The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) has hired Veolia Water North America to provide interim executive management services, leading 270 public employees in the delivery of efficient water and wastewater services to more than 300,000 people in the greater Pittsburgh area.
A team of water and wastewater experts from Veolia will help PWSA improve the utility’s customer service and performance levels by conducting in-depth diagnostics of current operations, developing specific recommendations for improvement and supporting PWSA employees in implementing initiatives aimed at reaching new performance metrics.
“Our selection of Veolia Water is aimed at taking PWSA to the next level of utility service,” said Dan Deasy, PWSA Chair. “We will work in a highly collaborative way to make PWSA the regional leader for excellent, cost-effective services and we’ll do so in a manner that ensures a dedicated public workforce that is always striving toward continual improvements that benefit the customers who rely on us every day. Our agreement is unique in that via a peer-to-peer relationship it leverages Veolia’s worldwide knowledge of utility best practices with that of local public sector knowledge of the Pittsburgh system. The agreement also includes performance-based incentives that will reward Veolia for achieving exceptional results.”
The PWSA board of directors unanimously selected Veolia Water North America based on a proposal that delivers an innovative approach to managing the system, provides measurable results to customers and demonstrates an ability to quickly and easily collaborate with existing employees.
Veolia Water executive Jim Good will lead the effort as PWSA’s interim executive director, supported by PWSA managers and employees, along with Veolia Water specialists in water and wastewater technologies and system management. Good previously led Veolia Water’s western U.S. operations, which stretch from Texas to Hawaii. The Veolia team will work in a collaborative fashion with PWSA employees and be accountable to PWSA’s board of directors. Veolia Water will apply best practices developed through its management of more than 8,500 water and wastewater facilities and systems around the world. With a record of industry-leading safety statistics, the company also hopes to enhance PWSA worker safety.
“We look forward to demonstrating how the strong commitment, excellent skills and institutional knowledge of Pittsburgh’s public employees can be perfectly blended with our own experts to ensure exceptional service to Pittsburgh residents,” said Laurent Auguste, president and CEO, Veolia Water Americas. ”Our goal is to deliver a portfolio of best practices through our Peer Performance Solutions partnership model, that will include lessons learned from communities like New York City, Tampa Bay Water and Winnipeg, Manitoba.”
Veolia Water’s Peer Performance Solution enables municipal water utilities to benchmark against other leading utilities while preserving public governance and a public workforce that benefits from specialized private-sector expertise.
During this time, PWSA and Veolia will work together to implement agreed upon initiatives to improve service, measured through Key Performance Indicators, as well as items that will provide services more efficiently or enhance revenues.
Source: Veolia
