Amesbury is helping blaze a trail for fiscally strapped cities and towns looking to better control their finances.
The city is one of several municipalities in the state employing a new management tool that uses extensive data analysis in decision making.
"We need to change the way municipal government works," said Mayor Thatcher W. Kezer III.
Kezer announced his intention to establish the city's AmesStat program when he first took office in January 2006, and had it up and running the following July.
Under the initiative, Kezer and his chief of staff, Kendra Amaral, meet regularly with department heads to review data on everything from overtime to vehicle maintenance. The statistics form the basis of cause-and-effect discussions on improving efficiency and controlling costs.
The effort is modeled after the CitiStat program developed by Baltimore officials in 2000 and similar data-tracking programs that followed, including those in Buffalo and Providence. CitiStat was inspired by the Comstat crime analysis program developed by New York City police in the early 1990s.
But its status as one of the smallest municipalities to introduce the system, and one of the first in this state, is attracting attention to Amesbury. Elsewhere in Massachusetts, Somerville adopted a Stat system in 2004, and Springfield did so last fall through the state finance control board that manages the city's finances and personnel, according to the board's executive director, Stephen Lisauskas.
In recognition of AmesStat, the Massachusetts Municipal Association selected Amesbury as one of three 2008 recipients of an award it presents annually to municipalities that have developed unique programs to increase efficiency.
Kezer discussed AmesStat as a panelist at a recent forum that MassINC, the Boston-based public policy think tank, organized on the fiscal crisis facing cities and towns. In addition, about 15 communities, several state agencies, and even some businesses have contacted Amesbury during the past month to inquire about AmesStat.
"It's impressive work," said Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "The city took the initiative to say, 'We want to develop sophisticated management tools and put them in place and we are not going to let our size stand in the way.' "
Kezer learned about CitiStat some years ago when he was a project director for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a job that included running the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition. His military background - he is a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Air National Guard - also led him to the process.
"There are a lot of elements of the way we do business in the Air Force [that involve] keeping our superiors informed relative to operational matters," he said.
Kezer said an important step in launching AmesStat was hiring Amaral in July 2006. In her previous position as director of planning and research for the Boston Children's Museum, Amaral had implemented a program similar to AmesStat. One of the key responsibilities of her job in Amesbury has been implementing and overseeing the city's program.
Apart from the time invested by staff, the only cost of the program has been the $300 spent on replacing the bulbs for the projector that is used to display data discussed at AmesStat meetings.
Department heads are broken down into five groups, each of which holds a one-hour meeting with Kezer and Amaral in the mayor's office every other week.
Kezer said the program tells him "what is going on throughout all the departments and divisions" in terms of the delivery of city services. It also clearly identifies which resources are available and which are not, information the administration can then use to advocate for change.
Another benefit is enhanced communication among city administrators.
"Everyone mistakes municipal government as a single entity, and it's not," Kezer said. "It's a loose confederation of boards, departments, and commissions tripping over each other to get the job done. What AmesStat is doing is pulling the whole together and getting it working and focusing on a coordinated set of goals."
Although it has been largely an internal initiative to date, Kezer said he expects AmesStat will become more visible to the public. Already, data from the program is being used in the city's annual report to give residents a better idea of how dollars are spent, and is being used to back up spending requests to the Municipal Council.
Acting Fire Chief Jonathan Brickett said he has found AmesStat worthwhile, so much so that he initiated his own data-tracking program within the Fire Department.
"It's a great management tool," he said. "It puts things in perspective. It helps you understand the whole process a little better, and how to forecast the future much better" by using actual data.
Kezer said it is too early to calculate the financial benefits of AmesStat. But he said there have been some savings.
"It's in our interest to show the state legislators and our citizens that we are taking the steps to make government run better," he said.
