Chicago’s Public/Private Powerhouse

By Heidi Reijm

When President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in early 2009, then-Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago knew he needed to think differently about how best to obtain and effectively use ARRA funds to help mitigate the local impacts of the recession. So he turned to Civic Consulting Alliance, a Chicago-based nonprofit public/private partnership, to help structure the application for funds and the implementation of ARRA-backed programs.

Civic Consulting Alliance is a 25-year-old partnership between Chicago’s public and private sectors, started and funded by the city’s corporate and business leaders. It works closely with city agencies to define their long-term strategic needs, then recruits practitioners from the business sector to provide pro bono expertise and assistance to address those needs in ways that make permanent improvements to local government functions and service. While many other cities have business associations that advise public sector leaders, Civic Consulting Alliance is different in that it works directly with public officials and agency staff to implement concrete changes in the way the city does business, at no cost to taxpayers.

To position Chicago to receive ARRA funds, Civic Consulting worked with 25 city agencies, more than 50 foundations and numerous local universities and nonprofit organizations, known collectively as the Recovery Partnership. The partnership secured almost $2 billion, and through it the city received pro bono assistance from leading corporations, firms and universities, including Mayer Brown, the Boeing Corporation and the University of Chicago. Besides creating or saving 9,000 jobs (according to Chicago Recovery Partnership’s website), the partnership’s efforts have to date facilitated the investment of $1.4 billion in recovery efforts citywide. The pro bono teams helped the city devise a permanent, improved process for agencies to execute contracts, focused on a greater reliance on digital documentation and streamlined the approval chain, which cut the time from contract application to dispersal in half.

Civic Consulting Alliance has worked with the city in other areas. For example, the firm helped the Chicago Police Department reorganize its administrative functions, resulting in 150 officers’ reassignment from administrative to neighborhood operations. The group also worked with the chancellor of the Chicago Public Schools to redesign public vocational education, leading to a plan to open 35 new College and Career Academies by 2016. Besides public safety and education, Civic Consulting is also active in areas of workforce, the environment, affordability and economic growth. One of the firm’s roles is as an intermediary and convener. “Every project involves a public sector leader, private sector participation, and a collaborative process to figure out what needs to get done in the long term to make the city better,” says Brian Fabes, Civic Consulting’s CEO.

Aside from helping Chicago improve the way it serves its citizens, Civic Consulting provides an equally important benefit to the corporate partners that invest staff time to serve on various pro bono teams. Keith Bevans, a partner at Bain & Company who is active with Civic Consulting, describes it as an opportunity “to apply the skills we use in the private setting to help the city expand its capacity, for us to learn more about how the city works, and to think about city services in new ways.” Businesses and members of the pro bono teams are able to make a contribution to their city’s economic future while helping to build its civic infrastructure. The company’s leaders and city officials alike hope that the links Civic Consulting Alliance makes between sectors across the city will foster a long-term culture of innovation and partnership.

 

(From Issue 31, Summer 2011)