From the Editor: Urban Slowdown

It's official. We can now use the word “recession” to describe what all of us already knew was happening.

Among those giving their budgets closer scrutiny this holiday season are the nation’s cities. Declining tax revenue is forcing many of them to eliminate services. Here in Philadelphia, the city plans to close libraries and keep public pools dry next summer as a way to help cope with lost revenue.

As I pondered municipal cutbacks like these, I couldn’t help thinking about the in-plants serving the nation’s cities. Were any of them in danger of being shut down in the name of trimming costs?

To find out, I e-mailed a number of city in-plants, from California to Maine. I was pleased to learn that none of the dozen who responded have been targeted for closure or experienced staff cuts. But most have been asked to review existing budgets and hold off on non-essential spending. Many are not able to fill vacancies or create new positions.

Those that charge back for services said this has helped spare them from some of the cutbacks forced upon other departments—though even they report a drop in revenue as customers curtail printing. At the City of San Francisco’s in-plant, print volumes are down 10 percent. In Cincinnati, Manager Steven L. Howe has noticed customers printing more black-and-white documents to save money.

Municipalities don’t typically feel the real impact of a slowdown for a year or two, several managers informed me. The smart ones, though, are already preparing. In Los Angeles, Director of Publishing Services Michael Leighton notes that, in tough times, in-plants must try even harder to bring outsourced work back in-house. His in-plant recently worked with the Office of Finance to redesign a tax booklet so it could be produced in-house, saving the city $200,000.

Along these lines, many city in-plants plan to do more insourcing to help them get by. Cincinnati’s in-plant, for example, plans to approach smaller communities to help them with their printing needs. Likewise, Virginia Beach’s in-plant intends to insource from local towns and schools.

Some city in-plant managers felt budget cuts in other departments might actually help them, forcing customers to steer more work to the in-plant to save money. Others looked at the work slowdown as an opportunity to take care of long-neglected maintenance and reorganization projects.

Leigh Chalkley, of the City of Costa Mesa, Calif., saw the downturn as a chance to promote the in-plant’s strengths: “We approached this as a challenge,” Chalkley wrote, “and an opportunity to showcase some of our recent accomplishments,” such as online job submission.

Several managers noted that, in tough times, providing excellent service is more important than ever. Richard Showers, in-plant supervisor for the City of Longmont, Colo., summed it up best: “Eliminating the print shop would not benefit this organization. Does that mean we are safe? Never! We must always provide excellent services and continue to grow and meet the ever-changing needs of our environment.”