Shelby Township unveils revamped dashboards crafted by Supervisor's Office intern

Supervisor’s Office intern Josh Gahlau got a unique view into local government during his three-month tenure, and, with his departure, he ensures that the view provided to residents in a more transparent one.

Gahlau utilized his skills and expertise in data analysis with tools such as Microsoft Excel to help Deputy Supervisor Brad Bates and Finance Director Allan McDonald redesign dashboards for www.shelbytwp.org to provide a clearer and more concise snapshot of township government for the taxpayer.

“There was some really great information provided by the old dashboards, but it wasn’t presented as well as it could have been,” said Gahlau, who is a senior majoring in International Business and Information Systems at Central Michigan University.

“By taking the information available on the old dashboards and adding some new figures, we were able to build new charts and graphs to give residents a visual presentation. And people tend to absorb numbers better when they have a visual element to understand them in context.”

From 2012 to 2014, statutory funding granted to local government from the state of Michigan was tied to the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP), which asked municipalities to follow guidelines to improve financial accountability and transparency, consolidation of services, and forming unfunded liability plans.

Part of the financial accountability and transparency requirements were financial dashboards to help residents and taxpayers better understand Township finances and how tax dollars are spent.

Recently, the state of Michigan awarded statutory revenues for the fiscal year 2015 without the requirements put in place by EVIP. Even though these requirements are no longer in place, the Board of Trustees felt it necessary to continue to provide these valuable and informative tools to the community.

“I knew from talking to the residents that these dashboards were something that people knew and used, and I wanted to keep them even though the state no longer mandated it,” Supervisor Rick Stathakis said. “In speaking with Josh, he had some great ideas how to do this and even more impressive was that he had the skills to make it happen.”

The dashboards are found through a link on the Township Supervisor’s page at shelbytwp.org/departments/supervisors_office.

“Josh took some very complex figures and trends and helped us present them in a manner that can be understood at a glance,” Bates said. “For someone to come into his position and be able to absorb this information and present it like this really speaks to his understanding of analysis as well as his ability to communicate.”

In addition to crafting the revamped dashboards, Gahlau, 20, showed his expertise for data analysis and distillation through reports on subjects such as police department overtime and office supply expenses and updated and revamped records within the Supervisor’s Office.

“Josh was a tremendously hard worker who brought with him a highly advanced skill set,” Stathakis said. “He was capable of performing the complex analysis that we asked him to do, but he also didn’t have a problem with tasks such as answering phones and taking messages.”