6 - Update on the Benchmarking Study to Evaluate Boulder's Utility PerformanceCITY OF BOULDER
WATER RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD AGENDA ITEM
MEETING DATE: January 22, 2007
AGENDA TITLE: Update on the Benchmarking Smdy to Evaluate Boulder's Utility
', Performance
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PRESENTERS:
Robert L Harberg, Utilities Planning and Project Management Coardinator
Joanna Crean, Public Works Administrator
Carter Coolidge, Utilities Engineering Intern
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED: Staff is soliciting feedback from the Board to refine future
work on the benchmarking study.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Staff will attend the January 22°d WRAB meeting to present the Amencan Water Works
Association (AWWA) Benchmarking Survey Report results compared to the data collected for
the city of Boulder. Staff is soliciting feedback from the Board to refine future work on the
benchmarking study.
BACKGROUND:
The AWWA developed a report to assess the performance of water and wastewater utilities using
a set of identified and tested high-level performance indicators. The indicators are designed to
help participating utilities improve their operational efficiency and effectiveness. The AWWA
Benchmarking Report provides summary data and comparative analyses of the survey data
collected from 202 utilities. The survey data was collected during the years 2003 and 2004. The
city of Boulder did not participate in the original survey. However, staff has taken the AWWA
Benchmarking Report and used the city's 2005 data to evaluate how Boulder compares to the
survey results.
The AWWA Benchmarking Survey used 22 performance indicators. The performance indicators
involve water and wastewater functions only and do not include stormwater. The city of Boulder
AGENDA ITEM # VI_PAGE 1
decided to evaluate 16 of the 22 performance indicators. All 22 indicators aze listed below and
the selected 16 are indicated with an asterisk. The remaining six indicators were not evaluated
due to a lack of cunent data that was easily accessible.
Organizational Development
1. Organizational Best Practices Index
2. Employee Heath and Safety Severity Rate
3. Training Hours per Employee
4. Customer Accounts per Employee (Water and Wastewater)*
Million Gallons per Day Water Delivered Per Employee*
Million Gallons per Day Wastewater Processed Per Employee*
Customer Relations
5. Customer Service Complaints per 1,000 Customer Accounts
Technical Quality Complaints per 1,000 Customer Accounts*
6. Disruptions of Water Service
7. Residential Cost of Water and/or Sewer Service*
8. Customer Service Cost per Account
9. Billing Accuracy
Business Operations
10. Debt Ratio*
ll. System Renewal/Replacement Rate*
12. Return on Assets*
Water Operations
13. Drinking Water Compliance Rate*
14. Distribution System Water Loss*
15. Water Distribution System Integrity*
16. Operations and Maintenance Cost Ratios*
17. Planned Maintenance Ratio*
Wastewater Operations
18. Sewer Overflow Rate*
19. Wastewater Coilection System Integrity*
20. Wastewater Treatment Effectiveness Rate*
21. Operations and Maintenance Cost Ratios*
22. Planned Maintenance Ratio*
Part of the value of the Benchmarking Survey is to provide a comparison to other similar
utilities. The AWWA Benchmarking Report uses the following categories to analyze the
performance indicators: '
Geographic Region (as determined by the US Census Bureau)
• Northeast
• South
• AGENDA ITEM # VI PAGE 2
• Midwest
^ West [Colorado is included here.]
Drility Size (population served)
• >500,000
~ 100,001-500,000 [Boulder falls betrveen this category and the next category.]
• 50,001-100,000
• 10,000-50,000
^ <I0,000
Utility Service or Operation Type
• Water Operations - represents those utilities designated as exclusively providing
water services.
• Wastewater Operations - represents those utilities designated as exclusively
providing wastewater services.
^ Combined Operations - represents those utilities designated as providing both water
and wastewater services. [Boulder falls in this category.]
All Participants (includes Canada and international utility data)
The communities who participated in the AWWA Benchmarking Survey from Colorado include:
Aurora, Fort Collins, Westminster, Eagle River Water & Sanitation District, Pagosa Area Water
and Sanitation District, Town of Rangely, and Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority.
NEXT STEPS:
Staff will solicit feedback from WRAB at the January 22"d meeting regarding the performance
indicators and the data coliected related to Boulder. In the future, staff anticipates tracking and
trending the performance indicators. Also, staff will determine if these performance indicators
should be reported in future Utilities Annual Reports.
AGENDA ITEM # VI_PAGE 3