is we’re not a big AM unit but as I’ll discuss you need to make the most of what you have. Manager Engineering and Assets Asset Engineer Asset Engineer

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference 2004 –Asset Management plans completed 2006- AM Manager resigns 2007- Change the structure to manage assets 2008- AM coordinator resigns 2009 –AM coordinator appointed 2011-AM coordinator resigns 2013 –AM coordinator appointed “It’s so hard to get AM people.” Our Journey started in 2004 when our first set of Asset management Plans with a Policy and Strategy were adopted by Council. So from that point of view we were lucky because that is a big hurdle for most Councils,. Then we had a series of time being without key AM leaders. In 2006…. In 2007 We incorporated AM under the management of Traffic and Design So in 2008 AM coordinator resigns I think we all have a similar story Long periods without full contingent of staff If you’re in a rural municipality I’m sure it’s hard to find the time If you’re in a metropolitan Council it’s hard to find Asset managers, people who can manage the numerous tasks, train staff and when the crunch comes have people on deck who can provide answers that auditors, management want. But Asset Management is unlike other positions in Council and in engineering.. . 9-5:30 sort of Job -lots of writing Xcel spread sheets and graphs Understanding systems and processes Hardest part is coordinating staff across the whole of council and convincing people up and down the food chain about the need for continuous improvement -

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference It’s like RALPH and SAM it’s a pretty constant day to day profession. Attracting and keeping young staff in GENERATION X or Y is difficult-it’s not as exciting as other streams of engineering, and they don’t have the EXPERIENCE Attracting MIGRANT ENGINEERS is not difficult but the LANGUAGE barrier when so much writing is involved is a challenge and the experience in our construction and maintenance practices Attracting PART TIME ENGINEERS with Baby boomer engineers is a real possibility.- Solutions: For young engineers firstly get them in during 12 weeks university work experience and when employing full time get 2 to job share in Asset Management and design or subdivisions or construction. Migrant engineers we have found that they learn quickly and their experience gives them an adaptable knowledge of construction and maintenance. And Assets For all engineers asset management staff get them to undertake a EVIDENCE OR A WRITING TEST should be part of the interview process.-mind you not all your staff have to be proficient at English but you also want to consider succession planning ie. Where’s your next coordinator or manager of AM coming from SO you’ve got the staff how do you learn more about AM and how do you skill-up your staff 4:00 Regular hours Suitable for part time or full time workers But perhaps not as exciting as other engineering fields???

What systems and procedures do you have and what do you need to have? You need to Understand the STATUS QUO. Ie the existing systems, processes

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference Learning about Asset Management What do you have? # What systems and procedures do you have? a) We set up a quality framework and documented what systems, practices and procedures Council has. What do you need to have? # What more do we need? What’s the fastest way to learn about AM? a) AM Framework Assessment Score Sheet b) IPWEA NAMS plus2 handbook c) Northern Asset Management Forum d) Knowledgeable and qualified AM coordinator What do you have In any project management assignment you need to know what you have ie. At Hume we set up what we called a “QUALITY FRAMEWORK ” to document systems, practices and procedures. Many of which were practised but had not been documented Eg how do you have input on CWP, who is responsible for what in relation to assets, how and when do we inform Council and the executive of AM etc., REALLY THE SORT OF INFORMATION SOMEONE NEW NEEDS TO KNOW Once you document these practices it achieves four things: 1. you know about your Council-especially if you are new 2. when you document it everyone else knows how things are done 3. you can quickly and easily pass it onto new staff and successors. 4. and importantly you have systems to show others especially the auditors What don’t you have? 1. I found the National AM Framework Assessment Score sheet the fastest way to learn what we didn’t have and needed to have but I also needed to refer to the IPWEA NAMS plus 2 handbook for the extended explanation AM PEERS-We set up a NORTHERN ASSET MANAGEMENT FORUM and quarterly invited AM staff from what started as the northern side of Melbourne and now we are happy to see anyone. We typically share lunch and have guest speakers and take in turns at hosting the forum. This is a great opportunity to see what other Councils are doing, what news they have what Rumors they have etc. The last but not lease is to APPOINT EXPERIENCED PERSON to run/ coordinate AM. We employed Bon Tee who was previously a consultant working with GHD. He taught the team so much and trained them in AM practices.

STRATEGIC LONG TERM PLAN National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference National Asset Management Framework (NAMF) - scorecard reference guide STRATEGIC LONG TERM PLAN   DATE LOCATION 1.1* Council has a Strategic Longer Term Plan (planning horizon of at least 5 years) they want to achieve that incorporates a vision strategic outcomes mission values service outcomes SLTP=Hume City Plan 2040 P.2 P.9 P.23 ‘heading’ 1.2* The development of the Strategic Longer Term Plan included community consultation reflects community needs. P.1 of Hume City Plan 2030 1.3* The Strategic Longer Term Plan incorporates priorities and performance measures and indicates how they will be monitored and measured. P.19 of Hume City Plan 2030 & the Council Plan says how they will be monitored and measured. 1.4* Council has a sustainable Long Term Financial Plan covering the period of the Strategic Longer Term Plan (at least 5 year) supporting the implementation of its Long Term Plan. LTFP=Strategic Resource Plan & Internal 10year Budget Model located in Intranet 1.5 The Long Term Financial Plan has been prepared based on the resource requirements and strategic objectives detailed in Council’s Long Term Plan and Asset Management Plans. P.49 of Budget Report. P.59 of Budget Report 1.6 Council has a Strategic Longer Term Plan (ideally 20 years - at least 10 years) that incorporates a Vision Mission Values Long term service outcomes that reflects how Council plans to provide for community needs. 1.7 The development of the Strategic Longer Term Plan included community engagement and reflects community needs. 1.8 Council has a sustainable Long Term Financial Plan (ideally 20 years - at least 10years) which establishes its prudential limits on debt revenue raising reserve funding asset management funding capital works to support its Long Term Plan. 1.9 Council's Long Term Financial Plan is directly aligned with its Service Plans. 1.10 The Long Term Financial Plan clearly separates ‘recurrent expenditure’ under the categories of operations and maintenance and clearly separates ‘capital works expenditure’ under the categories of renewal, upgrade and new. 1.11 The Long Term Financial Plan clearly identifies the ongoing maintenance operational and renewal impacts arising from capital works and contributed assets. 1.12 Optimum life cycle costs are known and supported by high levels of data, information and knowledge in all key areas. Political decisions are informed by multiple service level / cost / funding model data, information and knowledge on tradeoffs for economic, social, cultural and environmental consequences. I was talking about the fastest way to learn about AM. We took the NATIONAL ASSET MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK SCORE SHEET and REFERENCE GUIDE reminded ourselves where our Council documentation had demonstrated answers to the questions. For example in 1.3 ……

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference Training Staff Ensure your Coordinator trains staff in AM ie. writing AM plans, hosting audits, learning about software, presenting to Council, community, executive etc. Employ staff who want to learn Take them to conferences, forums Encourage them to fill in when depot coordinators go on leave. Encourage further study at their annual performance reviews –IPWEA through Chiefly Business School have a Grad. Cert. and Grad. Dip. in Infrastructure AM I said earlier you ask yourself “DO I HAVE THE RESOURCES in: Staff Time Money? Chances are I don’t, so 2 things need to be done Be smarter with using the resources you have but also Justify additional resources with facts and figures Training your staff up in AM is being smarter with your staff resources

So Much To Do So Little Time 6. So Much To Do So Little Time A primary resource apart from staff is Time. The next part of good project management is knowing what you have to do and the time frame in which to do it. 10min

As part of Project Management we need to get an understanding of the time frame to get the job done. So most of us do a gant chart. At Hume we did something similar; Councils have a 4 year term At Hume we have 4 major AM classes- buildings roads drainage Parks and Open Space Every 4 years we do a total asset audit of one of the major asset classes Every 4 years we review the Asset Management Plans Every year we undertake a Gap analysis for DPCD, a budget, NAMF audit, etc. SO we put all this on a calendar. It clearly show how much work is required to satisfy the NAMF scoresheet. One of the most beneficial actions on the calendar occurs in October where we meet with the SERVICE PROVIDERS, MAINTENANCE, DESIGN, CAPITAL WORKS, AM, GIS and list where we have shortfalls in maintenance, operating and capital budgets .This gives everyone a snapshot of how healthy and successful we as a council are. It says to the service providers where are the assets letting you down can you provide evidence based justification ie. SERVICE REVIEWS to back that up? It says to the maintenance people why can’t you keep the appropriate level of maintenance up to the Service Providers do you have evidencce based justification for more money. It says to the GIS operators why can’t you provide the reporting systems to give evidence based justification

7. Spread the Work Load Spread the work load As you saw from Hume’s structure previously we don’t have a lot of people in AM you can’t be the service provider, the asset custodian and maintain the AM system with its policy, strategy and audits, gap analysis etc. So what we were doing at these October meetings is spreading the load forcing the: Service providers to conduct Customer service reviews The maintenance providers to use their Service reviews to question the service levels or justify more funding or improved resources to capture the evidence The GIS and AM staff can justify more expenditure because they can’t provide the systems that provide the evidence. The CW staff can hear what the priority projects are and what the funding needs are. YOU NEED A WHOLE OF COUNCIL APPROACH

Who and What is not part of the AM circle of life? National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference Why you need a whole of Council approach and commitment: 1. Strategic Longer Term Plan 2. Long Term Financial Plan 3. Resource Plan 4. Annual Budget 5. Annual Report 6. Service Plans 7. Service Providers, Maintenance staff, Capital Works, Subdivisions, Finance, Child Care, Leisure Services etc Who and What is not part of the AM circle of life? After all its all about delivering the Council services. So if you’re not part of delivering the service in some shape or form what are you doing. We either provide: TRANSPORT CHILD CARE LEARNING WASTE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PLANNING BUILDING FINANCIAL/BUDGET HUME”S COMMITMENT IS FROM THE MAYOR RIGHT THROUGH TO THE MAINTENANCE STAFF IS STRONG

What commitment do we have at Hume? National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference What commitment do we have at Hume? # In the Asset Management Strategy Council passed the Strategy with the statement “We always approve the necessary renewal program to sustain the existing levels of service before other works, providing they are justified through our process.” # EMT receive a quarterly report on AM # Managers have in their PD’s a generic statement saying “Staff are responsible for undertaking Asset Management functions ….” WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR ASSET WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE COSTS Service providers –what do you know about your service levels can they be sustained. Systemically we are committed to AM Staff are responsible for undertaking Asset Management functions in accordance with the Asset Management Responsibility Matrix (found on the Asset Management Team Site), to ensure Council assets continue to be managed and maintained. Position description template

Involve the Decision Makers in Your Vision. 8. Involve the Decision Makers in Your Vision. At Hume the stars have aligned: 1. We have a Council who have adopted a strategy to maintain and renew asset before they create new assets. 2. we have a CEO who is an accountant 3. We have a Director City Infrastructure who is totally supportive of AM 4. We have a Director of City Governance and Community Learning (Finance) who’s supportive because of the links to Finance, GIS and Audit Committee 5. We have the Director of Organisation and Community Learning who is driving Service Planning We had a Goal to be the first Council to reach Core Accreditation. We kept sharing that vision with Executive Management group. What it did, it gave a challenge to the staff. The director was supportive, we shared it with EMT and whilst there are a number of Councils who have also reached this goal it has been a sense of achievement that we have reached Core Accreditation. Management and Councillors want to brag about two things a strong financial situation and maintaining overall asset condition

9. The Lifecycle of Asset Management Asset Management like Assets themselves have a lifecycle ie. it needs to be created, maintained, renewed and upgraded because: Staff come and go Systems change Resources fluctuate You need to continuously improve DON’T REST ON YOU LORALS As discussed the stars have aligned for Hume but what if the director leaves, what if Council decides to spend more on new infrastructure.? Our staff problems like yours are ongoing, we get new people who don’t like our GIS, we get new staff who haven’t had much involvement in AM. We get staff who haven’t experienced the size of our growth. We get resignations that take time to fill. Systems- you get a new GIS, systems relate more creating more possibilities. New technologies, new software, You need to involve staff in training with AM, You need a CRITICAL MASS so that fluctuations, changes, improvements etc only dint your robust systems they don’t sink them. If you do make changes you need the critical mass to be on board. Staff need to know the systems and the systems need to support the delivery of services to the community

Service planning-the new frontier 10. Service planning-the new frontier One of the best ways to get all staff seeing the link between the services council provides and the management of the assets is Service Planning. One of the best ways to get a whole of Council approach is Service planning If you just talk about AM without Service Planning the Service Providers don’t get involved nor do they see their involvement. If this is the case a good third of the Council don’t have a stake in AM Also service planning is a review of the resources in time and people money. AND IF YOU WANT THE BEST WAY TO REDUCE YOUR FUNDING GAP-SERVICE PLANNING is the answer. 18

10. Service Planning –the New Frontier What services are we as Councils providing? Should we be providing these services? To what standard do we provide the services? What are our current and future needs? How do we measure if we are delivering our service –technical and customer? Are our assets in a fit condition to deliver the Service Standards? What does it cost to get the assets to that standard? Do we have the funding or do we adjust the standard or remove the availability of the service Finally do we have systems in place to measure these things ie. GIS, surveys, audits, condition assessments. costs, etc As I said earlier we are in an ideal Council. Service Planning can’t be achieved peace meal it has to be a whole of Council push. Our Council has identified we need to change and orientate ourselves around service plans. We have commenced plans across the whole of Council FRONTIER-is an appropriate word because Service Planning comes upfront. You decide what Services, what Service levels, what service standards achieve the levels, what resources and as part of the resources you need assets and you need to ensure those assets match the service standards. You need systems in place to measure the assets condition to meet the service standards. Parks and preschools Public toilets

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference 1. SUMMARY a) It’s so hard to get AM people. b) Learning about AM. c) Training Staff. d) So much to do so little time. e) Spread the Work Load. f) Involve the decision makers in your vision. g) The lifecycle of Asset Management. h) Service Planning -the new frontier. It’s like a good football team you need to recruit the right people and train them one without the other won’t work. Core ingredients are enthusiasm, knowledge and good writing skills. Explore the option of Part time, retiring and migrant engineers. For gen X and Y give them a taste of other infrastructure experiences not just AM.. LEARNING ABOUT AM document your current systems and practices identify what systems and practices you don’t have by referring to: NAMF score sheet, get involved in AM regional forums, employ qualified and experienced staff and reference NAMS plus 2 Handbook TRAINING STAFF get your staff qualified with the chiefly graduate Certificate and Gad dip. require them to attend forums, conferences and look for opportunities at the depot to stand-in for maintenance coordinators. SO MUCH TO DO SO LITTLE TIME make yourself up a 4 year calender of your tasks, use this to get more staff, and for staff to understand the deliverables SPREAD THE WORK LOAD require staff to be responsible for their own destination, to know their business, to know their assets, the condition, the expenditure, the maintenance cost, the service improvements INVOLVE THE DECISION MAKERS share your aspirations with Council and Senior Management, what are you trying to do how are you going about it, get Council to commit priority spending to renewal and maintenance ahead of new work., include AM responsibilities in position descriptions, report regularly to EMT. THE LIFESTYLE OF AM- continue to maintain and renew your AM SERVICE PLANNING-this needs a whole of Council understanding and commitment.

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference Thanks and Good Luck -Hume City Council

National Local Government Infrastructure & AM Conference TIPS: 1. Meet with custodians, service providers, finance and AM staff in October and discuss finance gaps. 2. Put the onus on the custodians and providers to use the AM systems to justify more budget funding. 3. Put GAP funding in year 4, 5 and 6 of your finance programs. 4. Get Council to accept maintenance and renewal to be funded before new works. 5. Ensure regular presentations to Council and EMT with condition photos.