Ep. 2 — The Local Edge Podcast — 12.3.25: Streamlining Local Government Operations - Reclaim 20% Staff Time (3 Steps + Free Tool)
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Transcript
Introduction
Hey everybody, welcome to The Local Edge, a practical resource for local public sector leaders. I'm Mark Grabow, your host with Local Efficiency Solutions, LLC. And in every episode, we bring you one proven tool, framework, or lesson from a real-world case study you can use to optimize your organization.
Today, we’re welcoming in December with Episode Two: Streamlining Local Government Operations in 2026—Three Actionable Steps. With federal funding changes and AI changes on the horizon, we just can't afford inefficiencies, so stick around. By the end, you'll have yourself a playbook to reclaim hours in your week.
All right. So let's dive into this week's episode. Get you The Edge.
Step 1: Audit Your Low-Hanging Fruit
We find 80% of waste hiding in plain sight. Picture this: a large size city I was working with. They were burning, in one department alone, $20,000 a year on superfluous processes - and they didn't even know because they weren't mapping it. No one had tried to map them.
How to Do It:
Start simple. Block a couple hours a week for a process walk-through. Grab your team, or just grab a notepad and do it yourself. List every single recurring task that you've got and ask yourself: Is it automated? Is it outsourced? Or is this some task from 2019—some zombie process?
Use a tool like our free Google Sheets template (available below!) to help map it for you. For projects I've done, this alone can save 15 to 20% in operations time.
Pro Tip: Focus on Procurement First
That's where bottlenecks lurk. In that city I mentioned, we were able to slash processing time from two weeks to four business days by documenting and streamlining this one business activity in this one department. Boom, instant ROI!
[Screen Demo Transcript: Low-Hanging Fruit Audit Tool]
All right, so here we are going over this tool I created for Step 1 in your quick operations efficiency audits. This is on Google Sheets. You can find this on my website. This is just a quick and dirty, low-hanging fruit audit that you can do where I've got some formulas already built in.
Column A: Section. Look at areas like Technology, Data, Vendors, and Processes.
Column B: Task/Process. List the items correlating to Column A (e.g., Duplicate software licenses, Manual data entry, or Zombie processes).
Column C: Effort (1–5). Score the effort needed to fix it (5 being super easy).
Column D: Impact (1–5). Score the potential impact (5 being huge savings).
Column F: Priority Score. This column has a built-in formula that multiplies Effort (C) x Impact (D). This gives you a clear priority score (e.g., 5 x 5 = 25).
The highest priority score is the low-hanging fruit you can tackle today.
Step 2: Leverage Data Without Overkill
We want Smart Insights, not Big Brother, with your staff members. Public sector data is gold, but most teams are drowning in spreadsheets or they just don't track their data properly. So, how do you get yourself ahead without using fancy consultants for it?
How to Do It:
Use your built-in tools you've already paid for. Pull reports from your ERP system, or even use Excel to get pivot tables on one KPI that you can track each month. Take that one KPI per one department and track it. At Local Efficiency, we call this Light Analytics. You don't have to have your PhD, you don't need to be an expert, you just stay consistent in your checks.
Example: Resource Management
I was doing a job at a nonprofit, and they had loads of data, they just didn't use it. They operated continually from a place of reactive versus proactive. I created a dashboard to visually display data on supplies and budget, and it allowed real-time resource management by leveraging data they already had but didn't use. The result? They saved thousands annually in resources now accurately captured. I even got to present my tool at their Los Angeles National Headquarters. It was a win-win.
Step 3: Foster Cross-Department Wins
Silos are a silent killer. Local government thrives on collaboration, but turf wars eat productivity. With hybrid teams here to stay, 2026 demands a seamless handoff.
How to Do It:
Implement efficiency huddles—15-minute, weekly stand-ups across departments, rotating leads. Focus on one shared goal, like negotiations for vendors. Track your wins in a shared document. This will build momentum. I've seen this boost inter-department project success firsthand, drastically. No budget change needed, just buy-in.
Example: Scalable Magic
I was working on the City of Portland's Consolidation Inquiry, their first cross-bureau efficiency improvement effort that they'd ever done. The Parks Department had an app that they built for permits and processing, and the Water Department needed some help. Instead of the Water Department using their own siloed resources to create their own payment and permit processing app, they collaborated with the Parks Department to be able to use their app. Created a huge savings and a collaboration between the departments that didn't exist before. Scalable magic!
Conclusion & Next Steps
So there you have it: the 2026 ops efficiency starter pack with three steps you can do tomorrow to start increasing efficiency on your team.
To recap:
Audit ruthlessly.
Employ data-light decisions.
Start silo-busting tomorrow.
Implement one of these this week and watch the efficiencies compound.
If you liked today's episode and you want more information, head to LocalEfficiency.com for a copy of the notes as well as a copy of the Low-Hanging Fruit Audit Tool that we discussed.
Got a local government headache? Shoot me an email, Mark@LocalEfficiency.com, or book a free audit. I've got the link here in the description.
Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Local Edge. If you found this helpful, please feel free to drop a comment, a like, forward it, share it with another colleague who's doing efficiency at the local level. Until next time, go forth and do good things.
