Public Contract Operations (Bid To Goal)

The Public Contract Operations Strategy (also known as "Bid-to-Goal") is an optimization strategy for public organizations. It was pioneered by the Metropolitan Wastewater Department in collaboration with the City Manager, the City Competition Program, the San Diego Municipal Employee Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - Local 127, and citizen's oversight groups. The aim of the strategy is to provide optimal results for ratepayers by combining the best features of the public sector (control of valuable public-funded infrastructure, avoidance of for-profit conflict with health and safety services, retention of savings from workforce productivity gains) and private sector (mutual accountability of formal agreements, competitive budgets, employee performance incentives). The first Bid to Goal Agreement was put in place for a pilot six-year period in FY 1998 by the Department's Operations & Maintenance Division in FY 1998 and has resulted in an estimated savings of $90 million over 5 years. The pilot was declared a success and a second agreement was authorized by the City Council in the Department's Wastewater Collection Division, beginning in FY 2002. This second agreement has been one factor in facilitating the attainment of targeted reductions in sanitary sewer overflows and contributing to the Mayor's goal of cleaning up our beaches and bays.

In May 2002, the Bid-to-Goal Program was recognized by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association with a Golden Watchdog Award. The program was also named a finalist in the 2002 Harvard University's JFK School of Government Innovations in Government Award.