P3 For Public Works

The City of Centennial is located just south of Denver city limits with 107,000 residents.  The city was formed in 2000 through high citizen engagement resulting in the largest incorporated city in U.S. history at the time.  The city was founded on residence involvement with a purposefully lean and efficient government that promotes collaborative partnerships.

To ensure a lean government and outstanding service, the city embraced public-private partnerships.  Public-private partnerships are a way for governments to collaborate with the private sector to share the risks and rewards involved in the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure projects.  Balancing service level expectations, capital expenditures and costs, and administration needs was a challenge for the city.  But these challenges were overcome by committing to a consistent and trusted private-sector partner.  It allowed the partners to define clear expectations of services and build a cooperative culture.  Since its incorporation, the city has been recognized as a leader in innovative government efficiency.

In 2008, Centennial launched a large-scale public private partnership with the prominent engineering and construction firm CH2M.  Terracare Associates was selected as a subcontractor for CH2M and was awarded a five-year contract to perform a comprehensive public works maintenance program for the City of Centennial.  This multi-layered partnership earned the city high honors and national attention for its innovative and cost-effective public works department.  The maintenance services that Terracare Associates provides for Centennial include street maintenance, sign maintenance and installation, snow removal, tree maintenance and removal, traffic signal maintenance, erosion control, weed and insect control, street sweeping, trash and debris clean-up, traffic control, and emergency response.

The Mayor of Centennial, Cathy Noon is a founding supporter of P3.  “As it turned out, private companies came in with a lower cost for providing the same or higher level of services,” says Mayor Noon.  In 2012, The City Council voted to extend its public works partnership through 2018, showing their continued support for outsourcing public works.  This innovative approach of privatizing public works – works. 

Photos of our work in Centennial

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3 Essential Ingredients to a Great Business Partnership

What is a partnership? Defined in Wikipedia; "a partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests." 

A partnership could be focused on individuals, as in a marriage, friends, or teammates.  For example, in our family we recently adopted two adorable puppies who work together to solve problems. Sometimes one stays awake while the other is checking out what is happening, our dogs are working together in partnership toward a common goal – FOOD!

Partnerships are also incredibly important in business.  In B2B relationships especially, developing a long-lasting relationship with customers, vendors, employees, and your community is so important when striving for a valuable business partnership.  

There are 3 essential ingredients to a great business partnership:

1.   Great communication

Success in business is greatly impacted, for better or worse, by the way we communicate. Effective business communication contains terminology, technical information, as well as providing instructions that can be easily understood by your audience and through consistent and timely interaction. Communication should also be crafted together to ensure your business partnership is supported by assuring everyone's needs are addressed promptly.

2.  Integrity

People often define integrity as doing the right thing even when no one else is around. It is the ability to act with honesty and be consistent in whatever you are doing at all levels of an organization. This is based on the particular belief, value, or moral compass your business has incorporated into your daily work within a B2B environment.

3.   Think long term

A successful partnership should last. Thinking long term about who you are doing business with and why they are important comes down to trust. It is important to build a relationship beyond business tasks. It’s a commitment to one another even during challenging times. Creating a customer experience that allows both parties to succeed is golden and can last for years to come.

Finally, another essential aspect of building outstanding partnerships is to work within the local community where your business operates. At Terracare Associates, we believe that giving back and volunteering is a great way to connect, make a difference, and build partnerships in our local areas.

Terracare Associates partners in a big way. During the month of April, in conjunction with Earth Day, we encourage our employees to partner and volunteer with local charities, bringing their expertise to the community. These community partnerships benefits from our core business skills. 

Here are some of the highlights from our charitable activities on Earth Day. 

Columbine Memorial, Colorado

The outdoor memorial to commemorate the tragic shooting at Columbine High school was beautifully built in 2007. The foundation did not have continuous funding to maintain the perennials, trees, pavers, mulch, mowing and water feature. Terracare Associates volunteered to maintain the memorial year round.

Each year in April, just before the anniversary of the tragedy, our employees volunteer to clean up the memorial to ensure it is a beautiful peaceful place for remembrance.

Learning Gardens - Liberty High School, Brentwood, California

Terracare Associates has built five Learning Gardens in the San Francisco Bay area to connect children and adults to nutritious foods through hands on experiences with accessible, local, edible gardens.

Bill Horn, Senior Vice President, spearheaded the idea to connect youth to the earth and Terracare Associates has selected school gardens as one of our signature community projects. Most recently we installed a learning garden at Liberty High School in Brentwood California. The Superintendent of Schools (pictured) supports and strongly supports this partnership.

Project Cure – Centennial Colorado

Project Cure is a non-profit headquartered in Centennial, Colorado. Their mission is to collect and recycle medical equipment and supplies to be used at hospitals in need around the world. We helped Project Cure with a plant sale fundraiser on Earth Day.

The team designated two locations, one in partnership with Sheraton Hotels on the 16 Street Mall and Project Cure headquarters in Centennial. The sale was a huge success -- raising enough to send more than $35,000 worth of life-saving medical supplies.

How does your company give back? Share your successful business partnerships with us on LinkedIn or Facebook. 

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Creating Winning Partnerships for Municipalities Landscape

Park and streetscape beautification delivers essential environmental, aesthetic, and recreation benefits to our cities.  Investing in projects that maintain the city outdoors results in positive economic benefits, enhanced property values, increased municipal revenue, and attracts homebuyers and employers who appreciate well maintained outdoor areas.
Terracare Associates (TCA) works with municipalities from California to Texas providing landscape maintenance services to meet the unique needs of governmental agencies. 

One of the reasons for our success in working with local governments is our approach to creating winning partnerships. We understand the high expectations of public lands. Along with our in-depth knowledge of horticulture, public works and water conservation methods, TCA is uniquely qualified to deliver high quality services best suited for partnering with numerous governmental agencies.

Here are some key elements in creating a winning partnership:

● Choose a professional service contractor based on experience rather than the lowest bid as working toward and caring about the citizens needs is critically important
● Partner with a service provider who offers a full range of commercial landscape maintenance services including horticulture expertise and public works.
● Find a contractor who is known for listening to city council members, managers, and citizens to help solve problems quickly. 
● Service providers who utilize state-of-the-art technology and a highly skilled landscape maintenance staff to get the job done efficiently and effectively the first time is of the utmost importance when working with municipalities.
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Take a look at two long-term Terracare Associates partnerships:

City of Brentwood, California

 The City of Brentwood, California is located about 60 miles northeast of San Francisco Bay area, with 85,000 residents.  In 1999, with the formation of the Brentwood Parks and Recreation Department, the city council made a deliberate decision not to develop a full landscape maintenance division.  Instead, they concluded that outsourcing landscape maintenance was needed due to both a limited budget and expected service levels.

The city's focus was to build an outcome-based contract.  In 2009, the City of Brentwood selected Terracare Associates to be their exclusive parks and streetscape maintenance provider. Bill Horn, TCA Senior Vice President said “Our working relationship with local governments, blended with a deep knowledge of horticulture, makes us a natural fit for city landscape contracts.”  

In Brentwood, the landscape needing to be maintained included parks, street medians, open space, and right-of-ways. Building a relationship between the contractor and the parks and recreation staff was critically important. Also, with over seven million square feet of turf and more than 60 parks, quality of service was very important to the city.  Terracare Associates understands that citizens have high expectations of public lands so they asked Francisco Quintero, a 16 year company veteran of TCA was assigned to manage the The City of Brentwood account.  Quintero and the City worked closely to develop a scope of work that was clear, concise and accountable.

Creating a transparent and responsive customer approach to maintenance services helped to secure the long-term partnership. Craig Bronzan the former Parks and Recreation Director said, “We have found them (TCA) to be…interested in fostering a relationship based on trust and being partners.” This trusted relationship is successful because the contractor is looking out for the best interest of the city.

City of Grapevine, Texas

The City of Grapevine is located less than 25 miles from Downtown Dallas, TX, close to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. With the adjacent Lake Grapevine and historical buildings, the city's economy is largely centered around tourism. The appearance and beautification of public areas are extremely important to Grapevine city managers.

Terracare Associates has partnered with the City of Grapevine for sixteen years, providing municipal landscape maintenance services for more than 340 acres, including street medians, right-of-ways, municipal buildings, parks, irrigation inspections, and renovations.
For the past sixteen the years, Terracare Associates has expanded their services to include the Grapevine Botanic Gardens and numerous enhancement projects. Tino Alba, the TCA Account Manager for City of Grapevine, has also helped the city to design and implement plans that best meet their needs.

When discussing the long-term partnership, Mike Hooker at the City of Grapevine said, "What we appreciate most is their commitment to providing professional service and their quick emergency response time. It is important to us as well as the reliability and trust“.  He has appreciated the leadership Tino Alba has taken on many projects.

Other Partnerships 

In addition to Brentwood, CA and Grapevine, TX, Terracare Associates has successfully partnered with several municipalities and governmental agencies, including:

● Centennial Park, Centennial Colorado
● The City of Milpitas, Livermore and Folsom, California
● Elk Grove Cosumnes Community Services District. California
● City of Keller, Texas
● And our newest city Carlsbad, California

Learn more about Terracare Associates’ municipal landscape maintenance and public works services.

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