The most important conclusion reached as a result of this study was that severe budget constraints, increased costs, and increased workloads are changing the way city public works and street departments operate. Cities are actively seeking methods to effectively meet increased demand using limited resources.

Department managers are forced to reevaluate operations. Systems that worked in the past aren't working today. Improved productivity, better management control, and increased cost-effectiveness are today's standards of operation. In the past, street departments simply operated within a budget. The budget sustained operations and little regard was given to effective cost control.

But today, costs are skyrocketing. Virtually every area of operations (equipment costs, repair parts costs, inventory and material costs, and labor costs), has experienced significant cost increases.

Today's public works and street departments are struggling from a "One-Two Punch" that is impacting on their ability to provide necessary services. Not only are individual project costs increasing, so are the number of required projects. The demand for services continues to grow, but the available resources are shrinking because of budget constraints and increased costs.

In addition to new work requirements driven by population growth, the decaying infrastructure is placing priority demand on a city's project list. Federally mandated projects such as handicapped access, highway safety and increased accountability add to the department's project responsibilities.

While these factors are forcing change, most cities lack a comprehensive plan or strategy to implement new systems. The current solutions tend to be "reactionary", rather than part of a long-term strategy. Crisis management promotes crisis management. A long-term plan promotes a systematic approach to problem resolution.

For example, cities turn to computer automation in an attempt to streamline operations and improve management control and reporting. But, most often, these solutions are "patches" or bandaids.

At the time of the survey, a specialized system was not available at a price small cities could afford and most departments use "off-the-shelf" software, such as spreadsheets that some enterprising department head built to maintain a budget. These patches are unwieldy and aren't "integrated" with each other. In other words, a fleet management system may track equipment and repair parts costs, but it operates independently from other systems, such as project management.

This requires duplicate systems to be managed separately. Not only does this increase the workload, it also fails to provide the "big picture" in managing operations. It is also prone to data errors because it is a known fact that the more time data is entered and re-entered, the greater the possibility of data error.