The partnership of the cities of Tempe and Chandler and Pinal County, Arizona with the municipality of Ocotlán, in Jalisco, Mexico led to significant positive results. The partnership focused on Ocotlán’s need for assistance with organizational structure, administrative improvements (including financial management, human resources, and street lighting) and water system activities.
As a result of the partners’ work, Ocotlán established new operational procedures to track and address water leakage problems. This information is invaluable for planning future capital investments. The Arizona partners also provided guidelines so that Ocotlán’s municipal authorities can use the information generated by the municipal financial systems to facilitate decision making. Ocotlán officials recognized the need to overhaul their financial management system to track expenses by department, but the municipality was unable to finalize the implementation of the new system before the partnership officially ended.
Through the partnership, the partners jointly developed goals and basic performance indicators to enhance the public lighting department. Consequently, Ocotlán developed new procedures for maintaining equipment and improving service delivery. The partners created a new work order form and introduced data controls to monitor the department’s performance against goals and indicators. Similarly, the partnership achieved tangible results in the business licensing and economic development department, through the use of public information tools. A new city map that identifies business locations has facilitated licensing inspection procedures. The business community has also used this map as a tool to help businesses identify new and potential opportunities. The municipality of Ocotlán also developed and widely distributed a series of informational brochures on the municipality’s regulations and procedures for the business community.