...better? I’m always going to be asking our contractors the same questions I ask our managers, which is: “Are we on budget, are we on time, if not, why not?” I want to help them get paid for the work they’re doing and make sure they’re getting clear direction on the project because, ultimately, we have to deliver these projects together.

We are going into a new 10 year program that will be finalized in January 2011. It’s kind of a fluid, living document. We’re always working on it and updating it.

NYC: So what were the problems? What was the DEP like as an owner five, 10 years ago as opposed to today?

CH: I don’t think there was really anything unique about what the contractors were asking for from the DEP. Some audiences I’ve talked to from the construction industry said that change orders take a long time in our budgeting process. Change orders going into a project are challenging and getting them turned over is a challenge, as well. Now, the city has a very strong contract that is very protective of the city – which is great for the city and its residents – but it can mean that when there are delays, contractors can get held up. I think the administration has been good at looking at how to change that. I think there is general recognition that DEP had excellent designers and engineers and there’s good expertise at the agency. So I haven’t heard a lot of complaints about the department’s ability to design a project, build it and get it done. Most of what I heard was, “I don’t want to work with DEP because it takes forever to get paid, I can’t get a change order turned around.” We want to stop that. That prevents a lot of contractors from coming to us. Or at least it has in the past.

JM: I also think we were a lot more fragmented before. We’ve changed our model to more of a life-cycle approach where moving down into the organization we’ve created positions that are responsible for planning, design and construction instead of having silos where each team would work on one thing independently then throw it over the wall. On the design side we created a project delivery manual which outlines scope, cost, schedule, management, risk management, community outreach … just a way to put it all on paper and say, “This is how we do it.” It’s this dynamic of lengthy projects versus new projects. We’re transitioning from an old way of doing things into a new way of doing things and you see that manifest itself in some of the mature projects already out there and then on the new projects as they move out those things will become even more embodied. Next year we’ll be better than we are now, the year after that, even better. It’s a continuous improvement evolution.

MALLON

DALY

BORSYKOWSKY

MUELLER

MB: One of the things we’re trying to do is work more consistently to develop standard operating procedures and train up our staff and our consultants to develop more standardization and have more predictability in terms of what our contractors’ expectations should be when they work for us. We’ve had some problems in the past with processing change orders and we’ve working very hard to try to identify them as quickly as possible and to process them as quickly as possible. We’re trying to reach out to our contractors even more than we have in the past and be more proactive in letting every member of the team know that they can be a player, they can have an impact on the job. Some of these contracts can be very complicated – it doesn’t just have to be a megaproject. When we do see issues that have potential to cause delays or costs, we’re trying to push as hard as we can to get passed those.

BD: We had a great example of that at Croton where we had a tunnel contractor on a job we’d bid out as drill and blast and they came back after the bid and offered to do it using a tunnel boring machine. So we ended up spending a couple of months reviewing their proposal and eventually agreeing to use the TBM. And it was finished quicker and we ended up getting a $4 million credit with that contractor. We’re going to finish that contract six months ahead of schedule because we were willing to listen to the contractor. So it was a win-win.

NYC: So, Commissioner, as the new leader of this department is it fair to say you were brought in here to be a kind of change agent?

CH: I think that the mayor is always looking for his commissioners to be change agents. If you’re brought in as the leader of an agency I think there’s an expectation that you’re going to bring a skill set, expertise and a vision that’s going to be aligned with what the mayor wants to get done. But that’s not to say that the agency in question is doing a bad job. The mayor isn’t paying us to just make sure that things are moving along at the status quo.