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City Council of moderate-sized western city
Identify and assess future risks that may be faced by the City
While conducting a SWOT analysis as a part of our facilitation of the City’s strategic planning process, the participants identified aging infrastructure as one of the threat issues facing the City. With sewer and water systems dating back to the 1920’s, the City was facing a potentially serious Wild Card event – compromised infrastructure and potential failures in large swaths of the City’s systems. This was due to years of inadequate (and postponed) maintenance due to continuing stress on the City budget with shortfalls resulting from a host of issues, from escalating labor and materials costs to endless unfunded government mandates.
Develop a comprehensive risk management plan for the City. Identify plausible immediate, near-term, and long-term risk exposure, assess each of the identified plausible risks in terms of timing, specific impact, severity, potential for elimination or mitigation, and cost to manage. Include strategies and supporting tactical actions for eliminating or mitigating each identified plausible risk.
Step One – Identify the City’s plausible, immediate, near-term, and long-term risk exposure including a risk audit of each department/function of City government, interviews with key City staff and other stakeholders such as citizens and vendors, and research with comparably-sized cities that have identified plausible risk within a formal process. A few examples of potential risks:
Step Two – Assess each of the identified plausible risks in terms of their timing, specific impact, severity, potential for elimination or mitigation, and cost to manage.
Step Three – Prioritize all risks in terms of likelihood of occurrence, timing, cost (human, strategic, and financial), and severity and scope of impact. Risks with the highest collective weighted average across all prioritized components are addressed first, although all identified risks receive staff attention, as decided by the City Manager and the Council.
Step Four – Develop a formal Risk Management Plan that includes strategies and supporting tactical actions for eliminating/mitigating each identified risk, and steps for progress review/evaluation/corrective action on a monthly basis.
The Plan is reviewed weekly by the City Manager and key City staff and is a monthly agenda item for City Council review. The Plan is a key resource when the City Budget Committee crafts the budget each year. All identified risks are receiving ongoing attention from City staff, all are mitigated to the Council’s satisfaction, and none have risen to what they define as “Oh-Oh” status.
