HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 16 17 Email from Larry Cooper_RedactedEmail from Larry Cooper
July 24, 2017
To the Ad hoc City Hall Committee:
Dear Committee Members:
Thank you for the opportunity to share this. I am very concerned that the study that future city staff
space needs is based on is flawed when it comes to projecting future space needs for city staff based on
staff population. The model that was used to project "workstation" space needs, etc, was apparently based
on what most of us in the room have experienced in our work places: one desk/cubicle per worker plus
some additional "floating" workstations for serving customers. This model is becoming obsolete as I write
this. In more cutting edge work places today, workers are not tied to specific office spaces. They have
their office with them on a phone, tablet or very lightweight and portable laptop. They often or sometimes
always work from wherever in the world they currently reside. The central corporate or government office
is primarily a virtual space that is cloud based and includes all the data, emails, apps, etc that workers
need to complete their tasks and communicate with co-workers and customers. Weekly staff meetings
happen on line with full video conferencing amenities so that workers do not have to travel and work
spaces do not need large conference rooms in order for collaboration to occur. This is all happening right
now. It is a trend that will, in the next 5-10 years, become the norm in corporate, professional, and yes,
small government organizations. Ashland has been a bit slow to adopt telecommuting and definitely slow
to embrace this future, but it is coming and will be here before any new building is completed. The point
of all this is to point out that the study for future work space is dictating the need for more space than is
unfolding in current reality: fewer workers work onsite and they don't drive cars to work as often mass
transit or not! Please ask staff about these discrepancies between the study and what is clearly indicated
by present work trends as they move into the near future. Ashland needs a City Hall and staff facilities
that fit future changes. I'm old enough to remember when the City funded and built a sewage treatment
plant based on a similarly flawed analysis that sent the City on the path of building a plant designed for
"present" conditions that turned into an opposite future. We ended up with an overbuilt, expensive
solution that smelled bad for years and we're still feeling financial pain from. Please don't let a similar
thing happen with our current space needs.
Submitted by Larry Cooper,
P.S. I worked for 10 years as an information technology manager in the late 90's and 2000's and learned
many lessons about how quickly change comes upon the work place.
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