Every institution, business, organization and government department benefits from a thorough examination of how it performs. The Mankato Department of Public Safety is no different.

As The Free Press explored in a three-part series that concludes today, an audit done this year of the department points to some key changes needed. They include better communication, more teamwork and making connections to minorities in the community. The consultants said the department’s highest priority should be to clearly define its mission.

Much of the audit report was redacted by the city to protect employee identities under data privacy law, so there are not a lot of details to cite from the report. Even so, the criticisms of the consultants come across clearly, including this major point: The department, made up of fire and police, does not act as an integrated unit.

Since the Department of Public Safety was formed 20 years ago, there have been complaints about it. Firefighters, who were opposed to having the department’s leader be from the law enforcement side, wanted to have the structure dismantled. The issue actually went to a vote of the residents, who decided to keep the Department of Public Safety model.

Although the structure has stayed in place for a couple of decades, criticism still exists about the model and employees in the department still seem to be struggling with it. The president of the local firefighters union, Jay Kopischke, said having a police chief-led police department and a fire chief-led fire department would be the best management changes to make.

The city is unlikely to scrap the entire model, and plans are being made to hire a new director of public safety with the retirement of Jerry Huettl in March. City Manager Pat Hentges said it was the need to prepare for Huettl’s departure, and the departure of three high-ranking firefighters, that prompted the audit — not that the audit forced them out. No matter how clear news articles were about Hentges’ intended separation of the audit and retirement announcements, we can’t control if readers linked the two issues. Hentges has said in hindsight — after taking the media to task — he shouldn’t have combined the two issues at one news conference.

The challenge to the City Council and city staff during the next few months will be to find a new director who has fresh ideas about management, can mend the split between police and fire, can reduce the number of programs that have little to do with public safety, and has stellar communication skills, both within the department and with the community.

One of the key areas that needs those communication skills is a new focus on connecting to the city’s growing minority populations. Mankato may not be alone on our lack of progress, but we should be leaders instead of followers. It is the city’s responsibility to go out of its way to connect with these residents. If police officers only show up when there is a problem, there is little opportunity to build relationships and trust. One immigrant talked about how he knows people who have hidden in fear when an officer shows up at their door, whatever the reason.

This summer the city decided to form a City Circle Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from a variety of ethnicities. The goal is to build bridges between these members of the community and the city. The Department of Public Safety needs to take a strong leadership role on that committee as well as connecting in more informal ways, such as visiting immigrant-run businesses or making stops at the Lincoln Community Center, where adult courses are taught.

Hentges said in a letter included with the redacted copy of the audit that the report is just a portion of the information conveyed to the city by the consultants and it was never intended as a final report or for distribution. It’s important to recognize this audit is just a part of the analysis, but when $20,000 of taxpayer money is spent to measure the performance of a department with an annual budget of nearly $11 million, the public deserves as much access to information as possible.

As the audit cited, the Department of Public Safety has a hard-working, dedicated staff of employees. This audit, and soon new leadership, will be the guides to making the department the best it can be. Not only will improvements in management structure and communication mean more job satisfaction for the employees, but the public will benefit by being served by personnel who can concentrate less on job dissatisfaction and more on doing good work with effective leadership behind them.