DALLAS’ MANAGEMENT MASTERPIECE

When Bernard DiFiorc reported for his first day of work at City Hall, he walked into a department that had been riddled with waste, mismanagement and -as could be expected -scandal. Several employees within the equipment-services department had been fired. Charles Anderson, in one of his first acts as city manager, hired DiFiore (who had been the city manager of Ballwin, Missouri) to clean up the department.

DiFiore has been at his new post since January 1982, and already he’s made himself one of the shining stars in city management. He says he spent the first four or five months in his new job “putting out fires” within the department. After that, he rolled up his sleeves and went to work. First, he organized a management team, and together they began to evaluate and rework the budget. As a result of his efforts, a “couple of million” dollars have been saved within the department (DiFiore doesn’t like to brag). The previous year’s $42.5 million budget was trimmed to $38.2 million during Di-Fiore’s first year. Because of departmental reorganization and the decrease in fuel costs, he and his management team only take credit for $1.8 million of the savings. The team is already working on the 1984 fiscal budget, which should increase less than 1 percent; the budgets of other city departments should increase on an average of 15 percent for fiscal 1984.

Examples abound of 33-year-old DiFiore’s management prowess. He recently acquired authority over the city’s communications division and found it had an annual $3-million phone bill. Now he’s looking at several new phone systems for the city. Replacement of mechanical parts for sanitation equipment was skyrocketing before he arrived, and costs for emergency parts were exorbitant. “Efficiency, not expediency” has become his motto. By reorganizing management levels in the service centers and by holding managers responsible for unnecessary costly “emergency” repairs, he has cut costs dramatically.

DiFiore currently is working on a plan to cut fuel costs for the police department by running city gasoline pumps only during business hours. Police cars will be filled at 7-Eleven gas stations during off-hours; the city station had been manned 24 hours a day.