City celebrates Public Works achievement | St. Lucie County

PORT ST. LUCIE – The City Council and staff here acknowledged the latest re-accreditation of the Public Works Department by the American Public Works Association on June 8, the seventh time the city department has earned the coveted accreditation.

Public Works Director Colt Schwerdt formally made the announcement to the Council that day.

“As you’re aware, we were going through the re-accreditation process with the American Public Works Association,” he said of the lengthy, multi-year analysis. “Out of the practices that APWA oversees, your city Public Works Department participates in 317 or them. Out of these 317 practices, the APWA rigorously reviewed 101 of those. We came out 100 percent in full compliance for accreditation, the first time that I can recall being a Public Works member. So, this marks 25 consecutive years your Department has been accredited. We were the first in the state with this accreditation and eighth in the entire country.”

Schwerdt pointed out that the city’s ongoing maintenance of more than 200 miles of canals, 1,200 miles of swales, 6,700-plus culverts, 195 stormwater control structures and 924 center-line miles of paved roadway formed part of that analysis.

“For those that may not know, center-line is the middle of the right of way when you look at the total number of lanes,” he explained. “We have 1,988 total miles of lanes and 30,000-plus signs. This wouldn’t be accomplished without the help of your Public Works staff and the rest of the departments. When we were going through this accreditation, the APWA national team made a comment how organized we were when asking for additional information from HR [and] Risk Management. They said they’d never seen a team respond as quickly as we had. Also, a big special thanks to [Accreditation Manager] Valerie Delgado for keeping us moving and motivated.”

Schwerdt then joined Assistant Director of Public Works Louis Johnson in holding up the Public Works Department’s initial 2001 accreditation plaque for all the Board and audience to see.

“We update it every time we get accreditation every four years,” he concluded. “Because of this, the national president did want to record a video and I’d like to play that.”

In that video, American Public Works Association National President Vic Bianes introduced himself and provided details of his organization, which currently has a membership of 31,000 public works agencies that represent some 500,000 employees.

“It is a true honor to join you in recognizing an exceptional accomplishment of the City of Port St. Lucie Public Works Department,” he said. “The Public Works Department provides maintenance of roads and bridges, stormwater management, traffic operations and landscaping. Today, we celebrate the successful re-accreditation by the American Public Works Association for a leader in stewardship, a leader in public works. The APWA accreditation program is a rigorous process that recognizes public works agencies that go above and beyond in their operational management and confirms that the city exceeds nationally recognized public works’ best practices. It demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement, high ethical standards and accountability to the public you serve.”

Bianes also described the arduous APWA re-accreditation process, which begins with a self-assessment evaluating and comparing an organization’s policies, procedures and practices with the 110 best practices of the national organization. That is followed by an application and official commitment to the process; improvement and documentation, a peer evaluation and site visit by APWA staff, including verification and cross-referencing of the municipality’s day-to-day operations with the agency’s written policies; and the final review and accreditation process, which includes semi-annual compliance updates afterward.

“I’m proud to report that your Department achieved a 100 percent rating and is in full compliance of all applicable practices,” he continued in the video. “The Department celebrates 25 years of continuous accreditation, a milestone that speaks to a long-standing commitment to excellence. Even more impressive, Port St. Lucie was the first agency in Florida to achieve accreditation, leading others in the state to follow, which is truly outstanding. It communicates to stakeholders, customers and the public that you are nationally recognized and utilize the best practices and standards. This achievement would not have been possible without the hard work and professionalism of your entire project team. You are truly an outstanding public works agency.”

Vice-Mayor Caraballo, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Mayor Shannon Martin, commented afterward.

“You guys are an amazing team,” she said. “None of us are surprised about the accreditation. As far as center-line miles, in comparison to other cities, how unique is it that we pretty much control all of our roads?”

“We are one of the only ones that control all the roads,” Schwerdt replied. “It speaks to how well your staff does and how efficient, lean and mean we are. We have 115 employees for all this infrastructure, the same number of employees that we had in 2008. So, we are doing some data-driven, efficient processes, and I’m just glad to be part of this family here.”

“I appreciate that very much Colt – thank you,” Vice-Mayor Caraballo concluded.

Founded in 1937 and currently headquartered in Kansas City, the American Public Works Association expanded into Canada in 1986 and today collaborates with Public Works organizations as far away as New Zealand. In that country, it has an alliance with Āpōpō, the lead professional association founded in 1948 for Aotearoa, New Zealand’s infrastructure asset management community.