Jump Starting Long-Term Planning and Setting Financial Targets

Long-term planning is important to the success of water systems. As the great sage Yogi Berra pointed out, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” This webinar will cover the key elements of different types of long-term plans, including where to begin when you’re just getting started. We will also discuss the results of the North Carolina Water and Wastewater Utility Management Survey conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Environmental Finance Center and the North Carolina League of Municipalities.

The survey results provide an overall picture of the status of management and long-term planning practices and policies of drinking water and wastewater utilities. One of the key findings of the survey is that utilities that set financial targets and goals (beyond the standard budgetary targets) have later proven to be more financially viable than utilities that did not track performance against specific financial targets. This demonstrates the value of setting financial targets and consistently measuring the utility fund’s performance against those metrics. We will touch on the financial targets set by utilities with outstanding financial performance, how they measure their performance, and how they make decisions as a result of adopting these practices.

Presenter: Carol Rosenfeld, LEED AP O&M, Senior Project Director – Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina