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Biography William O. Howland, Jr.
Director, Department of Public Works
 William “Bill” Howland, Jr. has more than 20 years of local government experience, primarily as a senior executive. He is especially well versed in managing organizational operations such as finances, human resources, information technology, and procurement. Before being confirmed as Director of the District’s Department of Public Works (DPW) on November 9, 2004, Mr. Howland served as the Interim Director of DPW, following the retirement of Leslie A. Hotaling in April 2004.
From 2002 to 2004, Howland served as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Operations. In this role, he responded to various issues involving agencies in this cluster, particularly the Department of Motor Vehicles, Office of Contracting and Procurement and Office of Property Management.
Some of his accomplishments include initiating the review of temporary tags that ultimately led to the moratorium on temp tags; serving on the Downtown Congestion Task Force; reducing the District government’s fleet size; developing proposals to solicit trash hauling services for the Department of Public Works; reducing the backlog of abandoned vehicles from more than 1,100 to just fewer than 400.
Mr. Howland joined the District in 2001, as the Deputy Director for the Department of Human Services (DHS), where he directed the administrative management for the agency. He managed the capital budget for DHS, oversaw construction and renovation of agency buildings and led a team of eight departments to create an emergency management plan to shelter displaced residents and reunify families. He also played an important role as a member of the steering committee for ASMP, the District’s Administrative Systems Modernization Program.
Previously, Mr. Howland served the Fairfax County government for 17 years, as a Personnel Analyst, an Assistant to the County Executive, and finally as Director of the Department of Administration, where he managed more than 200 employees and an $11 million budget. His workflow redesigns increased productivity and reduced the cost of administrative support services by more than $1.4 million, or 15 percent.
Mr. Howland holds an MS in public policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an AB in political science from the University of California–Berkeley. |