City of Baltimore Healthcare and Compensation Practices
Funders: Goldseker Foundation & City of Baltimore
The BEEF report supported the City’s goal to bring its healthcare benefits costs in line with other Maryland jurisdictions. It identified a minimum of $20 million in potential immediate savings and in cost controls that did not impact the quality of benefits offered to employees. The City in partnership with its bargaining units made some fundamental changes in plan design and employee cost to successfully manage its excellent plan of coverage over time.

Baltimore City Council Transition Commission
Funder: City of Baltimore
The Baltimore City Council Transition Commission was created by the City Council in December 2003. BEEF organized and managed the Commission to guide the City Council’s management of its restructuring from six, three-member districts to fourteen, single-member districts. Tion considered Budget and Miscellaneous Matters, Land Use, Open Government, and Ordinance and Administrative Rules. It held public hearings on March 11 and June 8, 2004. All of the Commission’s recommendations were endorsed by a majority of its members, almost all unanimously. The Commission’s work brought about a much smoother transition than had been anticipate.

Procurement Approval Process in Baltimore City Government
Funder: The Abell Foundation
BEEF conducted a comparative analysis of the procurement approval process in Baltimore City, other home rule Maryland counties, and selected cities around the country. The study grew out of the debate around a 2007 proposal to make adjustments in the Baltimore City charter that address efficiency, transparency of city government actions, access and equity (for vendors, particularly minority-owned, women-owned, and small companies), and respective roles of the Mayor and City Council.

The report was the foundation for a BEEF-supported procurement charter amendment that passed in the election referendum on November 2, 2010. The authority to set the threshold of expenditure requiring Board of Estimates approval is no longer specified in the Charter, but is now under City Council jurisdiction.

Procurement Report Appendices are also available for download.

Baltimore City Vehicle Fuel Efficiency Review
Self-funded
The study examines whether Baltimore City was providing fuel for its vehicles and equipment in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible.

The consultants concluded that the in-house fueling of the City’s fleet is more economical that using commercial fueling facilities, but this is only because of the investment the City already has in its existing fueling facilities. The consultants recommended reducing the number of fueling sites from 21 sites and 3 fueling mobiles to five strategically located fueling centers with adequate fuel storage capacity and a sufficient number of dispensing islands open around-the-clock with sufficient fuel supply would met the City’s fueling needs.

Competitive Governance Strategies for Baltimore City: Lessons from Other Cities

Many American cities have sought to reinvent themselves through performance-based government. In this market- and customer-centered approach, competition and innovation - rather than monopoly and bureaucracy - drive the provision of public services.

Various strategies can foster more cost-effective and competitive government. For successful implementation clear goals are essential for: 1) decisions about what services the city should continue to offer its citizens (provided by either public or private parties); 2) evaluating alternative approaches to delivery; and 3) mobilizing the city workforce and the public to become partners in the performance enhancement effort. A focus on customers, whether internal to government in the case of support agencies, or the public for most others, pervades the work of successful cities.

• Underfunded Pensions: Tackling an 'Invisible' Crisis. Knowledge@Wharton. Jan 2015