Experience

An outsourced accounting department gives your company accurate financial data so you can determine what customers and/or products are the most profitable.

Energy

Served as the Communications and Field Operations Lead statewide under the Michigan NAACP outreach efforts for Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs. We led efforts and worked with organizations to impact the minority electorate statewide in the following communities – Flint, Bay City, Saginaw, Southeast, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor, Lansing, East Lansing, Jackson, Battle Creek, and Albion. We also handled media efforts in each of the above markets including script development for radio and television as well as hiring talent and media buys and placement. Lastly, organized live and tele town hall meetings and rallies to deliver key messages in a high energy environment often working in and with churches and their leaders 

Community

Eric Foster worked with the Detroit Area Agency on Aging (DAAA) while managing another firm as the chief governmental affairs consultant for the Long Term Care (LTC) System Change Task Force. Eric was hired to help the Task Force with the development of a public agenda to address identified problems within the long term care system in the DAAA service area (10 cities in total). Eric headed the firm’s service delivery model for the contract. Eric was also the project manager for a comprehensive polling study that was done to assess long term care awareness, planning, financing capability and system quality assessment of persons ages 55 and older in Wayne County. Eric then chaired the Legislation and Regulation subcommittee and Stakeholder Engagement subcommittee for the DAAA Long Term Care Task Force. The Legislation and Regulation subcommittee spearheaded the policy agenda development process for the larger task force group. The Stakeholder Engagement subcommittee developed the strategic plan for the creation of a community advocacy network, to mobilize seniors in the DAAA service area and build community support for the public policy agenda. Eric and his related staff managed research and dual staffing resources of DAAA, meeting facilitation, focus group development and facilitation, legislative process training for DAAA management team and LTC Task Force members and final report presentations with DAAA and LTC Task Force chairman’s approval.

Once the policy agenda was adopted, efforts were led to introduce the task force’s goals to local, county, state and Federal officeholders. Additional tasks included facilitating meetings and presentations and for DAAA management to Democratic and Republican legislative members in the House and Senate along with department staff in the Granholm and Snyder administrations.

In June 2012, Eric Foster of LB3 Management, through his predecessor firm, Foster McCollum White & Associates, published an independent 17 point formal fiscal and operational restructuring plan for the city of Detroit and Regional Government Shared Services in Southeastern Michigan. The comprehensive plan included an executive summary, presentation summary and a separate four year fiscal/budget implementation blueprint to support restructuring reinvestment strategies. Commencing in July 2011, Eric and his strategic organizational development staff spent countless hours analyzing and reviewing numerous fiscal and operational documents from the City of Detroit dating back to the Louis Miriani Administration and various commission reports, process improvement reports and transition plan reports that have been developed by stakeholder organizations (fiscal ratings agencies, restructuring plans, commission reports, etc.) of the past 60 years. For example, from a 48 year period, the 1964-65 fiscal year to the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the City of Detroit operated in a continual state of deficit spending across general fund, enterprise fund and component agencies departments. Detroit’s debt and long term obligation burden (principal and interest) equaled $22.7 billion dollars, which was equal to $32,193.96 per person (per 2011 census population estimates). Some of the original plan and updated addendum in March of 2013 included the following policy approaches:

Foundational Objective – Debt & Finance

•       Realistic Budget Planning per actual revenue and expenditure data.

•       Implementation of quarterly budget estimating conference with independent agency/citizen input model.

•       Reduce the number fiduciary responsible operating departments.

•       Improve funding stream to departments that impact “buying decisions” of residents and businesses in choosing Detroit or a competitor city to live or operate.

•       Push for legislative changes for operational/debt restructuring (PPP’s for public sector authorities)

•       Enhanced Public Sector Authority model for bond & loan debt leveraged agencies

•       VEBA programs for retiree pension & health care benefits

Value Building Objective – Brand & Governance

–          Reduce city of Detroit governmental operations to essential agencies that impact quality of life or the buying decision of existing (residents and businesses)

–          Create a model for regional approaches to managing large scale governmental infrastructure organizations

–          Create a model for shared service solutions to maintain and improve the quality of parks management, tax collection and information technology innovations for the southeastern Michigan region

–          Create a model for shared service solutions to maintain and improve the quality of public safety operations

FMW Fiscal and Operational Restructuring model benefits:

–      Detroit’s governmental function alignment (QOL & Buying Decisions).

–      Decrease annual debt service burden from 49.03% of total projected revenues (TPR) to 39.97% of TPR during first year of plan implementation and to 32% of TPR by year three of plan implementation, freeing revenues for current service delivery.

–      Increase deployment of public safety field assets to reduce response time and increase presence.

–      Generate budget surpluses for reinvestment in public safety, economic development, and recreation and infrastructure management and reconstruction departments.

–      Could be implemented and managed by existing municipal government structure or emergency manager operational model.

–      Will create resident/business goodwill by demonstrating value for tax payments and that Detroit’s government values its customers (current residents, existing businesses and visitors to city attractions)

–      Will demonstrate the Detroit’s governmental operations can function in an attractive manner to new potential customers (residents from neighboring communities and non-Detroit based businesses

Key data highlights from our Economic Impact Analysis Report included: 

CHS has a significant income on the Southeastern Michigan economy, via the stabilization and income growth of clients, economic activity of employees and agency spending and savings generated for the State by decreasing the drain on social service benefits for employees and clients. Specifically, CHS does the following:

·         Has helped increase client incomes by $1.309 million dollars and created total client economic activity of $2.487 million dollars.

·         Helped over 72% of its clients since 2008 stabilize their housing and social environment and regain their independence.

·         Reduces the State’s potential outlay in payments for social service benefits by over $9.27 million dollars annually.

·         Creates an estimated direct and indirect economic impact of $8.49 million annually.

Stabilization through CHS services doesn’t just provide a social benefit but they provide a definitive economic impact via the agency operations and client positive outcomes of up to $8.492 million dollars annually (including $133,716 in service value for Senior Adult Care services). 

Health & Safety

For DEMSA, we worked to identify Federal Grant opportunities, especially with FEMA, to fund vehicle replacement and staffing needs for EMS operations area. Additionally, we proposed to create grant funding via Medicaid and Medicare for EMS operations due to their direct impact on the level of care and cost reimbursements for services provided by hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid patients via EMS transportation. We researched and proposed Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement model adjustments for medically underserved communities, of which Detroit would serve as a demonstration model. We have outlined the process steps and have actively lobbying for legislative action and administrative waiver application development to CMS for the Medicaid portion of the EMS grant funding vehicle. We additionally proposed expanding revenue generation policy changes for EMS division operations and expanding service scope of practice for field response.

DEI

Urban Consulting Group was hired for the Proposal education phase and the ballot committee campaign phase to build stakeholder outreach to ethnic minority voters across Michigan. Our specific targets were the major 17 counties that had double digit minority voting populations and the counties that had high single or double digit Native American populations. We were to meet with stakeholders, grasstops and grassroots leaders, solicit their involvement in the campaign, train them for media interviews and earned media discussion opportunities. We were also hired to work with Minority media organizations (print and radio) to solicit their involvement in educating voters in the campaign initiative. We were to take created talking points, editorial and interview scripts and train the leaders and media organizations on the core messages of the campaign. We were also to develop targeted secondary messaging points to support engagement and participation. 

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