The partnership among the cities of Avondale, Gilbert, and Yuma in Arizona and Sayula in Jalisco, Mexico, improved Sayula’s ability to address its priority concerns in solid waste, water, public safety, and finance. For example, to improve garbage collection, Sayula conducted a load balance study for three solid waste collection routes. Based on the results of this study, Sayula improved its routes and developed collection routes for recyclable materials. This study was complemented by a survey of homes serviced by the municipality, leading to a reduction in the number of refuse collection days. This translated into significant cost savings for solid waste operations.

Based on recommendations made by the Arizona partners to Sayula’s water department, the municipality cleaned up all pump sites and water storage tank sites and started using operational and maintenance logs for wells. After implementing a program to detect and correct leaks at no cost to the client, the partners found that around 25 percent of homes were having leakage problems. Sayula launched a program to assist its citizens to make the necessary plumbing improvements to repair domestic leaks and thereby curtail financial losses.

In the area of public safety, the partnership encouraged major advances in the community-policing programs already in place in Sayula. Through police training, officers learned how to better deal with citizens. Strategies to involve citizen leaders and community groups increased public safety and improved the rapport between police officers and citizens. The number of gangs was considerably reduced through community-based training and counseling programs for gang members. 

Sayula also implemented recommendations to improve operations of its Finance Department. The municipality developed a flow chart of basic financial procedures to reduce the number of bottlenecks in financial processes while improving financial controls. Assistance was also provided by the U.S. cities to help the municipality define the type of computer systems that would best meet their needs.