A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 25

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Pam Broviak

Day 25

Water Main Extension

Most of the first half of my morning was spent working on a cost estimate for the water main extension I have designed. I also filled out all the IEPA permits for the project and had our water superintendent sign them.

Then I filled out the EcoCat to determine if there were any endangered species. This came back negative which is what I suspected – the area through which the water main will go is an abandoned railroad and quarry that is now a park within our city. Next I will have to write a letter to the Historic Preservation to ask them to determine if there are any historic preservation issues with the site. But again, I suspect based on the previous uses on the site that this will also come back negative.

Storm Sewer Project

During the last part of the morning, I dropped off the legal description for the easement we will need to install storm sewer behind some homes on the east side of town. There's signficiant backyard flooding in this area so we will install a couple inlets and tie them into our storm sewer. But because the inlets need to be in the backyards, the city will need an easement. Our policy is that the homeowner needs to prepare the easement document so once we get this, I will submit it for council consideration. If they approve it, we will install the storm sewer.

Miscellaneous Resident Concerns

We also checked out a drainage concern a neighbor had about some work that took place near their property. Then we checked out a report of someone dumping brush on city property and possibly obstructing a drainage way. We found the brush pile which was significant and told the people who had been dumping it that it needed to be moved asap.

Road Project

In the afternoon, we continued our task of driving the roads to determine road conditions.

Other stuff

A couple of us went out to lunch today with someone who had worked here earlier in the year as an intern. It was great to touch base with her and find out what she was up to and hear how GIS is handled where she works now. I was thinking earlier today, we have had five interns so far this year. They have all been great workers, and they helped us get a lot of work done.

Social Media/Communication/Customer Service Workshop!!!

Then at the end of the day, I spoke with the education coordinator for our local APWA chapter. We are planning a communication/social media/customer service workshop in October. We want to offer a fun and engaging day that helps everyone learn how to make the most of the tools that are out there. So if you know of anyone in the Chicago Metro area doing great and interesting things with social media/communication/customer service or public outreach, let me know. We'd love to have them participate in our workshop. We could even remote in people, so if you don't live or work around here and have something great to present, we could remote you in through Skype or other methods.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! and keep our public works colleagues who are handling the aftermath of Hurricane Irene in your thoughts and prayers!

Geneva’s Great Land Adventure

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Pam Broviak

Several months ago, I read some blog posts about frustration with Gov 2.0 not doing enough and a few other posts with offers from people interested in working for free for experience. The two seemingly unrelated topics got me wondering: How could our city use Gov 2.0 to offer job opportunities to people just looking for experience and also offer opportunities to citizens interested in participating in government? My thoughts drifted to the projects I’m working on at my job. And I wondered if our city could reach out to these people with the use of Gov 2.0 tools to help us complete some of our projects. One particular project rose above the others as a perfect candidate – the creation of a database documenting all properties in which the city holds some interest. It seemed possible because all the research could be done online by anyone with a connection to the Internet.

Fortunately, my supervisor and city administrator were fully supportive of implementing this idea. And even better, an intern working for us who is a public administration graduate student was able to partner with us to set it all up. While we were planning the project, I noticed a post on GovLoop written by Dave Briggs: The need for micro-participation. It seemed to discuss exactly what we were hoping to do. His post and support of the idea of micro-volunteering inspired me to finish setting up the project. After it was complete, we took some time evaluating it. After getting some great input from everyone, the project became an adventure of discovery with a Viking theme complete with a Viking figure donated by our wastewater division staff. Now anyone can join us on a discovery of property. And people can even earn titles and rewards as they successfully complete documentation of areas. You can check out the site here: The Geneva Land Adventure.

While we realize this approach has been used before to crowdsource genealogy databases, we’re not sure if other local governments have offered similar opportunities for micro-participation. We would be interested in hearing from others who might be aware of similar examples of participation or information about property management systems already in place. And we would love to hear comments or suggestions for improving the project and would love it even more if you signed up and participated in our adventure! (And because property management in local government is not a widely discussed or known topic, I offer a little background below.)

A INTRODUCTION TO PROPERTY MANAGEMENT FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

People are usually surprised to discover that local governments have a significant number of interests in real estate or property. These property rights can be held in the form of deeds, dedications, easements, rights of way, or licenses. And, depending on a government agency’s size, the number of documents conveying these rights can range from hundreds to thousands.

What also surprises people is that agencies most likely do not have a property database in place to document and manage the property rights associated with these documents. When I started working at the city of LaSalle in 1993, I figured they didn’t have this in place because they were somewhat of a small community with a population of about 9700. So I got to work building the database and putting a management system in place. By the time I left in 2009, I had discovered about 300+ properties in which the city had some ownership right. What I’ve since realized from talking to others in government is that many cities lack a property database.

Based on my experience in LaSalle, I have developed a process of building the database and putting in place a management system. One of the first steps is to discover all the documents in which an agency has property rights. But this task can take significant time. Since starting a new job with the city of Geneva two years ago, I’ve been working on setting up the system here. Fortunately we already have most of the property held by deeds in a database created by the county tax assessor. But this information needs to be verified and all the other documents covering easements, licenses, dedications, etc. need to be discovered.

Some might wonder if it’s so much work, why bother. Well, in government, ownership and property rights come up frequently throughout the day. Most activities that go on in local government, particularly in public works or property maintenance, involve the need to know what can be done where. If a database does not exist, research must be done each time a question about rights or ownership comes up. With a completed database and GIS, the answers are much more readily available. There are other benefits, but to keep it brief, the bottom line is having the database saves time and money which is always a good thing to achieve in government.

Delivering Public Works Content Through Video

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Pam Broviak

Over the last few years, there have been an increasing number of public works departments, vendors, and organizations taking advantage of video sharing sites. This has been made possible by newer video cameras that now fit into a pocket and websites like YouTube. These new tools and technologies allow anyone to easily capture videos and upload them to the Internet. Fortunately for those of us working in public works, we not only can take advantage of these sites as viewers, but also as publishers of our own video content.

Today a search on YouTube for “public works” brings up 4,950 results. Of course not all are the type of “public works” we all know and love. But even after factoring out “Gotham Public Works” and art-related videos, we are still left with an awful lot of resources. Anyone can visit the site to watch videos. But if you create your own YouTube account, you can take advantage of many other abilities. People with accounts can add comments to individual videos, keep track of what has been viewed, create playlists and favorites, and connect to other social media accounts. For those intending to upload their own videos, YouTube also offers the ability to create and customize channels.

Some of my favorite public works-related channels are apwatv, Autodesk, CityOfCollegeStation, PublicWorksMagazine, TransportationTV, unitedutilities, and the one I set up at pwgroup. By subscribing to these channels, I can choose to receive notices when new content is added. I can also more quickly find content when I want to share it with others. With diminishing money in the budget for training, YouTube videos offer the ability to increase skills and knowledge at no cost, on demand, and without leaving the office.

Videos posted on YouTube are also easily shared by embedding or placing a viewer on another Web site. Below each video on YouTube is a “Share” button the viewer can click to share the video through e-mail, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. There is also an “Embed” button that when clicked will display a code. This code can be copied and pasted on any Web site to display a video player that will launch the video from that site. This is what I did to display one of my favorite public works-related videos below:

Companies and agencies can take advantage of this to regularly post videos with work-related content on their Intranet sites. Or if smart phones are used in the field, inspectors can consult a preset playlist of videos displaying proper construction methods.

For those interested in publishing, it really isn’t as difficult as it might at first appear. YouTube has an extensive help section to get you started. Of course, you will need some type of device to capture the video. While some phones now have this capability, you might want to use something like the Flip camera for this purpose. What I like about the Flip camera is it’s reasonably priced and easy to operate. There are two buttons ― one to turn it on/off and one to start/stop recording. To upload, I just use its USB connection to plug it into my computer. The software is part of the camera so I can plug it into any computer and the software is available. All of the more recent videos I have uploaded to my channel have been captured using my Flip camera.

While many agencies or companies are creating videos to offer information to the public, videos can also be created for internal training. A meter representative once spent about 10 minutes telling us how to take apart a meter. While I was able to write down what he said and create a guide using photos, it would have been better and easier to just video record his explanation and upload it to the computer. Videos can also be used to record underground utility crossings or other construction-related improvements, or examples of best practices. These videos can even be linked to a city’s GIS for later reference.

There are other video sharing sites besides YouTube such as Vimeo, Viddler, and even Flickr. If you are thinking of making your own videos, one of the best things you can do is watch what others have already done. And if you know of any great public works-related videos, make sure to send us the link!

Update: On April 12, 2011, Cisco announced they are discontinuing the Flip camera. Speculation has been that in an effort to reduce company costs, Cisco decided the Flip could no longer compete with smart phones.

Public Hearings Held City Camp Style

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Pam Broviak

This year, I have been involved with two initiatives in our county. One is Kane County's Transit Plan which is just ending and the other is our Downtown Master Plan which is just beginning. Each planning process is professionally managed and both have or will go through all the traditional steps of gathering public input. This usually consists of forming committees of stakeholders and having committee meetings and public hearings. Then all comments and input from these meetings are assembled and worked into the plan. But we all know that as much time and effort as everyone puts into drawing out ideas, it is difficult to get a large majority of folks really talking at these events.

In the same time period, I have attended several "barcamps" or unconferences related to government and social media. These events are incredible because they offer the opportunity to learn and share ideas in a comfortable and informal setting. The environment is also conducive to developing networks and connections to others who care about the topics discussed. And the energy at barcamps is usually so intense that everyone, even that normally reserved person, ends up contributing.

One awesome camp I attended in January in Chicago was CityCamp. This event drew over 100 people who spent two days talking about ideas for increasing government performance. And the event format seems to be taking off – over the last few days I have been watching a discussion on the e-democracy site about several efforts to host CityCamps throughout the world. But organizers are also expressing an interest in having something solid come out of each camp. This got me thinking – wouldn't it be awesome to use the CityCamp model as a planning tool. If each planning initiative, like the transit plan or downtown plan, could include a "CityCamp," along with the more traditional methods, we could generate a lot more ideas and discussion. And in the end, everything would get incorporated into the formal plan.

If I worked in a government position responsible for launching community plans, I would definitely try this out because I see a huge potential for success. Instead I can only encourage others responsible for community planning to take the initiative to try out this technique. And I would definitely be willing to help! (Contacting Kevin Curry, one of the CityCamp organizers, for advice is also a great idea – he's an awesome resource!)

CityCamp – Talkin’ Government & Gettin’ Scrappy

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Pam Broviak

Last weekend I was fortunate to be able to spend the entire weekend at the UIC campus in Chicago hanging out with about 100 other people who are interested in local government. The event was CityCamp – a conference held in unconference style where the attendees determine and host the sessions.

While there were several GIS professionals there, I found no other attendees working in public works or civil engineering. In a way, I was not surprised – we are used to working behind the scenes and trying to remain below the radar. Our collective tendency to lie low is because about 98% of the time no one even realizes we are there – everything is running as it should and no one really notices or cares why. However, it is that small percentage of the time when things break down and cause a disruption in services that we are thrust in front of the cameras or the reporter’s pen and taken to task as if we have been doing nothing or purposely neglected our duties. And even though we try to explain our job and what caused the disruption, the resulting public article often leaves many of us end up feeling unfairly beaten up by the press.

But if we choose not to get involved in this new social media stuff due to past issues with public relations, it doesn’t mean we will be ignored. And yes, public works was brought into the discussion at citycamp. So we can stay out of the online channels, but it won’t mean people aren’t talking about us and what we do. As an example of this, I embedded a portion of an interview between Tim O’Reilly and Chris Vein, CIO of San Francisco. From about 7 minutes in to about 9 minutes, public works is the topic of discussion. At some point, we need to ask ourselves, “can we really afford to stay out of the conversation?”