Drone updates: Changes and new legislation challenge government agencies

The BerryDunn Recovery Advisory Team has compiled this guide to COVID-19 consulting resources for state and local government agencies and higher education institutions.

We have provided a list of our consulting services related to data analysis, CARES Act funding and procurement, and legislation and policy implementation. Many of these services can be procured via the NASPO ValuePoint Procurement Acquisition Support Services contract.

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If you have any questions, please contact us at info@berrydunn.com

Read this if your organization, business, or institution has leases and you’ve been eagerly awaiting and planning for the implementation of the new lease standards.

Ready? Set? Not yet. As we have prepared for and experienced delays related to Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification Topic 842, Leases, we thought the time had finally come for implementation. With the challenges that COVID-19 has brought to everyone, the FASB recognizes the significant impact COVID-19 has brought to commercial businesses and not-for-profits and is proposing a one-year delay in implementation, as described in this article posted to the Journal of Accountancy: FASB effective date delay proposals to include private company lease accounting.

But what about lease concessions? We all recognize many lessors are making concessions due to the pandemic. Under current guidance in Topics 840 and 842, changes to lease contracts that were not included in the original lease are generally accounted for as lease modifications and, therefore, a separate contract. This would require remeasurement of the new lease contract and related right-of-use asset. FASB recognized this issue and has published a FASB Staff Questions and Answers (Q&A) Document,  Topic 842 and Topic 840: Accounting for Lease Concessions Related to the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Under this new guidance, if lease concessions are made relating to COVID-19, entities do not need to analyze each contract to determine if a new contract has been entered into, and will have the option to apply, or not to apply, the lease modification provisions of Topics 840 and 842.

Implementation of the lease accounting standard will most likely be delayed for Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) entities as well. On April 15, 2020, the GASB issued an exposure draft that would delay most GASB statements and implementation guides due to be implemented for fiscal years 2019 and later. Most notably, this includes Statement 84, Fiduciary Activities, and Statement 87, Leases. Comments on the proposal will be accepted through April 30, and the board plans to consider a final statement for issuance on May 8. More information may be found in this article from the Journal of Accountancy: GASB proposes postponing effective dates due to pandemic.

More information

Whether you are a FASB or GASB entity, you can expect a delay in the implementation of the lease standard. If you have questions, please contact a member of our financial statement audit team. For other COVID-19 related resources, please refer to BerryDunn’s COVID-19 Resources Page.

Read this if you are a police executive, city/county administrator, or elected government official, responsible for a law enforcement agency. 

“We need more cops!”  

Do your patrol officers complain about being short-staffed or too busy, or that they are constantly running from call to call? Does your agency struggle with backed-up calls for service (CFS) or lengthy response times? Do patrol staff regularly find themselves responding to another patrol area to handle a CFS because the assigned officer is busy on another call? Are patrol officers denied leave time or training opportunities because of staffing issues? Does the agency routinely use overtime to cover predictable shift vacancies for vacations, holidays, or training? 

If one or more of these concerns sound familiar, you may need additional patrol resources, as staffing levels are often a key factor in personnel deployment challenges. Flaws in the patrol schedule design may also be responsible, as they commonly contribute to reduced efficiency and optimal performance, and design issues may be partially responsible for some of these challenges, regardless of authorized staffing levels.
 
With community expectations at an all-time high, and resource allocations remaining relatively flat, many agencies have growing concerns about managing increasing service volumes while controlling quality and building/maintaining public trust and confidence. Amid these concerns, agencies struggle with designing work schedules that efficiently and optimally deploy available patrol resources, as patrol staff become increasingly frustrated at what they consider a lack of staff.

The path to resolving inefficiencies in your patrol work schedule and optimizing the effective deployment of patrol personnel requires thoughtful consideration of several overarching goals:

• Reducing or eliminating predictable overtime
• Eliminating peaks and valleys in staffing due to scheduled leave
• Ensuring appropriate staffing levels in all patrol zones or beats
• Providing sufficient staff to manage multiple and priority CFS in patrol zones or beats
• Satisfying both operational and staff needs, including helping to ensure a proper work/life balance and equitable workloads for patrol staff

Scheduling alternatives

One common design issue that presents an ongoing challenge for agencies is the continued use of traditional, balanced work schedules, which spread officer work hours equally over the year. Balanced schedules rely on over-scheduling and overtime to manage personnel allocation and leave needs and, by design, are very rigid. Balanced work schedules have been used for a very long time, not because they’re most efficient, but because they’re common, familiar, and easily understood―and because patrol staff are comfortable with them (and typically reluctant to change). However, short schedules offer a proven alternative to balanced patrol work schedules, and when presented with the benefits of an alternative work schedule design (e.g., increased access to back-up, ease of receiving time off or training, consistency in staffing, less mandatory overtime), many patrol staff are eager to change.

Short schedules

Short schedules involve a more contemporary design that includes a flexible approach that focuses on a more adaptive process of allocating personnel where and when they are needed. They are significantly more efficient than balanced schedules and, when functioning properly, they can dramatically improve personnel deployments, bring continuity to daily staffing, and reduce overtime, among other operational benefits. Given the current climate, most agencies are unlikely to receive substantial increases in personnel allocations. If that is true of your agency, it may be time to explore the benefits of alternative patrol work schedules.

A tool you can use

Finding scheduling strategies that work in this climate requires an intentional approach, customized to your agency’s characteristics (e.g., staffing levels, geographic factors, crime rates, zone/beat design, contract/labor rules). To help guide you through this process, BerryDunn has developed a free tool for evaluating patrol schedules. Click here to measure your patrol schedule against key design components and considerations.

If you are curious about alternative patrol work schedules, our dedicated justice and public Safety consultants are available to discuss your organization’s needs.

Law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, and corrections personnel provide many complex, seemingly limitless services. Seemingly is the key word here, for in reality these personnel provide a set number of incredibly important services.

Therefore, it should surprise no one that justice and public safety (J&PS) IT departments should also provide a well-defined set of services. However, these departments are often viewed as parking lots for all technical problems. The disconnect between IT and other J&PS business units often stems from differences in organizational culture and structure, and differing department objectives and goals. As a result, J&PS organizations often experience misperception between business units and IT. The solution to this disconnect and misperception? Defining IT department services.

The benefits of defined IT services

1. Increased business customer satisfaction. Once IT services align with customer needs, and expectations are established (e.g., service costs and service level agreements), customers can expect to receive the services they agreed to, and the IT department can align staff and skill levels to successfully meet those needs.
2. Improved IT personnel morale. With clear definition of the services they provide to their customers, including clearly defined processes for customers to request those services, IT personnel will no longer be subject to “rogue” questions or requests, and customers won’t be inclined to circumvent the process. This decreases IT staff stress and enables them to focus on their roles in providing the defined services. 
3. Better alignment of IT services to organizational needs. Through collaboration between the business and IT organizations, the business is able to clearly articulate the IT services that are, and aren’t, required. IT can help define realistic service levels and associated services costs, and can align IT staff and skills to the agreed-upon services. This results in increased IT effectiveness and reduced confusion regarding what services the business can expect from IT.
4. More collaboration between IT and the organization. The collaboration between the IT and business units in defining services results in an enhanced relationship between these organizations, increasing trust and clarifying expectations. This collaborative model continues as the services required by the business evolve, and IT evolves to support them.
5. Reduced costs. J&PS organizations that fail to strategically align IT and business strategy face increasing financial costs, as the organization is unable to invest IT dollars wisely. When a business doesn’t see IT as an enabler of business strategy, IT is no longer the provider of choice—and ultimately risks IT services being outsourced to a third-party vendor.

Next steps
Once a J&PS IT department defines its services to support business needs, it then can align the IT staffing model (i.e., numbers of staff, skill sets, roles and responsibilities), and continue to collaborate with the business to identify evolving services, as well as remove services that are no longer relevant. Contact us for help with this next step and other IT strategies and tactics for justice and public safety organizations.

Your government agency just signed the contract to purchase and implement a shiny new commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software to replace your aging legacy software. The project plan and schedule are set; the vendor is ready to begin configuration and customization tasks; and your team is eager to start the implementation process.

You are, in a word, optimistic. But here comes the next phase of the project—the gap analysis, in which your project team and the vendor’s project team test the new software to see how well it fulfills your requirements. Spending sufficient time and energy on the gap analysis increases the likelihood the resulting software is configured to support the desired workflows and processes of the agency, while taking advantage of the software’s features and benefits. Yet this phase can be stressful because it will identify some gaps between what you want and what the software can provide.

While some of the gaps may be resolved by simple adjustments to software configuration, others may not—and can result in major issues impacting project scope, schedule, and/or cost. How do you resolve these major gaps?

Multiple Methods. Don’t let your optimism die on the vine. There are, in fact, multiple ways to address major gaps to keep you on schedule and on budget. They include:

Documenting a change request through a formal change control process. This will likely result in the vendor documenting the results of the new project scope. This, in turn, may impact the project’s schedule and cost. It promotes best practice by formally documenting approved changes to project scope, including any impact on schedule and cost. However, the change request process may take longer than you may originally anticipate, as it includes:

Collaborating with the vendor on a solution that fits within the confines of the selected software. With no actual customization required, this may result in a functionality compromise, and may also involve compromise by the project team and the vendor. However, it does not require a formal process to document and approve a change in scope, schedule or cost, since there are no impacts on these triple constraints.

Collaborating with the vendor and internal project stakeholders to redefine business processes. This may or may not result in a change request. It also promotes best practice, as the business processes become more efficient, and are supported by the selected software product without customization. This will require a focus on organizational change management, since the resulting processes are not reflective of the “way things are done today.”

Accepting the gap—and doing nothing. If the gap has little or no impact on business process efficiency or effectiveness, this method is likely the least impactful on the project, as there are no changes to scope, schedule, or cost. However, the concept of “doing nothing” to address the gap may have the same organizational change ramifications as the previous point.

Of course, there are other methods for addressing major software gaps. The BerryDunn team brings experience in facilitating discussions with agencies and their vendors to discuss gaps, their root causes, and possible solutions. We leverage a combination of project management discipline, organizational change management qualifications, and deep expertise to help clients increase the success likelihood for COTS software implementations—while maintaining their vital relationships with vendors.

People are naturally resistant to change. Employees facing organizational change that will impact day-to-day operations are no exception, and they can feel threatened or fearful of what that change will bring. Even more challenging are multiyear initiatives where the project’s completion is years away.

How can your agency or organization help employees prepare for change—and stay motivated for an outcome—many years in the making?

Start With the Individual

Organizational change requires individual change. For the change to be successful and lasting, an agency should apply organizational change management strategies that help lead people to your desired outcome.

With any new project or initiative, people need to understand why the project is happening before they support it. Communicate the reasons for the change—and the benefit to the employee (what’s in it for them)—so each individual is more inclined to actively support the project. Clearly communicating the why at the onset of the project can help employees feel vested in, and part of, the change. As Socrates said, “The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but building the new.” A clear vision can inspire each employee’s desire for the “new” to succeed.

Shift to Individual Goals

It’s a challenge to maintain your employees’ motivation for an organizational change occurring over the long haul. Below are some suggestions on how to sustain interest and enthusiasm for multi-year projects:

1. Break the project down into smaller, specific milestones. Short-term goals highlight important deadlines and create tangible progress points to reach and celebrate. The master project schedule should be an integration of the organizational change management plan and the project management plan so any resource constraints you identify in the project management plan also become an input when identifying change management resources and activity levels. This integration also highlights the importance of key organizational change management milestones and activities in an effort to ensure they are on a parallel tack as traditional project tasks.
2. Effectively communicate status updates and successes. In large, agency-wide projects, there are often a variety of stakeholders, each with different communication expectations and needs. The methods, content, and frequency of communication will vary accordingly. Develop a communications strategy as part of your organizational change management plan, to identify who will be responsible to send communications, when and how they will be sent, key messages of the communications, and what feedback mechanisms are in place to continue the conversation after initial delivery. For example, the project team needs a different level of detail than the legislature, or the public. Making the content relevant to each stakeholder group is important because it gives each group what they need to know so they don’t drown in a flood of unneeded information.
3. Create buy-in by involving employees. A feeling of ownership naturally results from participation in a project, which helps increase enthusiasm. Often the time to do this is when discussing changes to business processes. Once you determine the mandatory features of the future state, (e.g., financial controls, legal requirements, legislative mandates) consider including stakeholder feedback on decisions more focused on preference. It is important for stakeholders to see their suggestions accepted and implemented, or if not implemented, that there was at least a structured process for thoughtfully considering their feedback, and a business case for why their suggestions didn’t make it into the project.
4. Conduct lessons learned assessments after each major milestone. The purpose of conducting lessons learned activities is to capture what worked and what didn’t. Using surveys or other feedback systems, such as debrief meetings, allows stakeholders to voice their thoughts or concerns. By soliciting feedback after each milestone, leadership can quickly adapt to challenges, address any misunderstandings or concerns, and capitalize on successes.
5. Reinforce how the project meets the goals of the agency or organization. Maintaining enthusiasm and support for a long-term goal takes a constant reminder of the overall organizational goals. It is important for senior leadership to communicate the impact of the project on the agency or organization and to stakeholders and keep the project at the forefront of people’s minds. Project goals may change during the duration of the project, but the project sponsor should continue to be active and visible in communicating the goals and leading the project.

Change is difficult—change that is years in the making is even more challenging. Applying a structured organizational change management process and using these tips can help keep employees energized and help ensure you reach the desired project goals.

Private-sector pundits love to drone on about drones! Also known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), drones are dramatically altering processes and increasing opportunities in the for-profit world. There is no doubt that these changes and resulting benefits are helping to increase drone usage; in March 2017, technology news website Recode reported that since December 2015 almost 800,000 drones had been registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Yet private businesses don’t operate all 800,000. Various government organizations have seen the value of UASs—especially local government agencies—and are using them. Public safety departments are using UASs to reduce risk and increase situational awareness during hostage negotiations, SWAT operations, search and rescue, firefighting, accident investigations, hazardous material situations, and disaster surveillance. Many use drones to quickly (and inexpensively) document projects, survey land, and create maps. As officials in places such as Appleton, Wisconsin know, the possibilities of drone usage by local governments are endless.

Still, drone technology remains relatively new, and navigating the regulatory environment can be difficult. As a result, establishing a local government UAS program is time-consuming and full of obstacles. Local officials have many questions, including:

• How can we establish drone programs that meet regulatory requirements?

• How do we inform and educate constituents about drone programs?

• What is the typical budget for a local government drone program?

• How can we determine if we can operate as civil users under FAA Part 107, or as public aircraft operators?

• What are general best practices for local government drone use?

Daunting, certainly, but help is here. We have assisted local governments for over two decades, and have developed a comprehensive drone program that we can tailor to meet individual agency needs. We can assist in establishing requirements, develop a concept of operations, write policy, conduct FAA filings, and, if desired, provide training for public aircraft operators.

A further benefit to local governments: BerryDunn is not affiliated with any drone manufacturer, and does not sell hardware or software. Our independence allows us to conduct a truly objective analysis and provide drone program recommendations that are in your best interest.

As more state and local government workers enter retirement, state and local agencies are becoming more dependent on millennial workers — the largest and most educated generation of workers in American history. But there is a serious gap between supply and demand.

As noted in a 2016 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics titled 
Household Data Annual Averages 15, only 25.6% of current
government workers are between the ages of 18 and 35.

This trend isn’t necessarily shocking; many millennials choose higher-paying jobs in the private sector over lower-paying jobs in the public sector, especially when the days of a lifelong government career, and generous pensions, are dwindling. But it is a serious labor problem for government agencies — one that requires creative solutions. To entice these new workers, state and local governments need to adopt new recruiting and retaining methods.

Recruiting Methods

While money matters to millennials, they also want to live a life of adventure, try new things, embrace trailblazing technology, pursue meaningful goals, and gain a sense of both personal and civic accomplishment. In short, these new workers have values that differ from previous generations. You can help entice them by:

• Highlighting your state and local agency’s mission and greater purpose. Many millennials want to affect change and find careers consistent with their values. Include information in your job descriptions about the positive environmental and social impact your agency makes.

• Updating your technology. Millennials have grown up with technology (literally at their fingertips), can adapt to change as no other generation before them, and often strive to remain on the “cutting edge.” By updating your agency’s technology, you will not only improve your organization and benefit the public you serve, but also have a better chance of recruiting the best and brightest millennials.

• Providing them with a work-life balance. Life outside of work is just as important to millennials as their careers. They don’t plan to wait for retirement to finally pursue their interests, so providing them with a level of flexibility is key to recruitment. Consider offering flexible workdays, remote working capabilities, extended parental leave, sabbatical opportunities, and “mental health days.” The more flexibility state and local agencies provide, the more incentive there is for millennials.

Retaining Methods

Recruiting millennials for government jobs is challenging enough, and retaining them can prove even harder, as job hopping is standard practice for many members of this generation. Nevertheless, there are certain methods your agency can adopt to prevent millennial turnover. We suggest:

• Investing in employee development and training. Training and creating opportunities for promotion and career advancement are motivating incentives to millennials. Professional development excites millennials and investing in them will pay off for the agency — and the employees will be more engaged and likely to stay.

• Showing employees they are valued. Recognition is the biggest motivator besides money — millennials want acknowledgement for the good work that they do. Communicate achievements and provide awards to recipients in front of their peers. This not only gives them credit, but also motivates others. Continuing to communicate to your employees how their work supports their values reminds them they made the right decision in joining the public sector in the first place.

Make Your Move

Millennials are worthy of your attention! To compete with the private sector — to recruit and retain them — your government agency has to take an innovative approach to capitalize on this ever-growing demographic. If your state or local agency needs help refreshing your technology, reviewing current policies and procedures, or taking a fresh look at your processes, contact BerryDunn. We would love to talk about your commitment to your future!

You may also be interested in: CFOs for Hire; How to Attract and Retain Workers in a Seller's Market

Electronic accessibility in every aspect of modern life has increased ten-fold, but government — and courts in particular — has been slow to follow.

History Lesson
The idea that criminal court proceedings are accessible by the public is a pillar of our justice system, rooted in the First Amendment. This public right to unrestricted access in criminal and civil court proceedings has been interpreted by many states to extend to court documents and court records (as long as not otherwise protected).

Traditionally, public access to court proceedings and records has been limited to those taking place in the courthouse, between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. In most every other aspect of our lives, we have 24/7 access to everything from live streaming of our home security systems, to ordering our groceries or dinner from our mobile devices — while traveling at 30,000 feet! Government — and courts in particular — has been slow to follow in the rush to 24/7 electronic accessibility.

Part of the rationale behind the hesitation to jump on the electronic bandwagon, are the ethical issues surrounding unlimited electronic public access. So while the First Amendment provides for public access to information, conversely the Fourteenth Amendment interprets the definition of “liberty” to include a right to privacy. Deciding between these two semmingly contradictory rights becomes a challenge for courts when determining what form of electronic access is appropriate for court documents.

The pros
Unlimited electronic access to publicly available documents:

• Serve a variety of public interests while eliminating the need to travel to the courthouse to research and copy documents.
• Acts both as a deterrent to violating laws and as protection to those whose rights have been violated.
• Tends to instill fairness, transparency, and equality of court proceedings.
• Protects the community and allows the media to report on matters of public interest in a more convenient, timely, and streamlined manner.

The cons
While there are compelling reasons to provide electronic public access, they don’t take into account the potential for it to be used inappropriately. Risks include:

• Increased chance of identity theft, leading to loss of property, finances, and credit
• Exposure to sensitive information that may be harmful to all those involved
• Negative impact on privacy
• Deter public interest lawsuits for fear of overexposure
• Mistakes or abuse of legal process can have far-reaching implications on individuals

What can states do?
Allowing unlimited remote electronic access to court documents could compromise the privacy rights and concerns of individuals and increase the risk of harm to those participating in court proceedings. This issue demands the full attention of the courts nationwide, but not with an “all-or-nothing” approach.

Many states struggle with striking this balance. To mitigate some of the potentially damning effects, states have taken different approaches. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has brought attention to the issues on several occasions. In 2002, the NCSC and the State Justice Institute funded the project, “Developing a Model Written Policy Governing Access to Court Records” and more recently the NCSC has published the “Privacy/Public Access to Court Records Resource Guide”.

Some states have redacted confidential information from electronic documents and some have limited what information or categories are available on the internet, only posting some combination of the following:

• Appellate decisions
• Final judgments, orders, and decrees
• Basic information of the litigant or party to the case
• Calendars and case docket lists

Our recommendation
States must agree upon the amount of access they will provide electronically. To tackle this, each state should:

• Consider forming an access committee(s) to determine what guidelines are needed to balance the free access rights of the public with the privacy rights of individuals
• Policy decisions should be publicly posted to the judiciary, legislators, and the public at large; and
• Should be regularly revisited to ensure an appropriate balance is continually achieved

Interested in learning how your state can address this or similar issues? Reach out to BerryDunn's justice and public safety experts and we can discuss the particular issue facing your state and the best practices for approaching it.