The Cincinnati consulting firm that has identified up to $17 million in potential annual savings in city-parish government and the Baton Rouge Police Department is now turning its attention to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library System.
The Library Board of Control recently approved a $50,000 contract with Management Partners to review the system’s operations and identify ways to make it more effective and efficient.
“It’s a very disciplined approach to looking at our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and what kinds of challenges we may have as an organization,” Library Director Spencer Watts says. “It’s not necessarily about looking at something you are going to implement right away but positioning yourself for change.”
While the focus of the study will be on improving effectiveness and making sure best practices are being followed, Watts says he welcomes any advice on ways to save money or increase efficiency.
“You’re always looking for cost savings,” he says.
Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration hired Management Partners in 2018 to study city-parish government. Last spring, the firm produced a report identifying some $7 million in annual savings in city-parish government. The recommendations included selling unused or surplus fleet vehicles, overhauling its employee health care benefits system, and increasing fees for services like building plan reviews.
More recently, the BRPD hired Management Partners to study its department. A draft of that report calls for making some 55 changes to the department—some quite significant—that could result in up to $10 million a year in savings and get more officers out from behind desk jobs and on the street doing patrols.
Among those recommended changes is restructuring the BRPD’s organizational chart and doing away with several special operations units.
“They have already done a good job with some of the other organizations in the city-parish and they have a fresh perspective,” Watts says. “So we feel pretty confident they will give us some highly useful data and ideas.”
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