Municipal Facilities Leaders Anchor City Growth Plans to Data Benchmarks

With U.S. cities pouring billions into economic development projects, municipal facilities managers long focused on day-to-day operations are now stepping into a more strategic, data-driven capacity. Because they oversee public assets at the ground level, facilities leaders are uniquely equipped to translate physical wear and operational strain into financial foresight for city leaders as they plan long-term infrastructure investments. Projects like Amkor Technology’s $7 billion advanced packaging plant in Peoria, Arizona, part of a broader effort to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain, illustrate just how high the stakes have become, and why facilities leadership is becoming more central to city growth strategy.

At the forefront of these efforts in Peoria is Jared Spangler, the city's Facilities Operations Superintendent. With 27 years of facilities management experience, including nearly two decades in the public sector, he oversees the municipal buildings and infrastructure that support a rapidly expanding community. A holder of the CFM, FMP, and SFP certifications from IFMA, Spangler also serves on the board of the Greater Phoenix Chapter and chairs the Arizona Government Facilities Alliance. His involvement in the profession puts him on the front lines of this change, as he works to elevate facilities management from a perceived cost center to a strategic partner. Spangler says doing so requires a mindset shift, starting with facilities managers anchoring budgets to universal benchmarks rather than internal assumptions.

"You aren’t necessarily the square peg. Maintenance is maintenance. The complexity changes, the staff changes, but the standards are still the standards. That's true for a massive city like Phoenix, and it's true for a small town like Tolleson. It’s all about finding that benchmark and tracking to it." Spangler argues that using these benchmarks to show outside departments that their cost expectations are outdated is what ultimately positions facilities leaders as trusted advisors.

• A dose of reality: The disconnect between current economic conditions and outdated budget expectations creates "sticker shock" when projects are properly priced, making a standards-based approach a key tool for FM leaders to re-anchor budget conversations in reality. "People are still thinking in pre-COVID dollars, but with tariffs and labor shortages, everything has changed," Spangler shares. "A department will pencil in an FM-related budget request, and the actual cost comes in at triple what they anticipated, leaving them without nearly enough money to do what they planned."

• Benchmark-backed budgets: Spangler wants to position FMs as strategic partners to city leadership. To do this, "finding industry standards is very key," he says, suggesting that teams ground budget decisions in universal industry benchmarks from organizations like IFMA, APPA, and SMRP. By aligning internal metrics with external standards, requests for investment in new technology or maintenance models can be elevated into defensible business cases, removing subjective departmental opinion from the equation.

By grounding decisions in industry benchmarks, municipal FMs can help city leaders justify spending not only internally but also publicly. That sense of fiscal duty—Spangler himself is a taxpayer in a neighboring city and expects the same diligence there—fuels collaborative groups like AGFA, where public sector leaders use transparency as a strategic advantage by openly sharing contracts, ideas, and solutions.

• A public trust: "We're not here trying to satisfy a group of shareholders. We are taking money from all of our neighbors, and they're expecting services in return," Spangler says, arguing that FMs must demonstrate responsible stewardship of public resources.

• No trade secrets: To grow this new era of facilities management means cities working together to share intel and build standards. "In the public sector, we can share ideas because we aren't dealing in trade secrets. It's all public information. This creates a valuable exchange where a smaller, growing city can learn from a massive one like Phoenix, while a large city that isn't as agile can learn from smaller cities that are more nimble," he says, encouraging that "we all share resources, contracts, and best practices."

The end vision for many FM leaders thinking about what's next is a fully integrated data ecosystem, a trend set to shape the future of the industry. By integrating an AI-enabled CMMS platform with financial and HCM information from an ERP, FMs can move toward a true cost model that analyzes fully burdened labor rates, procurement overhead, and an asset’s total life cycle value. This allows for granular, data-driven decisions, like pitting the long-term energy and repair costs of a fire station with an older R-410A HVAC system against one with a modern R-454B system. Using AI-assisted diagnostics, facilities management is positioned to become a proactive intelligence hub that anticipates the needs of city leadership.

• Playing offense: To be a future-minded facilities manager, Spangler says don't just think about buildings; get curious about larger city operations trends. "When you understand the hot button topics, you can proactively go to your director with the relevant data already compiled and ready. That is how you make the shift from a cost center to a strategic partner."

As Peoria plans its northward expansion, Spangler’s own approach mixes data with human experience. His team, for instance, is working on establishing 'square footage per occupant' metrics to rightsize new municipal buildings. He also incorporates the irreplaceable, anecdotal knowledge of frontline staff who know which systems truly fail and succeed. It's a philosophy that points toward a leadership model that embraces new technologies without abandoning what old-school sensibilities make for effective FM leaders. "While analytics and AI are powerful tools, you still have to talk to your employees. You get that frontline feedback about a system having problems at Fire Station Number 4, and that anecdotal information is invaluable."